What did you learn about money when joining the hobby?

I definitely learned how to spend it. Lol!

Seriously x.x; I'm bad at saving money. BUT DAMN if I want something real bad, somehow I always seem to have it for a doll. I don't get it.

Anyways-- I've learned to spend /smart/ at the very least. Hybrid, save, hold, wait for sales, etc.

 

I've learned that I'm more willing to spend money on doll clothes than I am on clothes for myself. XD

 

I've earned that I'm very good at spending money that I don't really have! When I first joined the hobby it was so easy to just get out that charge card and spend, spend, spend! Needless to say, I built up quite the debt and now that it's almost paid off, I refuse to buy anything on credit anymore! Life lesson learned the hard way.

 

That there is never enough.

 

I learned that $100 for a doll is not expensive at all. Before bjd, I thought $100 for dolls are ridiculous

 

I learned I spent a lot of money at Starbucks when I was younger, lol. I remember I didn’t have much money and read the ideas on how to save up for dolls, and cutting back on Starbucks put so much money in my pocket.

Now, my best advice is: if you can afford to set up a doll fund, do it. You never know when a LE doll pops up at high cost and it’s nice to have $ for those situations without having to sell your current crew to afford something LE.

 

It's so true! I really learned to stop and think about what I was spending my money on.

I used to really like to shop at thrift stores and buy little things here and there. But after I started in this hobby I would find myself picking up something that was fun or cute, but maybe sorta cheap and not something I really needed...and then I would think, wait, would I rather have this or put this money toward my dolls? And pretty much 100% of the time, I'd rather put the money toward my dolls, so I just put whatever it was back.

 

Definitely taught me "Do I need it or can I remake it for cheaper?" such as with clothes. While I'll be staring and wanting specific outfits on dollheart and sites like that, I always wind up making my dolls clothes over buying them, or seeing if I can find something like it for cheaper somewhere else. Namely, buying a bunch of sewing supplies and making ten outfits or twenty outfits for the price of what would've been one very pricy outfit.

 

For me - I learnt that you don't need to spend the larger amounts of money to enjoy the hobby. There are plenty of brands out there with beautiful dolls that are quite affordable or on the lower end of the price scale. Also that doll clothes are expensive, but you do get what you pay for in regards to quality. There is literally no comparison in quality of say barbie clothes vs BJD clothes.

 

That my Grandpa was right. Saving up for something you really want is rewarding, and I shouldn't spend money on luxuries if I don't have the cash in hand to buy it and pay in full immediately.

I have done layaways, but once I started a layaway and ended up jobless and I had to sell a LOT of my personal stuff to make my payments. It was incredibly stressful and if the money had been a day later, I probably would have defaulted on that layaway. It was at that point that I realized it was not worth it to risk my credit score or lose hundreds of dollars in defaulted layaways for dolls. I realized grandpa had a very good point about saving up and earning things, and once I didn't have any spare money, I realized how often I had spoiled myself with fast food or coffee while at work, buying small impulse items at stores, buying things because they were "such a great deal!" even if I didn't need them, buying dolls or figures in stores because they were only $10-20---it was actually pretty easy to save up for a doll by rethinking each purchase. Do I want a play line Barbie now or a BJD in a month? Do I want $5 coffee once a week, or a $250 doll once a year? Do I really need this bathbomb/pack of gum/10th shade of purple nail polish/bottle of rum? I thought I was always broke due to low paychecks, but a lot of it was actually due to the unnecessary stuff I was throwing money away on. I'm far from being rich, but it's still possible to save when I budget carefully. When I was younger, I often wondered how my grandpa worked in retail and services but could afford to take the entire family on vacation each year. Now I understand why he never spent money on small luxuries--he saved up for something big that he felt was very rewarding!

 

Still waiting on purchasing my first doll, but when I first started looking around I felt like I didn't have enough money to ever join the hobby! I'm naturally a really thrifty person and I'm usually not too keen on parting with my money, even if I really want something. I think I'm starting to get into more cost friendly options, though-- I'm stalking Insta and eBay for doll deals, and I've been binging DIY videos for wigs, clothes and eyes, with the hopes of buying a cheap(ish) project doll I can make stuff for to cut costs.

 

Ugh, I'm hoping to learn a lot... last time I bought a doll I was a high-school student living at home, and my financial situation has changed a lot since then. (Student debt and rent and books, aaugh!)
Last time's lesson was "you probably have $200 kicking around that doesn't hurt to spend", so hopefully this time I'll learn how to sell textbooks and balance work and studying. If anybody has money-saving tips for an already-frugal university student, please send them my way, lol.

 

I learned that I used to spend money on RANDOM things just because I had it. I filled my entire house with trinkets and stuffed animals that, soon after arriving, I didn't even really want.
Now that I've been collecting dolls, I stopped buying all that random, unnecessary stuff, and I actually realized I DO have money! -- if I stop spending it on random things on Amazon, Bath and Body Works, Starbucks, Fast Food, and Target.

 

This post may get a little personal but the hobby has really deeply affected me as far as money goes.

Okay I grew up in a middle class family. I was given everything I need to survive. I never went hungry. I had school supplies and clothes. However, I was never given pocket money for chores, nor was I allow keep birthday or Christmas money that my relatives gave me. My mom would put any money I got in savings to stop me from "wasting" it saying I could use it for my student loans when I was older.

In high school, my parents didn't want me to have a job at this point because I was under preforming student and they didn't want to learn how to drive because my low grades would make more expensive to get insurance. In college I finally learned how to drive but since I was going to local school and living at home my parents, they still had very tight control of me.

That when I found a beautiful SD girl that I wanted. But she was $500. I wasn't going to able to do that on $20 a week. So I had a friend that worked for Subway and I got my first job. It was horrible. But I was able to make my own money and experience a little freedom. And I love it. I had my own bank account with my own ATM card and no one was going to tell me how to spend my money.

I went through what I think a lot of teenagers go through with their first jobs. I spent a lot of money on makeup, fast food, and doll stuff. I was totally irresponsible.

So it sounds like being in the hobby taught me nothing right? No, it was a turning point. It made more independent. I learned the hard way how deal with money from my own mistakes. And now I save and plan for my dolls. But if wasn't for that first doll I don't know if I would still be living with my parents.

 

I'm good at saving up money for dolls. I'll then sit on that "hoard" of money like Smaug and will buy dolls and doll stuff using money from my normal everyday bank account instead of the "doll money". I'm also just as bad saving up money for anything else as I'm good saving up money for dolls.

 

When I first got into the hobby I bought my dolls quite quickly, without thinking about how much I really wanted them. I just saw one I liked and had to have it. I realised later on that I can be a bit of an impulsive spender and started to cut back a lot on my spending and really think about what I'm buying and how much I actually want/need it. It made me realise that, if I want something enough, it is worth saving for and if it gets sold out it's not the end of the world, I'll be able to find it again or I'll find something just as good if not better!

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who learned to rethink money and saving! I'm totally an impulse buyer, or I used to be, but now that I'm both a) so poor the poverty line is my personal tightrope and b) live in a flat slightly smaller than a suburban bedroom I've kinda taught and re-taught myself how to save. I personally like layaways because I can usually make those payments over one big purchase (thank goodness, because I'd be impulse buying way more dolls than I already do) and between layaways I can keep doll projects going, or go to one of my other hobbies. So I've also learned to curb on impulse buying. I'm lucky I never developed a coffee-break habit though. $5 for a Starbucks when the same will buy me a pack of Lavazza? Pass the grinder, please!