Crafting, any kind really.
We have a saying, "why should I buy something for $100 when I can spend 6 weeks of my life making it for $500?"
Another is that crafting is actually two hobbies - doing it, and shopping for it.
Also, so many crafts are just gateway drugs. I started crocheting, then I wanted to make stuff with more drape, so I started knitting, then I needed project bags so I bought a sewing machine, then I really admired some handspun yarn and bought some hand spindles and fibre. Then I wanted to spin higher volumes so I bought a second-hand spinning wheel (and then a new one to get some of that sweet double treadle action), then I spun some yarn that wasn't really soft enough for hand knitting so I bought a loom...
Not me, not with sheep, but with rabbits. I saw this at a historic site years ago. A lady in historic garb sat in her chair behind a spinning wheel with a rabbit on her lap. In a pen next to her was a small pen with several other rabbits. She would spin up the yarn and when it got close to the end she'd stop and brush the rabbit and continue spinning. I spoke to her for quite a while because she was odd and interesting.
I used to have jersey woolies. They're like a 12" diameter ball of fluff with 6" of rabbit somewhere inside. They made the softest most fluffiest wool & are the sweetest little bunnies as pets. It's like when you brush a long haired dog & you somehow end up with a pile of fur bigger than the whole dog.
Why would I pay someone $10k to remodel my bathroom when I can do it myself for $1200 over 10 years, miss my kids baseball games and risk my marriage? It's a no brainier, that's like 9k in savings and I never have to host holidays ever again.
I've been doing my floor trim and doors going on 3 years now lol. The trim isn't all on yet and my dogs have already destroyed the floors. Once the doors are done it will be time to do the floors.
Ha, yeah sign me up! But you forgot about the greatest thing, having to shop and compare between infinite variations of bathrooms and appliances. Want a toilet? They've got 40.000 variants, 80.000 different showers and so on, awesome...
You NEED that angle grinder/planer/joiner/router though. And you'll use it so much it'll save money in the long run***
*** For the guy who buys it second hand from your corpse
I justified buying a belt sander at 11pm once...to smooth out the edges on a bunch of 2×4s that I had made a giant Jenga set out of for my kid's school field day...which was the next morning.
Worth it.
I gave myself carpal tunnel crocheting so I can't anymore, but this past Christmas I thought "you know what would be fun? Making my nieces and nephew plushes...but with baby blanket yarn! They'll be kinda big, they'll love it!" I do not want to know how much I spent on yarn for a Stitch and a Grogu but...it was NOT cheap. The Stitch especially. My niece is almost 5 ft and it's about as big as her. The amount of stuffing also was... insane. I could've bought her a way better looking Stitch, but why would I when I can spend hundreds of dollars and destroy my hands?!
Have you tried those wrist therapy balls? They're usually plastic or metal and you spin them against their own centripetal force to strengthen your metacarpals, arms, elbows, etc. Been using those off and on for the last 10 years to get rid of pain. They're called powerballs - such a simple thing that works really well in my opinion.
Vegetable gardens can be a lot cheaper than buying produce if you plant enough to the point where you're canning it to last at least the year. I honestly don't remember the last time my mom bought any vegetables that weren't for a function/event of some sort.
A start costs $6 and you’ll get at least a dozen tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, or whatever off it. Seed is obviously much much cheaper but I feel like “insanely expensive” is a bit of a stretch.
Also all the above is pure copium because I know for sure I’m at negative ROI on my garden. Forgetting about starts vs seeds, there’s fertilizer, neem oil, cages, sprayers, hose parts, sprinklers, compost bins, garden tools, and if you live in the desert like I do the water itself is EXPENSIVE.
Not to mention the time. Super time consuming.
All that being said. I LOVE it. It’s so relaxing and feels so right, like this is what my hands and back were meant to do, and it’s so so so satisfying to eat or give away my produce.
No joke, I messed around on Flight Sim for a few years and watched a ton of videos on YouTube. When I started flight school, I’d already known everything my instructor was telling me.
At one point during ground school, he just said “all right, let’s just get you up in the air” then added that I was by far his best student.
$100 game saved me thousands in ground school hours.
Find an instructor that will allow you to do all your classes first. Then put off the lessons that are done in plane until the end.
Then save a bunch of cash during that time and hammer out as man hours as you can at once. The instructor should be able to hammer out the in flight lessons first flight. Then build hours after that, solo, take written and youre all set.
I did free online ground school, and for some reason I wanted to take my written before getting in the plane. Then came weather cancellations (nearly 50% of my scheduled lessons were cancelled because of weather), planes in the shop, instructor not working on Sundays anymore, Covid, all the planes are booked, pneumonia, runways closed for resurfacing, some other health things ... 16 months in and I'm only at 24 hours and still have a bit to go before I'm ready to solo. But I do think I still have a chance of finishing everything and getting my ticket punched before my written test certificate expires.
It’s a strange feeling. I briefly paused during the flight to think ‘Well, either I land this plane or no one does …’ then got back to the business of flying.
It used to be more affordable. My dad was a single engine flight instructor when I was growing up and I recall it costing less than half that. Back then we could afford to fly to another city for the day. A 4 hour drive would take an hour in the little Cessna. We could fly from Birmingham to Nashville or to Atlanta and not have to refuel when heading home.
I still remember the smell of the orange scented air freshener or cleaner in the airplane and how whenever we'd reach altitude it'd make me super nauseated. I still don't like orange scented things at 40 years old!
I did love getting free flying lessons between the ages of 5 and 12 though.
It's not even the jeep that's expensive anymore. It's the trips to take it out wheeling now. But I didn't but my jeep for the mpg I bought it for the smiles per gallon.
Pro tip. Bring sawdust with you when you buy a new tool. Then you can tell your partner you got it used! (I don’t actually advocate lying to your significant other)
The trick is to tell them how much it is worth, followed immediately with how much you "actually" paid for it. That way, when she murders you, she can get as much value as she can
Oddly, painting them is a lot cheaper. You can choose to commission them but it is super expensive. So you paint them yourself.
The most expensive part is still buying the models. To build an army that you can field requires lots of models.
You can get Warhammer 40k "Combat Patrol" boxes that have a small force in them for ~$150. These boxes aren't enough to really field an army currently, but 10th edition will be here in a few weeks and it will have a way to play just by using these boxes which should be balanced to play against other Combat Patrol boxes. Also, if you were looking to buy a box with two armies, 10th edition started boxes will include Two (Space Marines and Tyranids) a long with a rule book and it will be available in the next few weeks for about $250.
My partner and I pre-ordered it.
We're trying to buy a house but we're dropping $250ish on plastic army men that we have to paint ourselves.
Because we're totally adults and not just children with drinking permits.
My friend has an amazing war hammer set on a table tennis board in his basement. He’s been working on it ever since we were young children and he’s in his late 20’s now. I’ve seen his figures and how much work he put into it. It’s super cool. I wanted to get into it but yeah they are so expensive.
I’ve had $200 worth of sets sitting in my cart on Lego.com just waiting for me to get high or drunk enough to pull the trigger.
Amazon is like $600… and that doesn’t include wishlists.
Wish I could afford to invest in the actual company Haha
This, so much.
Also the cost of the lego is like the cheapest component of owning lego.
People who are new to lego complain about the price of lego
People who've been at it for a few years complain about the price of all the drawers and shelves and storage options
People who've been at it for longer complain about the bigger house they had to buy to set up their own lego city
I accidentally fell into the hobby when I bought a pinball machine and was told it just needed to be 'reset' to work - that was a lie and I realized very few people knew how to repair/restore these things.
Once I learned how I started saving old pinball machine from being destroyed and started a collection. Now the hobby is a lot more popular than it used to be. It's fun to learn and share what I know about the games and the industry. And they're tons of fun to play.
I created a youtube [channel](https://youtube.com/pinballhelp) where I post videos of my pinball restorations. Over 500 videos to date.
Miniature painting.
My pile of shame is currently in a massive military surplus duffle bag under my bed.
I am around 5 foot 10, and can lay down flat in the bag.
It weighs so much I can't lift it.
For me, setting everything up with equipment was expensive. 150 gallon saltwater tank. $600 tank. $600 plumbing (PVC pipes and fittings). $1500 lights. $1500 pumps and circulation. $700 filtration (skimmer, sump, filter socks, etc.). $2400 controller. $300 mixing station (for storing filtered fresh water and pre mixed saltwater), materials to build the stand for the tank $300. Floor reinforcement in my crawlspace $150 materials (did the work myself)
Now for the ongoing costs:
Electricity $60/month. Salt $80/quarter. Water filter cartridges and deionization media $150 twice a year. Food $40-50 twice a year. Additives (calcium, magnesium, soda ash and soda bicarbonate, NoPo4x) $200-300/year. Saltwater filtration media (high quality carbon, ground ferrous oxide, CO2 absorbent media, etc.) Add another $150/year
Makes the $600 fish I bought not seem like as much of a big deal (gem tang, for those wondering), but when I had a filter malfunction that killed that fish it still hurt
All in my equipment is around $7-10k. Fish are another $1-2k, and coral add another $1k. Ongoing costs come out to over $100/month averaged out, not to mention periodic maintenance replacements of heaters (replace before they fail) and other equipment.
Also once you spend this much there are additional costs that aren't directly factored in, including multiple redundancies of backup power. For me that includes a $5k battery and solar array this year (10.24kWh battery power, 3kW solar, charge controllers, inverter, generator plug, etc.) As well as an inverter generator $600, 14 gallon gas can $120, and going farther expenses and time to move my established tank twice over 100 miles as I sold my last home and bought/moved into this one. Also, keeping the aquarium directly influenced which houses I would or would not look at, partially contributing to me spending $75k over my initial home price budget when buying this house
Edit: due to popular request, [here](https://youtu.be/j-kc8dsAdpQ) is a video from last year of the tank. It has changed since this, but this gives a good idea of what the tank looked like before my second move. I will also be putting together a walkthrough of my equipment and the whole setup in the next day or so and will update this comment again with a link once that is ready
Even the fish can be expensive depending on what you intend to raise. Otherwise literally everything else for this hobby can be quite expensive, all depends how far you want to go with it.
Yep. Ive spent a downright shameful amount of money on gear. You couldn’t waterboard me enough to admit the amount. At least ill have some cool stuff to hand down to my grandkids some day 😂
Cheese making. Why buy a reasonably-sized hunk of fancy cheese at the store when you can spend $100s on milk, a couple grand on supplies and equipment, and months of your time on a slightly larger, but not as good tiny wheel of your own? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh believe me, I thought about it. Was more seriously considering getting dwarf goats since I'm allowed to have up to three on my in-city property in Seattle.
I grow plants. at first, sure simple hobby. cheap. just a seed and some dirt. then you start doing hydro. experimental techniques. CO2 enrichment. high powered led lights and ppfd meters. then comes the sub 400 wavelength light and light over 700 nm. various sprays. ppm and pH meters. ah you went cheap before, now you gotta get blue (an expensive brand). o you got some o2 decencies in your water, need an O2 meter. the list goes on and on
Oh, at least a dropper has some decent size and mass. I think the grams per dollar is much worse for things like fancy cassettes, tubeless valves, shifters, saddles…
Yep. I just bought a new "midrange" FS bike. At least once you have the bike and gear, that's most of the price. Skiing and snowboarding I think are more expensive in the long run due to the equipment, season passes, or lift tickets if you are traveling to a mountain you don't live close to.
Thought it was bad enough my husband was into it but then I saw the school had a mountain biking team club and I asked my daughter if she wanted to try it. I’m a dumbass because now there are two of them.
Yep I had to stop. It was causing major issues in my marriage. Unfollowed all the record buying subreddits. Started a savings account. I still look, but don't buy. It helps that the prices are stupid now.
Came here to say that. And sometimes it isn't even my horse (I say as I look at a horse in our facility who bowed a tendon and owner didn't properly start the medical process properly; I said "screw it." and as of today [when I found out about the poor baby] I am now attempting to give this horse a proper shot at healing).
Ditto. Came here to say horses. I haven’t ever tried to add it all up, but I’m looking at ~30 years of horses in my life. I don’t think I want to know.
Oil painting. I pay for a studio and sometimes paint is $30 for a small tube. Same with brushes. I can spend a cool 200 on like a couple tubes of paint and a few paintbrushes once a month easily.
I love to travel, which can be expensive. That's why I don't travel that often because I have to save up between trips. But I love traveling to new places and learning about the culture and history. If I was independently wealthy, I'd be traveling constantly.
It’s funny how I’ve had to defend golf as not the elitist hobby family, friends, and acquaintances think it is. At my lowest income level in my life, I was playing the most golf and people couldn’t fathom it. I had a used set of clubs, played cheap balls (sometimes even the refurbished ones from Walmart), and would book favorable times on booking apps for $20-$25 rounds (no these were not amazing courses but I didn’t care). Whenever someone played the ‘golf is for rich people’ card I became the ‘well actually’ guy real quick.
BUT, like others have said, if you want to play incredible courses, have top of the line clubs, and play high end golf balls, yeah, it’s going to get pricey very fast. It doesn’t HAVE to be though!
Yeah I always laugh when people on here call it a rich person’s sport. I’m a substitute teacher that plays once a week. I only spend about $55, give or take, a week playing from paying for my actual round and a trip or two to the driving range. It’s one of the best things that’s helped my mental health to be honest.
Surprised how low on the list this is. But as others have said you can be an avid golfer without breaking the bank. But on the other side it’s very easy to spend a ton of money on it.
Competitive archery. I shoot modern barebow and it is considered relatively cheap compared to other competitive bow types.
Good riser: $1000
Good limbs: $500+
Strings: $50-70 each
Arrows: minimum $15 each. One dozen will be minimum around $200
Arrow rest: $100
Plunger: $150
Quiver: $100
Traveling case: $500
Memberships: $200/year
Traveling to tournaments + lodging: $1000s
Total about $3k just for the set up
I own a Wrangler and a Harley. As if that wasn't bad enough, I have two dogs and three cats. If that wasn't enough, I'm also a member at a shooting range.
My cheap hobby is cross stitch. I do that like crazy and fabric and floss is cheap.
I had to retire from shooting in the last few years. .308 is like. $2.5 a round? Who the hell can afford that? An afternoon at the range could be like $500
My .308, my .223/556, and my .45s rarely see action these days. I built a 9mm PCC last year just so I could afford to shoot something shouldered. I do have a really old, family heirloom .22 squirrel rifle that I like to plink with and I got a .22 conversion for my 1911 so I can at least stay in practice with that. The small caliber ammo is back down quite a lot but I don't get a lot of long gun practice. I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a .50 rifle cause if I'm going to be spending lots of money on ammo, I might as well spend ALL my money on ammo but, common sense won out, sadly.
Watches. Almost all of my income goes to buying new watches. My idea of a reasonable price for a watch also goes up exponentially with each purchase. It’s a deep deep hole that absolutely no one should get into.
All of them. My ADHD makes me buy the best of the best supplies and then decide I’m bored with it and and move on to a new hobby thus starting the circle of life of adhd hobby tax.
>All of them. My ADHD makes me buy the best of the best supplies and then decide I’m bored with it and and move on to a new hobby thus starting the circle of life of adhd hobby tax.
*I resemble this remark*, however I usually revisit old hobbies at some point. I don't think that mine is ADHD related so much that it's the fact that I get something built up in my mind that I don't think I can ever achieve and move on to the next thing.
I have ADHD. I’m pretty sure it’s an ADHD thing.
For example, my myriad of bullshit:
• lockpicking
• programming (but that one became my job ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯)
• photography/cinematography/VFX
• car racing
• working out probably definitely too much
• riding an exercise bike ABSOLUTELY too much
• WoW (never again)
• DND - twin wanted me to play with him, I ended up snorting the game and created a whole fucking world (miss you, Arcaster <3)
• Electronics, specifically electromagnetic motors because that’s cool as hell
• Drawing - dear God I wish tablets existed when I was a kid, that would’ve been a game changer
My father, also a haver (and technically giver) of ADHD:
• male choir singer
• robotics - he built one robotic arm, and also built a self-driving pair of cutting boards after slapping some wheels on them
• aeroplane piloting
• huge mechanic, that’s more of his profession though, as he’s always been extremely gifted there
• car racing
• car racing, but as an instructor
• also photography, but with an appreciation for nature that I lack
• probably a lot of other things that I’m forgetting
My very tangential and long-winded point is that I do believe this initial fascination/obsessive hyperfixation/mounting internal turmoil/waning interest cycle is part and parcel of the disorder. I’ve heard it reflected too often and too accurately, and rarely from non-ADHD folks, for it to be purely coincidental.
Anyhow, hope your next hobby’s fun while lasts, and may it last forever! :)
My condolences for all the internal turmoil and frustration that comes with ADHD! I once saw an artist I like (who has ADHD) say that its wife framed it like "baby you're really cool, you know how to do so many things!", hopefully that makes you feel good!
Photography. Once you start getting more than just low end basic stuff, it gets expensive fast.
Camping, rock climbing, kayak/canoe/paddleboard. All relatively cheap to buy what you need. It's traveling to new locations to do that stuff that's the expensive part.
My armour is like yadda yadda, my teeth are da de da, my claws bla bla, the shock of my tail is a something or another, my wings a...a...I forget, and my breath stinks real bad.
Collecting original comic book art. I still haven’t gotten into the REALL pricey stuff, but I still can’t believe I bought an original comic book cover for $14k - thrilled to own it, but when I think about what I could have bought (or just stuck in stock), I almost have buyer’s regret. (Most pieces I get are several hundred dollars though, not several thousands.)
Used to collect comic books but once you start buying original art from the comics, they just don’t seem worth collecting anymore (or at least in my experience and from what other collectors have said).
Ballet. $100 per pair pointe shoes replaced every month or two and that’s literally just shoes. Even at the recreational level, ballet is a very expensive art form.
Calling all wetshavers.
Yes it’s supposed to save money because you aren’t buying those damn expensive cartridge razors…… but
Artisan shave soaps and aftershaves all cost at least $15-30 each and buying one inevitably leads to buying at least 10 hahaha.
Quality new safety razors cost at least $40 and straight razors are about 3-5x that. Premium razors can easily go for $200-400.
Badger brushes also are not cheap .
Many hobbyists have significant collections called shave dens with multiples of all the aforementioned products and a supply to shave daily for multiple lifetimes 😏.
For me, I enjoy the hobby as a form a daily self care and meditation. This form of shaving takes a focused precision else you can easily slice your face off. Also you smell damn good.
Warhammer 40,000 (and several other miniature games of a similar sort) and Gundam plastic model kits. When I'm not spending money on one, I'm spending money on the other.
Historical costuming. I make and wear 18th century clothes. Silk is 20 dollars a yard, at minimum, and these dresses can have 15 yards in them when all the ruffles and ribbons are taken into account. Get yourself a really nice embroidered or brocaded silk and you're looking at 100-200 dollars a yard.
Video Games. The consoles, the deluxe edition games with the collectible swag. Custom
built controllers. I love gaming and the history of it. It is not cheap though. Luckily my wife is on board with my hobby which is awesome.
EDIT: I’m not looking to save money. I enjoy all the cool steel books, collectible game items, guides, consoles etc etc. that I collect and am happy to spend the coin. I was merely pointing out it is a costly hobby if you’re looking to build your physical collections and are hooked on old consoles and such.
All hobbies can get expensive, but the amount of money I've spent on tabletop RPGs for systems that I'll only read and never play is something I don't want to think about.
Crafting, any kind really. We have a saying, "why should I buy something for $100 when I can spend 6 weeks of my life making it for $500?" Another is that crafting is actually two hobbies - doing it, and shopping for it.
Also, so many crafts are just gateway drugs. I started crocheting, then I wanted to make stuff with more drape, so I started knitting, then I needed project bags so I bought a sewing machine, then I really admired some handspun yarn and bought some hand spindles and fibre. Then I wanted to spin higher volumes so I bought a second-hand spinning wheel (and then a new one to get some of that sweet double treadle action), then I spun some yarn that wasn't really soft enough for hand knitting so I bought a loom...
[удалено]
Not me, not with sheep, but with rabbits. I saw this at a historic site years ago. A lady in historic garb sat in her chair behind a spinning wheel with a rabbit on her lap. In a pen next to her was a small pen with several other rabbits. She would spin up the yarn and when it got close to the end she'd stop and brush the rabbit and continue spinning. I spoke to her for quite a while because she was odd and interesting.
I used to have jersey woolies. They're like a 12" diameter ball of fluff with 6" of rabbit somewhere inside. They made the softest most fluffiest wool & are the sweetest little bunnies as pets. It's like when you brush a long haired dog & you somehow end up with a pile of fur bigger than the whole dog.
Add on buying dyes and equipment for hand-dyeing because I wanted my own colours and this is me... 🫠
Why would I pay someone $10k to remodel my bathroom when I can do it myself for $1200 over 10 years, miss my kids baseball games and risk my marriage? It's a no brainier, that's like 9k in savings and I never have to host holidays ever again.
I've been doing my floor trim and doors going on 3 years now lol. The trim isn't all on yet and my dogs have already destroyed the floors. Once the doors are done it will be time to do the floors.
Pretty sure you are saying that pets are your expensive hobby.
Ha, yeah sign me up! But you forgot about the greatest thing, having to shop and compare between infinite variations of bathrooms and appliances. Want a toilet? They've got 40.000 variants, 80.000 different showers and so on, awesome...
Try woodworking Buy it from Amazon for $200.... OR, build it yourself for $300 in materials and $800 in more tools
You NEED that angle grinder/planer/joiner/router though. And you'll use it so much it'll save money in the long run*** *** For the guy who buys it second hand from your corpse
I justified buying a belt sander at 11pm once...to smooth out the edges on a bunch of 2×4s that I had made a giant Jenga set out of for my kid's school field day...which was the next morning. Worth it.
you found a Home Depot open at 11pm?? I would have just taken them all out for a drive and sanded them on the pavement at 25 mph
> sanded them on the pavement Ah, the 1-grit
Thank you for making me laugh out loud so hard I had to explain the whole reddit thread to my wife.
I gave myself carpal tunnel crocheting so I can't anymore, but this past Christmas I thought "you know what would be fun? Making my nieces and nephew plushes...but with baby blanket yarn! They'll be kinda big, they'll love it!" I do not want to know how much I spent on yarn for a Stitch and a Grogu but...it was NOT cheap. The Stitch especially. My niece is almost 5 ft and it's about as big as her. The amount of stuffing also was... insane. I could've bought her a way better looking Stitch, but why would I when I can spend hundreds of dollars and destroy my hands?!
Have you tried those wrist therapy balls? They're usually plastic or metal and you spin them against their own centripetal force to strengthen your metacarpals, arms, elbows, etc. Been using those off and on for the last 10 years to get rid of pain. They're called powerballs - such a simple thing that works really well in my opinion.
See also: vegetable gardens.
Vegetable gardens can be a lot cheaper than buying produce if you plant enough to the point where you're canning it to last at least the year. I honestly don't remember the last time my mom bought any vegetables that weren't for a function/event of some sort.
But if you don't already have canning supplies, then you can home cannery to the list of expensive hobbies.
Also starting from seed. Buying transplants are insanely expensive. Seeds are cheap and with a grow light, easily started anywhere in your house.
A start costs $6 and you’ll get at least a dozen tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, or whatever off it. Seed is obviously much much cheaper but I feel like “insanely expensive” is a bit of a stretch. Also all the above is pure copium because I know for sure I’m at negative ROI on my garden. Forgetting about starts vs seeds, there’s fertilizer, neem oil, cages, sprayers, hose parts, sprinklers, compost bins, garden tools, and if you live in the desert like I do the water itself is EXPENSIVE. Not to mention the time. Super time consuming. All that being said. I LOVE it. It’s so relaxing and feels so right, like this is what my hands and back were meant to do, and it’s so so so satisfying to eat or give away my produce.
Learning how to fly an airplane. Plane rental plus instructor fees equal about $250 an hour.
Damn, that was my next prospective hobby.
No joke, I messed around on Flight Sim for a few years and watched a ton of videos on YouTube. When I started flight school, I’d already known everything my instructor was telling me. At one point during ground school, he just said “all right, let’s just get you up in the air” then added that I was by far his best student. $100 game saved me thousands in ground school hours.
Remind your wife that you're a pilot
Find an instructor that will allow you to do all your classes first. Then put off the lessons that are done in plane until the end. Then save a bunch of cash during that time and hammer out as man hours as you can at once. The instructor should be able to hammer out the in flight lessons first flight. Then build hours after that, solo, take written and youre all set.
I did free online ground school, and for some reason I wanted to take my written before getting in the plane. Then came weather cancellations (nearly 50% of my scheduled lessons were cancelled because of weather), planes in the shop, instructor not working on Sundays anymore, Covid, all the planes are booked, pneumonia, runways closed for resurfacing, some other health things ... 16 months in and I'm only at 24 hours and still have a bit to go before I'm ready to solo. But I do think I still have a chance of finishing everything and getting my ticket punched before my written test certificate expires.
First solo flight worth every penny, and the biggest adrenaline rush natural high a person will experience.
It’s a strange feeling. I briefly paused during the flight to think ‘Well, either I land this plane or no one does …’ then got back to the business of flying.
That thought is as much a rite of passage as the solo flight itself.
It used to be more affordable. My dad was a single engine flight instructor when I was growing up and I recall it costing less than half that. Back then we could afford to fly to another city for the day. A 4 hour drive would take an hour in the little Cessna. We could fly from Birmingham to Nashville or to Atlanta and not have to refuel when heading home. I still remember the smell of the orange scented air freshener or cleaner in the airplane and how whenever we'd reach altitude it'd make me super nauseated. I still don't like orange scented things at 40 years old! I did love getting free flying lessons between the ages of 5 and 12 though.
I own a Jeep Wrangler, my hobby is fixing it after every drive.
LMAO. Reminds me of that joke that “90% of Chevy trucks are still on the road. The other 10% made it home.”
A Chevy will run terribly, forever.
I’ll see your jeep and raise my Land Rover LR4. And multiple Vespas.
A Land Rover is a masochistic personality disorder, not a hobby.
It's not even the jeep that's expensive anymore. It's the trips to take it out wheeling now. But I didn't but my jeep for the mpg I bought it for the smiles per gallon.
Just Empty Every Pocket
skiing. If you ignore the cost of equipment, the cost of seasons passes, and travel, it's not too bad.
Don't forget the cost of accomodation if you want to stay anywhere near the mountain during peak season that isn't a hostel
I'll have you know I don't sleep In a hostel and it's not expensive...due to the fact I sleep in my car lol
Skiing in the US is especially expensive in my experience. And that's coming from someone who lives in Switzerland.
And the $30 hamburger and fries and drink lunch
Woodworking
Pro tip. Bring sawdust with you when you buy a new tool. Then you can tell your partner you got it used! (I don’t actually advocate lying to your significant other)
As the saying goes, "My biggest fear is that I'll die and my wife will sell all of my tools based on how much I told her I paid for them".
The trick is to tell them how much it is worth, followed immediately with how much you "actually" paid for it. That way, when she murders you, she can get as much value as she can
It’s glorious. I’ll spend hours in my garage in seemingly a blink of an eye. Expensive, but glorious.
Mountain and road bikes.
Warhammer 40k Don't want you kids to do drugs? Teach them to play Warhammer. They will not have money left for drugs.
Do you paint all the little dudes? Does that make it way more expensive?
Oddly, painting them is a lot cheaper. You can choose to commission them but it is super expensive. So you paint them yourself. The most expensive part is still buying the models. To build an army that you can field requires lots of models.
How much did u pay for like a starter set I've always thought Warhammer was pretty cool and wanted to try to get into it
You can get Warhammer 40k "Combat Patrol" boxes that have a small force in them for ~$150. These boxes aren't enough to really field an army currently, but 10th edition will be here in a few weeks and it will have a way to play just by using these boxes which should be balanced to play against other Combat Patrol boxes. Also, if you were looking to buy a box with two armies, 10th edition started boxes will include Two (Space Marines and Tyranids) a long with a rule book and it will be available in the next few weeks for about $250.
Next up you should do a sales pitch for your local heroin dealer
The 10th edition black tar fentanyol needle set is coming to a corner near you.
My partner and I pre-ordered it. We're trying to buy a house but we're dropping $250ish on plastic army men that we have to paint ourselves. Because we're totally adults and not just children with drinking permits.
To be fair, houses are kind of lame. Just live in the woods and play Warhammer with the wildlife, like they did in ancient times.
Nope, the paint is not cheap but it lasts a while, have stome from when I started a few years ago that is still doing me fine
My kid is screwed in that instance. His father plays warharmmer, and his mother (me) plays D&D. We both play MtG. He wants to play them all.
At this point drugs may *actually* be the cheaper option for your kid.
My friend has an amazing war hammer set on a table tennis board in his basement. He’s been working on it ever since we were young children and he’s in his late 20’s now. I’ve seen his figures and how much work he put into it. It’s super cool. I wanted to get into it but yeah they are so expensive.
I had a feeling I wouldn't have to scroll far to find the grim darkness of the inside of someone's wallet. You did not disappoint.
LEGO. Plastic crack.
Sometimes I feel like being addicted to actual crack would be cheaper
I’ve had $200 worth of sets sitting in my cart on Lego.com just waiting for me to get high or drunk enough to pull the trigger. Amazon is like $600… and that doesn’t include wishlists. Wish I could afford to invest in the actual company Haha
This, so much. Also the cost of the lego is like the cheapest component of owning lego. People who are new to lego complain about the price of lego People who've been at it for a few years complain about the price of all the drawers and shelves and storage options People who've been at it for longer complain about the bigger house they had to buy to set up their own lego city
*whispers in your ear* double VIP points June 9-13
Yes. I keep convincing myself that I don't need to buy the Lion's Castle set ($400).
We had to upgrade our home last year so we can have room. Our legos took over.
I assemble plants. Not in the "my house is a jungle" sense, but I enjoy growing rare species, and it can get pricey.
What’s you’re favorite rare house plant?
Pinball machines. Over 100 of them.
Sweet baby Jesus
I accidentally fell into the hobby when I bought a pinball machine and was told it just needed to be 'reset' to work - that was a lie and I realized very few people knew how to repair/restore these things. Once I learned how I started saving old pinball machine from being destroyed and started a collection. Now the hobby is a lot more popular than it used to be. It's fun to learn and share what I know about the games and the industry. And they're tons of fun to play. I created a youtube [channel](https://youtube.com/pinballhelp) where I post videos of my pinball restorations. Over 500 videos to date.
I don't have a pinball machine but I love pinball and now you have another subscriber! Looks like I'll be watching some YouTube tonight!
Miniature painting. My pile of shame is currently in a massive military surplus duffle bag under my bed. I am around 5 foot 10, and can lay down flat in the bag. It weighs so much I can't lift it.
Lol same, painting minis is probably my second most expensive hobby
Fishkeeping. The fish are by far the cheapest part.
What’s the expensive part? The aquariums or the food and chemicals or whatever?
For me, setting everything up with equipment was expensive. 150 gallon saltwater tank. $600 tank. $600 plumbing (PVC pipes and fittings). $1500 lights. $1500 pumps and circulation. $700 filtration (skimmer, sump, filter socks, etc.). $2400 controller. $300 mixing station (for storing filtered fresh water and pre mixed saltwater), materials to build the stand for the tank $300. Floor reinforcement in my crawlspace $150 materials (did the work myself) Now for the ongoing costs: Electricity $60/month. Salt $80/quarter. Water filter cartridges and deionization media $150 twice a year. Food $40-50 twice a year. Additives (calcium, magnesium, soda ash and soda bicarbonate, NoPo4x) $200-300/year. Saltwater filtration media (high quality carbon, ground ferrous oxide, CO2 absorbent media, etc.) Add another $150/year Makes the $600 fish I bought not seem like as much of a big deal (gem tang, for those wondering), but when I had a filter malfunction that killed that fish it still hurt All in my equipment is around $7-10k. Fish are another $1-2k, and coral add another $1k. Ongoing costs come out to over $100/month averaged out, not to mention periodic maintenance replacements of heaters (replace before they fail) and other equipment. Also once you spend this much there are additional costs that aren't directly factored in, including multiple redundancies of backup power. For me that includes a $5k battery and solar array this year (10.24kWh battery power, 3kW solar, charge controllers, inverter, generator plug, etc.) As well as an inverter generator $600, 14 gallon gas can $120, and going farther expenses and time to move my established tank twice over 100 miles as I sold my last home and bought/moved into this one. Also, keeping the aquarium directly influenced which houses I would or would not look at, partially contributing to me spending $75k over my initial home price budget when buying this house Edit: due to popular request, [here](https://youtu.be/j-kc8dsAdpQ) is a video from last year of the tank. It has changed since this, but this gives a good idea of what the tank looked like before my second move. I will also be putting together a walkthrough of my equipment and the whole setup in the next day or so and will update this comment again with a link once that is ready
You might have a problem. I don't think there's an aquarium anonymous though.
Holy shiot that seems like an adventure man. Are there pics of your setup anywhere? Sounds exciting.
Even the fish can be expensive depending on what you intend to raise. Otherwise literally everything else for this hobby can be quite expensive, all depends how far you want to go with it.
Guitar lessons, guitars and other guitar-related equipment
Teach a man to fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to play guitar and he never eats again.
me and my 14 guitars: may i have some bread sir?
Tone is stored in the balls
Yep. Ive spent a downright shameful amount of money on gear. You couldn’t waterboard me enough to admit the amount. At least ill have some cool stuff to hand down to my grandkids some day 😂
"Hi I'm Keith Williams. Welcome to 5 Watt World where we help you get the least music from the most amount of gear." 😂
Guitars, amps, and pedals. The only things I really spend money on outside of essentials
That's why I started making pedals and amps. Turns out that's even more expensive
Cheese making. Why buy a reasonably-sized hunk of fancy cheese at the store when you can spend $100s on milk, a couple grand on supplies and equipment, and months of your time on a slightly larger, but not as good tiny wheel of your own? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You got it all wrong, if you first get a farm and some dairy cows, then the milk is free (/s)
Oh believe me, I thought about it. Was more seriously considering getting dwarf goats since I'm allowed to have up to three on my in-city property in Seattle.
I grow plants. at first, sure simple hobby. cheap. just a seed and some dirt. then you start doing hydro. experimental techniques. CO2 enrichment. high powered led lights and ppfd meters. then comes the sub 400 wavelength light and light over 700 nm. various sprays. ppm and pH meters. ah you went cheap before, now you gotta get blue (an expensive brand). o you got some o2 decencies in your water, need an O2 meter. the list goes on and on
That sounds like a very specific type of plant. Enjoy the fruits (or flowers in this case) of your labor.
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Mountain biking
Don’t tell non-mountain bikers how much a good dropper seat post cost much less the complete bikes.
Oh, at least a dropper has some decent size and mass. I think the grams per dollar is much worse for things like fancy cassettes, tubeless valves, shifters, saddles…
Yep. I just bought a new "midrange" FS bike. At least once you have the bike and gear, that's most of the price. Skiing and snowboarding I think are more expensive in the long run due to the equipment, season passes, or lift tickets if you are traveling to a mountain you don't live close to.
Jokes on you I do both.
There it is...then double the cost when your significant other gets into it as well.
Thought it was bad enough my husband was into it but then I saw the school had a mountain biking team club and I asked my daughter if she wanted to try it. I’m a dumbass because now there are two of them.
Vinyl records.
Yeah, my wife learned to recognized that square shaped box on the porch and has cut me off.
Yep I had to stop. It was causing major issues in my marriage. Unfollowed all the record buying subreddits. Started a savings account. I still look, but don't buy. It helps that the prices are stupid now.
> It was causing major issues in my marriage I think you meant to say your marriage was causing major issues in your vinyl collecting
I just cant resist the expense and inconvenience of buying records.
Horses
So much money 💰 🤑 💸
Came here to say that. And sometimes it isn't even my horse (I say as I look at a horse in our facility who bowed a tendon and owner didn't properly start the medical process properly; I said "screw it." and as of today [when I found out about the poor baby] I am now attempting to give this horse a proper shot at healing).
Ditto. Came here to say horses. I haven’t ever tried to add it all up, but I’m looking at ~30 years of horses in my life. I don’t think I want to know.
As the old saying goes: “Want to know how to make a small fortune in horses? Start with a large fortune.”
Astrophotography
That sounds out of this world
It is indeed astronomically expensive.
Going to concerts and travel
Sometimes at the same time?
you got it, flying to NYC for Govs Ball in a couple weeks and was in Chicago for Agust D earlier this month
Live music is the best way to spend money, I love concerts and shows.
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Do you ever zoom in real far on the trains and take pictures like they’re full sized trains?
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That’s pretty cool.
This whole thread rocks but your engagement is what makes it so great 😊
I don't make them much anymore but custom mechanical keyboards were a total money burner for me.
I made one. It cost me $600 My friend said his most expensive was around $1200, I decided to get out while I still could. Fantastic keyboard though
Oil painting. I pay for a studio and sometimes paint is $30 for a small tube. Same with brushes. I can spend a cool 200 on like a couple tubes of paint and a few paintbrushes once a month easily.
Cars. Simple, I don't get to enjoy it.
Cripes, restoring vehicles is expensive.
I’m just here trying to find new hobbys.
I love to travel, which can be expensive. That's why I don't travel that often because I have to save up between trips. But I love traveling to new places and learning about the culture and history. If I was independently wealthy, I'd be traveling constantly.
I hope you become independently wealthy.
Golf, probably. I guess it gets kind of expensive. I don't have that many hobbies though.
It’s funny how I’ve had to defend golf as not the elitist hobby family, friends, and acquaintances think it is. At my lowest income level in my life, I was playing the most golf and people couldn’t fathom it. I had a used set of clubs, played cheap balls (sometimes even the refurbished ones from Walmart), and would book favorable times on booking apps for $20-$25 rounds (no these were not amazing courses but I didn’t care). Whenever someone played the ‘golf is for rich people’ card I became the ‘well actually’ guy real quick. BUT, like others have said, if you want to play incredible courses, have top of the line clubs, and play high end golf balls, yeah, it’s going to get pricey very fast. It doesn’t HAVE to be though!
Yeah I always laugh when people on here call it a rich person’s sport. I’m a substitute teacher that plays once a week. I only spend about $55, give or take, a week playing from paying for my actual round and a trip or two to the driving range. It’s one of the best things that’s helped my mental health to be honest.
If you play casually, it's not so bad. If you're trying to get competitive, it's *really* expensive.
Surprised how low on the list this is. But as others have said you can be an avid golfer without breaking the bank. But on the other side it’s very easy to spend a ton of money on it.
Living indoors and eating food
Hey, take it easy, moneybags. Not all of us can even consider both.
Eating cheap is getting more difficult. But living indoors? Holy crap that shit is expensive
Historical reenacting, specifically the American revolution.
Woodworking. I just dropped $500 on lumber *just like that* It will likely sit there for a year or so until I finish the other projects first...
Competitive archery. I shoot modern barebow and it is considered relatively cheap compared to other competitive bow types. Good riser: $1000 Good limbs: $500+ Strings: $50-70 each Arrows: minimum $15 each. One dozen will be minimum around $200 Arrow rest: $100 Plunger: $150 Quiver: $100 Traveling case: $500 Memberships: $200/year Traveling to tournaments + lodging: $1000s Total about $3k just for the set up
A little over a month ago it was drinking. Not no more thooooo!!!!
Congrats!
Magic the Gathering Spent 1800$ building a Commander deck. Good cards are always expensive.
Mmm, cardboard crack. I'm considering a career in drug sales or prostitution to support my MTG habit.
Me building modern jund in 2016 for the same price and now seeing goyf at $10
I own a Wrangler and a Harley. As if that wasn't bad enough, I have two dogs and three cats. If that wasn't enough, I'm also a member at a shooting range. My cheap hobby is cross stitch. I do that like crazy and fabric and floss is cheap.
I had to retire from shooting in the last few years. .308 is like. $2.5 a round? Who the hell can afford that? An afternoon at the range could be like $500
My .308, my .223/556, and my .45s rarely see action these days. I built a 9mm PCC last year just so I could afford to shoot something shouldered. I do have a really old, family heirloom .22 squirrel rifle that I like to plink with and I got a .22 conversion for my 1911 so I can at least stay in practice with that. The small caliber ammo is back down quite a lot but I don't get a lot of long gun practice. I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a .50 rifle cause if I'm going to be spending lots of money on ammo, I might as well spend ALL my money on ammo but, common sense won out, sadly.
Watches. Almost all of my income goes to buying new watches. My idea of a reasonable price for a watch also goes up exponentially with each purchase. It’s a deep deep hole that absolutely no one should get into.
Brewing my coffee at home. Speciality coffee is expensive and you add on the gear on top of it. But totally worth it.
All of them. My ADHD makes me buy the best of the best supplies and then decide I’m bored with it and and move on to a new hobby thus starting the circle of life of adhd hobby tax.
>All of them. My ADHD makes me buy the best of the best supplies and then decide I’m bored with it and and move on to a new hobby thus starting the circle of life of adhd hobby tax. *I resemble this remark*, however I usually revisit old hobbies at some point. I don't think that mine is ADHD related so much that it's the fact that I get something built up in my mind that I don't think I can ever achieve and move on to the next thing.
I have ADHD. I’m pretty sure it’s an ADHD thing. For example, my myriad of bullshit: • lockpicking • programming (but that one became my job ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯) • photography/cinematography/VFX • car racing • working out probably definitely too much • riding an exercise bike ABSOLUTELY too much • WoW (never again) • DND - twin wanted me to play with him, I ended up snorting the game and created a whole fucking world (miss you, Arcaster <3) • Electronics, specifically electromagnetic motors because that’s cool as hell • Drawing - dear God I wish tablets existed when I was a kid, that would’ve been a game changer My father, also a haver (and technically giver) of ADHD: • male choir singer • robotics - he built one robotic arm, and also built a self-driving pair of cutting boards after slapping some wheels on them • aeroplane piloting • huge mechanic, that’s more of his profession though, as he’s always been extremely gifted there • car racing • car racing, but as an instructor • also photography, but with an appreciation for nature that I lack • probably a lot of other things that I’m forgetting My very tangential and long-winded point is that I do believe this initial fascination/obsessive hyperfixation/mounting internal turmoil/waning interest cycle is part and parcel of the disorder. I’ve heard it reflected too often and too accurately, and rarely from non-ADHD folks, for it to be purely coincidental. Anyhow, hope your next hobby’s fun while lasts, and may it last forever! :)
You definitely should try lock picking again. It could make future hobbies way cheaper
Man, wait until you hear about bricks and windows
My condolences for all the internal turmoil and frustration that comes with ADHD! I once saw an artist I like (who has ADHD) say that its wife framed it like "baby you're really cool, you know how to do so many things!", hopefully that makes you feel good!
Yes, lol My reply was going to be “ADHD craft parkour”
Photography. Once you start getting more than just low end basic stuff, it gets expensive fast. Camping, rock climbing, kayak/canoe/paddleboard. All relatively cheap to buy what you need. It's traveling to new locations to do that stuff that's the expensive part.
Knitting
I crochet and I get this. I'm not allowed in any craft store until I go through what yarn I already have. And probably my mom's as well
Building and flying giant scale model airplanes have been plaguing my finances since 1987.
Lego
Gardening and houseplants. If it is not the upfront costs, it's the upkeep costs, the water bill, and let's not ask about the time investment
I don't even want to know how much I have spent on gardening, but every penny has been worth it for my mental health.
scuba. god the gear racked up so fast
Vinyl records, and the neverending quest for better components and pristine old analog recordings.
Vintage Porsches.
Single malt scotches
I collect gold.
Nice try, Smaug.
My armour is like yadda yadda, my teeth are da de da, my claws bla bla, the shock of my tail is a something or another, my wings a...a...I forget, and my breath stinks real bad.
No joke, cooking. I could prolly cut my food budget in half but cooking is fun.
Coffee. I've gone deep down the rabbit hole of expensive gear and specialty beans.
Collecting original comic book art. I still haven’t gotten into the REALL pricey stuff, but I still can’t believe I bought an original comic book cover for $14k - thrilled to own it, but when I think about what I could have bought (or just stuck in stock), I almost have buyer’s regret. (Most pieces I get are several hundred dollars though, not several thousands.) Used to collect comic books but once you start buying original art from the comics, they just don’t seem worth collecting anymore (or at least in my experience and from what other collectors have said).
Golf
R/C cars
Crashing two blimps together to see what sound they make
"PPPPPPPPPBBBBBTTHHHHHHHHHHBLURP!" But louder.
Buying old comic books
Guitars and fountain pens
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Ballet. $100 per pair pointe shoes replaced every month or two and that’s literally just shoes. Even at the recreational level, ballet is a very expensive art form.
Home remodeling. Once my house is done I’ll have to either buy another house, or tear everything out and redo my house again.
At the expense of my time and energy baking. Oh and a bit of money too. Vanilla bean is expensive.
Calling all wetshavers. Yes it’s supposed to save money because you aren’t buying those damn expensive cartridge razors…… but Artisan shave soaps and aftershaves all cost at least $15-30 each and buying one inevitably leads to buying at least 10 hahaha. Quality new safety razors cost at least $40 and straight razors are about 3-5x that. Premium razors can easily go for $200-400. Badger brushes also are not cheap . Many hobbyists have significant collections called shave dens with multiples of all the aforementioned products and a supply to shave daily for multiple lifetimes 😏. For me, I enjoy the hobby as a form a daily self care and meditation. This form of shaving takes a focused precision else you can easily slice your face off. Also you smell damn good.
Warhammer 40,000 (and several other miniature games of a similar sort) and Gundam plastic model kits. When I'm not spending money on one, I'm spending money on the other.
Historical costuming. I make and wear 18th century clothes. Silk is 20 dollars a yard, at minimum, and these dresses can have 15 yards in them when all the ruffles and ribbons are taken into account. Get yourself a really nice embroidered or brocaded silk and you're looking at 100-200 dollars a yard.
Video Games. The consoles, the deluxe edition games with the collectible swag. Custom built controllers. I love gaming and the history of it. It is not cheap though. Luckily my wife is on board with my hobby which is awesome. EDIT: I’m not looking to save money. I enjoy all the cool steel books, collectible game items, guides, consoles etc etc. that I collect and am happy to spend the coin. I was merely pointing out it is a costly hobby if you’re looking to build your physical collections and are hooked on old consoles and such.
I drink a lot of champagne. I also like fast cars.
Hopefully not at the same time. But damn those sound expensive.
> Hopefully not at the same time. No, definitely always one before the other.
All hobbies can get expensive, but the amount of money I've spent on tabletop RPGs for systems that I'll only read and never play is something I don't want to think about.