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Scrapping budgets

Kat

Kat

Seeking wine/shopping/teeth brushing support group
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
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I just wondered how you guys keep a scrapping supply budget. Does anyone? I need to desperately and just when I think okay, I'm not going to buy anything else this month b/c I have SOOOO much new stuff to use...

I see a kit.

It's a must have.

And I close my eyes and hit the buy buttons...

I'm afraid when my husband sees how much I am actually spending that he is going to lecture me on "blowing money". I have my excuses ready (but it was on sale, there was this party, but I only spent a little last month, I'm bored and you work all hours of the day and night so this is my therapy, the dogs made me do it, but I can't go outside and play b/c it's raining...)
 
tee hee - I don't have a budget. However, I do try to keep it to a minimum. Like right now, I am thinking I need the Fall Scape kit because I have all the others in the series, but in reality, do I need another Fall kit? And that StoryTeller kit has soooo many pretty purples in it. I am waiting until Sunday to decide....
lbw_SBasic_FallScape_Bundle_pv.jpg
 
I am the keeper of memories in our family...and that comes at a cost.
My family love the books! I think if I had one done every month, they would be so happy!

I have looked at it this way (cause I'm old school)
in the past:
due to cost, film sat in drawers - ruined...and memories lost
so
we developed at a HIGH cost. OH my gosh it was expensive.
paper scrapping is and was crazy expensive!

now:
photos sit on phones-lost in digi files.
due to cost, we let them sit there
I say,
get those pages scrapped,
printed and into the hands of the star of the page...
who smile and laugh remembering the moment!

This is more than a hobby! This is a JOY to my life.

can you put a price on this?

well, maybe a budget!? One less Starbucks Venti is actually the price of a bundle on sale! tee hee
another reason I brew at home! bhwhwhahahha
 
I love ya'll's philosophy on this. I always feel so guilty spending money. My husband works hard for it. I've always been a spender. Lately I've taken to staying home all day (I work from home) instead of going out periodically because I spend a ton of money when I am out. But then I get on amazon, or here, or something like it and spend just as much or more. lol.
 
I look at it this way... by scrapping our memories I'm adding joy - it's like gifting myself/family/friends or even future generations with a present to see again in the future when we look back and think "Aww those were the days!" "We were so..." young/thin/little/cute etc. I've uploaded all my photos and layout jpgs into my Amazon cloud (as a Prime member it's free storage or backup! LOL) and it's been telling me about my memories from this day x number of years ago... I've been sending those pages (and some photos) by text to my son off at college or my daughter/husband/family/friends. It's like a present! The reaction has been so positive. Now obviously books or framed pages is even more of a tangible present!
The process of creativity (and scrapping more specifically) is way cheaper than therapy. Scrapping keeps me sane - it calms me and is such pleasure of fiddling with shadows or placement... until I'm loving it. By investing in high quality products/supplies that I want to use, which contribute to the finished product being beautiful, then it's just like an artist buying good paint or canvas. It's money well spent in my mind.
 
I agree that this is a "priceless" hobby. That being said, I do have a TON of kits I haven't even used yet, and it's true I don't NEED another fall/Halloween/insert theme here kit since I have more than one sitting on my hard drive.

So I try to keep a budget, not so much an amount per say, but I put things in my wishlist and wait for sales. If during that sale I go to my wishlist and still want that kit, then I will buy it, if I'm still iffy on it, then I usually opt not to purchase it.

All that being said, there are some designers or kits that I'm just a sucker for and I'll just go ahead and buy from them regularly.
 
I think if you have a good plan for paying your bills and you're following through with that, and if you are meeting other financial goals (maybe retirement savings, giving to charity, etc.), then spending money on scrapbooking supplies (or whatever your hobby expense might be) is more than OK. We work hard so that we can enjoy doing what we love!

I'd make sure your hubby is aware of what you have spent . . . be proactive and let him know . . . that way it doesn't come as a surprise to him and he likely won't enter into lecture mode. Hubby and I talk about our spending constantly. Sometimes it's super annoying because I just want to spend and don't want to think about it, but for the most part, having open communication about our finances has been invaluable. We usually try to be equal with whatever entertainment/hobby money we have available. Sometimes I spend more one month and then the next month he might spend more.

Hope you find a good place where you can spend and enjoy it!
 
I do digiscrap since 10 years and never bought a kit, because of my CT work. Since I started to join the challenges here and always get a % coupon. Normally I never redeem a % coupon, as I said, since I started here:blush. Since then and since I discovered Little Butterfly Wings I buy here and there a little, but really not much as 5-7$.
 
This is one reason we allocate monthly personal spending money in our budget. He spends his $ as he chooses and I spend my $ as I choose. And, apparently, for me that's primarily books, digital scrap supplies, and Starbucks!
 
I've been digiscrapping for over a decade and almost never delete anything from my stash. So I really don't need anything, and that helps me not buy often. Of course, there's always pretty new things that catch my eye and I do buy at least one item most months, with the coupon I receive for completing all the challenges. We've got too much debt so I'm always trying not to spend money in general. What helps with digiscrap stuff in particular is to plan not to buy anything at all, but then allow myself one or two items when something really good goes on sale or I have coupons.

I'm okay with re-using stuff a lot. I don't even realize I'm doing it sometimes. I just noticed today that I used the same yellow paper heart on two of my layouts for the October challenges, made a couple weeks apart. I love using hearts on my pages, so that's cool! I've used it a few times before this month too! I reuse entire kits even. I just made yet another layout with Moon Whispers by Etc By Danyale, one of my few Halloween themed kits. :)

As for husbands, mine has a more expensive hobby than I do -- painting little tabletop wargame figures -- so he wouldn't complain about my digistash spending. Not that he has spent much on his hobby in recent years either. He told me this evening he just finished painting some figures he'd purchased in the 1990's!

Remember you can re-color and otherwise change digi elements too, stretching your stash further. Digiscrapping is so much more economical than paper scrapping. Today I cut a word strip to use just one of the words on it, for example.
 
I stumbled on this thread today, I've been too busy in the Halloween Bash forum, LOL. I inherited some $ when my mother passed away, enough to allow me to retire and not collect social security for a year (and then some). The dividends from that $ go into a checking account that is mine. I've got PayPal linked with that checking account as my primary, and VISA as the secondary, just in case. But my mad spending comes out of that primary account. I really don't spend lots of money on clothes, never have. I am pretty basic when it comes to makeup, only mascara & now eye brow pencil as I have inherited my mother's white eyebrows. Mostly that checking account pays for DH's medical bills, my scrapping items, books that I find on Amazon. I have more than enough digi stuff to last me 3 lifetimes, but I still continue to buy.
 
Before my hubby and I even got married we had a conversation about our spending. We are both very different types of spenders. If he has money, he spends it and would come back to ask for more. I'm a saver and over-think every purchase, so I usually have a stash of money. SO... we decided that we would each get an allowance... just like teenagers. We get the same amount of money and we even have our own accounts for our play money, so that when he wants to blow through all his money the day he gets it, that totally fine with me and he knows not to ask for more, so we never have to argue about it. AND the best part is when I want to blow money on scrapping supplies or yarn or some other crafty venture, I don't have to feel guilty about that either. It's a beautiful system, so maybe you could set something like that up too... give yourself an allowance so you don't have to feel guilty when you spend it. :)
 
Since arriving here I've pretty much have blown my monthly budget (allowance) on kits. I've decided that I have enough kits to draw from now and will only allow myself to buy a kit if I just "have to have it" and it has more then just one element that I love. Buuuuuuuut BYOC for November is just around the corner, so that decision may just get thrown out the window.....Hee hee
 
I am so thankful for the amazing designers here that have me on their creative teams. With our weak exchange rate, my scrapping budget would be dismal at best. I always do the challenges and get the discount coupon and then there are SOSN every week that tempt me. I especially love it when designers email me their bundles at a discount. I do ask permission from hubby, before I spend over $5 per week though.
 
What a great thread! I don't really have a budget. I have to echo what Marilyn @mcurtt said about "mad money" - I'm fortunate enough to have that and I call it "my mad money". I've been in love with memory keeping for many many years and my hubby loves that I do this, so he's never had a problem with what I spent/spend. I paper scrapped for most of those years and compared to the cost of paper scrapping, digi scrapping is minimal.
 
This did become a great discussion thread. Love hearing all the opinions and I feel less guilty. I am definitely not mentioning what I spend to my husband, but fairs fair b/c he spends over a hundred bucks a month on an iPhone game. I kid you not. I thought he was "frugal" but this changed my mind. He did NOT tell me either, but it's his money so I didn't really care of course. But I am a guilty spender, always have been. I am getting ready to head out for a few errands and I am going to the bookstore maybe so that always leads to money being spent, ha ha. And the grocery store is a whole different subject. Our non-dairy allergy lifestyle costs so much more than it did before we had to buy so many specialty products.
 
Kat said:
Love hearing all the opinions and I feel less guilty.
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So glad that you feel less guilty!

I struggle with guilt about a lot of things, so I know this struggle! Having others to talk to and work through it really does help!!! :heartslub
 
Kat said:
And the grocery store is a whole different subject. Our non-dairy allergy lifestyle costs so much more than it did before we had to buy so many specialty products.
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So, groceries especially for health should not be something to feel guilty about. We all have to eat! And, yes, it sucks when a special diet makes that eating more expensive but it's still required to live. Especially when it's a fatal allergy. Or, if it creates more in medical bills.
 
Scrapping budget: Obviously, it's different for me right now, but we've always had "mad money" in our budget. That way, when DH chooses to buy Loot boxes for a video game I'm not annoyed. And when I spend money on digi supplies or going out he's not annoyed.
Honestly, like @Karen , having it set ahead of time is super helpful and takes the stress out of the equation. I know what I can spend without conversing about it, he knows what he can spend. If it's something that I truly feel is family oriented (like Ticket To Ride board game yesterday) than we discuss it and it doesn't come out of our individual mad money if we both agree. Printing never comes out of my mad money. But the supplies do.
 
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