海角大神

A few years ago, I was a听big听collector of DVDs. I amassed a collection of almost 1,000 DVDs of all kinds, and I was pretty proud of the collection. We had display cases in our living room showing all of them off.

Now, if you do a bit of 鈥渂ack of the envelope鈥� math on those DVDs, you鈥檒l quickly figure out the cost involved. If you assume an average of $10 per DVD, that鈥檚 $10,000 in discs sitting there. That鈥檚听expensive, no matter how you slice it.

You could make a similar case about my video game collection. Once upon a time, I had almost 100 games for my Playstation 2 and Gamecube. Again, if you assume they average out to $40 a pop, that鈥檚 $4,000 in video games.听

That鈥檚 a lot of money tied up in hobby/entertainment spending.

Obviously, I was spending beyond my means here, but听迟丑别谤别听is听a happy balance to be found when it comes to hobby and entertainment spending.听It just took some time to really figure it out.

Here鈥檚 the solution we worked out for our hobby and entertainment spending.

Each month,听Sarah and I have a total dollar amount we can each spend on our hobbies and entertainment choices.听Everything听comes out of that money, from movie tickets to games, from books to painting supplies. If we鈥檙e doing something for entertainment鈥檚 sake, then it comes out of that budget.

What should that amount be? It really depends on your financial situation. However,听I believe that everyone should have听some听small amount budgeted toward this kind of free spending, even if money is really tight.听Having a bit of money to spend on whatever you wish really takes the pressure off of financial change. The simple听idea听that you have money in your pocket that you听can听spend without worry often makes the challenge of getting in good financial shape much easier.

The challenge that many people have is that听they have their toes in a lot of different hobbies and types of entertainment.听They watch movies. They read books. They play golf. They buy designer clothes. They buy lots of personal appearance products. They play video games or board games. They read magazines. They watch cable television.

All of these options cost money, and if you dabble in a lot of options at once, your costs are听really听going to add up. How do you choose among them?

For me,听my spending almost exactly matches how much time I spend engaging in and thinking about a particular hobby, at least to a certain extent.

I tend to think of this more in terms of the time I听诲辞苍鈥檛听spend rather than the time I听do听spend.

So, for example, let鈥檚 say I just watched one movie in the last month (which is actually true). Given that I 诲辞苍鈥檛 have a big interest in movies based on my own behavior, why would it make sense to spend much money on movies in the coming month? (In fact, I can only think of two films coming out in the near future that I have any interest in at all, and those are both adaptations of books that I loved.) So, for now, I won鈥檛 spend money on DVDs or going out to the movies.

Instead, I focus my time 鈥� and thus my money 鈥� on the small number of hobbies that really matter to me. I enjoy reading, so I鈥檒l probably buy a book or two this month and maintain a magazine subscription, which, combined with the library鈥檚 resources, will give me plenty to read for the entire month (or more). I play a lot of games, both computer games and board games, so I might buy one new game this month since they take up such a significant portion of my time and attention. That leaves me with a bit more to spend on unexpected opportunities.

I feed the things I care about and cut back sharply on the things that I 诲辞苍鈥檛.听I determine what I care about based on the amount of time and attention I give it.

The one thing I ignore is the sense that I 鈥渟hould鈥� pay more attention to a hobby.听In the past, when I would feel like I hadn鈥檛 spent much time on a particular hobby lately, I鈥檇 鈥渃ure鈥� it by spending more money on that hobby. The problem with that was that by having a lot of hobbies that I was trying to maintain, there were a lot of hobbies that needed 鈥渃uring,鈥� and that was expensive.

The better solution is to听let those unattended hobbies wither on the vine for now.听If you鈥檙e not passionate enough about it to give it quite a bit of your time and focus during your spare time, then you鈥檙e not passionate about it to funnel your money into it.

If you鈥檙e not passionate enough about a magazine to keep up with the issues, cancel the subscription. If you鈥檙e not passionate enough about films to watch quite a lot of them consistently, stop buying DVDs or paying for Netflix. If you鈥檙e not passionate enough about a premium movie channel to watch it several times a month, cancel that subscription. If you鈥檙e not passionate enough about video games to play all the way through the ones you have, then 诲辞苍鈥檛 buy new ones.

Another challenge is figuring out whether you鈥檙e going to get adequate enjoyment out of unknown purchases. How do you know whether a book you buy will be worth the cost?

I鈥檝e found two solutions for this.

First,听I try very hard to really understand what I like.听I save my money for things I鈥檓 sure that I will like, such as board games with some strategic choices that play in 45 minutes or so, computer games that aren鈥檛 highly reliant on reaction speed but reward thought and have lots of replay potential, and books from authors I鈥檓 familiar with or come recommended to me from sources that I deeply trust (mostly friends).

Second,听I use freebies and samples.听If something is really outside of the bounds of what I like, I find a free or nearly-free way to try it. I download a sample chapter on my Kindle or start reading it at the bookstore. I download a game demo on Steam. I read lots and lots and lots of reviews. I check the item 鈥� a book, an audiobook, a DVD 鈥� out from the library.

When I put all of these tactics together,听it actually becomes very easy to stay within my hobby and entertainment budget.听There鈥檚 really no reason to overspend.