5 Expensive Hobbies article

http://www.investopedia.com/slide-show/expensive-hobbies/

homebrewing isn't one of them!

see honey? it's totally not a money drain! you should consider yourself lucky that you married a man who is so reasonable & frugal as to only need things such as a shiny silver Blichmann mash-tun...

honey? where are you going? come back! honey?...

Its funny... my hobbies could be done ffor cheap, but thats never the case. I always dive in too hard. $20 dollar fishing pole? Try $300 fly rod. Walking a golf course and getting some exercise for a greens fee? Try lunch, booze and a cart. Brewing a cheap session beer. Try a 2x ipa with a lb of hops that require a freezer and kegs for keg hopping...

I don't know of how a person's going to get into SCUBA for 500 bones in equipment, even if you dive tables without a computer.

Any hobby can be expensive - it's all in how far you want to push it.

I can shoot sporting clays with a 400 dollar 870 once or twice a year or I can shoot tournaments with a K80, cart, and buying enough components to shoot upwards of 10,000 rounds of 12 gauge a summer....

Naw my guns are really more expensive then brewing. My rem 700 cost me 4500 or so then another 36 a week on just the projectiles to shoot from it. I never added up all the powder and primer and gas costs. That is just one of my guns. My smith and Wesson m&p9 has costed me a small fortune as well. Only I could take a $450 piston and spend another $1000 on parts for it. Then shoot the living piss out of it, she has 30,000 rounds through her now let's not add up that cost...

Another expensive hobby is fly fishing...$1000 might get you a nice rod and reel with fly line. No waders or flies included. Of course just like home brewing I had to home make my rods. Bought a $600 lathe set up just to turn some reel seat blanks for my rods.

I am a PADI Dive Master and the only way you could get a set of $500 scuba gear would but some old piece of crap gear off ebay. Hell my dive computer alone was around $800.

I remember when I thought I was going to save a bunch of money reloading. But the need for precision digital scales, calipers, tumblers and whatever else I think is awesome adds up.

I love my hobbies, ill drop some cash for something that makes me happy.

unionrdr said:

Idk man...that writer may've had a few & wasn't thinking logically.\

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I think the writer is an evil robot... so it should have been thinking logically.... bzzzt... but with no emotion...zzzzt seriously... evil robot. which is cool unless they **** with beer. (Bender would never think of it.)

All hobbies can be expensive.

My beer hobby is one of the most affordable.. I believe it's a lot cheaper than my awful drinking habit hobby.

I'm pretty sure the cost is the only thing keeping me away from ballroom dancing.

Obviously they have never gone rockcrawling or owned a boat...infinitley more expensive than Scuba or Ballroom dancing

Neither is cooking or vintage base ball....though it seems like it some times.

Nightshade said:

Obviously they have never gone rockcrawling or owned a boat...infinitley more expensive than Scuba or Ballroom dancing

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Boat = Brake Out Another Thousand

I worked with a guy who once told me the two best days he ever had with his boat was the day he bought it, and the day he sold it.



Have you seen the RC rock crawlers yet? My friend owns a custom offroad fabrication shop in Denver and he recently started competing on indoor rock tracks a few nights a week. The little trucks a sweet.

DenverUSMC said:

Boat = Brake Out Another Thousand

I worked with a guy who once told me the two best days he ever had with his boat was the day he bought it, and the day he sold it.



Have you seen the RC rock crawlers yet? My friend owns a custom offroad fabrication shop in Denver and he recently started competing on indoor rock tracks a few nights a week. The little trucks a sweet.

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Yeah the RC crawlers get way up there, I have been to comps with rigs costing in the $2500+ range with custom machined parts.

This is why they are hobbies though

Like others have said, any hobby can be expensive. I spend a good deal of time cycling during the summers to offset my beer consumption. A decent road bike alone will put you over a grand and can easily cross $5k before you even have your shorts on! Then you'll get into other types of bikes and before you know it you have tens of thousands spent on bikes, carbon fiber components, clothes, gear, computers, GPS, etc.

I've done auto racing and golf. Both are more expensive than homebrewing.

Spartan1979 said:

I've done auto racing and golf. Both are more expensive than homebrewing.

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Just paid my annual membership dues for the golf course.....

Spartan1979 said:

I've done auto racing and golf. Both are more expensive than homebrewing.

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When I was racing both drag and road course the saying stayed the same....wanna be a millionaire in racing? Start with two million.

Golf and photography here. Both are not that expensive if you know your way around discounts and times of year. Doesn't matter though, you don't get to drink the results of almost any hobby...

Isn't there some rims system worth 5 grand? You can get just as crazy with beer, or not. My Neighbour bought a 600$ driver last year to go with his over priced clubs...My kegerator was just under 400$. it's all what you make it, and I figure Ill be able to pick up my Niebs clubs for 200 next year, he's terrible.

Nightshade said:

Obviously they have never gone rockcrawling or owned a boat...infinitley more expensive than Scuba or Ballroom dancing

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I Rockcrawl also I would be afraid to know how much money I have in my jeep. I love scuba diving but after you get all your equipment it not that expensive unless you go to places like Cozumel, Grand Cayman............... I am only 4 1/2 hours from the Fl gulf cost so we go there to dive 4 or 5 times a year. JEEP = Just Empty Every Pocket

My old 86 CJ7 and a pic from Cozumel June 2012

DenverUSMC said:

Boat = Brake Out Another Thousand

I worked with a guy who once told me the two best days he ever had with his boat was the day he bought it, and the day he sold it.

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A boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into. I just sold mine after 8 years of servitude...err...ownership.

Reloading, like brewing, is justified by me as a means to save money. Depending on what you reload that can be true. My .44 is $30 for 20rds, or $1.33 each. Reloading costs less than .50 a round, so in my little world the costs of equipment are quickly overcome. Unfortunately I can't do the same math for beer. Rather I can, but it always comes up disappointingly null.

I recently started woodworking minorly but don't actually own tools enough to do what I want. Even used on Craigslist it's $50 for a table saw, $80 for a router, several hundred for a lathe. While not the most expensive hobby listed it's still out of my available spending limit- if I'm still to brew, anyway. Kyle

Skydiving's not that expensive, actually...(knew it would be on there).

The start-up cost is pretty crazy (licensing, rigs, etc) but once you're done with that, it doesn't cost much more than homebrewing.

If you get into either one enough to call it a hobby, I'd wager that the equipment costs are pretty equal <adds up cost of conicals, stainless kettles....>...yep, HB gear costs more...

That said, I think my boat and bikes take most of the funds...

unionrdr said:

Brewing is def cheaper than my tuner car stuff. Still have a set of reclining racing buckets to match interior colors that need mounting brackets. Have truoble standing/walking anymore,so I haven't been out hunting or fishing the loooong piers on the lake. Too much walking at this point. Damn. At least brewing is still doable.

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Man isn't this the truth. And I thought I would get into RC car racing so I didn't have to spend so much $ Auto Crossing my car or on track days... RC racing turned out to be pricey too though. As for RC rock crawling, check out RC Ottawa .com. Axial makes great kits. I race On road Mini class (Tamiya M-06) Touring (TA-06) and 2wd buggy (Losi 22).

Here is a vid of our shoot out coming up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqj4Kin9uHc&feature=youtu.be

Just when I thought my hobbies couldn't get more out of control, I get into iRacing!!!! Now I am fabricating a 3 screen cockpit for my bar.....

SO far my cheapest hobby has been brewing. I have been fortunate enough to join a large brew club and get in on Malt buys/splits and reap the price discount of bulk buying.

Sorry to hear you are in pain.

Hiking is pretty cheap. The entry cost is $0. Generally, you don't need anything other than things you already have. Outings usually run at the cost of gas and food.

Hiking is awesome too. All you need is feet.

hiking is indeed cheap, but i wouldn't say free. decent footwear comes at a cost, and if you start over-nighting then you need a tent, sleeping bag, cooking tools, etc.

but it's still damn cheap.

This has been by far one of my cheapest hobbies and you don't need to keep on dumping money into once you get going other than propane and grain.

In order of expensiveness for me was

1. Reef keeping was by far the most expensive.
2. RC car racing was second
3. Flying (if I would have kept flying it probably would have been number one on the list)

Homebrewing most likely wouldn't make the top 100.

Now, my other hobby (Amateur Astronomy) can get pricey in a hurry if you're into imaging. Sort of like combining 3 hobbies: Astronomy, Photography, and Computers. Add a fourth if you're one of those crazy total eclipse chasers who travel to Bora Bora to see a 3-minute event that might be clouded out.

Couple of guys in my club have $20K-30K invested in scopes, observatories, CCD cameras, and remote control. Like someone else said above--any hobby can get expensive if you get serious.

Was waiting for someone to bring up astronomy, though it doesn't quite compare to tuning/restoring/hot rodding cars.

SwivelHips said:

Was waiting for someone to bring up astronomy, though it doesn't quite compare to tuning/restoring/hot rodding cars.

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Nope--not even close to cars, boats or planes for sure. That list had a couple of odd ones though.

Flyfishing isn't so bad. I started out over the Summer for about $200 . . . which is great . . . if you don't mind catching nothing but 4 inch Bluegill in warm water.

In all honesty though, if I were to tally up all the fishing and brewing stuff I actually want I would probably have an aneurysm.

Yeah, I brew, have a classic car, and golf! Right now I'm only really doing homebrewing and golf on discount days because the car just costs too much!

10mpg in an old muscle car is hard on gas when its $4+ per gallon!

Homebrewing is cheap compared to my other hobbies. Justifying a $10k engine build to the wife is a lot more difficult than pretty much anything homebrew-related that I've done...