Spending on hobbies

wineandblue13 · October 2015

Hello! I am a long-time MM lurker but this is my first post. I am oddly nervous to post, but I know I can count on yall to give me solid, un-biased advice.

So a little about me. I am 24 years old and have been MM as long as I can remember. I was fortunate to grow up with parents who were excellent financial role models and always stressed the concepts of not wasting money, living below your means, and saving. While I cannot thank them enough for teaching me how to be financially responsible, I sometimes feel like it holds me back in a way. I find myself having an extremely hard time allowing myself to spend money on myself. Its difficult for me to part with my money, and because of that I feel like I'm just kind of stashing money away for no reason..

I really want to put my horse experience to good use and rescue a slaughter-bound horse. I found a FB group that posts horses currently sitting in "kill pens" (they were dumped at auctions by their owners and bought for cheap by kill buyers to be sent to Mexico for slaughter). They have a limited time to be rescued before they are loaded on a trailer and face their death. Its gruesome. The horses "bail" ranges from $200-$700, a price I can easily afford. The expensive part is of course the vet bills, feed, hoof care, and boarding (in my area ranges from $250/month for a run-down barn far out of the city and $450 for a high-end barn closer to the city). I understand the expenses of horse ownership, but I have been saving forever and it would theoretically fit into my budget just fine even at the higher end. I'm just so nervous to pull the trigger so to speak, because a $450/mo bill added to my fixed, bare bones budget is a little scary. Also, the time commitment is another fear. I live in big city and its difficult to get around during rush-hour, and most barns are at least a 30 min drive. For the reason, I would board the horse in a pasture instead of a stall so I won't feel guilty if I can't make it out as often as I want.

ETA: I sincerely apologize. I went back and read my post and got really anxious having my finances broadcasted online. I know that is the purpose of this board but I just got super panicky.Its kind of a naked feeling. I don't want to just delete the entire content of the post because that's not cool, so maybe we could spin this around into a general discussion. How much money do you budget for hobbies/sports?

smerka · October 2015

I feel like Suze Orman and her Can I afford it segment. The first question I would ask is what does your boyfriend think? Is He on board or what? My brother is married to a woman who loves horses. She has wanted one since before he met her, but doesn't have one yet since it is such a huge expense. I would recommend posting your budget.

CuriousKiddosMama · October 2015

About how long until you have your cc paid off? Honestly, I would wait u til then. If you are making double payments on it, that is about how much the horse will cost monthly. So as soon as that is gone, the horse could fit nicely into your budget. For me waiting would also give me encouragement to scrape up every $ I could pay towards the loan to get it paid off that much quicker.
I like horses, but will probably never own one although I do understand th desire to do so. Since you've owned one before you have a good idea of all the costs, so it's not like you are getting in over your head.

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

Welcome! I used to ride up through high school, and currently have a different expensive hobby (diving) so I think I can offer a pretty good perspective here. You sound pretty fiscally responsible, and have a good e-fund. I would just take a look at your budget and make sure that with the horse, including boarding, food, vet bills, transport to any shows or group rides you want to do, ferrier, deworming, equipment, etc. etc. you'd still have enough buffer to add to savings and retirement. Then I'd add an additional monthly buffer in case your horse needs any recurring medical treatment; my horse in high school needed monthly glucosamine shots, for example. You know the drill. I'd also add wedding planning into this potential budget, and child care if you guys plan on having kids within the next few years.

Honestly, my biggest concern in your case would be time. After working at a demanding job all day, will you really want to drive an hour round trip to the barn and spend 1.5 hours there 5-6 days a week? If you have kids in a few years, will this even still be feasible? For me, the answer would be no. From a partnership perspective, I also think my husband would be pretty irritated if I was gone late every day like that, though he is very understanding about my taking a day or two to pursue my hobby on the weekends. In your situation, I might consider either half leasing a horse yourself, or rescuing a horse as you intend and then half leasing it to a young rider who could ride it 3 days a week to take the burden off. This could also help offset the financial hit a bit.

Actually owning a horse is such a massive commitment. I'm not sure I'll ever do it again as an adult. But, given your financial picture, I would definitely give yourself permission to pursue this hobby again and spend some money on it You've put yourself in a place where that is a-okay to do. I guess in your shoes what I would probably do first is half lease a horse for a year or so and see how that fits into my life before actually purchasing. See how it works with your job and relationship, and then perhaps reevaluate. I love your idea of rescuing a horse; perhaps if you don't do that right away, you could volunteer at a horse rescue facility or even build some giving to horse rescues into your budget. I agree, the slaughter industry is absolutely horrifying and I commend you for going that route if you do decide on ownership.

MommyLiberty5013 · October 2015

I also feel like while we can all give you examples of our hobby/fun monetary spending, unless any of actually owns a big animal, it's not really the same thing. Yes, there's the financial cost, but there is also the mental and emotional cost of owning and caring for a living creature that is totally dependent on a person for care. For this reason, I feel like it puts horse ownership not into a hobby category, but a lifestyle category instead.

While other hobbies like scrapbooking, diving, and travel can be pricey, none of them mean owning a living animal. Anyone can walk away at any time from any hobby. You cannot just walk away from a huge animal easily or take a pause on your horse hobby when life gets busy.

I travel and scrapbook. I also hike. I can take up or put down each hobby as I need to depending on life that is occurring around me.

I guess I just see horse ownership as a lifestyle choice and not a hobby.

hoffse · October 2015

I was a rider up through high school too. I agree with Xstatic that the time commitment is the big issue here, more so than the money. H and I have talked about doing the horse thing for a long time because I really want one, and we could afford the fees associated with it, but it's just not feasible given where we live, my job, and where the stables are located.

I think Xstatic's idea of leasing is a really good one. If you want to get back into it, try leasing a horse for a year and see if the time commitment is too much for you. You could also take up lessons again to help test yourself with the time commitment. Otherwise, I think you should look for a stable where they will work out the horse for you. It costs more, but there are a few in my area that will help with the exercising, etc. when you can't be there. I know there are also a few stables in my area that bill themselves as fully all-inclusive - they cover all boarding fees, food, vet care, ferrier needs, exercise, and you get a lesson or two per week with it. I'm sure you are paying more over the long run for that option, because every horse doesn't need all of this all the time. However, for budgeting purposes it's a flat fee and you know your horse is being professionally cared for.

In general, I think it's fine to spend money on hobbies if you can afford it. If you think about it, your parents obviously agreed. They would never have let you get into the horse thing if they weren't willing to spend some money on your hobby as a kid. Plenty of kids dabble in things growing up, but some extracurriculars are more expensive than others, and horses are definitely on the expensive side.

H and I share a very expensive hobby, but we were lucky to have parents that helped. H and I both really love music. We have 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, a dual-head piccolo, a violin, and a clavinova in our house. One flute and both clarinets are professional quality. My H also owns an upright piano that's located in a warehouse in California (long story). We've been discussing recently whether it's worth paying to get it to Alabama, or if we should sell it and put that money toward a new/used piano locally.

Anyway, with music the big expense for beginners is usually lessons while mom and dad are figuring out if music is going to stick. If music does stick, then the big expense comes with the purchase of higher quality instruments, sometimes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. We actually carry a musical instrument rider on our home insurance, and our instruments are collectively insured for more than both of our vehicles.

In the last few years you could say that we've developed a new hobby with travel. Travel can be VERY expensive, especially if you are paying out of pocket for everything and then break it down by cost per day for how much you are spending on that trip or vacation. Is it worth it though? Many on this board would say absolutely yes.

All of that is to say that I don't think it's a problem to spend money - even a lot of money - on hobbies when it's something you can afford to do and love. Unless your hobby is collecting something, they tend to involve experiences or learning a new skill more than acquiring stuff. Enriching your life through hobbies seems to be a very good way to spend extra money to me. However, you do need to examine the time commitment involved vs. the cost, and then weigh all of it against the more boring stuff you need to spend money on. I don't think hobbies should come before retirement or getting out of CC debt.

dragonstarjk · October 2015

Totally agree w/ pps. I see no reason why you shouldn't spend money on hobbies--even expensive ones--if it is within your budget to do so.

H has a pretty expensive hobby--archery hunting. It is something he is extremely passionate about, and he feels that his life would not be fulfilling if he wasn't able to pursue this passion. Therefore, we make sure to include hunting expenses whenever we rework our budget, because it is not negotiable. I respect this.

I don't necessarily have any expensive hobbies, other than I love to travel. H likes to travel as well, but I am the one that gets the major itch to go visit somewhere new on a regular basis. We include travel in our budget as well, although eventually we'd like to greatly increase the budget for traveling--perhaps once our house is paid off.

The thing is, no, I don't think you should put off retirement savings or paying off credit cards or any of those other requirements. But, I also don't think people should feel guilty for spending money on themselves. If you never spent any money on yourself and only ever paid bills and socked extra money away forever, then what really is the point?

Words I try to live by: "Don't live to work; work to live."

simplyelise · October 2015

Without seeing your budget, it is really hard to know what a base of $500/month is going to do to your cashflow. I'm trying to think of what percentage of my income I'd be willing to spend on a hobby, but I'm a cheap hobby person, so it's a bit hard. And honestly, I will never foot crazy bills for my kids to do massively expensive hobbies either (one instrument with instruction at school or cheap lessons is fine, sports to a semi-competitive but not travelling select level, and any school-related activities are fine too). But we do send 10% of our joint takehome as a tithe to our church. So if you're not a church person or a tither, I could see 10% being a reasonable amount to spend. But that would need to be inclusive of all associated upkeep costs.

My other advice is to not do anything so permanent until after you are married. Wedding planning and preparing for marriage can be really stressful and presumably you'll be dealing with lots of changes at that time with figuring out how you're going to handle your money as a couple and what new goals you might have. All of a sudden you may decide you need a house or decide you're ready to try for kids. That could really change my answer about buying a horse right now. So I say wait, then make the decision together. You definitely don't want the bf to turn into a resentful husband because before you were spending your money and now your spending "our" money on a hobby he doesn't get.

Do you have any therapeutic riding stables around you? I'm in a fairly small community, but about 20 minutes outside of town we have a really amazing therapeutic riding program at a stable and they are always looking for volunteers who are good with horses and willing to spend time working the horses out and helping with lessons for children with various developmental or physical special needs. It definitely sounds like getting back involved in horses would improve your quality of life, so maybe see how creative you can get before committing to over $6000/year in expenses.

ETA: I for sure would not buy a horse until you're debt free though.

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

@simplyelise my first barn in Middle School also did therapeutic riding. That is a great idea for OP! It was so, so rewarding to help out. Unfortunately there was "barn drama" between my instructor and the owner and we ended up leaving that facility, but I'd love to do it again in the future.

I really think @MommyLiberty5013 made good points here too. Though it's not a large animal, we are going through some of these issues with our dog right now. We recently learned that he has heart disease, and although it may not drastically shorten his life, our vet wants him to have a $296 echocardiogram every six months for perpetuity. Sure, we can afford this, but it's a much bigger chunk of our budget then we planned for when we got him and, TBH, will probably cut into my diving budget. It's like she said; I can cut diving and nobody cares but me, but if we skimp on his vet care we have that little puppy face to worry about. We just can't say no to him, and we shouldn't. He's our responsibility.

None of that is to try to talk you out of it; just bringing up some more considerations.

wineandblue13 · October 2015

Thank you everyone for the advice! I really value your input. In my moment of nervousness, I deleted a lot of the content of my post that probably would help make my post make more sense. I owned and cared for about 12 different horses throughout my childhood from ages 5-20. My parents made me sell my horses to pay for college, and I vowed I would sacrifice the shortest amount of time possible until I had a career and money to do so. I refer to horses as a hobby because my interest is showing hunter/jumper and dressage, so its a sport for me. I have been taking lessons and riding off/on throughout the past two years and recently have been teaching beginner lessons again and exercising horses with a barn, but its only on one set weeknight at week (on a night that I usually have work meetings and sometimes have to cancel), and the option to take a 40 min lesson for $50 on the weekend. So I guess I'm just more interested in the ownership route because I would to ride more often and on my schedule, and I just really miss having a horse of my own since thats basically all I've ever known. I've explored several leasing options, but they weren't really situations I felt comfortable with due to micro-managing owners and restricted riding times.

I also deleted the paragraph about my finances in my panic state :-S, but I feel very confident about where I am financially. I have far more than 6 months expenses in my E-Fund and a very sizable sum in regular savings. I'm right on track with contributions to my TRS pension plan and recently starting contributing an additional 10% to a 403(b). My only debt is the remainder of my low-interest car loan that I have made excellent progress on so I really don't feel too urgent about it. And when playing with my budget calculator, I would still have a few hundred left over each month factoring in all my monthly expenses plus the hypothetical $500/mo horse budget (which would in all reality be closer to $350 with pasture boarding). So really, like many of you mentioned, the time commitment is the main thing holding me back. I'm a teacher so I don't work very late hours and have summers off to ride, but the miserably hot and humid summers where I live do kind of ruin that. I guess I just feel like, since I can afford it now, a horse would be better off grazing in a pasture and being ridden a few times a week than he/she would be in a slaughterhouse.

I fell in love with a mare that would be an excellent prospect for my discipline, but she ships on Tues and I just really wish I had never discovered this FB page

brij2006 · October 2015

I personally would wait until all debt was paid off before doing something like this.

I grew up on a farm and my parents still farm. Horses (and many other animals) have been regular things in my life, and someday I want to own a couple. However, they take a huge commitment and you know that. They also come with unexpected expenses, just like any other pet (I personally don't view a horse as a pet though). The difference is, a dog may cost a few hundred $$ for a vet bill, a horse will likely cost a few thousand. So in that case, I would make sure that I am set up very very well personally before taking on that responsibility. Meaning that all debt is paid off and have a sizable emergency fund to help out if needed.

Since much of your content was deleted, I am gathering by other responses that you are going to be getting married soon. If that is the case, then this is something that needs to be discussed in full and in depth with your fiance. It means much time away from him in the evenings and weekends, money coming out of your eventually joint budget that this will eventually become his expense as well, and a responsibility that will stay around for many years to come even when you have children.

Spending on hobbies

Re: Spending on hobbies

Choose Another Board

Search Boards