I actually apply that very logic to my spending on hobbies or new items.
“What is my cost per year/month/hour/minute for this?” "For $X, how much enjoyment will I get out of it?
Some hobbies skew high cost per time of enjoyment, others skew lost cost per time of enjoyment. For me, gaming has always fallen into that latter category. I get so much enjoyment for so little spent, it has never really been a problem.
A valid point, particularly if the game pays dividends in terms of hours of enjoyment. The money spent on particular game can potentially be a drop in the proverbial bucket of “entertainment spending” when held up against alternate forms of entertainment (such as movies, spectator sports, et al.) Also, as was already mentioned, a couple can easily spend $100 bucks on a “really nice meal,” when arguably, it’s just one meal.
Some will say this an apples -vs- oranges comparison, so I guess it ultimately comes down to perspective, and what we as individuals value.
So true.
I don’t think I have ever bought a game at release, I usually wait several months or longer and buy it at discount. Part of that is being cheap and part of it is waiting for a few patches to fix the things people inevitably bitch about.
But I do spend probably $40-75 every time I play golf, which isn’t as often now as it used to be. A couple years ago it would have been $200 a month, easily. Today it’s like that for six months. Of course 20 years ago it was a country club membership.
There are tennis clubs in the US (and for indoors in parts that have real winter, they are the only choice for winter tennis). But tennis was once far more popular here, and there are still tons of public courts. Most high schools have courts that the public can use when they’re not being used by other events. When I grew up in California most public parks had courts and you usually had to wait an hour or more to get on the court in the evening (waiting for a tennis court is how I learned to juggle - you have a can of 3 balls and time…). Lots had lights you could turn on, as well. Once you have a racquet, it’s a cheap sport.
Yeah, SoCal is full of public tennis courts. They tend to get pretty crowded at peak hours, and unfortunately there aren’t as many free ones in central L.A. (where I currently live) as in West L.A. (where I used to).
In NYC there’s a $100 membership fee to be able to reserve city courts then $15 per time.
I have young children, so I spend little on hobbies. I have neither time or money.
That changes over time. I was where you are now about fifteen years ago.
The birth of my first child was when my backlog really started. At this point, I’m not clearing that backlog unless I enlist my kids, even if I never bought another game in my life.
Spending money on hobbies is literally a hobby unto itself for me. I spend more time researching my next purchase than I do actually using the damn thing.
To repeat what Dave Long said, there is an inflection point where you go from having no time due to chasing after kids to having a vast amount of time because your kids are off doing their own thing. It happens surprisingly rapidly once the last one hits their late-teens.
Prepare yourself – if you don’t have hobbies or social clubs to catch you, you’ll find yourself wandering listlessly around the house or (shudder) watching TV.
Finally, one of my people.
Like Skipper said, there are a lot of free courts. A lot of municipalities have public courts that are free to use. These are outdoor hard courts. Indoor courts you have to pay to use. So as long as the weather permits, you can play for free on these outdoor courts.
Man, it’s like no one plays tennis here. I can always find a free court. I have 8 courts within about five minutes of my home, and there’s another two courts about 10 minutes away that almost never have anyone on them. They are not in good repair but I don’t care. I know if I make the drive there I can play.
My favorite courts are very close and have that artificial grass – it’s like astroturf I guess – and are sometimes full, though not usually. Everything else is hardcourt.
I’m so glad I have a separate budget for personal needs. Otherwise, my husband would kill me, since good drawing supplies are pricey.
I really need to put a new budget together again!
While I don’t purchase near as much on computer games as I once did, I tend to sign up for monthly recurring charges to support small gaming communities and they start to add up after a while. My wife and I have been together for almost 29 years, 27+ married, so we are comfortable with each other and our spending habits and get into a good routine for many years at a time where we stick to a good budget.
This has changed a little lately, though. My wife has stumbled onto a new hobby and I am resurrecting an old one and they both can take a significant investment and continued spending to keep active the way we like to. We also had a pretty significant life event where both of my parents passed away 3 months apart in 2016, so we have a modest cash influx at first and are currently selling a small property that should help a bit. Now that we are getting into our 50s, we have decided to feel free to spend a little to enjoy our hobbies while we are still active while maintaining our original retirement goals. It is going fairly well although I do admit we are spending a bit more than I would have liked the past couple years!
So my wife started researching and getting into making her own soap. She is a stay at home mom and has been looking for something she can really dive into for years. I think she has met her passion as the back half of our basement is racks and racks of soaps curing. She is getting pretty good at it too with all these calculators to make soap of varying moisturizing content and other stuff I don’t understand. It has really opened up a social circle for her, both locally and online, where she can work with people on techniques, and making products for customers. She also does other things like shampoo, lotions, lip balm, sugar scrub cubes and seems to be having really good feedback. The best thing is that although it has been a bit costly to get started, she is really enjoying it and it is really empowering her, so almost any cost is well worth it. One breakthrough she had was she researched and tried to make a special lotion for her mom who has eczema really bad. She looked up many ingredients and their properties and made quite a few personal modifications to an online recipe, and hand picked some quality ingredients, and she has had remarkable results on her mom and at least 2 other friends she gave it to. These are people that have had lifetime issues with skin problems and many treatments over the years from doctors also and her cream cleared them up within a week.
Personally, I have continued with my bowling passion that I started up again in 2016 after being away for 17 years or so. Between keeping up with all the various technologies, practice, tournaments, leagues, balls, tape, etc., it is quite easy to blow through some money. I am enjoying the heck out of it again, though, so I figure I may as well do it before my wrist and knees give out!
That’s so cool about the soaps! When our first child was born, my child had a lot of eczema. My wife looked into it and started trying out different soaps and laundry detergents. We stumble upon a few items that had no fragrances, and it did the trick.
Fast forward a bit, my life is doing the business side of Young Living. She loved the oils while she was pregnant with second child because it seemed to have a remarkable impact on how general stress and anxiety and it seemed to help the youngest sleep better (note your mileage will definitely vary, and outside of their insect repellent and pain relief cream, nothing is FDA approved). Besides that, none of the products seemed to trigger my daughter’s Eczema nor do the oils trigger my wife’s allergies, which candles and the like do.
It’s all a bit pricier that store brands, but it seems to last longer and seems to have fewer side effects, so I’m happy with it. Also, my wife enjoys the business side and many of her friends have tried the oils and been impressed (outside of some general Facebook posts, she almost never pesters anyone about unless they show some sort of interest. No horror stories about having excess stock, or guilt and she only brings it up if people ask). She also dabbles in making soaps and household cleaners, most using Dr. Bronner’s soap as a base and adding the oils she likes.
Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to take hijack this thread, I just wanted to say I could relate a bit and say it’s awesome when people try to create their own products, especially when the results turn out better.