I started playing MTG when ice age came out. Sold all my cards back in 2018 for $13k. Most of that was from having all the dual lands and fetch lands. Also had an original foil tarmagoyf
In defense of the ~8 year old me, who had no clue how to play the game and just liked looking at the fancy cards, no one told me anything :) Also, that was around the time Urza’s Saga released so it really was wayyy less expensive at that time.
Started out with a raspberry pi several years ago. Got my feet wet with entry level, beginner friendly NAS prebuilds. Hunted for recycled computer parts. Now searching for and actively acquiring enterprise gear that is making a massive dent in my wallet.
Serverpartdeals.com for refurbished HDDs. Fractal define R5 case for the 6 14 TB HDDs and 2 SSDs for cache, a uUSB thumb drive to run unraid. Some ram, a PSU, a Mobo, and a very old quadro GPU, only a couple grand in parts and your obsession is fed, for now.
A good pair of running shoes will cost you between £100 and £200. You might decide to get a rotation of shoes for different types of run. Maybe a race day shoe, a fast training shoe, and a slower recovery show. So that could set you back a few hundred.
I’ve been pretty good to be honest. I’ve got 2 active pairs both of which I got on sale for £80.
Just to reinforce your point, the difference between a cheap running shoe and an expensive running shoe is incredible. When I first started running a few years ago, I was using a very old pair of running shoes I’ve had for a long time. I’ve since been sticking with the New Balance Fresh Foam X 880s (because I have very wide feet and NB seems like the only brand that actually makes their best running shoes in 4E) and it’s like running on a cloud.
And then there’s also the Garmin watch that cost $300 (that I’m now stupidly considering upgrading to the new $600 Forerunner 965), the $120 HRM Pro chest strap, the $3000 Nordic Track x22i for indoor runs I got lightly used on Craigslist for a steal at $900, etc.
And then there’s the races where you’re spending $40, $50, $100+ depending on whether it’s a 5K or 10K or half-marathon. And good running clothes are pricey too.
I’m on week 5 of doing couch to 5k, but using a pair of generic trainers I bought years ago. How much of a difference does a pair of running trainers make?
Having shoes designed for running will make a big difference. You don’t need to spend a lot to get some half decent ones, but they make running a much more pleasant experience.
I had a small 160L tank, cost about 1000 dollars. Kept spending money buying more zoas and palys before I realized the filefish was eating them - he never did it while I was watching and started about 3 months after having him. Cute little gobshite though. Isolated him in a temporary tank, but then aiptasia started growing. Filefish back, zoas got munched. Left the hobby now but I fear I might do it all again.
Just a tank and some lights, add some flow and boom! You’re there. Just get some salt and testing kits to keep things in balance. Those Hanna checkers are nice if you want to splurge - but that’s it, you’re done! I mean…. You have to get the fish and corals too - but you can make friends and get frags for free! Then you’re really done. Everything beyond that is automation, you don’t have to do any of it (although you can really dial in your nutrient balance if you use protein skimmer, algae scrubber, refugium, media reactors). But you don’t want to do that because then you’ll need a sump (but aren’t sumps handy? Who doesn’t want a sump?). Just make sure your stand accommodates everything-you don’t want to rebuild a stand. Leave room for controllers and uv meters and all that other stuff just in case you add it in the future - which you’re not going to becasue it’s expensive and overkill…
Would I be correct that this hobby, if it’s not just having a nice thing for everyday use, does it eventually lead into: calligraphy, fancy stationary, special vellum papers, custom wax stamp seal kits, grinding your own ink, etc?
Thanks for the tips. In Helsinki, my friend actually just buys the disc version of PS5 and rents the discs for free in the library. We have to finish a disc in 2 weeks though (unless we can extend it).
With time I’ve learned that video games are probably the cheapest hobby I have. I literally had a minor crisis when my computer died and I started crunching numbers on switching hobbies temporarily and found the cost of a new computer was cheaper especially once I took into account the already sunk cost of my game library
It’s a toss up between cooking and home networking for me.
Cooking because it started off as just finding neat recipes and giving them a shot to now experimenting with new techniques and harder to procure ingredients. My pantry looks like a mini spice market and keeping them fresh is its own hassle. Plus needing all the gear gets expensive!
I also got really into home networking during the start of the pandemic. I went from having a simple off the shelf mesh network to a full network rack in my basement serving some high end access points and cat6 drops in every room. Now I have a pretty secure iot stack that’s separate from my main vlan and one devoted to my work computer.
I have little labels on each jar of spices that I write the “bought” date on. In general ground spices I’ll give 9 months to a year, herbs I’ll typically give about a year, and whole spices I’ll give two years. As I’m using them, I’ll check the date on the jar to see if I need to add it to my shopping list. Every once in a blue moon when I remember, I’ll also just audit my spice rack.
It really doesn’t take long to grind a tsp of cumin, and the seeds stay fresh so much longer than the powder. And if the seeds start to lose their punch just toast 'em.
Get a bigger mortar then you think too. You’ll read about making pesto, or guac, or lots of Thai dishes, and wonder if it real does taste better. Sadly it does and you’ll regret your small mortar every time you make guacamole.
Yeah cooking is my biggest cost sink but things you consume I feel are more fun to be serious about.
Honestly the costs aren’t all that ridiculous. Bar something like a Dutch oven most good anodized steel woks only cost like $50 at a restaurant supply store. Cast iron pans and some stainless steel weren’t too bad either.
The problem is just that you have to buy a dozen different tools that each cost a little more than you think and the total cost is way higher than you think.
I will definitely agree that spices are the most shockingly expensive part as my little side cabinet of jars probably costs more than my entire record collection when you realize that I have 3 different types of cinnamon and Hungarian paprika, and smoked cumin, stacks of dried vanilla pods and more.
One thing you can try out for storage is buying regular 2.5" solid state drives (the kind you install in a computer) and using a SATA to USB adapter to plug it in. It’s probably less durable than a proper external SSD, but gives you a path forward if you later want to install them into some kind of network storage server (or have a friend do it, if you’re not sure how).
I haven’t checked the prices very thoroughly, but you might be able to get the internal hard drives for cheaper as well. If you’re willing to go with magnetic drives (3.5" HDDs), you can get bulk storage for (relatively) dirt cheap, of course at the cost of having a noisy drive spinning up each time you open a file on it.
Book files are tiny though. Even very long books with a bunch of pictures are only usually a few megabytes in epub format. A $5 USB stick should fit thousands of books on it.
If you’re using PDF for books, then stop doing that :) PDFs have a bunch of limitations - the main ones being thay you can’t change the font size, and it can’t reflow the layout based on your screen size (i.e. format the book so a page exactly matches your screen size). They’re hard to read on mobile as a result.
I don’t have a ton of storage. My Raspberry pi400 which is my desktop has a 1TB and a 500GB SSD attached. I keep the Books folder synced with Google Drive along with my phone and Kindle Fire. My Book dir is: 58GB and has 18748 items (16970 files, 1777 folders). Gotta love zlib and Anna’s.
Oh boy, where do I even start. I guess we should first have a minute of silence for my wallet…
Fixing old computers
In high school, I agreed to take the decommisioned PCs home. They were in various states of not working, I diagnosed the problems, bought parts, upgraded and fixed them all. I now had a ton of relatively old but reliable computers. What’s the logical next step?
Home server room (homelab).
I live in a flat with a giant basement, so it’s full of these old PCs and servers. I needed a server rack, switches, cabling, the whole nine yards.
Photography
New lenses and filters constantly bought. Sometimes a new camera body. This is my most expensive hobby by far, but I take care of the lenses so they at least hold value, unlike the PCs :)
+1 for photography it’s addicting to buy new gear lol
I started with a relatively cheap Lumix g95 ($700) m43 camera thinking it would have everything I need. But for video I wanted slow mo. It had slow mo but the bit rate was horrendous. At the time I had no idea and none of the information online told you this at all. It was just a check mark ✓ High Frame rate and I had no idea how important bit rate was. Bought better lenses (approx 1200$) because I wanted depth of field and lower light performance. Which m43 just couldn’t provide, but I really wouldn’t have known how much it couldn’t provide it. I trudged on.
Upgraded to GH5 (800$ on offer up), same lenses but much better sensor, higher frame rates, 4k support, better video codex’s. Still had issues with low light and depth of field. Oh yeah and to top it off all Lumix cameras have terrible auto focus. Which is only amplified by my yearning to have lower depth of field, cause more of the picture is out of focus. Now I want to pull the cord and buy a full frame sony camera (2500$ + another $2500 in lenses). I still think GH5 is a great camera and got good use out of it
I have a collection of various Zeiss lenses, because my proffesional photographer friend told me he enjoys them. They’re amazing, but I refuse to even share how much I paid for them, since I’d probably cry :D I also have a few from various brands like Canon, Sigma, etc.
In terms of cameras, I always bought a new one, used it for a while, sold it and bought a new one. I settled on the Canon 1DX Mark III in the end, I think I’ll use this one until it dies.
That basement full of old pcs and servers… Checked some models against ebay?
I bought a pallet of “computers” from a local agricultural auction for £1 based on nothing but that one word description. Turns out one was a fully working PS/2 with monitor and keyboard. The keyboard alone sold for £80, and I made over £200 on the lot and got some great messages from the buyers who were really pleased to find one.
I never did, really. I don’t have anything special in there, just some Dell Optiplexes and HP stuff… I wanted to sell them but once I found out I’d maybe get 20€ a piece, I decided to keep them and try out new software on them, use them for parts, etc.
Coffee. I’m in a coffee producing country. It could be as cheap as grabbing a bag from the coffee institute (really good and cheap), a cloth filter and call it a day. Instead, I’m on my second espresso machine, fourth grinder, second portafilter set, and have all the doodads to make it just how I like it.
I am starting to become more interested in coffee, but even so I don’t think I want to put this much effort into my coffee. Coffee gives me energy, so it can’t be too difficult.
Started like that for me. Used to buy shitty coffee cups from the gas station. Upgraded to a moka pof, then to french press, chemex, v60, aeropress, and landed on espresso about two years back. Slippery slope
So the other day my brother came visiting and brought with him a new portafilter for my run of the mill espresso machine. We messed around with setting the grinder, measuring the exact amount of coffee, and so on and we did get a decent cup of coffee. Thing is, I can live with my old bad coffee, my peasant taste buds don’t really tell the difference, so I’d rather spend my dough on the other 99 things that deplete the bank account. But to you, who make a passion out of brewing coffee, more power to you!
Oh I started that way too. I’m not as deep into the rabbithole as I could be, but I’ve gotten far enough I know how to make a good enough cup of joe (which by all accounts of people whom I’ve made coffee for, is pretty damn good). I’ve had to balance that hobby with my other hobbies, and well… It turned out to be my cheapest hobby, sadly.
Don’t listen to the others. What you are doing is good. I, too, am obsessed with a decent cup.
Just yesterday, I was out with my wife and we went to a coffee shop. I got a superlative cappuccino and picked up a pretty expensive bag of beans meant for espresso. So good.
When I was younger, I could never afford this sort of thing, but as I get older I can’t really enjoy a lot of other things and don’t need to spend much to live other than basic expenses. :)
Getting back into PC gaming after buying my friends old 300 euro gaming PC. I’m looking to upgrade and every little bit faster is only a little bit extra, so a 100 euro upgrade turned to a 120 euro upgrade, then a 150 euro upgrade to… i don’t want to say how much i spent…
Tabletop RPG. I started in High school, you need only paper a pen and a set of dice, right ? All the rules can be found online anyway, right ?
But it’s so much better to have the physical books. And you need more than one dice of each obviously. And this nice metal dice looks very good. I obviously need different set of dice with colors pattern that match my different characters.
Speaking of characters, I need mini. I could get the cheap basic one of course, but the lead ones looks sooo much better.
And I obviously need custom models for all my characters.
Several years later, with a disposable income and I added maps, tokens, terrains, cards, ect. Even a tablet that I use only for this. I’m now limited by the storage place available in my flat (maybe for my own good).
Running. Not as expensive as a lot of the things posted about here, but my shoes cost ~$150 and I have replaced them a couple times a year. I’m planning to get in to trail running soon (as opposed to running circles in my neighborhood, so now I want to add a running vest and a GPS watch, which is not cheap.
Considering that in theory all you need to run is your body and an open space, I feel like I have spent a lot of money.
EDIT: I forgot the ~$140 bone conducting headphones I bought! I for sure feel safer with them than my old headphones though, since I have been doing almost all of my running till now on the road.
It costs a chunk to run, but saves a lot in health bills - even in countries where healthcare is universal. Heart disease is both a killer and something that can incapacitate you, and any potential weight loss benefits aside, running is fantastic for heart health (provided you do it properly and with the approval of your medical professionals). Not to mention it also has focus, mental health, and sleep quality benefits. Plus if you really get into it, you’ll soon be training for some disturbingly long race and be too busy to do much of anything - especially shopping for pointless things you don’t need.
I’d say that most people can get started with decent wicking workout clothes (thrift them if you can and go for gaudy neons if you live in a place that’s dark most of the year), and a pair of decent running shoes on sale. Wireless headphones and a running belt (or just going for pants with zippered pockets to hold your phone) are small upgrades that also make it better if you have a bit of extra budget. Run like this for like a year, and then slowly upgrade with gadgets like running watches, CamelBak backpacks if you start doing long distances and feel like you need it. Also consider investing in slightly better clothing based on what you determine your needs are - colder climate thermals, merino, running shoes for specific pronation, and rolling tools to help you stretch.
Running can be as cheap as less than ~$100 a year or as expensive as you want it to be. It’s cheaper than the gym, CrossFit, at home workout equipment, yoga classes, etc. Not to shit on those things at all, in fact cross training helps you build strength and avoid injury. But nobody should ever feel discouraged by running due to costs, it pays off in spades.
And for new runners, run s l o w. Slower than you want. So slow you feel you’re not doing much and practically walking. Slow and long runs are the ones that make a real difference in building stamina, cardio health, and even decreasing your race times. You’re also less likely to get injured and prematurely get winded by using up all your energy in a sprint. Also, walking is fine. Even experienced runners walk during certain moments - usually for me, I’m doing it to get a burp out or something.
Health is actually half the reason I started running. I’ve lost ~50lbs over a couple years and want to lose more.
And I want to agree on SLOW. When I first started I did C25K and I was running my little 1 minute increments at like a 15 minute mile pace, then walking in between increments. But eventually I got to where I could run that 15 minute mile pace for 30 minutes at a time, and then I started working on speed. I’m down to almost being able to run a 10K in 35 minutes in a hilly environment, or being able to run for ~45 minutes at a slower pace. I tried many times in my 20s to start running and I always got discouraged because I’d try C25K, but do the running parts at a ~9 minute mile pace and it was killing me. Realizing I needed to start slow got me where I wanted to be.
As a warning to anyone reading: don’t start running to lose weight. Running burns calories and can increase your calorie maintenance, but it will also make you very hungry. Weight loss is mainly about CICO, and you can’t really outrun the fork. Since running can be very natural to humans as a form of movement, it also burns very few calories for the effort. I feel like weight training is a more fair calorie spender for the effort.
But running and taking care of myself does make me pick healthier options. Running helps me sleep, so I’m less tired and as a result, less hungry and prone to wanting unhealthy snacks. Fried greasy foods aren’t great fuel for runs, so I’ll naturally pick things like oatmeal, bananas, veggies etc. But be warned, many runners also love a post run beer so YMMV.
As someone who dealt with shin splints for years, a good running shoe is definitely worth it. Once I found shoes that fit my feet properly I never had to deal with them again.
Pro-tip: I highly recommend Altra Torin shoes for anyone like me, who has wide feet but narrow ankles (or as my family calls them, tennis racket feet)
I’ve actually been looking at Altra’s at the suggestion of a Youtuber I like. I should probably just bite the bullet and grab them. I have a super wide toebox and a normal width heel, so shoes are always weird for me. Up until now I’ve just stuck with New Balance, I just have to order them online because a 13 4E is hard to find in store
Agreed, I use them when I’m doing chores around the house if my wife isn’t doing stuff in the same room as me. Sound quality obviously isn’t superb but it is good enough for me and way better than I would expect.
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