Would/do you spend money on a hobby?

66Mustang

My computer that I use to play a certain video game has stopped working as needed.

I still have a laptop which does everything else, it just doesn’t play my game. This means that the computer will be purchased solely for gaming, which I am finding hard to justify. 

A suitable computer (that is powerful enough) will cost quite a bit.

I am finding it difficult to justify spending money on something just to play one video game. On the other hand, the game occupies a lot of my time (several hours a day) and prevents me from becoming too bored.

I’m not sure what to do.

I’m already very bored and it’s been less than a week!

I know people spend lots on other hobbies like fishing, golf etc. or even just a decent television.

I don’t really spend money on anything else aside from the essentials. I don’t have a television, don’t go out socialising, don’t drink much anymore, etc. The only “luxury” I spend money on is petrol for my car to go for a drive.

If you had a hobby that occupied about 4 hours a day, every day, would you feel it is justified to spend money on it?

SueHeath

Hi @66Mustang My hobby is gardening and i can certainly spend a lot of money on that ha ha - if you've got the money then buy it - why not - 4 hours out of your day to play a game you really enjoy I would certainly agree to you buying it, x

Brenda1946

My main hobby is knitting.  I find it relaxing and love to see the finished item.  On Sat i go to a knitting club and meet up with fellow knitters.  We knit exchange or share our patterns plus if like me have difficulity either understanding or sewing bits up  someone is there to help.   I try my hand at sewing on a Wed. but really struggle with it.  I love sharing patterns which i find in various knitting websites.

Tori_Scope

I think it's okay to spend money on hobbies, yes @66Mustang I often try to decide by thinking about how often I'll use the thing, and whether it's a good investment, for example whether it'll last a decent amount of time. 4 hours is quite a considerable amount of time.

I also like to give myself some time. If I still want it after a month, then I probably do actually want it, rather than it being an impulse purchase.

Sandy_123

If its something you enjoy then why not, I'm always picking up pencils, rubbers etc for art work. Plus paper. I have a lovely leather pencil holder folder, that opens out in 3 parts. With different size pencils and different types of pencils. It was a gift for Xmas few years ago. But I'm forever loosing some. 
Also with my writing hobby, a well known London  publisher is offering a course on publication, reading agents etc, my work not ready yet but might pay for that later.

66Mustang

Thank you all for the lovely responses.

I think I just feel a bit guilty spending money on something just for fun, but as some of you have said 4 hours a day is quite a lot and it's going to be well used.

I do have enough money saved up - I wont be buying it on credit or anything like that - and I'll still have a small amount of savings left after buying it, so I guess it's not a reckless purchase.

I think I will probably go ahead with it but will think it over for a few days. Also I still need to decide exactly which one to get!

Thanks again.

woodbine

My advice @66Mustang if it's something you enjoy then just go for it, as sm often tells me "you can't take it with you"

Sandy_123

If you shop around on the net and compare prices,you might get a deal

leeCal

I recently did something similar @66Mustang, so I’d say go for it. 🙂

bg844

Would like you to post some of your art work one day @Sandy_123

I often feel the same about spending money on things I don’t need but if I’ve wanted or made good use of something for a long time I prefer to pay just to get it off my mind

Tori_Scope

Doing the research to know which one to get is the hard bit @66Mustang! I know some people enjoy it, but I find it quite stressful. 

poppy123456

You sound like me and i always have to have a long think about something before i decide to buy it, whether it's formyself or my home. If i was buying something for my children or grandchildren i wouldn't even think about it.

During the first part of lockdown my desktop keyboard broke but before it broke i was getting fed up of having to bash the keys down hard to type and it was starting hurt my fingers and wrists. IN the meantime i was using a very old spare keyboard that i kept. I did a lot of research and found one that i really liked the look of and the reviews were amazing. The only problem was, it was £99, yes i did say £99. I thought about it for weeks and battled with myself trying to justify why i should spend that amount.

I spoke to my eldest daughter because i wanted her opinion (i usually do that before by anything for myself haha) of course she said "well, mam, you do spend a lot of time on the computer so why not buy a nice keyboard and it's your money, you can do what you want with it." She also thought it was a good idea and would hopefully be easier to type on.

Anyway, i did eventually buy it several weeks later and i'm really glad i did.

In my opinion, if you have the money and it's for something you like doing then yes, absolutely go ahead and buy it.

My daughter bought a rather expensive gaming laptop about 5 years ago with her backdated PIP money when she first claimed it. It was the best thing she ever bought and it's still going strong almost 5 years later. Hope you enjoy when you buy it!

66Mustang

Thank you all, it's been incredibly helpful making this thread and getting all of the responses.

@Tori_Scope I do enjoy the research but sometimes start to overthink and then it does become a bit stressful like you say! On the whole, I enjoy it - they actually say that the hunt is half the fun with some things.

@poppy123456 I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. I'm the same with family members, I will still spend time researching to buy the right thing but I wont spend any time at all trying to "justify" the purchase! I guess we need to treat ourselves sometimes as well.

Grinchy

As you know i collect both blurays and star wars stuff, i have found trading with other collectors softens the blow to the wallet, my other hobby making character busts etc is expensive, but i get my expenses covered when doing that by collectors, i'm glad you are going to get your new pc, good luck with it

Cartini

66Mustang said:

Thank you all for the lovely responses.

I think I just feel a bit guilty spending money on something just for fun, but as some of you have said 4 hours a day is quite a lot and it's going to be well used.

I do have enough money saved up - I wont be buying it on credit or anything like that - and I'll still have a small amount of savings left after buying it, so I guess it's not a reckless purchase.

I think I will probably go ahead with it but will think it over for a few days. Also I still need to decide exactly which one to get!

Thanks again.

Hi @66Mustang

In my eyes you are looking at this from the wrong angle. 

I don`t know your challenges (I hate the word disabilities) but you use the PC quite a lot to play games.

Instead of looking at it as "justification to play games" (my words, not yours), why not look at it as a tool or an aid to assist you with your day-to-day cope mechanism to get you through boredom and potentially mental health degradation.

Biblioklept

I was going to say similar to cartini. It's not just about spending something for fun, fun is integral to wellbeing. 
You're spending for your mental health and your wellbeing. 

We all have something we'd spend out on. 

66Mustang

Thanks everyone. @Cartini and @Biblioklept that actually makes perfect sense, thank you for that angle of thought.

I think I have already been using that logic to justify my car, without realising it. My car is just for fun in a way, because I only ever go out for a drive for enjoyment, and when I do drive to a more distant shop, we could have instead walked to a shop in town, or used the family car. Despite the car costing several times as much as a computer I have never felt the need to justify all this because without my car my mental health would really suffer. I guess the computer could be seen in the same light.

SueHeath

What you waiting for @66Mustang go for it ha ha ha xxx

66Mustang

@SueHeath just struggling to decide what sort of setup to go for now haha  

OverlyAnxious

I think this is partly about the way we're brought up.  I was brought up with the idea that you must work hard to earn money...and then never spend that money without being able to justify it completely and always feel incredibly guilty for doing so...  I now have a few elderly relatives with plenty of money, and no ability to use it!    

On a serious note though, that was a big problem for me mentally when I realised I'd never be able to work a proper job.  I have always felt incredibly guilty for accepting benefits, and don't feel like they should be spent on anything other than the bare necessities.

I've been trying to work on that since getting PIP though.  I can easily talk myself out of spending money.  If I wait a month to do so, I'll have gone off the idea by then, or overthought it so much that by the time I do buy something, it can never live up to the expectation.  So I've gone the opposite this year, just buying something when I see it (although checking for best prices first) and the reality is, nothing particularly bad has happened.  I haven't got any major regrets about the things I've bought.  And if I realise after a few months that I didn't really want something, I just stick it on ebay to recoup some of the costs and allow someone else to purchase the item who may not have been able to at the time or at full price.

66Mustang

@OverlyAnxious

I think you're right there.

When I got to around age 14 or so my parents, especially my Dad, started applying pressure along the lines of "you need to get better soon, there's not long until you're 18 and will need to either go to university or get a job". Not maliciously of course, they just had never experienced illness in the family before and all the generations before them had gone to work at 18 or even earlier so I was expected to do the same. Of course they have a different mindset now.

I'm exactly how you describe with benefits, though - I feel very guilty for taking them, and I have never worked in the past so am unable to use the justification that I paid my income taxes when I was able to work.

I actually have a separate savings account for "treats" that I put birthday and Christmas money in to ensure that I don't use the taxpayer's money to buy things like alcohol!!

I know there are lots of people on benefits with the latest smartphone, lots of tattoos, big TVs etc but I think they are likely the ones who's family before them didn't work and so it's kind of ingrained in their mindset. (Not intending to generalise or offend anyone there.)

I'm glad you've had a good experience of spending money though and that nothing bad has happened. At the end of the day I guess it's only money and you can't take it with you!!