One idea I was toying with when I first created this blog was trying to see if I could ball on a budget. In this case, could I limit my hobbies to just $100 dollars a month? Looking at what I currently dabble in (3d printing, sports card collecting, retro handheld gaming, and playing with Linux) and it’s looking like a pretty tough order. Especially if you consider how much money I’ve already invested in all of them so far. But I realize that I am also going a bit overboard with these as well and I need some sort of accountability mechanism. So I’ve decided that as of today, I will challenge myself. I will create a joy budget and only use that joy budget for my hobbies. Will I be able to do it? Not perfectly. But hey, it’s more about the attempt.
I will give myself some grace and allow carry over. So if I don’t spend anything this month, I can carry that Ben Franklin over and buy something more than 100 dollars at that point. I will also allow myself to go over my current budget by $50 so I still have some play money for the next month. If I’m fortunate enough to sell something produced or otherwise acquired with my joy budget, I can add that to the balance. Oh, and if I get a monetary gift like birthday or Christmas money (highly unlikely, but still a possibility) I can add it to the joy budget balance if I intend to use it for my hobbies. Anything hobby related that I acquired prior to today is allowed and not counted against the budget. I mean, it’s the reason I’m trying to put the breaks on things because some purchases (like the Ayn Thor and the Emmitt Smith autographed card) are a lot higher than I expected to spend! Other than that I have my budget constraints so lets see how far I can go. Wish me luck!
Joy Budget balance as of Feb. 1 2026: $100