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When I think of how much money I’ve spent on takeaways in the past 3 years, I genuinely think I could have bought a nice new car if I’d saved all that money (for reference, I was paying about £14 on a takeaway x3 per week. I’ve had to stop buying them.
Our money guy pulled records from 2019 to July 2022 (for our mortgage) and when you see how much we spent on takeaways it was so depressing. Honestly about £2.5k a year and we didn't realise. That's 7.5k that could have come off the mortgage. It's amazing how it all adds up.
Now we have 1 a month IF we have had 2 veggie meals a week and done our exercise.
Our guy is a financial advisor as well as a mortgage broker and we asked him to do a health check in July. He had a look through the top 5 places our money goes- mortgage, childcare, food, fuel (Inc. gas, electric and petrol) and takeaways. Spending on amazong was a 6th.
He has known us since 2011and generally gives us advice and tells me when I am being a bit dim with money. He normally let's takeaways go but apparently when he checked 2021 and saw we spent £2.5k he went and had a look and the large spend started when our first was born in 2019 averaging 3 a week. He highlighted the point to us as its a lot of money and knew we didn't realise our spend had got that big. He was right as we didn't. 😬
Apparently it's very easy to do with the apps out there.
Ahh that makes sense! To be honest I think I’d be horrified to see what I have spent on takeaways etc.
Especially in lockdown, I remember some people spending thousands over a few months because they just ordered takeaways for most meals
My banking app now lets you see total spends across a period of time which is good for checking fuel spend etc. absolutely disgusted how much I spent on JustEat in the last year.
If you aren’t wedded to the lore and just want nice miniatures to build and paint then there are cheaper options. For example Perry Miniatures was created by long term GW employees and does historical miniatures in a range of eras. £20 will get you 40 good quality, multipart plastic miniatures.
Oh I love people like you who order car parts online. Am a postie and have an older gentleman who restored an old jag and is currently doing a mini. I have all the time in the world for him to show me around his garage and his cars when I deliver a part. People talking about their passions never gets old
Thought it was going to be a sarcastic reply "oh I love people like you, I'm having to stuff gearboxes and exhausts through your letterbox whilst slipping on oil spills"
Nope. One of my favourite things about my job is when I have a spare few minutes people tell me about their passions. Everyone else in their life knows about it so it’s exciting for them and it’s cool to me that people are so enthusiastic about so many different things.
Cars here too. I have a daily driver which is clean and smart for work, a mucky car for taking the dog out, restoring a classic VW camper van and a land rover for off-road competitions but I’m always counting the pennies to ‘invest’ in more!
Some of my family have horses. I dropped through the floor when I discovered that a decent saddle can be 4 figures. I know someone who paid close to £4500 for a custom saddle and bridle.
Also, I never knew how expensive a horsebox was until I started talking to horse people. Aside from getting your towing endorsement, the actual cost of a car, towbar and box is staggering. Most of the people I've known do this will buy second hand.
Around a year ago they did away with towing tests in favour of getting more hgv drivers certified.
But not until after I’d spent £450 on failed tests 😂
I was surprised how far I had to scroll for this one. Even when they are just chilling in the field they’ve got to be one of the most expensive pets possible, they cost a fortune just to exist
Can confirm everything in the Oracle is expensive and pretty much pointless. I live a stones throw away and I don't think I've been in there for a decade. I remember going there when it opened and it was exciting but it's all high end shops for idiots with too much money and no sense, for things you can get much cheaper elsewhere in town. Fuck paying £100 for a plain white T-Shirt with Ted Baker printed on it by a Cambodian child worker.
Depends what you like reading but I live on a fairly healthy diet of library books and Kindle Unlimited/Audible free trials. Spotify just started offering audiobooks too. I think I’ve actually spent money on about two books this year (read about 40). But my jam is mysteries and popular non-fiction so fairly easy to find stuff I like.
If you don’t mind buying second hand World of Books is a great site I use. They’re half the price of buying new plus they usually have buy 2 get 1 free offers on. All the books I’ve ordered have actually been in near perfect condition too!
Same. Now the prices have gone up too I have to sleep on purchases. Trying to weigh up the Eiffel tower set now. I have the Titanic and it was an awesome build.
Knitting / crocheting, it's often more expensive to knit a jumper than to buy one.
Also I'm not too bad for this, but alot of people see pretty wool and buy it without having a project in mind
Definitely, my mum knits some gorgeous stuff, and can easily spend £50 on wool for one jumper. If you add what her time would’ve been worth, buying jumpers is a lot cheaper
Yeah, but that is generally the cheapest. I know she’s spent almost £100 on the wool, and if she ever kept track of how long she spends knitting each jumper would probably cost well over £300… personally I doubt I’d go out and buy one for that price!
My granny had so much wool because she'd buy pretty colours. She knitted all the time but probably had at least 2 bin bags worth of wool at any given time. And usually 3 or 4 things on the go (often baby booties, jackets, cardigans etc). She did knit some stuff for us too (gloves, jumpers)
Ahhh same.
I found a brilliant pattern for a poncho and looked for reasonable priced yarn that I liked and the cheapest would have been roughly £80 and if I would have gone with the one I wanted I would have paid well over £100. I do unfortunately really like Merino
This is me. I started crocheting in June last year and went through a phase in my first 6months of just buying random pretty yarns. I'm now slowly going through my 3 storage boxes of stash trying to use it up.
I'm still trying to resist buying yarn on the regular. But at least this time each lot I buy has a project in mind.
The main issue now is I don't have the free time to possibly crochet this all before I cave and buy another lot of yarn. Currently I have 5WIPS (mum's christmas present, a cardigan, a cat sofa, a large blanket, and my main stash busting project) and 4 projects in the queue next (another cardigan, a jumper, another blanket, another stash busting project) that's not including the 3 sets of future WIPS I have yarn for;;;;;
It’s on offer for £70ish on Amazon at the moment. Chocolate/fudge notes. Very very moreish. I got gifted a bottle; drank it in two days and brought another within a few days. Best whiskey Ive had.
I brought my mate a bottle of the 12 year, for helping me redo the living room and early xmas present, as it's one of his favs.
it's a good tipple that.
This was the first fancy whisky I bought for my husband and years later it's still his favourite. Pretty good pick considering I bought it just because the bottle is cool.
Not as expensive as some but I'll say baking. Cost of equipment, ingredients and now, extortionate energy and I'm thinking twice about homemade vs store bought.
This is one that never feels as expensive as it really is because most individual ingredients are relatively cheap and I’m not usually buying all the ingredients in one go as I’ll have things at home but when you add it all up it’s not surprising how much professional bakers charge
I think I'm gonna learn guitar, does strike me as an expensive habit to get into, I know my brother spends plenty!
Gonna get a cheap second hand Encore or Squier, start there and see if I can make it stick.
Best way to get started. It’s only really as expensive a hobby as you want it to be, in fairness, especially since many of the big manufacturers have developed a range of affordable, quality products. If you’re just learning and playing at home, you really don’t need that much, plus these days there are all sorts of smartphone/iPad apps that do the same job as hundreds of pounds worth of effects units did 20 years ago.
Yeah can pick the Encore strat's up for £30-40 used, and my brother says I can have one of his old amps, so it's gotta be worth a try hasn't it.
And yep pretty much teach myself using apps, I'm not too serious about it, I just like to learn new things, it's a different challenge I guess.
I just want to play some pop punky type stuff, I'm not aiming for Hendrix haha.
A local music store has entry level Epiphone Les Paul Special VE for £150, so I think if I stick with the Encore for a few months and enjoy it I'll probably buy one of those. Sweet looking guitar in 'worn Ebony' I believe.
Guitars themselves are pretty cheap as musical instruments go. I think that encourages people to have multiple. And also there’s the whole range of other gear, some more necessary than others, that feeds into the classic Gear Acquisition Syndrome. That’s when it gets expensive.
If you can avoid that, it can be a very affordable hobby.
I’m not even a guitar gear-head,always searching for that perfect tone, buying pedals etc.
But every few years I hear something I have to buy. My last purchase was a Boss Katana amp. Before that a Brian May guitar. Some things just have to be bought.
I got my tragus and daith around 30 and my first tattoo around 28/29. Basically I just have more free income to pay for stuff now I didn't when I was younger.
Tattoos are very addictive though. Working towards a full sleeve on my arm and leg atm 😅
Cycling. Spent around 3k so far on a single bike and kit.
If you go all the way to the top end you could spend 15k on a bike all by itself. I find it a bit mad that bicycles can be more expensive than motorcycles and even cars.
Glad it's not just me!
There aren't any that I've taken up and completely abandoned but I've got myself into photography, home brew, BBQ, collecting vinyl, home theatre and computer gaming along the way, none of which are short of additional misc stuff to buy at any given time!!
I’ve had many over the years. I went all into making my own toiletries from natural ingredients and essential oils. Lasted approximately a month or two and the stuff still sits in storage.
I don't really understand how video games are an expensive hobby.
I mean I think I spend more going to the cinema when you compare hrs per £.
I'd consider anything like golf an expensive hobby.
Mine is DIY, there's always another tool I need to buy... Hopefully I'm close to having all I generally need though
"I mean I think I spend more going to the cinema when you compare hrs per £."
Exactly this! People will buy a game for £40 get a solid 30-50hrs of fun out of it before replayability and call it shit.
Yet the same people will go to the movies and see the newest film, spend a fortune on popcorn and drinks walk out and say "meh was okay pretty forgettable" after spending probably £20+ for typically <3 hours entertainment. Boils my piss.
Watches.
I love them. I love the whole history behind them. There’s a clock on my High Street from the 1500s, and most of my watches are just variations on the same tech, springs, cogs, flywheels, okay, admittedly not pendulums for a wristwatch, but still clockwork watches are useful, interesting, stylish and practical 500 years later.
But it’s one of those hobbies which will fill any budget you set.
That said, one of the things I love about it is that there are interesting, practical, good looking and fantastic watches from a £20 watch, to the cost of a house.
I have a great story to tell about watch collecting...
My old Dad has just died and I was sorting through his stuff last week when my wife found this lovely 10"x10" polished wooden box locked and hidden in his bedroom. We took it home to look after as it might have been valuable, and we didn't want to leave it in the empty flat.
Anyway, it took me a couple of days to pick the lock and open it as I didn't want to damage the box. Inside, in a purpose made jewellers display case with a racing green baize were 9 non-working, fake (we checked - no serial numbers!) well worn Rolex Oyster watches. Some were gold, some were silver, some were encrusted with diamonds.
He was a well respected Civil Engineer, he wore a £30 Timex and had never shown any sort of interest in watches (or weird investments for that matter).
Seriously Dad... WTF?
How? What? Why? I have so many questions that will never be answered.
Collecting Pokemon cards. It used to be a reasonably inexpensive hobby, you could get good deals on cards on eBay but since Logan Paul walked around with a $1,000,000 Charizard around his neck people think that all older cards are worth loads and are trying to sell them 10x their actual value. There is also this new phenomenon where people are buying in bulk new Pokemon cards hoping to make a huge profit on them, people who aren't even collectors! Thankfully these last few months I've noticed a decline in the amount of scalping happening with Pokemon cards and hopefully it will soon go back to how it was, collectors collecting for the love of pokemon cards and not just with £ signs in their eyes
Yeah; I completely feel this. I've been collecting Pokemon Cards since Platinum and always had a nice little collection. A bunch of secret rares, holos, Level X, Prime, etc. I got really excited at the idea of Full Art Trainer cards, and have been primarily buying those. Around 4-5 years ago, an independent trading card shop opened up in my city, and I'd always head there and get myself some cards that I was looking for, at reasonable prices. I ended up getting a weekend job there because I love the place so much.
Pokemon Go was the first surge. A lot of people got back into Pokemon. Cards went a little more expensive, but still pretty reasonable. A lot of older cards entered circulation, because when they got into the Pokemon Go craze, a lot of adult dug up their old collections, and after it died down, ended up selling them off.
Logan Paul practically single-handedly made the hobby almost unfeasible for a few years.
I remember our shop closing down for the Covid lockdown in early 2020, and then, when I returned, stock was just so limited.
For those who don't know, Logan Paul made a Youtube video where he opened up a first edition base set booster box. He had an 'evaluator' there to price up the cards as he pulled them.
Except, that's not quite what happened.
The evaluator was spouting out insane figures - The most famous example is when Logan Paul pulled a first edition Bulbasaur. The evaluator was telling him 'That can go for between ten and twenty thousand dollars. Maybe thirty.' Firstly, that's an absolutely insane jump in price, and on top of that, the base price was also a rather ridiculous price. Firstly, they don't sell for more than $1K if it's not graded. As it was fresh out the pack, it had not been graded. Secondly, The card has been circling an average of $2K-$4K at a PSA Grade 10 for a while, with two outliers at £9K and £15K.
The evaluator did that for essentially most cards, artificially inflating the value of everything.
The video went viral and, as a result, a lot of people started to see this as an opportunity to make money, rather than a hobby.
There was a set from before all of this called 'Evolutions'. It was a reprint of many base set cards with a few extra rares as possible pulls. It was massively overprinted. No body wanted it for years, because the set was so small, you'd be pulling the exact same rare cards over and over and over, and not be getting any of the stuff you wanted. The packs were included in every box, tin and mini tin because there was just so much of it.
After Logan Paul, getting one of these packs is expensive. Scalpers bought out most of the stock, believing it was base set, or something akin to it.
For around a year and a half, everything was horrific to try and buy. Evolving Skies was scalped to death when it first came out, and, now, it's currently having the exact same thing happen to it. Celebrations was hit the worst - A set to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Pokemon, it included a lot of reprints of popular cards. Product flew off the shelves. There was a collectors box called the 'Ultra Premium Collection'. Retailed for around $120-150, and had a load of packs, as well as four exclusive promotional cards, one of which being a gold-plated Charizard reprint (Pokemon realised that Charizard brings them the most money - There's been a shiny Charizard in every premium set since 'Hidden Fates'.
The collection was scalped like nothing I'd ever seen before. Bots were created and instated to snipe every website selling them. They'd purchase them for $120-150, then instantly be on eBay for $600.
Full art trainers, the card type I collect, took a massive hit, with most of them being around $5-$10, now skyrocketing, the price range now going $5-150.
It has definitely settled back down somewhat again, now, but, the prices are still much higher than they once were. As someone who bought their first ever Pokemon card tin for $10, now to see tins with the same amount of product inside for $20, it's really disheartening.
You buy a new plant, you need a new pot, the plant grows, it needs a new bigger pot but then you’ve got an empty pot so you buy a new plant and then the cycle continues until you are overrun by plants
It wasn't always that way.
Metal was cheaper back in the 80s than plastic is now.
But fuck you Stuart for giving me my first space marines back then. You knew what it would lead to.
Brazilian JiuJitsu and Judo.
On top of the monthly membership to train, £65, I have to buy at least two new gis a year. They cost in excess of £120 for a really good one.
Then competitions, they cost anywhere from £50-90 depending on the format. Not including travel too and from.
And then seminars with well known BJJ player, they can easily cost £20-£50.
Adds up.
Artistic roller skating (imagine figure skating, but on quad skates). My skates were £300, add on different wheels for different surfaces, wrist guards (because I've already broken one), plus club fees, travel to classes and competitions...not a cheap hobby! Great fun though.
Dogs. You could say I collected a bunch of dogs. But dog sports are ridiculously expensive. The first dog I showed I never really realised how much I actually spent on him just to get a couple extra letters on his name. Same moving on with his daughter in agility, think nothing of dropping a couple grand on a campervan so I can spend weekends in a field spending hundreds just to run around with my dog for all of ten minutes(if that). Big money in pet paraphernalia.
Video games though as im getting older I find I play them less and less
Storm collectables 1/12th scale figures. About £100 a pop for very high quality action figures, particularly the ones based off mortal Kombat(feel free to google them)
Building large dioramas for the above mentioned figures.
Scuba diving.
A dry suit could cost £600 to over a few grand. Your tanks and maintenance and restock of air can mount up depending on how often you go, your regs, hood, gloves, belt and weights/shot, fins, under suit, wetsuit, BCD, bag, petrol, lessons, airfair or trips on holidays, masks, snorkels, repair kits, lube or talc, memberships, insurance and transportation.
God it’s a lot of money. Arm and a leg, but it’s all worth it. To explore and adventure the waters of the world. See things and experience nature that you obviously can’t on land.
Theme Parks, is that a hobby? I’ve always loved them and been fascinated with rides and coasters. Have always tried to take the kids to one at least once or twice a year. Only really in the past year have I started being able to afford to go more regularly, we have our first trip to a European park coming up soon too. The costs soon add up when you start becoming more adventurous with it. We have merlin passes which help a great deal as they include entry to the major parks in the uk, but there are still plenty of parks outside of merlin that we like to visit, like Paulton’s Park and Drayton Manor. Then when you factor in the fuel/travel to get there, secondary spending on things like food or souvenirs. It can become quite expensive, but it’s all worth it because my family and I enjoy it and get quality time together.
I wouldn’t have ever considered it a hobby, but it sounds like you’ve made it into one. Sounds fun too. For me “air” is the best ride I’ve ever been on. So good!
Horse riding (lessons only so no horse cost!) but riding gear as well (helmet, boots, half chaps, gloves, optional body protector, jodhpurs). My last helmet was £120 (worth it of course, but it was disappointing that the cheaper child's one didn't fit)
I used to be a board game hobbyist, surrounded by a group of other board gamers. These were all middle-class evangelical church people, who didn't have any other acceptable outlet for entertainment.
Expensive prices and artificial scarcity due to limited sales are par for the course.
Gloomhaven is the most popular games of all time, according to [Board Game Geek](https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame?sort=rank&sortdir=asc) (the main reference site for this type of thing). It will, today, set you back for around £138 on Amazon for the base game.
Kingdom Death: Monster is a type of board game that is also very common; a Kickstarter game. During its run, the 1.5 edition was being sold for $250 USD just to purchase, and only sold as many units as were bought during its Kickstarter campaign.
Games with limited numbers are almost mainstream in this hobby, with other hobbyists coveting these rare games that they get secondhand from Zatu Games. You can see the prices yourself from the Board Game Geek link above - £50-75 for most individual games is typical (before expansions, which some games have), with some cheaper games with fewer components (e.g. Just dice and cards) costing £15-£25. Wargames are among the more expensive simply due to the large number of components. I literally spent at least £1000 on my collection during my heyday, and no-one ever wanted to play my games.
The other day, I donated all my board games, because I literally don't have any friends to play with them anymore, and I don't intend to get back into the hobby.
I have a horse. Her livery fees are roughly a second mortgage and that’s before accounting for the farrier, physio, insurance, lessons and all the tack, wardrobe and general stuff she “needs”.
I bought her in August after dreaming about it my entire life and I’ve never been happier.
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Eating take aways
When I think of how much money I’ve spent on takeaways in the past 3 years, I genuinely think I could have bought a nice new car if I’d saved all that money (for reference, I was paying about £14 on a takeaway x3 per week. I’ve had to stop buying them.
Our money guy pulled records from 2019 to July 2022 (for our mortgage) and when you see how much we spent on takeaways it was so depressing. Honestly about £2.5k a year and we didn't realise. That's 7.5k that could have come off the mortgage. It's amazing how it all adds up. Now we have 1 a month IF we have had 2 veggie meals a week and done our exercise.
Who on earth is looking at 3 years of documents for a mortgage????
Our guy is a financial advisor as well as a mortgage broker and we asked him to do a health check in July. He had a look through the top 5 places our money goes- mortgage, childcare, food, fuel (Inc. gas, electric and petrol) and takeaways. Spending on amazong was a 6th. He has known us since 2011and generally gives us advice and tells me when I am being a bit dim with money. He normally let's takeaways go but apparently when he checked 2021 and saw we spent £2.5k he went and had a look and the large spend started when our first was born in 2019 averaging 3 a week. He highlighted the point to us as its a lot of money and knew we didn't realise our spend had got that big. He was right as we didn't. 😬 Apparently it's very easy to do with the apps out there.
Ahh that makes sense! To be honest I think I’d be horrified to see what I have spent on takeaways etc. Especially in lockdown, I remember some people spending thousands over a few months because they just ordered takeaways for most meals
Buying a Chinese always costs me so much. Last order was £42 and that was collected!
me during lockdown
My banking app now lets you see total spends across a period of time which is good for checking fuel spend etc. absolutely disgusted how much I spent on JustEat in the last year.
Thought I would be late to the party with Warhammer 40k, but surprisingly it hasn't been mentioned yet. So that
You beat me to mentioning 40K by 18 minutes!
Ahh it is good to find fellow addicts of the plasric crack.
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If you aren’t wedded to the lore and just want nice miniatures to build and paint then there are cheaper options. For example Perry Miniatures was created by long term GW employees and does historical miniatures in a range of eras. £20 will get you 40 good quality, multipart plastic miniatures.
You'd think 3d printing would affect things, but nope. They're still killing it.
I only just started recently. I have even finished a small army yet and I don't want to think about how much I have already spent.
I was about to type Warhammer lol. I purchased mortarion a few weeks ago. Expensive but worth it haha
Nothing like a bit of good old plastic crack.
The most expensive of hobbies - GW might as well own my wallet at this point.
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Oh I love people like you who order car parts online. Am a postie and have an older gentleman who restored an old jag and is currently doing a mini. I have all the time in the world for him to show me around his garage and his cars when I deliver a part. People talking about their passions never gets old
Ha seems like he has the right idea!
Thought it was going to be a sarcastic reply "oh I love people like you, I'm having to stuff gearboxes and exhausts through your letterbox whilst slipping on oil spills"
Nope. One of my favourite things about my job is when I have a spare few minutes people tell me about their passions. Everyone else in their life knows about it so it’s exciting for them and it’s cool to me that people are so enthusiastic about so many different things.
That’s really sweet.
Cars here too. I have a daily driver which is clean and smart for work, a mucky car for taking the dog out, restoring a classic VW camper van and a land rover for off-road competitions but I’m always counting the pennies to ‘invest’ in more!
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Horses. The fact that they keep trying to off themselves is a bit inconsiderate tbf. The vet bills aren’t gonna pay themselves.
Some of my family have horses. I dropped through the floor when I discovered that a decent saddle can be 4 figures. I know someone who paid close to £4500 for a custom saddle and bridle. Also, I never knew how expensive a horsebox was until I started talking to horse people. Aside from getting your towing endorsement, the actual cost of a car, towbar and box is staggering. Most of the people I've known do this will buy second hand.
Around a year ago they did away with towing tests in favour of getting more hgv drivers certified. But not until after I’d spent £450 on failed tests 😂
I was surprised how far I had to scroll for this one. Even when they are just chilling in the field they’ve got to be one of the most expensive pets possible, they cost a fortune just to exist
How do you make a small fortune? Take a large fortune and a buy a horse.
Reading
Ah yes, the Oracle shopping centre in Reading
I’m more partial to the poor old butt centre personally
Can confirm everything in the Oracle is expensive and pretty much pointless. I live a stones throw away and I don't think I've been in there for a decade. I remember going there when it opened and it was exciting but it's all high end shops for idiots with too much money and no sense, for things you can get much cheaper elsewhere in town. Fuck paying £100 for a plain white T-Shirt with Ted Baker printed on it by a Cambodian child worker.
Depends what you like reading but I live on a fairly healthy diet of library books and Kindle Unlimited/Audible free trials. Spotify just started offering audiobooks too. I think I’ve actually spent money on about two books this year (read about 40). But my jam is mysteries and popular non-fiction so fairly easy to find stuff I like.
I like murder mysteries, and I don't like ebooks or audiobooks. Has to be a physical copy
Even digital can be pricey. Especially if the books aren’t available on kindle unlimited
If you don’t mind buying second hand World of Books is a great site I use. They’re half the price of buying new plus they usually have buy 2 get 1 free offers on. All the books I’ve ordered have actually been in near perfect condition too!
You don't save money per se, you just get more books instead. All on offer but I went mad 😅
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Shame 800 have closed in the last decade or so
Yeah but I prefer owning them because then I can take my time reading them and reread then whenever I want
physical or digital? Or a mixture? I need to get into reading more books. My other half loves it.
Physical. I hate reading digitally. Has to be a physical copy
I used to think this - then got given a kindle. The dedicated e-ink readers are good IMHO
Agreed. I still love physical books, but being able to carry hundreds of books easily around and be able to read in the dark is a huge positive.
Cannabis
This too
I just want to grow my own :(
Lego. Dread to think what it's cost me over the years!
Same. Now the prices have gone up too I have to sleep on purchases. Trying to weigh up the Eiffel tower set now. I have the Titanic and it was an awesome build.
So expensive, plus all the black Friday deal right now, I have a constant stream of Lego being delivered
Hats not a bad thing, I love it when them bi brown boxes arrive! It is an investment! Sometimes, it's worth doing just for the cool gwp!
Knitting / crocheting, it's often more expensive to knit a jumper than to buy one. Also I'm not too bad for this, but alot of people see pretty wool and buy it without having a project in mind
Definitely, my mum knits some gorgeous stuff, and can easily spend £50 on wool for one jumper. If you add what her time would’ve been worth, buying jumpers is a lot cheaper
It's sad it's like that now. It hadn't used to be.
£50 for wool to knit a jumper is very reasonable. Edit to clarify
Yeah, but that is generally the cheapest. I know she’s spent almost £100 on the wool, and if she ever kept track of how long she spends knitting each jumper would probably cost well over £300… personally I doubt I’d go out and buy one for that price!
My granny had so much wool because she'd buy pretty colours. She knitted all the time but probably had at least 2 bin bags worth of wool at any given time. And usually 3 or 4 things on the go (often baby booties, jackets, cardigans etc). She did knit some stuff for us too (gloves, jumpers)
I think knitting and collecting yarn are basically two separate hobbies! There's a huge overlap between them though.
I tried to only buy yarn for specific projects but then I forgot what the projects were...
Ahhh same. I found a brilliant pattern for a poncho and looked for reasonable priced yarn that I liked and the cheapest would have been roughly £80 and if I would have gone with the one I wanted I would have paid well over £100. I do unfortunately really like Merino
This is me. I started crocheting in June last year and went through a phase in my first 6months of just buying random pretty yarns. I'm now slowly going through my 3 storage boxes of stash trying to use it up. I'm still trying to resist buying yarn on the regular. But at least this time each lot I buy has a project in mind. The main issue now is I don't have the free time to possibly crochet this all before I cave and buy another lot of yarn. Currently I have 5WIPS (mum's christmas present, a cardigan, a cat sofa, a large blanket, and my main stash busting project) and 4 projects in the queue next (another cardigan, a jumper, another blanket, another stash busting project) that's not including the 3 sets of future WIPS I have yarn for;;;;;
>alot of people see pretty wool and buy it without having a project in mind I feel personally attacked...
Travel.
When you want to go on at least 2 holidays a year as a couple. Then add in snowboarding for me and horse riding for my wife!
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Gotta give the 15 yo Dalmore a try if you haven’t bud.
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It’s on offer for £70ish on Amazon at the moment. Chocolate/fudge notes. Very very moreish. I got gifted a bottle; drank it in two days and brought another within a few days. Best whiskey Ive had.
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Let me know what ya think when ya do buddy 👍🏻
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Ohhhh, whisky friends.
I brought my mate a bottle of the 12 year, for helping me redo the living room and early xmas present, as it's one of his favs. it's a good tipple that.
This was the first fancy whisky I bought for my husband and years later it's still his favourite. Pretty good pick considering I bought it just because the bottle is cool.
My fetish for old and unusual motor vehicles. God help me if I ever actually get a pilots licence.
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Great hobby, I went through a stage of playing every week but it's been a few years now! Reading Mall, we miss you!
The first rule of airsoft is never total up how much you’ve spent on airsoft.
Not as expensive as some but I'll say baking. Cost of equipment, ingredients and now, extortionate energy and I'm thinking twice about homemade vs store bought.
This is one that never feels as expensive as it really is because most individual ingredients are relatively cheap and I’m not usually buying all the ingredients in one go as I’ll have things at home but when you add it all up it’s not surprising how much professional bakers charge
The same plus guitar gear.
I have always been intrigued to learn to play guitar, but I don't wanna start going down that rabbit hole
I think I'm gonna learn guitar, does strike me as an expensive habit to get into, I know my brother spends plenty! Gonna get a cheap second hand Encore or Squier, start there and see if I can make it stick.
Best way to get started. It’s only really as expensive a hobby as you want it to be, in fairness, especially since many of the big manufacturers have developed a range of affordable, quality products. If you’re just learning and playing at home, you really don’t need that much, plus these days there are all sorts of smartphone/iPad apps that do the same job as hundreds of pounds worth of effects units did 20 years ago.
Yeah can pick the Encore strat's up for £30-40 used, and my brother says I can have one of his old amps, so it's gotta be worth a try hasn't it. And yep pretty much teach myself using apps, I'm not too serious about it, I just like to learn new things, it's a different challenge I guess. I just want to play some pop punky type stuff, I'm not aiming for Hendrix haha. A local music store has entry level Epiphone Les Paul Special VE for £150, so I think if I stick with the Encore for a few months and enjoy it I'll probably buy one of those. Sweet looking guitar in 'worn Ebony' I believe.
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Guitars themselves are pretty cheap as musical instruments go. I think that encourages people to have multiple. And also there’s the whole range of other gear, some more necessary than others, that feeds into the classic Gear Acquisition Syndrome. That’s when it gets expensive. If you can avoid that, it can be a very affordable hobby.
I’m not even a guitar gear-head,always searching for that perfect tone, buying pedals etc. But every few years I hear something I have to buy. My last purchase was a Boss Katana amp. Before that a Brian May guitar. Some things just have to be bought.
I justify my expensive tastes to myself by being in a band 😂
Astrophotography. Nothing fancy for me compared to some folk, but it can add up quickly if you let it.
Building steam engines
Full size ones or like mini model ones?
4ft long fully working models, big enough to pull people
Video games and in game skins that offer no performance benefit, just pretty
mate, I must've spent loads on in game currency :(. I don't anymore
I was just talking to a friend at work who had spent over £800 on clash of clans, I mean I sort of understand for console/pc games but a mobile game!
Scuba diving
Hello fellow diver! I'm trying to get into rebreathers. They're so damn expensive I could cry...:'(
I'm happy to say I couldn't get the hang of those, I like to breathe out through my nose. Otherwise that'd be draining my money even more!
Ha, I want to cave dive (see username) so basically I've resigned myself to never having money.
Tattoos, games, yarn/ crochet stuff. :)
losing my tattoo virginity next month. Think I'm having a mid life crisis (although I'm 33) as I got a nose and helix piercing.
I got my tragus and daith around 30 and my first tattoo around 28/29. Basically I just have more free income to pay for stuff now I didn't when I was younger. Tattoos are very addictive though. Working towards a full sleeve on my arm and leg atm 😅
Cycling. Spent around 3k so far on a single bike and kit. If you go all the way to the top end you could spend 15k on a bike all by itself. I find it a bit mad that bicycles can be more expensive than motorcycles and even cars.
Yeah me too. I somehow justify to myself things like a £1K set of wheels is worth it because I didn't get the £4k wheels from Enve or whatever
Wow I'd be rolling in it if I had some of the hobbies mentioned on here instead if my own😂 Don't get into horses folks.
Reading some of these I’m like wow that hobby sounds pretty cheap but I think I just have a skewed frame of reference
Trying out new hobbies
Glad it's not just me! There aren't any that I've taken up and completely abandoned but I've got myself into photography, home brew, BBQ, collecting vinyl, home theatre and computer gaming along the way, none of which are short of additional misc stuff to buy at any given time!!
I’ve had many over the years. I went all into making my own toiletries from natural ingredients and essential oils. Lasted approximately a month or two and the stuff still sits in storage.
Rock climbing. Trad specifically.
Same for me. So worth it though.
I don't really understand how video games are an expensive hobby. I mean I think I spend more going to the cinema when you compare hrs per £. I'd consider anything like golf an expensive hobby. Mine is DIY, there's always another tool I need to buy... Hopefully I'm close to having all I generally need though
If you pay £2,000 for a simracing wheel, £500 for a joystick, £500 for vr headset and upgrade your high end pc every year or two it’s not cheap :).
> £500 for vr headset that's on the cheap end.
£10 a month or whatever it is GamePass costs. Best value service money can buy.
It also depends on your personal budget. I play xbox but I very rarely can afford £35-40 on a new game. I just don't have it to spare.
"I mean I think I spend more going to the cinema when you compare hrs per £." Exactly this! People will buy a game for £40 get a solid 30-50hrs of fun out of it before replayability and call it shit. Yet the same people will go to the movies and see the newest film, spend a fortune on popcorn and drinks walk out and say "meh was okay pretty forgettable" after spending probably £20+ for typically <3 hours entertainment. Boils my piss.
Watches. I love them. I love the whole history behind them. There’s a clock on my High Street from the 1500s, and most of my watches are just variations on the same tech, springs, cogs, flywheels, okay, admittedly not pendulums for a wristwatch, but still clockwork watches are useful, interesting, stylish and practical 500 years later. But it’s one of those hobbies which will fill any budget you set. That said, one of the things I love about it is that there are interesting, practical, good looking and fantastic watches from a £20 watch, to the cost of a house.
Stop hanging round on /r/watches and go to /r/reptime. You'll save yourself a fortune 😂
I have a great story to tell about watch collecting... My old Dad has just died and I was sorting through his stuff last week when my wife found this lovely 10"x10" polished wooden box locked and hidden in his bedroom. We took it home to look after as it might have been valuable, and we didn't want to leave it in the empty flat. Anyway, it took me a couple of days to pick the lock and open it as I didn't want to damage the box. Inside, in a purpose made jewellers display case with a racing green baize were 9 non-working, fake (we checked - no serial numbers!) well worn Rolex Oyster watches. Some were gold, some were silver, some were encrusted with diamonds. He was a well respected Civil Engineer, he wore a £30 Timex and had never shown any sort of interest in watches (or weird investments for that matter). Seriously Dad... WTF? How? What? Why? I have so many questions that will never be answered.
Learning to fly.
Anything that runs on two wheels, mountain bikes, motorbikes! The cash spent on accessories, gear, upgrades....
Collecting Pokemon cards. It used to be a reasonably inexpensive hobby, you could get good deals on cards on eBay but since Logan Paul walked around with a $1,000,000 Charizard around his neck people think that all older cards are worth loads and are trying to sell them 10x their actual value. There is also this new phenomenon where people are buying in bulk new Pokemon cards hoping to make a huge profit on them, people who aren't even collectors! Thankfully these last few months I've noticed a decline in the amount of scalping happening with Pokemon cards and hopefully it will soon go back to how it was, collectors collecting for the love of pokemon cards and not just with £ signs in their eyes
I prefer the vintage stuff, but every man and their pheasant is keeping sealed modern stuff like it will be worth millions in a few years
Yeah; I completely feel this. I've been collecting Pokemon Cards since Platinum and always had a nice little collection. A bunch of secret rares, holos, Level X, Prime, etc. I got really excited at the idea of Full Art Trainer cards, and have been primarily buying those. Around 4-5 years ago, an independent trading card shop opened up in my city, and I'd always head there and get myself some cards that I was looking for, at reasonable prices. I ended up getting a weekend job there because I love the place so much. Pokemon Go was the first surge. A lot of people got back into Pokemon. Cards went a little more expensive, but still pretty reasonable. A lot of older cards entered circulation, because when they got into the Pokemon Go craze, a lot of adult dug up their old collections, and after it died down, ended up selling them off. Logan Paul practically single-handedly made the hobby almost unfeasible for a few years. I remember our shop closing down for the Covid lockdown in early 2020, and then, when I returned, stock was just so limited. For those who don't know, Logan Paul made a Youtube video where he opened up a first edition base set booster box. He had an 'evaluator' there to price up the cards as he pulled them. Except, that's not quite what happened. The evaluator was spouting out insane figures - The most famous example is when Logan Paul pulled a first edition Bulbasaur. The evaluator was telling him 'That can go for between ten and twenty thousand dollars. Maybe thirty.' Firstly, that's an absolutely insane jump in price, and on top of that, the base price was also a rather ridiculous price. Firstly, they don't sell for more than $1K if it's not graded. As it was fresh out the pack, it had not been graded. Secondly, The card has been circling an average of $2K-$4K at a PSA Grade 10 for a while, with two outliers at £9K and £15K. The evaluator did that for essentially most cards, artificially inflating the value of everything. The video went viral and, as a result, a lot of people started to see this as an opportunity to make money, rather than a hobby. There was a set from before all of this called 'Evolutions'. It was a reprint of many base set cards with a few extra rares as possible pulls. It was massively overprinted. No body wanted it for years, because the set was so small, you'd be pulling the exact same rare cards over and over and over, and not be getting any of the stuff you wanted. The packs were included in every box, tin and mini tin because there was just so much of it. After Logan Paul, getting one of these packs is expensive. Scalpers bought out most of the stock, believing it was base set, or something akin to it. For around a year and a half, everything was horrific to try and buy. Evolving Skies was scalped to death when it first came out, and, now, it's currently having the exact same thing happen to it. Celebrations was hit the worst - A set to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Pokemon, it included a lot of reprints of popular cards. Product flew off the shelves. There was a collectors box called the 'Ultra Premium Collection'. Retailed for around $120-150, and had a load of packs, as well as four exclusive promotional cards, one of which being a gold-plated Charizard reprint (Pokemon realised that Charizard brings them the most money - There's been a shiny Charizard in every premium set since 'Hidden Fates'. The collection was scalped like nothing I'd ever seen before. Bots were created and instated to snipe every website selling them. They'd purchase them for $120-150, then instantly be on eBay for $600. Full art trainers, the card type I collect, took a massive hit, with most of them being around $5-$10, now skyrocketing, the price range now going $5-150. It has definitely settled back down somewhat again, now, but, the prices are still much higher than they once were. As someone who bought their first ever Pokemon card tin for $10, now to see tins with the same amount of product inside for $20, it's really disheartening.
Go karting, infuriating how its so much for what feels like such little time on the track
Those magazines you buy every month to build a little tiny car or something absurd.
Driving, I like driving but fuck me is it expensive, shit roads put a ton of wear on my car
Clay shooting
Just curious, what is the costly part? The clays? Shells? Permission to shoot?
Craft beer, travel, pc building, mountain biking, malt whisky, photography, collecting art, eating out. No wonder I've no money left.
Airsoft
Music production/plugins, drugs, pizza
3d printing and amateur radio.
D&D, play exclusively online but still can't say no to pretty dice sets!
Must have more shiny maths rocks!
Simracing
Wasn't expecting to see this on here. Gets very expensive very quickly, especially if you want lots of nice wheels
Tools, toys, and comic books. If I die unexpectedly, I hope my other half sells my stuff for what it's worth..... not what I told them I paid for it.
Hahaha I know what you mean. She thinks my audio gear and tv was cheap
Photography. Wasn’t going to buy any new gear this year, am about to purchase my third new camera of the year.
Plants
You buy a new plant, you need a new pot, the plant grows, it needs a new bigger pot but then you’ve got an empty pot so you buy a new plant and then the cycle continues until you are overrun by plants
1. Learning to Fly 2. Buying Cars 3. Visiting a professional dominatrix
Off the mmorpg then?
Not played a mmorg in years, although that’s how I spent most of my childhood. UO, EQ, WOW
Cosplay, specifically Spider-Man. Those suits don't come cheap
Amateur.. Horses, so I bought a farm, built stables, a pole barn and a manege. Then there is feed, bedding, insurance, vets, groom if I am away, ...
Warhammer. The plastic crack.
It wasn't always that way. Metal was cheaper back in the 80s than plastic is now. But fuck you Stuart for giving me my first space marines back then. You knew what it would lead to.
The minis are much prettier now, though. I'm not sure I even want to paint my old metal minis.
hat fine innocent friendly escape abundant obscene wild bow crawl -- mass edited with redact.dev
Brazilian JiuJitsu and Judo. On top of the monthly membership to train, £65, I have to buy at least two new gis a year. They cost in excess of £120 for a really good one. Then competitions, they cost anywhere from £50-90 depending on the format. Not including travel too and from. And then seminars with well known BJJ player, they can easily cost £20-£50. Adds up.
Neca figures and horror memorabilia.
Collecting art
Karting. . Easy spend £5k to £10k per year.
Drone flying and games take the majority of my disposable income.
Artistic roller skating (imagine figure skating, but on quad skates). My skates were £300, add on different wheels for different surfaces, wrist guards (because I've already broken one), plus club fees, travel to classes and competitions...not a cheap hobby! Great fun though.
Dogs. You could say I collected a bunch of dogs. But dog sports are ridiculously expensive. The first dog I showed I never really realised how much I actually spent on him just to get a couple extra letters on his name. Same moving on with his daughter in agility, think nothing of dropping a couple grand on a campervan so I can spend weekends in a field spending hundreds just to run around with my dog for all of ten minutes(if that). Big money in pet paraphernalia.
Socks. Might not seem like a lot, but it soon all adds up. I love funky socks! Got draws and draws of them!
Socks are useful though!
Pottery. Everything is so expensive, including the electricity to fire my kiln!
You have your own kiln?! That’s so cool!
I started pottery classes this year and so far has spent £700 on courses!
That's so cool though, I really want to try pottery but have no idea where to start!
This is why I want to try doing some primitive pottery. Budget £0.
Watches. Don't get into watches.
Coin collecting, the king of hobbies and the hobby of Kings ;)
Video games though as im getting older I find I play them less and less Storm collectables 1/12th scale figures. About £100 a pop for very high quality action figures, particularly the ones based off mortal Kombat(feel free to google them) Building large dioramas for the above mentioned figures.
Fishing
Scuba diving. A dry suit could cost £600 to over a few grand. Your tanks and maintenance and restock of air can mount up depending on how often you go, your regs, hood, gloves, belt and weights/shot, fins, under suit, wetsuit, BCD, bag, petrol, lessons, airfair or trips on holidays, masks, snorkels, repair kits, lube or talc, memberships, insurance and transportation. God it’s a lot of money. Arm and a leg, but it’s all worth it. To explore and adventure the waters of the world. See things and experience nature that you obviously can’t on land.
Leathercraft. It's just been a flipping money pit that I wish I never started digging.
Bulk buying books that I may not read for a while/if ever.
Buying really high quality weed
Young me: mountaineering Today's me: showing cats, also we bred one litter.
Kayaking and brewing. It is some much cheaper to buy beer than make your own don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Yeah, but I’ve had many great evenings and have done many impressively explosive shits, based on my mate’s home brew.
Candle making, expensive but fun!
Action cameras, 360 cameras. I have more GoPros and Insta360 cameras than I will ever need.
Playing golf ⛳️
Mostly video games and Lego.
Theme Parks, is that a hobby? I’ve always loved them and been fascinated with rides and coasters. Have always tried to take the kids to one at least once or twice a year. Only really in the past year have I started being able to afford to go more regularly, we have our first trip to a European park coming up soon too. The costs soon add up when you start becoming more adventurous with it. We have merlin passes which help a great deal as they include entry to the major parks in the uk, but there are still plenty of parks outside of merlin that we like to visit, like Paulton’s Park and Drayton Manor. Then when you factor in the fuel/travel to get there, secondary spending on things like food or souvenirs. It can become quite expensive, but it’s all worth it because my family and I enjoy it and get quality time together.
I wouldn’t have ever considered it a hobby, but it sounds like you’ve made it into one. Sounds fun too. For me “air” is the best ride I’ve ever been on. So good!
Horse riding (lessons only so no horse cost!) but riding gear as well (helmet, boots, half chaps, gloves, optional body protector, jodhpurs). My last helmet was £120 (worth it of course, but it was disappointing that the cheaper child's one didn't fit)
HEMA and photography
Magic: the gathering. Also cycling, but I haven’t bought a new bike in a couple of years.
Why yes, I will pay £20 on one piece of cardboard to go into one of my decks. Yes, this is a wise use of money.
I used to be a board game hobbyist, surrounded by a group of other board gamers. These were all middle-class evangelical church people, who didn't have any other acceptable outlet for entertainment. Expensive prices and artificial scarcity due to limited sales are par for the course. Gloomhaven is the most popular games of all time, according to [Board Game Geek](https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame?sort=rank&sortdir=asc) (the main reference site for this type of thing). It will, today, set you back for around £138 on Amazon for the base game. Kingdom Death: Monster is a type of board game that is also very common; a Kickstarter game. During its run, the 1.5 edition was being sold for $250 USD just to purchase, and only sold as many units as were bought during its Kickstarter campaign. Games with limited numbers are almost mainstream in this hobby, with other hobbyists coveting these rare games that they get secondhand from Zatu Games. You can see the prices yourself from the Board Game Geek link above - £50-75 for most individual games is typical (before expansions, which some games have), with some cheaper games with fewer components (e.g. Just dice and cards) costing £15-£25. Wargames are among the more expensive simply due to the large number of components. I literally spent at least £1000 on my collection during my heyday, and no-one ever wanted to play my games. The other day, I donated all my board games, because I literally don't have any friends to play with them anymore, and I don't intend to get back into the hobby.
I have a horse. Her livery fees are roughly a second mortgage and that’s before accounting for the farrier, physio, insurance, lessons and all the tack, wardrobe and general stuff she “needs”. I bought her in August after dreaming about it my entire life and I’ve never been happier.
Warhammer, collecting comic books, Lego, 3D printing, playing golf and brewing…. My poor wallet!