to all of you with wives!

[Quickblade22]

The truth shall set you free......but seriously, like anything that costs time or money, be honest and proritize. I've had to make sacrifices in order to get Lego, but they've always been at the expensse of something less important. But keeping your hobbies to a minimum goes a long way too.

[KarenJ]

I'm a Lego wife, and frankly can not understand why there aren't more of us.

My hubby likes to restore antique radios. He is not a Lego fan, but because one of our kids is a boy, he tolerates it. And I do think he likes it, if only a little.
I don't want to say "he tolerates it" in a negative light. The fact is that it is difficult to have a huge collection when your son thinks it is his. It is very hard to keep control over ~200,000 pieces without locking it up.

[Sir Nelson]

If she has any inclination, get her involved. My wife discovered some time ago that she likes to sort. She said it is relaxing and we can sit and sort, while we watch a movie or talk. She likes that we can be involved together in it.

Well said, Josh. I agree with what you and Bruce said, and I'd also like to add that if your wife isn't as passionate about LEGO as you are, you can always encourage her to use it as a medium to express her thoughts and feelings. LEGO is a both a toy and a medium for expression. I never knew that my wife was such a good MOC builder until she decided to build, and the results were fantastic. Together, you can build a new appreciation for the hobby.

[Ye Olde Republic]

I really wish I could share it with my wife more. She's very talented and expressive but, like I said before she's afraid of the size of my collection.

Trevor

[miniflea84]

Not married, but I've got my girlfriend thoroughly hooked. She was really iffy at first but gradually warmed up to the point where she enjoyed brickfair just as much as I did, and I REALLY enjoyed it.

[Aliencat]

That's what I did. My wife isn't a big Lego enthusiast herself, but she knows very well how enthusiastic I am about my hobby, I share a lot of cool Lego findings with her and she enjoys them too, she also has a few sets of her own and helps me out with sorting and building sometimes.

[The Blue Knight]

Support her hobbies just as much as you would like her to support yours. That might mean spending "Lego" money on her hobby. My wife does scrapbooking. She has gone to classes, I have bought her "surprise" supplies while I was out doing other things, stuff like that. I have also ordered special things online that she couldn't get locally. Sound like something you might like, if it was Lego-related?

If she has any inclination, get her involved. My wife discovered some time ago that she likes to sort. She said it is relaxing and we can sit and sort, while we watch a movie or talk. She likes that we can be involved together in it.
Josh

Scrapbooking? We need to keep our wives apart at the next con.

My wife likes to sort as well. I support her scrapbooking because it makes her happy, and that makes me happy.

Now I have her going to cons! My whole family came to the last 2 BrickCons. She has really seen what the AFOL aspect of the hobby is really about. We keep our hobby spending in line.

Like all things in marriage, compromise, compromise and more compromise. And of course give in in the end

[superdave]

My wife is a hobbyist- but not Lego (she knits). We made a deal earlier this year that, to make us both aware of the money we spent on our hobbies, I could match her knitting purchases with Lego purchases. Much sooner than expected, she had her second $250 yarn-store loyalty card filled up and I placed an order for the Millennium Falcon.

We've since cut back (we each have a $30/month allowance), but keeping an open mind toward the other's hobbies is helpful.

[nanuck95]

On a somewhat related note, my wife and I were discussing my Lego budget and we agreed that I could buy one more set this year (troll warship since I don't have it yet) and then save my money until January when the village set and some of the 2009 sets came out. I promised that I absolutely would buy no more Legos this year other than the one set we agreed on.

I was stupid and walked down the Lego aisle at Target last night and they had a King's Castle Siege on clearance for $25. It looked like it had been opened, so I'm not sure if it was missing some parts or what.

Reluctantly, I put the set back on the shelf and walked away. I shared with my wife later when I got home what happened and she was very appreciative that I kept my word and did the right thing.

I did cry a little on the inside though. But I know the trust is way more important in the long run.

[natelite]

blah blah blah...King's Castle Siege ....blah blah blah ...for $25....blah blah blah

drat... being in sydney, the one thing i miss most is target clearance sale.

wife is into puzzles. but if she were into lego i would have pilfered her parts...so it's better she doesn't share...

[Baites]

Before I buy, I usually have to do some ground work.

1. Make sure all the bills are paid
2. Only buy when on sale, so I can claim that it was too good a deal to pass up.
3. If the above doesn't work, put it in the closet and tell her that it can be a Birthday/Christmas present, depending on which event is coming up.
4. If I've put in some overtime, tell her it's part of the extra money that is a reward to myself for my hard work.

[MarioDAlessio]

blah blah blah...King's Castle Siege ....blah blah blah ...for $25....blah blah blah

drat... being in sydney, the one thing i miss most is target clearance sale.quote]

Agreed fully that is not possible in Sydney, when my wife and I came across 3x discounted King Leo castles for $40 in 2001 she was fully supportive of me purchasing all of them, I had already communicated the year before how I was only paying a good discounted $90 not the $120 recommended retail. I happily gave them away as presents to my nephews as I already had two (self-moderation), my Kings castle Siege was a shop at home $150 + $40 shipping it remains MISB.

I agree especially with Communication, pacing yourself & self-moderation. It took me around 4 years to purchase a MISB collection of KK1 which was part of my response to KK2.

My wife has supported me in my Lego Hobby for over 12 years now and finds it easy to buy Fathers Day, Birthday and Christmas presents ect.

I live centrally in Sydney and have a 5m wide 3 level terrace house so space is an issue and around 3 cubic metres (including boxes) of Lego has to be strategically stored.

I have a complete collection of the new fantasy castle range it remains MISB and my wife is happy about this aspect of the way my hobby is evolving (it is about 0.3 cubic metres) I have no desire to open them having already multiples of the sets from the 80/90’s. I purchased for parts a dwarf mine, Skelton tower and chess set as well as the smaller impulse sets.

I have never sold on or traded nor desire to do so, I now really question myself on the need of opening multiple sets these days. I rarely get the time to build mocs usually once ever 2 -3 months and have masses of blocks unused, I have kept a selection of my halve timber houses over the last 10 years on display which my wife can see that I value(They are now becoming a period time capsule of blocks) I am now building mocs online at Lego Factory with my daughter and son to purchase as presents.

Mario

Edit also with hindsight; I would suggest to all wife’s the benefits of the hobby to their future children. My children are 7 & 9, I think the greatest part of being an AFOL for me was the rewards I received from encouraging (little needed) my children to play with Lego and develop their own tastes. He - Town & Star wars, her initially Paradisa and Belville now minifigures especially witches/queens/wizards esp. from new castle range.

I would compare it with the joy of teaching them to swim, skateboard, surf and coaching he’s junior rugby team and sharing all those specially moments, so these days (last two to three years) I spend more time and money on their Lego Hobby as on my own.

[eilonwy77]

I know this topic is two years old, but the original author of it pointed me to it, and I wanted to comment.

My husband and I finally agreed on an entertainment budget last summer, because he was getting really cranky about my LEGO expenditures. At the time, I was only buying DUPLO for our kids to play with, but he was still a bit testy about it.

What's happened though is that it's become a LEGO budget, and he doesn't really have a budget. He says he never buys anything, which is totally not true. He just buys big things like computers and video game systems and somehow thinks that doesn't count as part of an entertainment budget. That being said, I think that the fact that he knows that I'm not going to go crazy on him and spend too much money helps a lot. And then I guess when my laptop goes out, I'll just buy another one of those, too.

One thing I read a few times in this discussion was how you should have BOYS so you can buy them LEGO and play with it with them. For the record, girls like LEGO too! And there'd probably be more adult women AFOLs if more parents bought their daughters LEGO when they were young. But that's probably a whole other discussion topic for another time.

[sirJacob]

Nice eilonwy77 that you could pop by this discussion!
It sounds like you two are close to find a good agrement on how to spend your money!

I't was two years ago since i started this topic, and if anyone want to know if got a solution to my problem my anwser is: No!
But I cannot blame my vife for that!!!
The problem is that we are both studying (we are quite young) and we have absolutley no money so the money goes to essential things like food and rent... of course lego is an essetial element of life, but they are difficult to digest... its hard being a student
Luckily we're both studying economics, so I might wirte my masters degree on this topic! "how to get money to buy Lego"
So I'll come back in a few years, maby we might have an agreement on how to spend our fortune

[pijani]

Crusader here, with his perfected, all-natural, wife-approved, 100% satisfaction guaranteed 4-step plan to get Legos into your house:

1. Make baby with wife

2. Have boy baby

3. Buy Legos saying they are for the baby (this can start pretty much right after conception by the way)

4. Play with Legos

ahahahaha GREAT