I"ve spent over $2000 on my media server. It was all worth it too.
My growing californium collection is really starting to strain the ol’ pocketbook.
Not as much as I’d like. It overheats if I drive it too far in the summer. Next spring or summer’s project will be to get it running better and stop it from overheating (hopefully).
Here’s a video my son took from the passenger’s seat when we took it on a pizza run last summer. We had just gotten it running and instead of taking it on a test drive around the neighborhood we took it all the way to the pizza shop. 
https://i.imgur.com/5SpOkkm.mp4
It is a lot of fun to drive.
My neighbor’s father had an MG Midget. I learned a lot of car mechanics (starting at about the age of 12 or so) by helping them work on it. Even after I turned 16 he never let me drive it.
This was a great topic. I’ve learned a lot about my fellow posters!
I have a ‘66 MGB. I got ripped off on the bodywork. It’s a blast to drive; but I have to do the Car-Car Shuffle to get it out, so I don’t drive it as often as I should. I do need to get the hood out of the boot and erect it.
Hmmm, my hobby is writing/performing/recording music. I’ve been collecting guitars/synths/amps/assorted gear for more than 40 years. I have at least about $20K invested in gear (it might be more, but let’s go with that). That sounds kind of hair raising when I write it out. But it averages out to about $500/year, if I accept that kind of conservative number. Plus, my most expensive acquisitions have been in the last few years ($3K Gretsch guitar, $2K Rickenbacker bass, $1700 Moog Matriarch). So, it’s been loaded with luxury in the last 10 years or so. On top of that, some of the stuff is worth vastly more than I spent on it. The outlier is the 67 Gibson SG Junior that was bought ages ago for $275 is now worth about $3K. I’ve easily averaged more than $500/year playing or recording. So it might actually be a wash, other than the fact that I don’t sell any of my gear, so I have purchased a larger house than I normally would to store the stuff. Also, the larger house lets me comfortably record in it.
But! This is another hobby that is only as expensive as you decide to make it. The guitar I use around the house the most is a Epiphone Les Paul Special II, bolt neck loaded with P90s. It was $88 used from Guitar Center. The cheapest bass I have that is a consistent workhorse is an ESP LTD B-50 that I got for $75 from a friend when their roommate left it in lieu of rent. My Korg Minilogue XD can do about 60% of what the Matriarch can, I got mine used for $350 or so from GC. Get a hand-me down laptop or tablet that is powerful enough to run a simple Digital Audio Workstation and sequence a software drum machine, a used audio interface, some cheap effects pedals, a used SM57 or 58 mic, and I expect you could be in business doing home recordings for less than $1500. I’d expect any recording done by me with that equipment would probably sound largely the same as any recording done with my current stable of stuff. Amps to play out with that equipment could be had for around another $500 or so, if you’re not picky.
So, maybe about $2000 to go all-in on the ground floor, but possibly a wash if you’re mildly successful?
All I can really advise is: if you’re going to press a record, make sure that the linchpin of the band isn’t going to move away in less than a year. I can’t really say I lost money on the vinyl pressings I’ve made. We sold enough to cover costs on each of them. But I have enough remainder sitting in boxes that I’ve kind of sworn off of buying 500 copies of the same record, even if I’m on it.
A friend of mine has several horses (and mini-horses, and goats, and all kinds of animals). But she and her husband own a company so they have the income you’d expect for that sort of thing.
But my daughter-in-law has two horses and manages that with just a middle-class income. Don’t ask me how she does it.
It is an expensive hobby.
I remember it well. Thanks for the callout, and I’m glad you enjoyed the Z car for a while.
Although I’m no longer in a position to buy and run a nice track car regularly, I’ve been thinking I might treat myself to a race driving school once every few years just to relive the excitement.
Y’all are killing me. Only one other ham radio operator?? You’re missing the boat. I got started when I retired (just before Covid). It is a very varied hobby- my niche is buying and restoring high end tube transceivers. I never sell them. Probably $5000 all in at this point for parts, radios, test equipment, etc. . This does not seem too bad, though it is more than I put into fly fishing or astronomy, both of which I’ve enjoyed for 40+ yrs.
Had to give up due to motorcycle accidents - innocent come off on a forest track tore my shoulder muscle enough that after 5 casts I’m done 
I’d not consider motorcycling a hobby as much as a choice of vehicle and with fuel prices as high as they are in Australia and making coin flipping bikes to move up I’ve done very well in terms of capital expenditures.
Gear and other bits and bobs really add up tho.
62 years riding …one nasty accident due to riding on different continents…hopefully at 77 I have a few more years.
Photography still current tho since we travel less I do less photography …partially inertia.
I opted for MFT ( MicroFourThirds ) cameras and lenses and saved a lot while always having a camera with me. For example a 400 mm ( 800 equiv) lens in MFT costs $2k …the 800mm for othter formats…$20k and I get 90% of the performance for 10% of thte cost. Main camera I use on the motorcycle weighs less than 2lb ( camera and lens) and has a 350mm zoom range.
Due age some other hobbies like snorkeling ( should not be given where I live ) are by the board, kayaking and flying sailplanes are past pleasures.
I have that nerdiest of hobbies, coin collecting.
It’s as expensive as you make it.
I have a collection of Mercury dimes. They are all in fine or better condition, so the cheapest one cost me about $2 when I bought it years ago, and it’s resale value now is about $15. It’s in extra-fine condition.
The most expensive I had once, but sold a while back when I was having money problems. I bought it back in the late 1970s, as a kid with a paper route and a lot of cash for a 12-year-old. I had a chance to go to a coin show, so I saved several months, and bought nice stuff, cheaper than you’d buy walking into a shop.
I bought the rarest Mercury dime in fine condition for $180. Last year I sold it for $3,200.
I also bought the first, and only US gold coin I’ve ever bought, which appreciated so freaking much, that I sold it about 6 years ago-- actually traded-- to a local dealer for credit, because my credit was limited to certain kinds of coins he was less invested in (the ones in less demand that he had not paid to have professionally graded). It was a good deal for me, because I was really into the hobby during the pandemic, and I was putting together a set of seated dimes.
Seated dimes are the dimes that circulated in the US with lots of variations, for most of the 1800s. A full set is lots and lots of coins, and dimes are easier to acquire than quarters or half dollars, which have more silver, but more abundant than half-dimes, because they generally have larger mintages. It was a pandemic project. I looked through lots of online aucton and coin dealer sites.
The local dealer always called me up when he bought collections that had seated dimes.
For me, the hobby has run fair-to-middlin’ expensively. You can collect coins very cheaply if you want to do something like put together proof sets of new coins, like the presidential dollars, or the state quarters (I have sets of those, because my mother started them, so I finished them), or if you want a type-set (one of every different kind, excluding gold coins, that didn’t circulate as much) of US coins, and don’t care about the condition of them.
You can also collect very expensively, by collecting only gold coins, or only coins in extra-fine condition, or only rare dates.
I like doing sets because you get to hunt, and search, and the satisfaction of watching the set come together. And if it’s coins from before WWI or so, researching how many different variations of a coin there are, and which ones are meaningful enough to need to get one of each kind-- like, you need the 1857 WITH the arrows, as well as the 1857 WITHOUT the arrows, but do you need two Carson City copies, one with the mint mark above the arrows, and one with it below the arrows? (hint: you do).
I have, and have had other hobbies. But coin collecting is the one to post about, I think, because really, you pick how expensive you want it to be.
I used to like working on cars, and have had some classics. That one is expensive, because at some point, you either have to buy a car in pretty good shape, or else you have to by one that is going to need major parts, and need things like getting the head machined.
I gave that hobby up though, when I decided it wasn’t compatible with my views on the environment and ambition to own an electric car (which I now have).
I have an aquarium of tropical fish, which I tell people is more of a hobby than pet ownership. When you can’t always even tell the fish apart, you don’t get as attached. I do get sad when I lose one, but it isn’t like losing a dog or a cat. And it’s a difficult hobby. It’s also one you can’t slack on. That tank needs to be cleaned on a schedule no matter how you feel.
It’s another hobby that is as expensive as you make it. Freshwater is world’s cheaper than saltwater, and the prices of fish vary. And some fish can live in water out of the tap, while other need you to get a filter system to make RO water, or to go to Walmart and buy it every week.
I’ll stop now, but I could go on.
I met someone once who said she had horses, and stabled them at a place where they are occasionally used for children to ride (they get led around a corral). It’s probably not thrilling for the horses, but it’s exercise. They are out in a pasture most of the day, and stabled at night, IIRC. She has to go out and move them herself every day, feed them, and otherwise exercise them. There’s some kind of deal where the stable is free in exchange for using the horses. Which I guess means she gets no money from the rides.
I don’t remember if she ever said why she has the horses in the first place. Maybe she just likes horses that much. I doubt she breeds them, because I imagine horses little kids ride have to be fixed. Maybe she teaches riding in the summer. Or maybe they are retired from something, and she gets some help from a rescue organization to keep them. I gathered she wasn’t rolling in money, but I doubted she was poor-- she had a mid-range electric car.
Point is, there are ways to defray the costs of horses if you don’t mind little snotballs riding them. I don’t know much about horses-- I know they need exercise pretty much every day, but maybe if they get extensive exercise most days, being led around a corral several times with little passengers is enough exercise a couple days a week, especially if they are pastured the rest of the day, not stabled.
Or, maybe her horses were mistreated, but the way she went on, I’d be surprised.
My current hobby is surf-fishing (casting long-distances from the beach).
I don’t know how to categorize the expense though. I use an RV to stay far enough out in the hinterlands, and a 4WD vehicle to clamber even further through the sand to get to an isolated spot. Both vehicles are necessary, but I already had them for other reasons.
I have $1400 invested in a cargo/bait carrying drone to get my line far enough out, but those were just recently outlawed by our game and fish folk. Due to this change, I’ll need to upgrade rods and reels from the cheapos I’ve been using. I need to physically cast them now, and will need the 12 foot monstrosities I see others using. Prior to drones being outlawed, I could use any cheap rod as long as the line was heavy enough.
My other hobby is RV-ing to various National Parks and Monuments. We usually go for a month-long trip each year to some region of the country, and will often visit 4 or 5 national parks along the way.
Aviation – I belong to a club which is one way to make flying more affordable. I pay ~$1350 / year whether I fly or not, the 172 I fly is $88/hr wet (tach time)
Board Games – luckily I have friends in my game group who buy a lot, so I don’t need to buy many
Amateur Radio* +1 for that – I’m not very active, I’ve spend maybe $2000 over 30+ years
Bicycling – unlike many cyclists I only have one bike (a Trek 520) and not a whole stable. I’m mostly just a recreational rider, but I have done a loaded tour and some S24O**
Brian
* hence the username
** Sub 24 overnight. Bike somewhere, camp, bike back
Music has been a lifelong hobby for me. Live and recording.
I was actually sort-of pro for a year or two in London in much younger days. But even when I got a ‘real’ job in software work, I always had a weekend warrier band and recorded songs on a variety of equipment which evolved as the technology advanced.
I haven’t really done any live performance work since covid shut everything down, but now I’m retired I do a lot more home studio work, often in collaboration with other musical friends.
In terms of instruments, my actually pro-level instruments are a couple of basses (Aria and Kramer), and a classic Stratocaster. All bought many years ago so I’m not sure of present value: each one would probably cost at least several thousand or more today.
As far as studio equipment goes, we are living in a Golden Age today. A good desktop computer with a professional level DAW (I use Reaper) gives you facilities that George Martin in the Sargent Pepper era could only dream of.
As for ancilliary equipment, a decent audio interface, home studio level monitors and a couple of good headphones can be acquired for a few hundred dollars each. Microphones like an SM58 are in the $100 range. Of course one COULD go really overboard in that area with things like a U87, but it’s not really needed at this level.
But those are one-time expenses; on a month to month basis the only ongoing costs are minor supplies like new strings etc.
So overall it’s not expensive at all. I am sort of contemplating getting at least one more really professional level guitar though: I have a range of lower-tier instruments, but a real Les Paul or Telecaster would be very nice…
Try francium next time, takes up much less space.
Roleplaying Games: Fairly minimal expense, in part because I’m playing these days more than I’m running so have less need to load up on books and modules and stuff. Also we play online so I’m not buying a bunch of minis. I used to do a bit of mini painting which was fairly pricey but got rid of all my stuff a year or two back when it seemed unlikely that I’d be playing on a real tabletop any time soon. In the last year, I’ve spent around $100-$150, most on a system I hope to run with the group in the coming year.
Record Collecting/Music: Bigger expense as albums are getting pricier and that’s not including the silly variants and special box sets, etc. Start up cost wasn’t bad, I put together a used system that works for me for under $300 and like it. Follow up and upgrade costs are what gets ya. I also recently bought a cheapie old turntable to tinker with and practice my maintenance and soldering skills on. On the other hand, I’ll never be a “Drop $5k on a componet” type of audiophile. I lack the space, ears and desire to drop that kind of cash. I’d guess that I have dropped $450 on my system between base components and tweaks and probably $1800 in actual albums.
AI Image Gen: Essentially free. I do a lot of making AI generated images on my home PC using local models, open source tools and my own AI training. I do maintain a $10/mth sub to Midjourney as it’s sometimes useful so I guess I’m spending $120 a year on it.
I used to do more with PC building, case mods, sleeper builds, etc but that’s expensive and hard to justify when the number of computers I need at a given time usually hovers around “one”. And no one really cares enough about your fun weird build when buying a used PC to come close to a return on it, they just wanna know how well it Fortnites.
If so, I urge you to at least consider a Corvair. Not strictly a 2-seater, but mine was a 2-door with buckets, and I kept the rear seat folded forward flat, so it very much felt like a 2-seater. Not high-powered, but definitely gives meaning to the saying, “Fun = driving a slow car fast.” Don’t believe the Nader bullshit. No more dangerous than any car of that vintage. And the rear engine makes cornering so fun.
I check prices periodically, and they still are just about the least expensive way to get into classic cars.
Corvair excels in that department as well. Being air-cooled, it runs better the harder you run it.
Rock hounding, which is free. Which starting me on faceting colored gemstones, quartz, garnets, tourmaline, sapphires etc. which are not as free. I purchased many many geology reference books and maps, I think that learning phase was also part of the hobby. Good to strain the brain a bit! It was difficult to find perfect clarity in “the wild” , although the search is always worth it…however you can purchase rough materials from all over the world. For a price, usually steep. I stopped faceting but not rockhounding.
“I brake for rocks”
(always wanted that on my truck bumper)
Paging @Rico