How Do You Budget LEGO?

[Capt Winters]

Hello,

While reading through the different topics and threads throughout Eurobricks I've noticed that there is a lot of members that are adults and my main question to the members of the LEGO community who are considered adults and have a job is how do you budget buying LEGO while still consider being able to afford the necessities that you need. I'm about to enter college and LEGO is one of my main hobbies and I don't plan on dropping it anytime soon and I was hoping to get some advice from everyone on how someone can buy what they need but also be able to buy LEGO to support their hobby.

Sorry I didn't know if there was another topic I should ask this in, since I'm still kind of new to Eurobricks.

Thanks for your time!

Capt_Winters

[BrickCurve]

Basically, you just have to buy all the other things you need / pay the bills first, and them spend a portion of whats left on Lego.

[legoguy1984]

Decide what you are willing to spend, then decide how much above that you are willing to go while still being able to afford all that you need. As a married fan with a non fan wife my quick answer is: very carefully.

[Andrzej777]

I had to realize thay keeping a budget is impossible for me.

I generally buy if there is an occasion or need and base my buying habits on priorities and money available.

The most important thing for me are historic minifigs.

Whenever I get the chance to visit a lego store I buy at least one cup, depending on the bricks available even more.

When I need specific bricks I use pab bap, I put those on a list and when there is enough to warrant free shipping I place an order.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Andrzej777

[blackie]

My wife and I made an agreement that I may spend 150€ per month for LEGO. It didn't work.

[Foxw]

The wisest route. In list form!

1. Gather together all your bills (or exspected bills in your case), add them all up, add 20%.

that's your core spending.

2. Subtract that from your current net income (post taxes)

3. Deduct 50% for food.

4. Deduct another 25% for clothing, (stuff does wear out),

unless ypur into designer brands then it's anpther 50%

5. Take the remainder and cut it in half. (savings)

6. Result is your entertainment budget (aka lego's, odd movie etc)

Reality is, it's gonna prolly be small, at least to start, the more you can minimize your bills and increase income, the bigger it will get.

Example (values in cdn as ot what I know)

Income :24000/yr, 2000/mth

Bills: lets say 1400/mth

So 600/mth left

- 300 for food (sh!t ain't cheep)

- 75 for clothing

= 275 /2

= 137.5 for entertainment

Thonk that gives you an idea.

[EdmanZA]

I don't specifically budget for Lego, but rather it comes out as part of my overall budget for everything else. As money comes it, I'll allocate it to various categories e.g. bills, food, insurance, pension, emergency savings, spending money etc. The important ones get filled first and then anything left over is spread over the non-essential ones. If I'm saving for something specific, like Lego, that'll be first in the non-essential list, otherwise I'll just assign it to the general spending money category.

I can then either stick to spending the amount of money in the category, or if I need to spend more and take it from somewhere else, the categories allow me to visualise the trade-off.

For example, I have £100 in the Lego category and want to buy a set for £170. I can either wait until I've saved enough or decide that I'll get the extra £70 by taking £35 from the dining out category and £35 from my vacation category. As a result, I'll have my Lego, but I'll eat out less that month and perhaps do one or two fewer activities on my holiday.

I use the You Need a Budget software to track all this, but really you could do it in Excel or on Post-It notes. The important thing is to have a good understanding of your spending and income and stay within your limits.

[HawkLord]

Simply put - identify what your disposable income that you can reasonably and responsibly use for frivolous purchases is. Then create a list of Lego that you want. Then organize the list by release date and buy in order of what may be being discontinued soonest.

It also helps to be proactive in identifying what will be available each wave. Lego is very good about providing lead times for most of their products, so if there's something you really want, you may have time to save.

[BrickFever]

You may also consider buying at certain times to take advantage of discounts.Around Christmas time there are usually discounts in many stores, also if you buy from Lego directly you can sign up for their VIP program for free and earn VIP points that result in money added to your account when you reach a certain amount on purchases over time.Sometimes they have promotions whereby you can earn double points on purchases of any sets or specific sets.

[kibosh]

Budgeting for LEGO for me is extremely simple. My LEGO hobby has to be self funded. If I want to buy more LEGO, I need to sell some LEGO.

[wolf_grrr]

I dislike buying lego at retail price. Just eats away at funds. I only buy lego in bulk from yard sales, flea markets, and individual sellers at least once every two months.

$100 is my limit for every two months.

[kibosh]

I dislike buying lego at retail price. Just eats away at funds. I only buy lego in bulk from yard sales, flea markets, and individual sellers at least once every two months.

Agreed. I never pay retail for LEGO unless it's an exclusive set. If youare patient, you can almost always get them for at least 20%. At least in the US.

And I buy WAY more used LEGO these days than new sets.

[EdmanZA]

You may also consider buying at certain times to take advantage of discounts.Around Christmas time there are usually discounts in many stores, also if you buy from Lego directly you can sign up for their VIP program for free and earn VIP points that result in money added to your account when you reach a certain amount on purchases over time.Sometimes they have promotions whereby you can earn double points on purchases of any sets or specific sets.

I also do this. I very rarely buy sets as soon as they're released, but rather wait until there's a discount. Amazon tends to discount Technic flagships by up to 25% two or three times per year. By saving up the money beforehand, I can take advantage of these sales as soon as they occur.

[Foxw]

Edmaza: that theory depends on location. Here in canada, amazons insane. Rare theres a sale, and when there is its discounted to be slightly higher then RRP. Aka prices at amazon.ca are at times nearly 2x RRP. It's sick. And sadly at least in my region, sales go like this.

"5% off, on anything, excluding all lego except that 1 set no one wants that the discount = it being only 20$ more then lego store"

n so far i've had no luck with yard sales, granted ppl here only seem to have them saturday 8am-2pm while i'm working so.

*shrug* maybe i'm just cursed.

[TomOOO]

Being married - we both get "pocket money" which can be spent on anything, no questions. Though generally I only spend it on Lego.

I might also do an offer on something like : clear out the old kitchen, refit the electrics and rebuild the pantry when we replaced the kitchen and charged £400 for this work - we get a huge saving on costs of someone else doing this work, and I get Lego.

[ctx1769]

Lucky I have enough for the moment just get parts from BrickLink and the brick wall in the local lego store as I need them.