H - Hobbies, "Toys," etc.

[kangaroo11]

His hobby is mostly plants. He loves doing the garden and planting new things in the yard. He does play bass guitar, but hasn't bought one in years, so it's pretty cheap.

[cincodemayo]

Ugh, my H's hobby is brewing beer. And going to taprooms. And TALKING ad nauseum about beer. I'm over it right now, but I do like drinking beer so I just try to ignore all of his rambling.

He spends probably $50 a month on brewing supplies, $50 a month on taproom visits, and $50 a month on liquor store purchases.

He spends 2-6 hours a month brewing and I usually go with him when we visit the taprooms.

[cincodemayo]

Ok, I forgot about his boat. Ugh to that one too. The boat is paid off, but it's time and money for the fishing.

Right now- 10 hours a month fishing. $20-$100 a month on fishing league supplies.


This is making me really want to get a more expensive hobby, but I know H will say, "Your makeup and coffee are your expensive hobby!"

[CrazyLucky]

H is into photography. For the most part, it's not super expensive. He just bought a new camera for about $1200. And he'll ask for lenses or GCs for his birthday. And he bought new software. The most "Expensive" part is the time, because he's a perfectionist so he spends a lot of time sorting and editing.

[cajunmom]

He doesn't have any big toys, though he would love an atv and a boat. So really, he spends $0 on stuff like that.

His main hobby is reading, honestly. He does like to hunt and fish but that isn't a frequent activity and the only expense would be new bait, licenses, or shells since he already has a ton of fishing gear and rifles/shotguns for hunting. We play some video games together, though I spend more money on that than he does. He really spends very little fun money on himself.

[sh10]

Golf. He uses his fun money for most of it, with the occasional tournament that comes from our random budget line. I highly recommend setting aside fun money for each of you. For DH, it's mostly spent on golf. For me, it's mostly lunches out.

[mlt]

MH's hobby is music. He likes to buy records and nice speakers, turntables, etc. I asked him to/explained to him why he needed to rein it in after DS1 was born. He was spending a lot of money on records that we didn't even listen to as a family (I didn't like them) and it was hard for me to understand the appeal. I still have student loans to pay off and we are behind on saving for college for the kids. He agreed that we would cut the monthly amount of our individual fun money and that records would only come out of that money. Since then he's bought a lot fewer. Thankfully.

[mainelyfoolish]

My DH's hobby is following Le Mans and F1 racing. The only real expense we have is our $110/month DirecTV bill because the channels that show races are only on the highest tiers. I'm sure he'd love to travel to Europe to see some of the races in person, but that's not even close to being financially possible at this point in our lives. Maybe after the kids are grown we can take a grand tour of European racetracks.

[turtlegirl]

My H has a 1966 Mustang that is constantly a work in progress. And he used to have a little motorcycle too, but he just sold it recently.

We have no money is in the budget specifically for his Mustang. So he spends birthday, christmas money on it. Or sometimes he'll take on side jobs (he's a mechanic) for friends and fix their cars and use that money on his own car.

He's also into cigars, but not as much as he used to be. That comes out of his monthly fun money.

[bcarp30]

Golf. And all things golf related. He has a full set of custom clubs and just met with a big putting company to have them design a custom putter. He's good at it and enjoys it so im not bothered by it.

We also go to the driving range together and DD has her own club set so it is also a family activity. I feel like there are worse things he could do and spend money on that don't include us. It's fun to go to golf tournaments together too. We've gone to The Masters, FedEx Champ and BMW Champ together but he's gone to many more on his own.

[sunshine608]

Hobbies are his car and buying broken stuff ( play station/x-boxes, watches) off ebay and fixing it. It becomes expensive when he doesn't sell what he fixes (which is rather often).

His big toy is an older car ( Chevy Chevelle) that he has restored and continues to play with. The car was ridiculous b/c he had to build a garage for the car which just made it that much more expensive.

Oh I did forget about the beer brewing. That's new and has cost about $500 this year.

[mae141]

DH has had a couple of different hobbies over the years. He used to row and work out a lot, but since having DD he decided he doesn't have time for that any more, plus it was expensive to store his boat. He seemed bored so I got him a cheap acoustic guitar for Christmas so now he's into guitars. He played in high school and I had seen him checking out my brother's guitar so I figured he'd like it. He hasn't spent much money on it at all so far but he's really into it.

[lurknomore]

Jun 29, 2015 8:54:19 GMT -5 milliep said:

DH is really into tools.  So any time he "needs" a new one, he says we need it for the house so it's not fun money.  We have been having some differences of opinions on this type of spending too, but neither of us have come up with a plan for it yet.  We really need a better budget, but I just don't have the energy for that right now.  

Tools.  Tools.  Tools.  And biking.  Both are $$.  We don't have fun money, either.  When we did, he still spent whatever he wanted.  He also justifies tools as needs for the house.  He justifies his bike stuff as equal to my parking at work (he commutes by bike 9-10 mo a year).  We don't budget.  We should.  Our finances are a mess by MM standards.  But yes, fun money helps with that stuff a lot. 

[leonard131]

H's hobby is photography. He actually doesn't spend that much on it. I wish he would as I think he is really, really, really good and lot of people have said so (like want to buy his pictures).

While not really a car guy he has always had a fun car. It use to be a 1969 bronco and now we have Wagoneer. He spends time and money doing stuff for the cars. Again not as much now because the Wagoneer was pretty much 100% restored when we got it.

[lurknomore]

Jun 29, 2015 8:58:17 GMT -5 @peggyolson said:

Jun 29, 2015 8:55:18 GMT -5 @this said:

H doesn't have a lot of $$$ hobbies (or hobbies in general?), but having fun money has been an absolute marriage saver.

We each get $x per pay period. I can blow all of mine on Starbucks and spas and shoes and manicures and happy hours and he can blow all of his on computer parts and specialty razors (?) and brewing beer. 

It changes the mindset because it's not like "Ugh, stop  being irresponsible - that could have been spent on saving for vacation or a new couch" because it was never part of the household budget in the first place. It's our own money to spend as we please.

So, do you take it out in cash and do an "envelope method" of fun money? Like, every pay period you get X? Do you break it down if you're paid differently so it comes out of "your" pay? I get paid bi-weekly, H weekly.

This is part of the reason we got rid of fun money.  Neither one of us ever carry cash.  Everything goes on the cc, which is paid off at the end of the month.  DH couldn't grasp the concept that either he pays for his fun stuff in cash, or if he puts it on the cc (most stuff he buys online), then he was supposed to take that cash and dump it back into the common envelope I kept for this purpose.  He could not do it.  He wanted me at the end of every cc cycle, to reconcile what he spent $$ on that was his fun stuff and take it out of his "account."  Um no.  I have too much else to do.  The best way if you're a cc person is to have a separate cc just for this stuff.  But that was too much for me to deal with.  So we went back to no fun money, and we both just spend whatever the hell we want.  It's a problem, admittedly. 

[boxerdog]

His hobbies are duck hunting and his truck (lol this makes him sound like such a redneck). We have fun money, so he uses that for the duck hunting gear.

The truck purchases have been put on hold since daycare entered the budget.

ETA: We each have our own account for fun money, and then a joint account for bills. It works pretty well.

[runblondie26]

He spends money on his a boat, fishing gear/trips, snowboarding gear/trips, and camping gear/trips.

He definitely spends more on his hobbies than I do. Overall, he's responsible with finances. Plus, now that we have kids, he includes them in a lot of the activities, so I don't object.

ETA: And I forgot power tools. But he's handy around the house, so again, kind of a win/win for us all.

I'd be pissy if he spent money on stuff like video games or comic books.

[countthestars]

My H likes to play video games but doesn't really spend much - maybe a new game every 3-4 months. He is also really into buying things for making our yard look nice. He is currently spending lots of time researching mowers. We don't have set fun money but maybe we should consider it.

[Deleted]

He likes work. I wish he had more of a hobby. :/

To answer the question though he has a Ranger (like a glorified ATV). He uses it for the farm but a few times a summer he takes it trail riding with his friends. 

He likes golf. He goes a few times a summer. 

He likes fishing. We live by the lake so he takes the kids. 

He spends money on nothing either. He's one of those people that will bank money for years and then have 40K to buy a truck outright. Makes me feel guilty because we're both good with money but I spend mine on things that make my life happy day to day (cheap stuff at Target, coffee.) 

He's also starting to get into show cows and is helping some kids with their 4H and FFA projects for the fair.

[Yankees21]

H's big solo hobbies are brewing beer, buying expensive beer, and wakeboarding. He often gets stuff for Christmas, birthdays, etc and otherwise just buys stuff as needed. We don't have specific fun money but as long as it's a reasonable amount it's not a big deal. We do run purchases by each other though.

[Deleted]

My h's hobby is sports, specifically basketball. It is relatively cheap, just a few gym/tournament memberships to play and some clothes and shoes. I think it's kind of annoying that he only wants a specific brand (Nike Elite) but whatever. It comes out of our joint money. I'm just happy he's not into the latest shoes.

[mrshandy]

Home brewing mostly. I fully encourage this hobby since it brings me delicious beer to drink.

Not sure how much we spend, but it's not too crazy. He's aware of how much money we have so he knows when to reign it in.

[luckyno7]

My H works so many hours (owns his own business so at least he's working for himself) that when he has free time he likes to spend it with our family. He does love sports, boating, golfing and his motorcycle. All of which I love too, so usually we do it as a family (except the motorcycle). We don't really budget for this stuff.

[meij]

Woodworking and I guess tools.
He's always saying he needs a certain tool to do a certain job and it's $50. Will we ever need it again for anything else? No? Then go borrow it from my dad.

The woodworking is expensive but I guess I get furniture out of it.

[Deleted]

Jun 29, 2015 9:17:41 GMT -5 @peggyolson said:

Ok, so moral of the story is that I need to adjust my expectations.

H doesn't really have hobbies and rarely spends money. He wants to lease a Mustang and I've been giving him a hard time about it, even though we can afford it without impacting savings, retirement, etc. Plus he has a work truck, so he wouldn't put many miles on it.

/WOTY (wilted)

I'd let him. My H works so hard and rarely does anything "just for him" that I don't "deny" his requests. It makes him a happier person. I'd also hate for him to start judging the stuff I buy at Target/Amazon too. It's sort of a two way street. We both know our limits/expectations/where the budget is at so we try not to get on the other about choices.

[Deleted]

Woodworking, golf, and he plays in a weekly softball league

He doesn't have much time for them anymore. Although I did turn the woodworking to my advantage in that he is gradually stripping and refinishing all of the interior doors and trim in the house.

[Brie]

Dicking around on the Internet. And it's free!

[ewall]

My H's hobby is being extremely frugal. Not even kidding. So I get to spend all of the money! Woohoo!

He does run. We used to run together before the baby. Now I'm stuck home breastfeeding while he's out running for 2+ hours. MUST BE NICE.

ETA: Hearthstone. He plays that game. I have no idea what it is. 

[Marmee]

Reading? Watching a few sports on TV (mainly UVA teams)? He likes listening to music. That's it. He spends like $5/mo.

We run around on weekends to kids sports or work in the house. We rarely have time or money for hobbies honestly...and obviously if it was a big priority we wouldn't have set up our lifestyle as we have.

He's very artistic and has lots of supplies but they were gifted mostly & his Artistic talent is part of his job so he rarely does any for pleasure.

He's got an extensive vintage toy & Star Wars collection. His mom gifts him Star Wars stuff. Usually it goes in a closet of is given away/sold now.

[thebreakfastclub]

My H doesn't have hobbies that cost much money - gardening, fantasy sports, the internet, LOL.

I am relieved that he has no interest in hunting and fishing, after growing up with a dad who over-prioritized those things.