Your LEGO budget

[Storm]

As a TFOL my budget is:
b= 15m+p-g
where b is my budget, m is the number of months I save my money, g is gifts I recieve, and x is the cost of any games I buy.

[JoshWedin]

As a TFOL my budget is:
b= 15m+p-g
where b is my budget, m is the number of months I save my money, g is gifts I recieve, and x is the cost of any games I buy.

Okay.

But what is 'p'? And where is 'x' in your equation? And where did the 15 come from? Is that your allowance?

Shouldn't this actually be B= (15m+g)-x ? (Had to nitpick...sorry )

Josh

[JPinoy]

My LEGO budget is whenever I have money in my account... After all the train tickets for commuting, gas for the car, cellphone bills for my Blackberry, healthy organic food, and other expenses have been paid. I still have plenty left over to reach certain amounts of my LEGO armies!

[Legoorci]

My lego budget as TFOL is small too.
I spend about 50 € for PC games and I plan about 70€ for other things like going to cinema or sth.
For christmas or B-Day I wish clothes and books and sometimes Lego.
The rest of the money goes to Lego!
In some years where I don't buy much I save it on my credit account, I save the money for my time as collegian.
So this year I came to 2 Lego stores, so I don't have much money anymore
Totaly I spend about 400€ for Lego this year

[Gakusei]

I don't have an official Lego budget, it typically falls under my "Fun" category, of which I tend to stick $10 every paycheck into. However, that covers a lot of territory, from movies, books, to even lunch with my friends at some restaurant in downtown. Because of this, I don't have a whole lot of money for Lego, not that it has ever stopped me. Last year, I spent somewhere around $900+ (with over $600 of that on Pirate sets) on Lego, the year before that was a little less. This year, I probably plopped down around $400 to $500 easy, maybe more. I'm tightening my belt though, as I have been trying to focus on saving money for the future versus spending it all now. Hopefully I can snag a promotion or second job (or both for that matter) and then I'll have plenty of cash for all the Lego I want.

Currently, I just make a list of bricks that I need right now to finish the project that I am on. As I build, I write down various bricks that I need to finish the next stage of building. It has cost me a little in constant shipping, versus if I could just bulk buy everything at once like I would like and only pay shipping once (or not at all, depending on the free shipping deals). This runs me about $30 to $70 a time, which occurred every 3 weeks for the past few months, until I was able to finish my last project. My newest project is going to be a little different, as I'm just going to save and buy as much in bulk as I can.

[Thoriun]

hi

My lego budget is somewhere around 50 to 100 euros a month, if university is on it goes only to 50 euros.

On two special months of the year it raises up to 150 euros, in March (my birthday) and on December (christmas)

My current themes are Castle (no question there) and Star Wars (also no question there) i don't buy everything that comes out but most of them

Thoriun

[pijani]

Do you have a LEGO budget? How do you decide how much it is? Do you stick to it? How do you determine what to spend it on? Do you try to creatively earn money in order to spend it on LEGO?

It is very simple: first I pay rent and food, and everything else goes for Lego
My girlfriend hates this but I've got for anniversary Lego, so... love is the strongest! Then the 2x4+2x4 brick grip
And, on occasion, I am taking some money from the food...
There is also ALWAYS pending order on bricklink when I manage to pay for the previous one, I am immediately making a new one

And with leaked pictures of the 2011 sets, I must find another way for getting money - working just wont do it: D

[KarenJ]

What a great topic. My budget varies from month to month. We are in a deep, deep recession at our house. Gripped with fear is a good way to put it. Taxed into poverty would be a better way to say it.
So, we're trying to simplify things and get rid of all the clutter (toys). We're selling some things on ebay, like the Thomas wooden trains, toddler toys, etc. And Lego...smaller sets (less than 10.00), Duplo, and things I'm willing to part with. I can't part with minifig food or windows of any kind.
I also opened up a bricklink store and have gotten ONE order (I was thrilled!).I'd like to sell enough to buy Fire Brigade. TLG is giving double points this month, and I have 50$ in VIP rewards, so I guess my budget this month is 100.00. Plus tax.
There is something on bricklink called "notifications" where they will notify people who have wanted parts that you have for sale. If I send out the 300 notifications, will I be swamped? I'm still a little afraid of bricklink. Last night I dreamed that I got a large order of parts and couldn't find them.

[JRod_the_Pirate]

I don't have any set budget, but I do try to prevent myself from going overboard. I usually try to wait a few weeks before buying something in order to avoid too much impulse spending. However, there's a LEGO store in the building where I work, which makes impulse spending just a little too easy...

[eilonwy77]

Karen -- yeah, I'd be a bit afraid of bricklink, too, if I were selling things. I hope it all works out!

My husband sometimes bribes me with LEGO money. For instance, if I successfully got the PMI taken off of our house mortgage, I would get a percentage of it to spend on LEGO each month, an increase in my budget. He knows what motivates me.

[Tower of Iron Will]

Budget?

Seriously though, normally I have had a budget like most people here: when all the bills are paid for the month any leftover goes to LEGO. The budget breaker for me is Bricklink. It is too easy to identify something missing, or something that could be added to a faction, go onto Bricklink, and in a few searches and mouse clicks the order is paid for and on the way.

My problem now is that I have been out of work for a year and cannot spend like I used to. I have to identify exactly what I want to have for the new factions with very few extras or spares. It's weird that some people complain a lot about work (like I did) yet know that's all I want now - a job. Can't buy more LEGO without a decent job.

For me this is a great topic as my personal financial management in the past was never great. Now, being at a low point as I am, I am more committed to manage my finances better in the future (ie, not using credit cards is one goal). Not only will I have more money for LEGO but other big purchases like house/car/retirement,etc,etc.
-Tower

[wunztwice]

Hmm. I don't really have a LEGO budget. My wife and I aren't currently making enough to really set aside an allotted amount each month. So, I rely on sales of figs, and super-discount sets to get new parts throughout the bulk of the year. Birthday, Christmas, etc monies are for me to do what I want with, so they usually end up going into LEGO. My birthday is in August, so I usually try to save any cash for BrickCon. Christmas Money is often allotted to BrickFest if if is happening that year, although that is a long wait.

That said, Erin usually gets me at least a small set for any significant occasion, although this year she very generously bought me the Imperial Flagship for Anniversary AND Birthday combined.

When I was single and worked wildfires my budget was more like $100-$200 a month for LEGO, but that depended on how much my school books cost.

[Aliencat]

My LEGO budget is basically "Whatever I have left after everything else", which really varies from month to month.

[BobaFett2]

My budget used to be whenever I got money, so I had spent a few hundred on LEGO in a few months, but being a TFOL I needed to save money so I now have 34 a month, any leftovers spilling into the next month. I'm earning more though, so I'll probably increase the budget next year. It's been hard though, saving up for months so that I have enough money budgeted

[Azure]

I struggle with budget just like the rest of you do, it seems. I struggle to keep in line with my purchases having a lego store so close (Megablocks you, PaB wall!), but I try to only buy sets I want/need for parts/personal reasons.

Since getting back into building with lego, I've probably spent a couple thousand in the last year or so to get a decent collection (ebay, craigslist, lego store, yard sales, BrickCon). Now that my wife has organized our collection, I should be able to start building some really neat stuff. Luckily, everything is sorted into an understandable order

I've been planning to get into the bricklink route of selling lego to pay for my collection, but I don't think I'm ready for it either. Though, I'm building up a rather nice collection of things to go into a store...