When I first got into my hobby (DJ) I thought I only needed to pay into the set up cost of buying equipment (turntables, mixer, sound), but I eventually learned that I had to keep buying records because I couldn’t just mix the same two recorded forever, and that got expensive.
Gave up on buying and maintaining copics and just bought CSP. May have to switch to Krita at some point, but digital art is far more accessible than other mediums. Want a marker texture? The brushes for that are free, only real barrier is a graphics tabler.
You can buy a good screenless tablet from Huion for less than a hundred, and it’ll work with basically any laptop or desktop computer. Krita is free and has many of the same features as Procreate. =)
You get some gear. It’s nice, but heavy…then you realize there’s so much lighter stuff out there.
$100/lbs later your congratulating yourself that your base weight is 15lbs until you add food and water, and you realize that your pack still is too heavy. You finally shave off another 2 lbs by buying all new luxury items at $30-$50 a pop, and getting a lighter stove.
Then winter comes, and that 4 season, dyneema tent looks mighty appealing. Not to mention you need a better rated sleeping bag (cause that hammock ain’t gonna cut it) and a pad, a better puffy and fleece, crampons, maybe an ice pick, and another stove that works in the cold…
Edit. Damn it, I forgot I need new shoes…even if I wanted to brave it using my summer pair, those trail running shoes are destroyed over the course of 1 season.
No joke I am totally comfortable with a 40L, 20-25lbs base weight, where I get to bring more shit like an ultralight pop out lantern, an extra foam pad to sit on, a flask, an extra tarp to string up for hang out space, camp flip flops, etc.
Each choice is purposefully selected for weight and such, but I include more of them.
Ugh same. I decided to upgrade my very uncomfortable sleeping pad recently which led me to the ultralight subreddit. I went from not having a clue how much my bag weighed to a 10lb base weight, tarp camping, a $400 quilt, 27oz backpack, making my own gear. I don’t even want to count how much I’ve spent in the last year.
House plants. Sure a few mass-market plants are dirt cheap, but soon you get into unusual plants, plants with special needs, hundreds/thousands of plants, grow lights, grow racks, terrariums, automated watering systems…
A few seed packets and some dirt turns into building nice cedar raised gardens, filling them all with great quality soil, expensive liquid fertilizers, various irrigation systems, and so on. And I can’t just haul all that dirt in my sedan… But hey, I have 20+ tomato plants, and about as many different pepper plants every year.
It’s honestly nowheer near as expensive as some of my other hobbies, but on the “a lot more money than I expected” scale it’s up there.
I got into theater lighting in high school & college. Years after graduating and getting a “real” job I discovered a bunch of all volunteer community theaters in the towns around me. I started doing lighting design, and over time amassed a bunch of my own gear. I’ve also gotten a bit of a name for figuring out special effects. In my basement I have a dozen professional LED stage lights, strobe lights, a fog machine & hazer, and a bunch of bins of odds & ends used for various effects.
I started getting invested in a TCG (Digimon) for the first time ever a couple months ago (magic, YGO, pokemon etc. never did it for me before).
One of the selling points (at least currently) is that most decks are fairly affordable (less than 50 bucks affordable) and viable and even the very competitive decks shouldn’t set you back much (with less than 100 bucks you can easily make a top tier tournament-viable deck) .
Problem is I really started digging lots of different decks and discovering new favorite digimon and how they play and now I’m several hundreds of dollars of investment in both in cards and accessories (not even counting merch…).
I regret nothing though. It has helped me get out of the house (I work remote) and interact with people which has been very good for my mental health, and it gave me a way to revive some of my childhood nostalgia.
I’ve never been into TCG’s, but just wanted to say how back when the Pokemon and Digimon TV shows were first out, I was way more into Digimon. I do have some cards from back then but not sure if they’re even legit game cards. I only ever met two other people that watched Digimon (one was kind enough to lend me the first movie on VHS) but basically everyone has seen Pokemon in some form.
If your cards look like this then they are legit game cards but from the old Digimon TCG that was discontinued several years ago. The current TCG was released in 2020 along with the reboot of the Digimon Adventure anime.
I was also more of a Digimon kid than a Pokémon kid growing up, so it brings me much joy that the current TCG is actually picking up steam internationally. Hopefully the franchise keeps flourishing because it really deserves it.
3D modelling. It's impossible to get into 3D modelling and not get eventually sucked into 3D Printing... Which as other people have explained on the thread, is it's own money sinker.
Just make a friend who is very into 3d printing and you can null out their costs of buying models! There are also makerspaces in some cities that have publicly accessible 3d printers (and other cool stuff like sticker machines, cnc machines, etc) and even some libraries have 3d printers available that you can access
Playing music. Started on a shitty hand-me-down acoustic guitar. Got a better guitar. Got an electric. Got a better amp. Got a couple of pedals. Got a better amp. Got like 6 more amps, some cabs, 5 more guitars, a huge pedalboard, a cello, a keyboard, an audio interface, attenuators, mics, etc etc.
You gotta understand... I need all this stuff. There are subtle differences that you've never noticed before but will probably hear once I do an a/b comparison for you, and I absolutely must get an AC15 next to round out the collection instead of buckling down and recording something.
I spent a decade as a touring musician. My guitarist is still a tonechaser and has new shit every practice. New amps, New pedals, etc. He’s constantly trading and saving for new crap
I’m so happy I run my PBass into an OCD clone voiced for bass into a Mesa 400 with 2x15 and I’ve never wanted more.
Homebrewing. I have made many a beer over 8 or 9 years. They get better with each batch, but along with it is another new piece of equipment to make the process easier or more efficient.
Discs cost only $15-20 new, used ones can be only a few bucks, you only need one or a few to play, and most courses are free.
In reality, you keep buying new discs. And a bag to carry them. And more discs. And a bigger bag. Then a home basket. And a net to practice in. And more discs. Then a rack to hold the extra discs you can’t bag…. It adds up!
Hobby electronics started cheep, with a crappy soldering iron (a good precision one was the best purchase ever) and some cheep parts, ended up with a room stuffed with a thousand dollars worth or parts and a few thousand more in test equipment.
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