The Energon Pub

On top of my regular, mininum-wage job; I own an online etsy store that's been very successful in the last several months. I also sell my crafts at conventions too. Most of the money that I do make, I do put away, but some of the time that I have the urge to by a toy; I use my "online sales" account.

About time I replied to my own thread.

I'm a full-time postgraduate student, so no income whatsoever apart from one-off jobs and holiday gifts; my budget comes from savings and eBay sales. I've managed to keep an eye on stuff, but if there's no money, I don't but anything.

A good bonus is that I don't drink alcohol, so I don't blow my money on nights out!
And, being a postgrad, my social life is limited to a couple of nights a week, therefore even less outgoings.

Oh, actually, I lie. I am a freelance translator and proofreader Italian>English>Italian, French>Italian, French>English (completely forgot about that!), and some jobs can pay quite well. So my living expenses come from savings, any extra comes from these.

Va'al wrote:A good bonus is that I don't drink alcohol, so I don't blow my money on nights out!
And, being a postgrad, my social life is limited to a couple of nights a week, therefore even less outgoings.

It is pretty amazing how much money is saved by not drinking. I remember when I quit, I had so much left over a week, that that's what jump started my collection!!

As for the topic at hand, I am a tattoo artist and my wife is a store manager at a pretty high end retail store. I don't spend frivolously (i used to....hello energon/armada junk) but if I see something in store or online that I've been wanting, you bet that puppy's coming home with me.

I work from home and have a full time job (salary position, not hourly), I have very cheap rent in one of the lowest cost of living states in the US, I own my car, so no car payments. I don't go out, I have no family/girlfriend/children so all I spend money on is rent, bills, food, cigarrettes and Transformers.

I make an absurd amount of money for the region where I live compared to the normal jobs around here. I'm not wealthy or anything, but the cost of living is so cheap here that I end up with quite a bit of excess income. That's allowed me to spend thousands on Transformers over the past couple of years since I started collecting.

Have a decent job.

Live with my gf and lil guy(who's 2)

We do well enough and live within our means when special stuff comes up it tends to be no big deal. So after her, the little guy and mortgage are paid I'm free to go lol

I always shop for deals and know what stuff costs in private transactions and ebay as well.

Hit lots of toy shows and buy from members here and TFW.

I jump on deals and then sit and wait for another deal before I make my move. Coupons, sales, splitting shipping with other collectors, whatever makes it cheaper I do.

I also keep focus on G1, only other thing I collect has been Generations, RTS, FOC.

Sides the T'Formers, I read comics and like my cars.

I'm married to an incredible woman and have a beautiful little girl as well as a mortgage and car payment, but I'm a full-time teacher and on the side I give guitar lessons and do freelance art. Until recently I only collected the movie lines - only the main cast that I could get into a reasonable scale. Since they ended the movie lines, I'm trying to start a "neo classics" collection, going back and buying the Classics/RTS/Generations figures I've missed out on. I might spend $100-200 a year on TF figures and $100 a year on TF comics. I'm also into weightlifting, guitar, and paleontology, so I have to really try to balance my obsessions while always putting my family first.

Believe me, everyone would rather I have a "normal" hobby, but I think they've come to accept that I'm kind of an eccentric geek. I wouldn't say anyone really understands me, though. I have to confess, I often hide my collection when we have guests. Most people I know wouldn't understand what a grown man is doing displaying a toy collection so I'd rather not deal with it.

i have a fulltime job and live by myself, no partner or kids.
most of my money is spent on mortgage, regular bills, food, gas and other usual stuff.
i have a decent sense of how much money i can spend on my collections each month. sometimes it's more than usual, sometimes i have a cheap one.
my creditcard, which i use for my international purchases, is limited to 500 euros a month, so i can't spend myself into poverty. usually it's around 200 -250 a month
i try to take it easy with my car, but the economy doesn't do much for gas prices. we're up to 1,90 euro per litre here in holland, and i wouldn't be surprised if we hit 2,00 by end of this year.

I have a job in the medical profession. Though the budget being tight, I only focus on G1 vintages and occasional modern renditions (mostly imports)

I work a lot, and make OK money. I am with someone who also works a lot. We are planning on buying a house in the near future, but as of yet, we both live at home. Whenever we go out shopping, we always hit up TRU (sometimes several) and she usually buys me whatever I want from there. However, that probably only makes up about 25% of my habit. The rest is online buying which I do myself. My only bills right now are insurance, phone, food, and credit cards. Thankfully, I paid my car off a while ago so that saved me some money every month. Basically, until I have a mortgage and such, I'm collecting as much as I can of what I really want until the money starts getting tight.

I ride a 20 year old yamaha BWS, I work when it's available, I rent my house, my fiancee works and is very understanding (as much as a woman that hates robots can be). It's often not the affording things thats the problem. As I live in an area with poor distribution and the fact that I mainly stick to hasbro's crap, It's finding things I actually want that limits my spending.