How expensive is your hobby?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

My coworker has four horses. I have no idea how he’s able to afford them. He told me sawdust used to cost him thousands of dollars a year, and he just recently found a “free” source about two hours away.

As for me, one hobby is working on (mainly repairing) our cars, just to see how long I can keep them alive. I have a 1974 Pinto, 1998 Saab, 2000 F-150, 2001 Toyota, 2002 Jeep, 2002 Miata, two 2005 Saabs, 2006 BMW, and a 2007 Saturn. At least three of them are broken down at any given time, so I am working on them most weekends. It also gives me “quality time” with our son. We don’t have car payments (I’ve never made a car payment in my life), but parts and tools are not cheap. I’m guessing I’m not saving or losing money, but I’ve never done the math.

82

The MG is gorgeous and looks like it would be lots of fun to drive. Do you drive it much?

I love the other two cars, too, and the VW brings back fond memories of my first car, but the MG looks like the most fun. The VW looks similar to the one I had, which was a '67, but in beige.

In my youth a friend owned an MG Midget and lent it to me when she had to travel for a week or two. I enjoyed it immensely! I’ve owned a lot of different kinds of cars including sports cars, but never a two-seater convertible!

83

Well now I‘m into writing. I already had a computer and Word.

84

Horse racing. Perhaps surprisingly, it is only as expensive as one wants it to be.

For me, the challenge lies in studying the Racing Form and making selections based on past performance; and yes, all those abbreviations and numbers, while looking indecipherable, actually do mean something. But my interest also lies in studying the sport itself: what to expect from the different kinds of races, the various quirks of each track, knowing the rules of racing, understanding the traditions, and so much more. I have a large library of racing references, ranging from books on how to make selections, using both class and speed handicapping; to biographies of famous racehorses; histories of certain stakes races; and as you might expect, books full of facts and figures.

I do wager, but not nearly as often as you might think. Still, I know how a parimutuel system works and the different types of wagers that such a system will take. I can read a tote board, and later, I can read a results chart for an in-depth look at how the race was run at every stage.

If all I did was show up at the track for an afternoon card, buy a Racing Form, have a couple of beers, and place some wagers, I could probably get away with spending no more than $40. But I’ve put a lot of money into my library, and a lot of time studying it, and a lot of time talking with others more knowledgeable than I (e.g. owners and trainers), so I couldn’t even begin to estimate how expensive racing is, and has been, to me. But I like it, which is all that matters.

85

Absolutely! Horse racing is totally alien to me – I understand almost none of the terminology – but you seem to enjoy being pretty deeply immersed in the racing culture, so enjoy! We all need our little pleasures! It sounds like a cool subculture where you can spend a lot of time hanging around the track with a few beers and good camaraderie!

86

Some folks here may remember back when I was still involved in the major hobby of my life: High Performance Driver’s Education. You drive your regular street car on various racetracks around the country. You’re learning and using race driving techniques, but it’s not a competition. (Search for my name and HPDE to see a bunch of posts about it.)

From 1999 to 2011 I participated in 135 track days at 20 different tracks, including several driving schools like Skip Barber. Mostly I was driving my own street-legal sports cars. I kept meticulous records of all my expenditures for the cars, safety equipment, wheels, tires, brake pads, rotors, and other consumables, travel expenses to get to the tracks, event registration fees, etc. etc.

The average price per track day, excluding the cost of the cars was $474. If you include the net cost of the cars (purchase price less proceeds from selling them), the average was $758 per day. A grand total over $100,000 over twelve years.

Although my driving days are long behind me, I’d say that the current hobby for me and my wife is travel. For the last few years we have taken a one- to two-week cruise each year for around $10,000 to $15,000.

We’ve done Alaska (for our honeymoon), Venice to Athens along the cost of the Adriatic, Norway to see the Northern Lights, in February 2026 Hawaii, and next December the West Indies. Most were on Viking. We hope eventually to see Egypt on a cruise up the Nile.

The hobby is not just the days away from home, it’s the hours and hours spent beforehand researching which trips to take, what activities and excursions to do, and history and culture of the destinations.

87

Collecting travel ephemera: pretty cheap
Buying classic rock album super deluxe box sets: $60 - $150+
Photography: actual photo cost $0, last camera purchased $1200 (Sony RX100 VII)

88

I mentioned this upthread, but there’s really two different hobbies there. One is designing things to be printed, while the other is care and maintenance of the device itself. I guess it’s sort of analogous to how some folks enjoy driving nice cars around, while others enjoy working on cars. Personally, the part I enjoy the most is the designing, and most of my designs have never even been printed at all. My specialty is designing dice that look like other things (medieval weapons, flowers, sports balls, gazebos, etc.), but I’ve also done a fair number of functional prints, Christmas gifts, etc.

89

One of my first cars was a 74 Pinto. I don’t care what the forklore says, that car just ran. It burned and leaked oil, but it ran. It would’ve been easy to dig into but I replaced that POS with another easy to work on POS.

I have access to a first year Miata in blue and I would love to own it, but it will go to a nephew. I have owned other two seaters including my favorite MG, and I expect that I will own a classic again once I retire. It’s hard to justify one when you ride on two wheels most of the time.

90

I definitely remember. :raised_hand: :slight_smile:

(I’ve tracked a couple of my daily drivers, and one time — many moons ago — commasense was my instructor. :smiley: I was driving a Nissan Sentra back then, but he took me around the track in his 350Z and it was so much fun that a few cars later I got a 370Z when an opportunity suddenly presented itself. I kept it for a long time!)

91

If you’re just playing Warhammer with some pals, most of them probably aren’t going to care if you proxy other figures or your minis aren’t painted. In theory, what you see is what you get (WYSISWG), meaning the models should be armed with whatever your army list says they’re armed with. In truth, I usually can’t tell the difference between different Space Marine or Necron units anyway. If you’re playing in a tournament in a retail shop, most of them require you use official miniatures and you’re rewarded, but not required, for having a fully painted army.

92

At competitions, you have to have Official Figures. And every couple of years Games Workshop, to screw over their customers and make more money, comes out with a new rules edition, making your old army worthless.

93

My biggest hobbies are weightlifting and reading. I have a home gym and a few accessories I like, but most of the cost is gym membership, which is reasonable.

Reading? I have large home library and thousands of books. Many were bought from charity shops, library sales, or from used book sites back when delivery was still cheap. The costs would still add up.

94

i agree that buying a watch does nothing as far as being a satisfying experience, but putting my own together is very rewarding. I have photos, but don’t know how to send/post them.

95

My expensive hobby is scuba diving.

I live in Scotland and virtually all the diving here is club based where you are expected ot have your own equipment.

My main equipment for local diving cost about £4000: drysuit, (£1300), BCD (£800), Regulator Set (£600), Computer (£300), 2 Tanks (£400), Prescription Mask (£200), Fins (£100), weights (£70). I also dive abroad so spent £300 on a wetsuit for that.

For ongoing costs servicing my regulator, BCD and tanks cost about £150 per year, club membership costs abut £200 but does include air fills. Then there is travel, most dive sites are 80-100 miles away so going for a local dive I will often stay Friday night and dive Saturday. Then there is holidays, This year I spent a little over £3000 for two weeks diving in Indonesia though that is not something I do every year, next year I have book a week’s diving in Scotland for about £650.

96

This is what got me off the Warhammer treadmill. I felt like GW was taking ever opportunity to nickle & dime me with the frequent rules changes. I’ve got plenty of money to spend on GW products, but I felt like I had to make it a full time job just to keep up and I don’t have that kind of time.

97

My current hobby is building Lego. Except Lego is so expensive, that I am taking advantage of it losing its stranglehold on the block construction toy market, by purchasing alternative bricks from other companies that are now producing bricks and original sets that are as good as, but sometimes as little as a quarter the price Lego charges.

It’s particularly good for getting retired sets that are selling for astronomical mark ups on reseller sites, as I found some that are less expensive than they were priced a decade ago. All I want is the build experience and the display value, so I am rapt by this affordability.

98

Mine are relatively expensive, but I am fortunate enough to be in a place where I am pretty much “caught up” gear-wise, so the expenses are primarily in the past.

Photography: I am very satisfied with my Nikon z6iii and my smattering of full frame Z lenses. Practicing the hobby at this point is virtually free.

Piano: Similarly, I am extremely satisfied with my current instrument, so, minus an annual tuning, it is free to practice.

mmm

99

Most of mine aren’t too bad. For example computer gaming, meh. I splurged on a somewhat pricey PC seven years ago and it is still just chugging along without substantial issues. It helps that I am the sort to often just replay the same stuff over and over again. I buy new games occasionally, but not often enough to be a significant expense. Same with music, books and most other things I mess with these days. I mean I still buy the occasional music CD like the aged dinosaur I am and attend live shows very rarely (don’t love crowded clubs). But I find most stuff free online and I don’t do pricey live venues.

Now bird photography (nature photography generally, but birds are the main attraction and the biggest expense) is probably the worst setup-wise, just because a sufficiently long lens combo that doesn’t leave you frustrated can cost a pretty penny. I did go through the normal growing pains of this is fine…no, it’s not - I need this…that doesn’t do it, either - I need that instead. My recent final iteration isn’t bad at all by those standards, but definitely not cheap - about $5,000 to replace. But thankfully I found a combo that satisfies me, so I’ve been using it for years. I’ve probably got a bit more than twice that invested into photographic gear over the last ~15 years, which isn’t all that bad amortized over time. It can definitely get so, so much worse if you get gear lust. Thankfully I managed to eel past that phase without too much damage. I no longer peruse gear sites to follow the latest and greatest iterations.

Sorta similar to past interests like audio enthusiasm (not full-on audiophile) where gear-lust can get out of hand and get absolutely insane very quickly. But it doesn’t have to :slightly_smiling_face:.

100

When I could afford it, I flew helicopters.