Ever break your doll budget?

I guess I don’t have a firm hobby budget. More just a mental cost limit per doll/item.

My preference back when I started was to stick to purchases of 100-200USD or less. I purchased a body for a little more than that and justified myself because it came with an extra head. I also did worm around the “budget” by doing a short layaway. It did come as a small shock when I eventually added up all my purchases (1500USD in ~2 years). Shortly after, I ceased buying anything doll related and ceased my window shopping. My guilty conscience was too much I guess

I just recently ordered another doll, breaking my 3 year streak haha. Putting down the hobby for so many years makes me feel ok about spending a good chunk of money a new doll.

I still find that I’m uncomfortable purchasing dolls over $400 (which is honestly why I’ve never ordered the Iplehouse doll on my wish list) but that could change if I found a doll I really wanted.

 

okay that's a really good idea. nice hahah

 

For finances in general: I am fortunate enough to have a good-paying job, have no kids at home, no pets, and a husband who makes more money than me so he pays a slightly higher portion of the shared bills. I pay my own credit cards off each month so I'm not paying interest, and I've taken advantage of balance transfer offers on credit cards to pay a one time fee for longer period of no interest that works out in my favor in the end and lets me pay things off over time if needed.

As this pertains to dolls: I don't necessarily set a hard budget for what I will spend, but if it's over $200 for a head/body or over $400 for a full doll there has to be a reason for me to spend that much. For instance, if the doll has a really nice or rare faceup that I love, then I know to factor that cost into the price justification -- because I know from experience can run me $100 or more to send it away for a faceup on my own, so having it already done is a benefit to me and will increase the amount I'm willing to pay up front. I also try to keep track of what something costs new, if it's still available to buy new, if it's a rare item or one that was a limited release from the original seller/artist, etc, and I factor that into what I'm willing to spend as well. Another example: I know Dollshe bodies were expensive once upon a time, but then Dollshe started having these "final sales" and dropped the prices considerably. I also know that it's kind of easy to find the 18M Pure bodies but harder to find the others on the aftermarket. Combine all that with how long I'd have to wait for a "new" item from Dollshe (if they still have it on one of their sales), and all of that goes into my head and out spits an amount that is my upper limit for spending on those bodies.

As this pertains to where my doll money comes from: I can generally afford to buy a doll or doll items fairly frequently, but I'm trying to put more money in savings. As a result, I try to "earn" back the money I spend on a doll by selling other items from my hobbies, to make up the difference in my finances. It doesn't always work, but it's the goal lol. If I really can't swing paying 100% of the amount upfront at the moment, and the seller hasn't offered a layaway themselves, I use PayPal Credit bc it allows me to pay a seller through PayPal invoice and then pay it off over 6 months without interest. Most of my doll purchases are that way.

TL;DR: I am one of the lucky ones that can afford to buy things fairly frequently in the hobby, but I try to be picky about what price levels and items I consider. Credit Cards, PayPal Credit, and other financial tricks can help you make sure you pay the least amount of interest possible, which is money back for more doll stuff.

 

I'm currently following the philosophy that if I don't set a doll budget, I can't break my doll budget...

Realistically though, I don't really want to keep spending at this pace, so I've decided that I won't be purchasing any more new/first-hand dolls until I've received the ones I've already ordered. It's a pretty gentle restriction but it's a good fit for me right now.

 

This is exactly how I feel right now! I’m at a point where I’m stopping myself from further purchases for a while even to enjoy the family I have. It’s hard but it’s something that I think I should do at the moment. I have so many projects I haven’t finished yet because of how quickly my resin family grew, so I think maybe I need to reassess my hobby habits.

 

No. I just buy one a year, and only as expensive as I have saved the cash for.

 

I don't have a budget for dolls, I am using layaway. Never do multiple doll layaways. I always thinking about what can I afford. If I can, it's ok, if not, I just let it go. I am picky, so it's not very hard to not spend money. The only thing I save up for is the costums. In a case of my SDs it's around 200$ so I can buy a tiny for it. My dolls was over 500 plus shipping and costums. Honestly I think with all I charge They cost more than 700...I don't really like to think about it. But no regrets.

 

So far I've gone slightly over my doll budget two times. I definitely haven't regretted it though since one of the dolls was my grail doll from when I started getting into this hobby and the other one remains to be my favorite doll ever - a DearSD Coco.
But it's important to note that I've never set myself a strict budget, I just have a limit of how much money I'm usually willing to spend on a doll, depending on its size. Yet when I saw an unopened DSD Coco in the aftermarket I knew that I had to get her so I was willing to spend more to be able to bring her home.
And just some time ago I was able to purchase my grail doll, an SDgr Date Masamune II. To be honest, making this purchase felt very extravagant and I don't think that I'd feel comfortable spending so much money on a doll again. But I adore him and don't regret taking the plunge

 

I don't have a hard budget, but I do have a separate doll savings I try to stick to and I prefer staying at $600 and below. But I've broken those two rules multiple times. At least I've never hit four digits, that would be way too much for me. Right now my doll savings are looking pretty good, so I am just waiting on the releases I want to come out. I haven't gotten a big doll purchase in ages (not that I've had the budget in ages either), so I'm raring to go. They might be over $600 though...

 

Yes, I have a budget always in relation with the size of the doll (though I don't buy anything bigger than MSD and 500$ may be my top for that size) and I have broken that budget once I think (or twice if you include custom's fee in the total amount), just because they were tiny anthro dolls and they were fullset limited editions and I couldn't risk to loose them.
If you really like the doll and you can afford it, I don't see why it would be so bad to sometimes break your budget.

 

i decided to buy my ‘grail’ doll as my first 1/3 doll because i wanted to make sure i got one i knew i’d love.. even though that meant going about $150 over budget : but i think it was worth it, id much prefer spend the extra now and know i’ll have a doll i love forever than regret it later!

 

Usually I stick to my budget
but when it comes to finding my grail doll, I will probably go over budget. Currently looking

I used to go over budget with everything but this year I'm committed to finding something special

 

I don't really have a set budget per se, just a general guide of how comfortable I am spending a certain amount of money on a particular size of doll. I mostly have 1/4 dolls, and they're all on the cheaper side of the scale (~$200 and under), so it's all based on them.

... And yet I still managed to break that with a recent Fairyland purchase. $600+ for a 1/4 size is usually something I wouldn't even consider, but I had the money and FL seems to discontinue things without warning and he was in stock in my country so there wasn't any concern about being lost in the void that is international shipping in 2020, so I just sort of... ;;;

 

Lmao i just did it my first time buying a doll. originally i was going for 200 max, im at like 400 rip

 

This is the best budget goal that I’ve seen on dolls!

 

My first doll was a 40cm full set, which if I remember correctly was $389. And then along came the first SD I knew I wanted at a "smooth" $968, also a full set. I always thought that one will always be my most expensive doll, and it was worth getting him knowing I had no plans on breaking that record.

I did really well until 11 dolls later, when I won the lottery to buy a Volks Kiriko. He was about $1200. Never thought I'd break into 4 digits but uh...I still adore his face, so also worth it! (Ow)

 

I did go over my own very limited (self-set) budget for two purchases; the first one was my Limhwa Limho Mano, he is a single artist doll who does their own doll casts sometimes, so when I decided to get him I knew he was pretty pricy. A lot more than what I was willing to pay for a doll of any kind at the time, but I knew he wasn't popular and got him while he was still available just in case (he was greatly discounted, and discontinued not too long after). However, I got him as a Christmas present for myself; I had done well on all my college courses and didn't have much tuition/book/software expenses to worry about at the time. A few years later I got a custom sculpted Minimee head from DIM, based on my favorite character of all time. The most I would ever spend on any head sculpt of any sort (ever!), and I would never pay either of those prices (pretty similar for both) for any toy ever again. I prefer to keep a tight (self-set) budget for toys, and have gone a tiny bit over in recent years, for OT figure (grails) sometimes, but it's nothing compared to what those BJD ones cost me. Nowhere near what some people are willing to spend on a doll, or a wig, or clothes/shoes (for human or dolls), but I rather not spend a lot on BJD stuff now, and rather collect other toys (not as expensive as these dolls). (:

 

My budget's limited by just not having the money, but that doesn't mean I'm not considering trying to expand that budget!

 

All the time I need to stop! I will tell myself my cap is $500 for example and someone will sell for like $650. I will then try to make excuses and justifications to myself and I cave. I want to start sticking to my guns, I know if I am patient I can get the doll I want and not spend more than what I set the cap at. The only time I would find it acceptable to pay more is if the doll comes with extras that I want, extras in and of themselves aren't worth the extra cost unless they are things I actually want and will use. Now I just need to stick to my own rules!