How do you afford it all?

Comeuppance

Comeuppance

Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
4,765
Most of us here are just regular joes when it comes to income - even people deep into customs in the $3000+ range aren't generally parking BMWs outside their houses. I've pretty much worked retail this whole time and I squirrel away cash by living super cheap (who wants some eggs? I can make them fancy and add salt!)

I also am VERY patient when looking for a particular knife and will wait until the price is juuuuuust right so that I can buy it without worry of losing money if I end up selling it. That strategy has allowed me to carefully and slowly wiggle my way up the knife food chain - that is, until some huge expense comes up and the knives start looking like trapped money, I do a huge selldown, and then start slowly climbing my way back up again. Occasionally, I'll get some kind of huge windfall of a deal, but it all seems to average out in the end because of the ones I sell at a loss.

But, it works as a system! It keeps me from spending money on pointless things (alcohol, cigs, etc) and means I almost always have neat stuff in the mail. How do you afford it all?
 
I eat a lot of leftovers and take my lunch to work. It's amazing how much you can save per week. I also only have two vices....., guns and knives.
 
I work two jobs, one primary job that supports my bills and a side job that supports my knife addiction.
 
I don't have many vices and I'm introverted to the point of being a hermit :D

Honestly? I'm pretty frugal with most things and I actually don't buy a ton of knives. I regularly get very excited about a knife coming out, but I have an incredible ability to talk myself out of purchases, so new stuff often gets left by the wayside when the rubber hits the road.

I also almost always buy one at a time, often with many months in between. I just bought 4 knives pretty rapid-fire, and that's the most I've EVER gotten in such a short time frame. And they were actually all replacing knives that I sold off and were all less expensive than what they replaced.
 
Firstly, great thread idea. I always find myself wondering this about other members but never thought to ask.

I'm pretty young still. I'm married and we have all shared accounts, but we also have free housing through her job. We still have student loan payments, car payments, credit cards, insurance, yada yada yada. I'm switching jobs pretty soon, at which point I'll be making more money, but the reality is that we're still actively building our life together and stuff, which means there isn't a ton of money for knives.

I probably buy 2-3 a year, maybe 4. I also get tattooed quite often, we go out to eat a lot, I like mixing cocktails at home so I try to keep a well stocked bar. I guess I have a lot of vices, and I make room for a new knife when I can, usually in the 100-250 dollar range.

Sometimes I wish we lived cheaper or that I made more money so that I could really sink my teeth into this hobby/passion, but other times I actually appreciate the limitations. Every time I do buy a knife it's a BIG deal, and I really like how one knife can carry so much excitement with it. Plus, this forum is a good way to delve deeper without making a ton of purchases.
 
No relationship or kids. No drinking, drugging, or smoking. No going out besides AA meetings, church, groceries, shipping, and VA hospital. Lots of leftovers.

Knifemaking usually pays for itself.
 
Easy, I bought a used Nissan instead of a new BMW and feed my children a steady diet of squirrel and celery instead of happy meals. (One of these things might have been made up.)

I do tend to live on the cheap though. Just opting out of things here and there: premium channels on cable, the extra few gigs on wireless plan, used cars instead of new, second hand kids clothes (they grow so damned fast they only wear them a few times anyway), etc.

This not only supports my knife and my wife's dress addiction, but allows us to be active. My parents had some of the nicer things when I was growing up, but we never did anything. I like adventures more than I like HBO and that new car smell.
 
Comeuppance said:
Most of us here are just regular joes when it comes to income - even people deep into customs in the $3000+ range aren't generally parking BMWs outside their houses.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far. There's over 300,000 members here, and almost 19,000 that are currently active.

I'm not a rich guy by no means, but I'm fairly certain that there are some folks here taking in 6figs a year. How many? We'll never know... But I wouldn't say "most" guys are average joes. Who knows, Bill Gates might be hiding in the custom forum posting pics of his $20,000 Michael Walkers:D
 
All my bills combined are generally $750 a month, no wife, no kids, and I usually work 60-70 hrs a week, which means I don't have a lot of free time to go out and spend money.
 
And I only own 15 knives.
 
I don't buy expensive knives nor do I buy a lot of knives at any one time. I try to buy them at good prices so if I sell I don't lose much. Overall I'm probably just a little short of breaking even, so the actual monthly cost is low. I don't have a lot of other hobbies.

I know a lot of people, not rich people, that have bass boats, or motorcycles, or spend a lot of time at the bars, or any number of other drains on their finances. A person would have to buy a lot of knives to challenge what a bass boat can cost and keep costing.
 
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Certainly not rich here. We are fairly frugal. We don't eat out much so that can save a ton of money. My collection has been built up over many years. It sustains itself now. See something I want? I know I gotta sell some things I have accumulated.
 
I work 2 jobs. Married with a daughter so I put a little aside every check and it adds up.

Also, I usually sell something off to offset the new purchase.
 
Probably an anomaly here, but I'm 31 now and around age 26 I was making into the 6-figure range. Other than my condo and car note I was debt free by 27. Single, no kids, and a lot left over to support my hobbies. For my 30th I picked up the truck in my avatar image... sold it just a few months ago though!

Advice for anyone on here - get debt free as quickly as you can. Student loans, credit cards, second mortgages, general bills... pay them all down/off before putting loads of $$$$ into a hobby!
 
Knives are my only splurge on myself, bills and family needs come first. I don't flip knives, they stay in my collection so I usually only buy what I will EDC.
 
At this point when I want something new I sell a knife I have to pay for it. I occasionally will inject new money into my collection but for the most part it is self sustaining at this point!
When I bought my house I also had to remove customs from my knife diet, so now I live on production knives and I get more bang for my buck.
 
I work a part time job in addition to a full time.
I save money and buy second hand clothing, I only drive used cars and I pack a lunch.

I'm so obsessed I make do without alot.

Except what matters
family and knives haha!
 
I try and budget myself to about a grand a month on knives because my other hobbies are expensive. 😉
 
Not until recently when I did a knife inventory did I realize how fast this hobby can chew away my money more quickly than I expected. Therefore, I have set up a ceiling that no matter what my total expense on knives wont exceed. I know it is hard but so far it seems to work well. Whenever I see a knife I want, I would ask myself: am I willing to let some of the knives in my collection go in order to make room/money for that knife?
 
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