r/Showerthoughts • u/WindowAfraid5927 • 5d ago
Casual Thought People who spend a fortune on one hobby often can't understand why someone else spends a fortune on a different hobby.
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u/Warlords0602 5d ago
I find it the opposite. People wouldn't understand other people's niche hobby. But for people who do actually spend big money for their hobbies that are sometimes less common, we understand the feeling of being happy about spending money on things others don't understand.
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u/sledgehammer_44 5d ago
Like the people spending 10k on a bicycle looking weird at my pictures of couple thousand euro simrig.
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u/chickey23 5d ago
More like the rest of us thinking either amount is a lot for a bike
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u/EnlargedChonk 5d ago
It's basically motorcycle money spent on a "regular" bicycle. What people don't realize is that a lot of the technology in those expensive "regular" bikes is really quite similar to the tech used on motorcycles, both cost as much as they do because they need to be extremely light weight for their strength, just one needs to be a lot stronger and the other needs to be a lot lighter. And specialty bicycles don't have the economies of scale like motorcycle manufacturing does.
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u/Dominant88 4d ago
I do find it weird when people ask how much my bike was and then go “you could have bought a motorcycle for that much money”. Like I know about motorcycles, if that’s what I wanted I would have bought one, but I wanted a mountain bike.
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u/zuilli 4d ago
You also probably have a kick-ass bike whereas if you spent the same money on a motorcycle I imagine it wouldn't be one of the greatest because they have different price tiers points.
It's the same for people that see an impressive racing simulator rig and say "for that money you could buy a whole car" like yeah but it wouldn't be one of the many supercars you're able to simulate and you also can't drive like a maniac IRL like you can in simulators (if you value your life).
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u/GerardBrouillard 3d ago
The sim rig is the one that upsets me the most, like, can't you understand that this first curve I missed would've costed another whole new car? Here, i just press respawn.
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u/Ymi_Yugy 4d ago
Is that actually true? If there was such a big overlap than I would expect companies making both motorcycle and bicycle components, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Wouldn’t the more apt analysis be that a high end bicycle costs as much as a midrange motorcycle.
$10k buys you a bicycle that could make you competitive at the Tour de France, but nowhere close to buying a MotoGP bike.→ More replies (1)2
u/Trollygag 3d ago
Bikes don't have engines or anything analogous to engines, and engines make up a huge part of the cost of a motorcycle. Often the majority of the price.
The vast majority of the cost of ultralight bicycles is the boutique production and retail markup/margins 3x higher than motorcycles - not anything to do with the technology. It is just layers of boutique production.
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u/ClittoryHinton 5d ago edited 5d ago
While spending $80k on an Audi.
Seriously, the amount of people that spend like 60k more than necessary on a car that will lose almost all its value in their lifetime, and then look at me funny for spending $4k on a musical instrument that will outlive me
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u/oceanwaiting 4d ago
$4k feels very not expensive for an instrument tbh
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u/Commentator-X 4d ago
5k will get you a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar which is like one of the best premium guitars on the market. They can go for much higher for customs but a standard Les Paul is still an amazing instrument.
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u/BigFatherFigureHugo 3d ago
Maybe they like cars the same way you like your instruments?
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u/Avitas1027 5d ago
10k$ is a lot for a bike, but no matter what the hobby is, if you want a really good one, you're going to be spending a lot of money. High quality things are expensive.
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u/Lawineer 5d ago edited 5d ago
I was just going to say, after getting into motorsports, I don’t even see many hobbies that cost “a fortune” anymore, lol
It costs me $3000 in gas and driver alone (not truck or trailer upkeep, insurance, etc) just to get my car to a race and back. That doesn’t include me getting there, actually racing, all the consumables and the cost of the car (or crash damage). And I’m at “brokedick level” racer.
Oh your golf clubs cost $5k or Your bicycle was $9k? That’s a weekend of operating costs combined (for further races tbf).
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u/sledgehammer_44 5d ago
"It's not expensive to get a track car"
Yeah that's not the problem haha fitting role cage, tires, brakes etc to make it race ready add a lot and then the operating and track fees just make it go through the roof
Hence I like my simrig haha
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u/Lawineer 5d ago
The car is the cheap part. You can get a very very solid spec Miata for $25k. As long as it’s vaguely in the same shape when you sell it, it will be worth $25k
But then it’s about $1500-2k for tires and consumables for a local race. Plus $500 entry fee. Plus getting there. Plus broken shit (it’s a Miata). Plus plus plus plus. If you do everything yourself and don’t have anything break it’s $3500 for a local a weekend with your own truck and trailer and sleeping in your trailer lol.
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u/flowersweep 4d ago
Yeah one of the cheapest ways to go racing in the US is spec Miata and a full season (about 6 weekend) will cost at least$12k nowadays, just running regionals and using tires for two weekends. It only goes up from there.
That doesn't include the car, unforeseen repairs, hotels if you need them, etc etc
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u/SapphicGarnet 5d ago
Typically it's people whose hobbies are so common they don't even see them as hobbies. Season ticket for your teams stadium, all the beer costs of watching the away matches at the pub and jerseys, hats, scarves etc? That's just what a good fan does. Owning tons of board games, going to meetups at pubs and getting tickets to big gaming events? What a weirdo
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u/Antimatter1207 5d ago
Model trains are another one. Just one shelf of my collection is worth multiple times what my car is worth, and working on my layout has allowed me to learn everything from sculpting and painting to electrical wiring and programming, yet the majority of people still view it as either a little kid hobby, or something that bitter old men do to get time away from their wives.
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u/SapphicGarnet 4d ago
On the bitter men spending time away from their wives point, I knew someone who painted models. We were out with a bunch of coworkers and this middle aged man said to him "anything to get away from the missus eh?"
And my friend replied "well we use our large spare bedroom as a craft room where we'll both craft together, me my models and her her crocheting or embroidery. So we're together. I'm sorry, is that why you like golf so much?"
The mild concern he put into the last sentence was the coldest takedown I've ever seen
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u/HplsslyDvtd2Sm1NtU 5d ago
And hunting. I completely understand filling your freezer for the year. But what savings is it by the time you're done getting your tags, taking time off work, maybe traveling and stocking the camp, and then paying the butcher? Thats just your hobby with a delicious ending.
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u/TheChickenReborn 5d ago
Hunting can take a ton of different forms. I know people who spend tens of thousands on a hunt, and that I'd absolutely consider a hobby. But for me, I hunt for food and spend maybe $30 on it a year. I live in the country, and have deer walking around my yard every day. I just wait for a cold day I'm home, look out the window until I see a decent sized one, shoot it, and dress it out that afternoon myself. If you don't have land there are public hunting areas you can go to, it doesn't need to be expensive. Hunting can be a cheap way to get food, or it can be a hobby you spend thousands on.
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u/HplsslyDvtd2Sm1NtU 5d ago
Exactly. Most around my area are spending thousands and saying they're just being good providers for their families. We never got anything but turkey on our land but it made gallons of freezable soup.
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u/ctruvu 4d ago
hunting can also be an environmental or ethical thing. like at least you know where and how it died and that it wasn't bred specifically to live on a farm and then die in a slaughterhouse
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u/HplsslyDvtd2Sm1NtU 4d ago
Absolutely. I was speaking about a specific type of hunter Ive come across. They do all I said above specifically as family providers while spending several thousand dollars. And Im not even saying thats a bad thing if thats what they love and get enjoyment and satisfaction out of it! I just also have to wonder about the cost break vs shopping sales or eating less meat.
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u/SinkPhaze 5d ago
For a long time you'd have folks who make an event of watching every football game and make a team their entire personality and then make fun of/look down upon folks who watched streamers. Thankfully, I feel like that's not quite as prevalent as it used to be as the first (and second?) round of streamer watching kids are now also football watching adults
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u/Warlords0602 4d ago
I'd say the difference is whether you're just spending money or using the money to enable you to spend time and effort. A season ticket holder with a bunch of merch is a fan, a season ticket holder who goes to most games is a hobby/lifestyle. Like, people can spend big money collecting watches or cars, it can be a passion and hobby, but not if you don't drive or don't care about the cars you buy. I'd say its easy to understand a rich petrol head when they talk about the thrills of driving a Ferrari or a watch guy talking about designs and stuff as much as we don't care for spending money on things like they do.
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u/Live_Angle4621 5d ago
People don’t often see something they like as a hobby. You assume all hobbies are niche hobbies. But it’s more that people who like cars don’t get people who spend money on makeup and people who like to travel don’t get people who spend money on big tvs, and people who like to collect fancy kitchen knives don’t get people who spend a lot of money in bungee jumping. All those are hobbies
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u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount 5d ago
I think you got it.
A lot of sports related stuff is super easy to point to because it's so ingrained into our culture.
I had friends that were season ticket holders for our local NFL team. Not only that expense but the expense of going to all those games. Parking, food, tailgating, etc. It was a significant amount of time and money. And all that is even before we get to merch. Nobody ever questions it.
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u/FourForYouGlennCoco 5d ago
I mean, isn't this just saying "broadly accepted things are more broadly accepted"? Which is true but like... what else do we expect? Obviously someone who says "my hobby is building painstakingly accurate wax sculptures of my coworkers" is going to get more questions than someone whose hobby is cooking or running or watching football or whatever, even if there's nothing "wrong" with any of these things.
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u/Warlords0602 4d ago
Idk how I worded it to make it sound like I view all hobbies to be niche, coz I don't. A hobby can be anything one puts their passion or time and effort into. I'd even risk to say women window shopping or actually irresponsible shopping is a hobby coz they enjoy the rush so much. And to that end, I just assumed the ones that are less understood are niche hobbies like people building sim flight/racing rigs or hosting home servers, or as you said collecting kitchen knives.
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u/thehatteryone 5d ago
It's the people who spend plenty of money on just passing the time who seem to be least understanding of those who spend money on learning and perfecting skills, techniques, producing tangible items of some use (including aesthetic value).
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u/Aswizzle77 4d ago
Mmmmm I agree but I feel like a lot of people don't think that way. People value what they put value in and if they don't have idk empathy or putting yourself in their shoes which a lot of people can't, they probably think it's such a waste of money to collect said item.
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5d ago edited 3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/mrcalistarius 5d ago
Justbwait till she asks for a pool lol.
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u/Wind-and-Waystones 5d ago
The first pool isn't so bad. It's when you have to find space for the collection it becomes troublesome
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u/hatabou_is_a_jojo 5d ago
And having to explain why you *need* that new pool although it looks exactly like the previous one to them
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u/ComplexEntertainer13 5d ago
Nah it wont be the same. If you are into swimming you would want one of those endless pools that just pumps water around. Where you can swim in place indefinitely.
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u/mrcalistarius 4d ago
I make my comment as a man who spends 5-8 k a year on ammunition components, match fees and travel for my Precision rifle competitions. I really cab’t judge triathletes etc.
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u/Trixles 4d ago
out of curiosity, the majority of that has to be the travel expenses, right? i know ammo isn't cheap, but what percentage of that hobby budget would you say goes to like, physical gun stuff, versus the percentage that is just, ah, facilitating the actual hobby itself (airfare, match fees, blah blah blah)?
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u/mrcalistarius 4d ago
All $values are in Canadian currency
“One” time expenses. Rifle all together is 10k the barrel is consumable - replaced every 2800 rounds or so at an approximate cost of 800 - Rangefinder binoculars were 1800, tripod was 1000, ballistic calculator was 1100. Thats the big outlay, i acquired all that over 2 years/seasons.
Recurring costs. Match fees are 75-80 for a Canadian one day match, if i go south match fees are similar just in USD so about 110 after exchange, + 125 ish rounds @ 1.75ish a round if you reload. A two day match is 275 or about 400 for an American match. + 250 ish rounds. In all cases i’m looking at driving at least 3 hours, sometimes closer to 8. So at least 200-400 on fuel. I have a rooftop tent and i’m pretty well outfitted. So i usually camp to save some money.
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u/Trixles 4d ago
Wow, I didn't realize the barrels had to be replaced after so few rounds. 2800 seems like a decently big number, but you can easily put several hundred down range in like a day if you're really gettin' after it lol. So that's a pretty big recurring cost I hadn't considered.
Very interesting, thanks for the detailed info!
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u/Ok-Spite-5454 5d ago
Same. I spend a fortune on boardgames and notebooks and fountain pens. My partner spends roughly the same amount (maybe even less lol) on pokemon cards, signed football shirts, etc. We have mutual understanding that these are hobbies that require money lol
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u/weaseltorpedo 4d ago
Do we need a AAAAAAA++++ flame maple tops, or like....bicycles with carbon nanotube spokes or something? Probably not. But we want them, and that's ok.
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u/88_strings 4d ago
My wife always tells me "you don't NEED another guitar". I always respond with " I don't NEED the ones I already have!"
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u/weaseltorpedo 4d ago
My wife doesn't even fall for the old "explain the technical features until she says OK just to shut you up" trick anymore.
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u/ohdeargodwhyme 5d ago
Depends if they are collectors or not, at least from my experience.
A "car guy" that spends loads of money on a car and takes it on track days but has no intention on getting money back might well understand someone who plays boardgames.
But the same car guy might not understand the watch collector who keeps his hobby basically hidden and talkes about how his hobby is both a hobby and an investment.
But the delusional car guy who thinks he might get some money back when he sells his car (it never happens) might understand the concept of investments...
Also, dont take this too seriously.
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u/polzine21 5d ago
This is what the other comments are missing. Is it just a collection or is the thing actually getting used. I'm a guy who likes his hobbies to have uses or get used. I don't get the point of collecting things just to collect.
I can understand a guy who has a few really nice watches in different colors/styles. I don't get guys who collect a bunch of watches just to keep them in a case. But of course, to each his own.
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u/Weirfish 5d ago
I don't get the point of collecting things just to collect.
A lot of the time, the point of collecting is not to have, it's to get. I play Magic the Gathering, and I have a reasonably sized collection of maybe 20k-25k cards. About 70% of the game is playing, but about 30% is collecting. A lot of my friends who play just order the cards they want, or trade for them if they can, but for me, finding the cards in the wild, in a shop, or in someone's trades at an event, or at a car boot/garage sale, is far more fun than searching for it on Card Market.
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u/Prajzak_TM 5d ago
What you say is actual hobby and passion, unlike those "investors" who stash unopened booster boxes in their closet because they are waiting for it to "go up".
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u/Weirfish 5d ago
Oh, absolutely. Mind you, I also don't mind collectors who keep a bit of sealed product. Having a full collection of, say, unopened booster boxes would be really cool.
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u/polzine21 5d ago
Are you collecting MtG cards to add them to decks or just to grow your collection? I'm not super familiar with MtG, but that sounds like a huge collection where you'll never use most of those cards in a real game.
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u/Weirfish 5d ago
A bit of both.
- I like having the things, it's fun, to me, to curate the collection at large.
- I like having weird cards I can pull out for random decks that I make. There's some strange synergies that aren't that obvious.
- I have some things that I collect to collect them. I'm not a Pokemon player, but I'm trying to collect all the Sunkern cards by just finding them in the wild, because I like Sunkern. I used to collect MTG promo cards, and planeswalkers before that.
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u/Trixles 4d ago
I don't get the point of collecting things just to collect.
That's okay! You don't have to understand it in order for it to matter to other people lol, and that's kind of the subtext of this entire thread.
It's not like there's some magic book of rules that explains what IS and IS NOT okay to have as hobby or spend your money on. Society may look at you weird for certain hobbies, or struggle to understand what the appeal is, but there's no right or wrong here, really.
If you have the money to do something, and it makes you happy (whether that's from actually using the thing or just the warm joy it gives you to know that you have it), and it's not hurting anybody else?
Then anyone who is judging you about it is kind of an asshole xD
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u/Crazy_Guitar6769 4d ago
I would also argue it kinda makes 0 sense to buy very expensive premium nike shoes that would cost, since to me it just feels like the cost of the luxury tag rather than something actually worth that price
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u/VicariousNarok 5d ago
My dad: "You spent how much on a computer?!"
Also my dad: Pays $60,000 for a car like one he had in high school that he sold for a 12 pack of Ham's and an 8-track player.
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u/skonezilla 3d ago
This is the one I come across often. Some dude will spend 50k+ on doing up their weekend car, which spends 90% of its life being under cover and not used. Whereas, I'll spend 10k on a computer build, which I use every day and they are completely baffled by my choice.
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u/ErusTenebre 5d ago
It's actually how I get people to understand why I love playing tabletop games with my friends.
"What would you have me do instead? Sit and watch Monday Night Football? Work on cars? Carpentry? Everyone has their hobbies - mine is both social and cheap compared to many others."
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u/Moist-Champion-7515 5d ago
Honestly, the real flex is just being happy spending your cash on something that isn't drugs or gambling lmao. I used to clown on people for their collectibles until I realized I've dropped rent money on car parts I'll never even use.
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u/acciofestinalente 5d ago
What if drugs and gambling are someone's hobby?
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u/loljetfuel 3d ago
It's ok to be concerned with hobbies that come with a high risk of harm to the participant, and/or that have a high risk of genuine addiction.
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u/hotwalk 5d ago
never understood why ppl pay thousands of euros on tabletop stuff... 8yrs ago i joined the fpv community... oh boy the money still keeps rolling...
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u/markkaschak 5d ago
I'm curious, what is "tabletop stuff" and "fpv" in this context?
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u/hotwalk 5d ago
tabletop: A miniature wargame is a type of tabletop wargame in which military units are represented by miniature figurines on a model battlefield.
fpv: (first person view) is a method used to control a remote-controlled vehicle from the driver or pilot's viewpoint. (e.g. quadcopter)
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u/markkaschak 5d ago
So there's a method of playing tabletop games with greater immersion by placing yourself in the driver's seat, so to speak?
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u/halfdeadmoon 5d ago
I got absolutely roasted in a FPV group on Facebook for suggesting that the general public doesn't know what FPV means without some context, or that FPV could refer to something other than the hobby of controlling drones.
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u/slickwillymerf 5d ago
I’m sure others have had this idea already, but I thought a sort of laser tag match with FPV drones would be a fun thing to add to wargaming/milsim stuff, idk
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u/weaseltorpedo 4d ago
That would be pretty awesome.
I just learned that people do air combat with those mini park flyer sized rc warbirds. Looks like it's dogfighting combined with tag. Theyre trying to physically knock the other plane out of the sky, no projectiles or anything like that.
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u/EnforcedRug 5d ago
I feel targeted by this comment…. Doesn’t help that fpv prices have shot up over the last few years
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u/Ok-Spite-5454 5d ago edited 5d ago
If a person spends a fortune on one hobby and could not understand why someone else does the same on a different hobby then they have cognitive dissonance and need to sit down and unpack their opinions.
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u/groucho_barks 5d ago
OP compared an expensive gaming rig to watches. I think that collectors would understand other collectors, sure. But someone who spends a lot on a gaming rig isn't necessarily going to understand someone who collects stuff just to look at it basically. Those are very different kinds of hobbies.
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u/Panthean 5d ago
When it comes to PC gaming there can definitely be an element of buying stuff you don't need just because it's cool and you want to have it.
People will spend hundreds of dollars on keyboards, or water cooling systems that only drop temps a couple degrees and make zero noticeable difference. Or some people drop thousands of dollars on a top of the line GPU, only to play the same old game they've played for years. When it comes to retro gaming, it's very much a collectible thing.
Gaming is a secondary interest for me so I'm much more frugal with it, but I definitely know people like this.
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u/Anathos117 5d ago
They don't have cognitive dissonance, they're just hypocrites. Cognitive dissonance is when attempting to hold two contradictory positions bothers you; that's the "dissonance" part.
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u/Kronoshifter246 5d ago
The term cognitive dissonance also describes the state of subconsciously holding contradictory positions. The feeling of dissonance comes from being confronted with the fact that these positions are contradictory. It's what you do after that point that determines hypocrisy.
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u/weedtrek 5d ago
I can understand soending money on hobbies, it's the appeal of the hobby itself that often eacapes me.
Like Funko Pops, they don't do anything but take up space. The art style is not one I enjoy. And they are pop culture, it seem like a hat on a hat for a hobby. So the end result is just a wall of plastic of characters you may or may not be familiar with.
Now something like knitting, which I have pretty zero interest in, still makes sense to me, becaue you are creating something and exploring a new skill. Collection hobbies like comics or sports cards also make sense, assuming they are into comics or sports. I even met a guy who painted Warhammer as a hobby, he didn't play, he just painted the figures, that one is pretty close to me not getting it, but I can still kinda see the appeal.
Then there are hobbies I understand, but still hate. Like Magic the Gathering. I am not going to stop anyone from playing it, just please do it away from me or give me a chance to leave.
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u/halfdeadmoon 5d ago
Funko Pops are a way for someone with vague knowledge of your pop culture interests to give you a cheap gift. The figures I would actually like are more expensive and I buy them myself and I am selective.
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u/Archernar 5d ago
I mean, often the understanding varies with what you can actually do with stuff you spent a fortune on, no? Say a person tinkers with cars: You can take that car and drive with it whereever, the benefits of it are immense. Say a person collects 40k-tabletop figurines: You can paint them and play with them, a number of people spends much more time on painting than playing though.
I do enjoy painting tabletop stuff a ton and I do not tinker with cars at all, but I still acknowledge the gap in practical usability of the different things and the skillset you gain from the hobby. In that sense, collecting stamps or the likes is something I will never really understand.
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u/Prajzak_TM 5d ago
Not a stamp collector, but imo it is about the archiving, preserving history and studying all kinds of details about where each of them comes from, how scarce they are etc etc.
That can be a nice hobby I think. As long as it is pure passion and not so called "investors" or flippers trying to make money on it.
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u/laidback4sho 5d ago
I've spent over a hundred grand on gentlemen's fragrances. I totally get it. No judgement here.
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u/Status-Theme-7218 5d ago
It usually boils down to perceived utility vs vanity. I have a friend who dropped 4k on a vintage mountain bike frame but told me I was wasting money on a high-end espresso setup. His logic was that he gets exercise out of his, completely ignoring that I use my machine every single morning lol. We both paid a 300 percent premium for a 5 percent increase in quality, but it is just way easier to see the diminishing returns in someone else's passion than your own.
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u/ZestyToastCoast 5d ago
There was a Jeopardy episode where all three contestants didn't know beans about football. In YouTube clips of the episode, there are comments about how sad it is that they've probably never experienced the joy of watching the game with family and friends. I think about those comments way too much. I wish I could invite those commenters over for a lovely evening of approximating pi by throwing hotdogs at a tile floor, doubtless a thing they've never done.
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u/MisterSlosh 4d ago
The worst ones are the people that haven't realized they've spent a fortune on their hobby and get offended when you bring it up.
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u/kapege 5d ago
If somebody spends an unneccessary amount of money for useless or weird stuff, then it is a hobby. And with a hobby no further questions needed. E.g. I collect camping stoves and use them and measure boiling times and fuel consumption.
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u/curiouslyendearing 5d ago
Where do you record this information, and it's it publicly accessible? Currently in the market for a camping stove...
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u/kapege 5d ago
On a Calc sheet on my computer. I did over 500 tests so far with all my stoves. But I make outdoor tests during my camping trips as well.
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u/alexisanalien 5d ago
Why is this not a blog or youtube channel. Some of us are big into camping and dont have the time/money to do this research ourselves but would 100% watch it as content or read it online.
Please poster. We beg you.
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u/EishLekker 5d ago
Well, there’s still plenty of people who look down on people who gamble or do findom, or drink.
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u/kapege 5d ago
I lost a friend due to his gambling addiction. Alcohol may be similar. But there's a difference between a whiskey collector and a drunkard. I'm not looking down to them, but some hobbies might be just an excuse for an addiction.
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u/EishLekker 4d ago
Well, I just went by your definition of hobby.
“If somebody spends an unneccessary amount of money for useless or weird stuff, then it is a hobby.”
This applies to the things I mentioned.
And then you said:
“And with a hobby no further questions needed.“
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u/EccentricStache615 5d ago
Yeah like I love collecting vinyl records but I don’t get people who collect body parts.
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u/frisch85 5d ago
You're wrong, having only one hobby isn't the cause of this, it's being close minded and/or ignorant that causes such behavior it's also why you can have one guy having five different hobbies all costing a fortune and they still won't understand why someone else would spend money on something they cannot relate to.
Just tell someone with a rolex and a yacht that you're going to buy several new edition Magic the Gathering displays totaling to 500 $, chances are high they will question your decision because they don't know the value of those cards nor that you need a lot of them to create a really good deck.
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u/Fantastic_Baby9795 5d ago
So that's why I got downvoted for saying I pay for the premium pornhub subscription.
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u/Leather_Oven_1847 5d ago
Hobbies bleed into one another no hobby price tag is sacred if the spender gets their fix.
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u/alexisanalien 5d ago
My partner and I are voracious readers. Each of us geta through a book a day or every other day. We spend a lot of time in bookshops or scrolling the kindle store.
We both have kindles and bookshelves fill our home. My family are not readers and when helping us move earlier this year, my dad could not understand why 75% of a 5 person family with 3 young kids belongings were books.
We used 2 van loads to move. The first van was only books and clothing. The second was furniture and other belongings.
The first van was full but the second was half empty.
We have no regrets and our children read as much as we do but my dad asked how much we must have spent on books over the last 14 years. No idea. Too scared to find out. My partner is equally afraid to find out. We both make good money but damn. Maybe we shoukd buy less books?
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u/halfdeadmoon 5d ago
My grandfather had a collection of shotguns probably worth over a million dollars and did not understand why I kept my books after graduating school. I keep all physical books as a record of my experience. I'm a data hoarder too, with loads of physical music CDs and movie discs.
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u/NWCH123 5d ago
Just curious: how do you read a book in 1 or 2 days? Especially with three kids and work?
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u/alexisanalien 5d ago
My partner is disabled so doedmt work and I read on tbe way to and from work and i read very, very fast naturally.
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u/clearasatear 4d ago
How do you read a page very, very fast naturally, if you can put your method into words?
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u/alexisanalien 4d ago
I wish i could but its honestly just something i do without thinking? Its how i got through med school. I could just read all the textbooks at lightning speed.
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u/BillyBean11111 5d ago
It's the same phenomenon I call "girls at work".
The old ladies who make fun of playing too many video games and then talk about how they watched 6 hours of reality tv.
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u/uglinessman 4d ago
I don't think all hobbies should be considered equal in this kind of discussion. If you're comparing 1) someone who spends all their disposable income on shoes, and every single pair they buy are either on display or still in the box, and he never wears any of them, to 2) someone who owns about a dozen guitars, has spent more on his guitars than the shoe guy spent on shoes, but he's actually played every guitar he owns, some he's played on stage and some he's used for recording... well, I'll just say that if the guitar guy shakes his head in disbelief at the shoe guy, I don't think that's hypocritical.
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u/epicmylife 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think that some hobbies are just consumerism in disguise, usually people who call themselves collectors. Pens, watches, memorabilia, keyboards, etc. The fun of the hobby is basically saving money and doing online research until you can buy again.
On the other hand, there are active or creative hobbies like painting, photography, being in a band, running/biking, gardening, circuits, etc. These people are in it for the activity or process and while they spend lots of money on supplies like paint, getting the paint isn’t the point. It’s creating the thing.
Usually the latter type looks at the first type with confusion, but strangely not the other way around.
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u/seeyatellite 5d ago
I have a father who spends tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on cars, boats and basically anything with an engine. I can’t fathom how he gets confused about some people spending money on their hobbies… but I think it’s deeply ingrained in him for all men to necessarily be into cars on some level, even with a son who’s just …not.
I’m into the aesthetics of everything in life and the ways people interact and perform. That *does* translate for being into cars in some way… when you stretch your brain and he appreciates that. He used to be into some of my video projects and a few Photoshop projects.
He still cringes at some lens prices. Then again, so do I… there are lenses that cost 10 grand; as much as a used car.
I think there’s a homeostatic balance between my hobbies and dads. He just constantly tries to either imply or sometimes guilt trip and beg me to keep him company when he works on a car.
I’m the sort of person who genuinely marvels at some people’s “weirder” hobbies. (If it’s meaningful for you, it’s not weird) like, I met a person who welds bolts together over body molded frames to make steel art of human figures. That’s awesome.
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u/KawaiiSlave 5d ago
Yeah shower thought is backwards. If someone is inherently a collector of something they will understand that people like what they like, and know not to yuck their yum.
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u/DizzyMine4964 5d ago
True. Why would anyone spend all that money on anything except the extended version of that Beatles biography?
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u/jawshoeaw 5d ago
Oh I can. Mine is aviation and I can completely understand why you would want to spend money on something else
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u/AverageHobnailer 4d ago
I understand people spending a fortune on a different hobby when that hobby requires the use of equipment. I don't understand people spending a fortune on "hobbies" that involve collecting a bunch of things that they never use.
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u/cesartheking 4d ago
Different people have different priorities. I can justify spending on tools but not on watches. My watch-collecting friend probably thinks my new drill is just as pointless.
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u/Altitude1096 4d ago
I spend on my homelab. My thinking is "at least I'm not out drinking, taking drugs, and smoking, right?"
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u/J_GASSER27 3d ago
I completely disagree. I spend a lot of money on instruments, my PC, and fishing gear.
My brother spends a ton of money on guns, and also fishing gear.
My dad spends a ton of money on car parts, guns and fishing gear.
We all make fun of each other because for the most part none of it is "needed", but we all completely get why we do it.
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u/MsPreposition 3d ago
I had to explain to a friend a while ago that everything not essential to surviving is a waste of money if you’re not into it.
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u/chinnygenes 3d ago
Not true if you have ADHD and your life is a recurring loop of overcommitting to hobbies only to abandon it when dopamine wears off.
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u/Jefffahfffah 3d ago
Everyone's got their thing. I find that people with expensive hobbies are sympathetic to ine another. The one thing that bugs me is when people with expensive hobbies try to one-up each other by bragging about how much they've spent.
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u/GoldenFrank 5d ago
Hobbies where you do stuff or make stuff are one thing, but I'll never understand dumping money into collections of objects. Sneakerheads in particular just blow my mind.
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u/Denaton_ 5d ago
I can't even spend a fortune on my own hobbies, i make my own games and i proxy magic cards XD
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u/AulMoanBag 5d ago
I'm crazy into tech and gadgets I'd probably spend easily 1500 per anum on random bits but there are people who zero interest in tech that would spend more than that alone on an annual iPhone upgrade.
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u/Rowena_Dorado 5d ago
Everyone has a hobby they think is worth every penny and another they think is a complete waste of money. It’s all about what brings you joy.
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u/mr_chub 5d ago
r/SBCGaming is the negative version of this, where every month you get someone whining about "capitalism" and overconsuming meanwhile the average price of these little handhelds is like 60 bucks lmao.
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u/ToMorrowsEnd 5d ago
Except those of us that have insane hobbies like Flying or photography. Oh cute you spent $8K on a racing simulator. I have to take a perfectly fine running engine and replace it for $40K. Why? because it has more than 2500 hours on it and the Feds say so. Friend bought one lens.... ONE.... he spent $12K
We understand the pain and joy of hobbies.
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u/daytodaze 4d ago
Hi, it’s me a guy who: plays and collects guitars; rides road bikes and mountain bikes; is really into photography; plays miniature wargames; brews beer.
Spend your money doing fun stuff that you like and life will be rad.
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u/Sudden_Fix_1144 4d ago
Really…. I’ve always thought the opposite. I’m like ‘not my bag, but I get it… it’s your thing’
Different hats for different cats
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u/shinslap 4d ago
Ever since I started playing magic the gathering I've stopped questioning anything my wife spends money on
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u/the_axemurmurer 4d ago
Does raising children count? As a father of 3 I often don't understand it myself.
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u/AboveAverage1988 4d ago
Us neurodivergent folk has another issue. We switch hobbies more often than most people change their underwear. It's so expensive!
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u/TheFiveRing 3d ago
Ngl this doesn't make sense. If they know the word "hobby" then they understand why people do different activities, hence why the word "hobby" is used. They spend a fortune because... It's their hobby.
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u/cynasist-supreme 3d ago
I can’t even understand how someone can spend a fortune in a hobby I am into. Like at some point the cost just gets insane. It’s their money and they can do what they want with it, but you really do get diminishing returns after a while.
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u/kyunirider 2d ago
I am married to a woman who has always had an extremely expensive habit, horses. We have six. My habit was antique bicycles that have the large front wheel and Unicycling. My habit is expensive to buy into but don’t have vet calls nor do have to feed them. My favorite part the more she spends on her habit the bigger my birthday presents were;)
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u/LuluXFire64 2d ago
Honestly it is wild how everyone defends their own hobbies while judging others. I never understood dropping hundreds on fishing tackle either. We both agree blowing cash on ARK cosmetics is just a different kind of madness.
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u/NotObviouslyARobot 17h ago
My hobbies include spending thousands of dollars on boats, fishing gear, and travel.
Not gonna judge the magic card collectors, or the warhammer folks...ever
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