Budget thoughts for all of us beginners

[reible]

It seems we all become beginners each year, learning from the past and changing our minds on what we thought we knew. Today's subject is tool budgets.

Each of the last years since I've retired I create a budget and guess what tools I might want to get the following year. Some items get taken off, some get moved forward to yet another year, some I actually buy...

The point of the exercise is to figure out how much I can spend in the next year based on income, past year experiences, and of course how much the wife will allow. This amount is sometimes adjusted depending on what else happens during the year, most years it is lowered. This past year was an exception and I was able to spend more. First time for that.

One thing I learned is to budget from Dec to Dec. A lot of sales in Dec so I can often find things cheaper then expected and thus buy them for less then I budgeted give me some wiggle room for future "buys". I have been know to have spent my total budget by May or June and been left in the cold buying wise for way to many months. This year partially to being way to busy and well having some extra funds come in to play I have just today finished my spending.

I have been a pretty good boy this year and my adjusted budget of $1000 came out to be $1006.13. The original was only $650 so this was a good year for me tool wise.

I am now working on next years budget, and reviewing last years expenditures. This is often the most interesting part of the process as you get to see what you did buy, most of them will be happy memories if you love tools as much as I do.

So under new tools I find I spent $263 ish. (new router, PC osc tool, lathe tools, etc). Under shopsmith stuff, this being a mix of new and used items and replacement of expendables I spent $246 ish. This included a couple of new saw blades, some replacement parts and a few things for testing out new ideas on the shopsmith. The nest category is 10ER, now this is some parts to complete the 10ER I got last year, then some parts to expand it capabilities, and some parts for future expansion. This totaled up to $173 ish.

If I add this up I get a total of $682.01 which is very close (for me) to my first budget numbers from last year. So where is the other $324 ish I spent? Good question! Let me recount to you this project:

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=8361

Yes this is the used bandsaw I got for mind you under $100. However I did manage to rack up some money making all the upgrades and buying blades. There is a lesson here, when you add a new tool to the shop is it not only the cost of the tool but often that is only the start of the spending. Blades alone were almost $100. So when I added it up the total was $324.12! That even surprised me. Worst thing is I need to budget in some replacement blades next year. Still all in all it came out a lot cheaper then getting a new bandsaw and still having to get some of the extras to make it more useable.

Well there you have it, hope this helps in these times of recession.

Ed

[robinson46176]

I go to great lengths to avoid giving deep thought to what I have spent on tools over the last few years.


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[JPG]

I go to great lengths to avoid giving deep thought to what I have spent on tools over the last few years.


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I quite agree! Momma seems to be able to 'know' what I am thinking, and I surely do not want her to 'discover' the total!:eek:

[baysidebob]

I know some of us are on tight budgets and some are on loser budgets, while some of us are on the "what is a budget plan". I won't go into which catagory I fall into. I am a complete tool Junkie and should refrain from buying tools for quite awhile. I have quite a few that in my shop I haven't found a home for as yet. It seems lately I have been more of a tool buyer than a tool user. My lady friend tells me that I am not doing my kids any favors. When I check out of this world they will have a problem as to what do we do with all dads tools! I tell her that it will not be my problem and they will have to deal with it themselves. I do know that they do not have the appreciation of tools I have.