What is the longest you've gone without buying Lego as an AFOL?

Natebw

I am about to start something called Financial Peace University. It is a series of 9 classes that isn't so much about financial strategies as ways to look at money and debt and long-term planning. One of the things that will have to change is that I will have to eliminate spending on Lego for an undetermined amount of time.

So I am curious, not counting dark ages, what is the longest you have gone without spending money on Lego, new, used, or secondary market?

prof1515

The longest I've gone without buying Lego in my life would be four years, from December 2003 through December 2007, when I had other distractions that kept me from focusing on (ie, going out and buying) it beyond keeping up-to-date with what was being released.

binaryeye

About three months; from mid-March to mid-June of this year.

GoldJono

I had 5 months cold turkey last year, between Christmas and the Lego inside tour.

minicoopers11

About three months, I think. Just no good sales or promos.

Natebw

I am pretty sure I could hold out for 12 months and just MOC with my current bricks, but it would be hard not to buy stuff for my kids. For example, we just got the Star Wars and Friends Advent Calendars in the mail!!!

joel4motion

The fear of missing out on something that EOL's quickly or not getting an exclusive poly means I have yet to go more than a few weeks since getting back into Lego. I'd like to think that if it was necessary, I could not buy anything but whilst I have no reason to slow down, I won't.

I used to spend a lot of money on my former car to keep it different and fresh. When it sold it was a massive release not only monetarily but emotionally. I'm sure there'll be a time when lego takes a back burner and not constantly checking forums/amazon/[email protected] might be quite refreshing!

Natebw

I think that is what makes it so easy for me - I am not and never have been a collector. I basicly just sort and build. The only thing I ever missed out on was Research Institute for my daughter, but that's fine.

plasmodium

About six months. I tend to go for the "few and far between" strategy of just keeping up with the Lego news and buying maybe as little as one little displayable set per year. In the past year I bought the [email protected] exclusive white spaceman from someone on here, and I bought the Christmas set with the red pickup truck in December for my brother's Christmas present.

I may also suddenly decide I need the UCS VW camper soon, because I'm rapidly becoming an old-VW fan. I guess it's partly my personality. I'm quite content looking at stuff, but I don't often feel like I need it, which means I can be very selective in my "collecting".

Sometimes I wonder why I'm here, compared to some of the huge collectors, but I like keeping up with the Lego news, and it's a great community.

Natebw

Yeah. I agree @plasmodium‌. I have looked into other Lego forums and while I am sure there are tons of great people on all of them, something about the interface and the discussion keeps me coming back to this one, even though I'm not very interested in leaks, predictions, reselling, discounts, etc. I am much more into AFOL culture and these folks tend to have a pretty good handle on it.

Legoboy

A day? Sometimes?

ACWWGal2011

plasmodium said:

About six months. I tend to go for the "few and far between" strategy of just keeping up with the Lego news and buying maybe as little as one little displayable set per year. In the past year I bought the [email protected] exclusive white spaceman from someone on here, and I bought the Christmas set with the red pickup truck in December for my brother's Christmas present.

I may also suddenly decide I need the UCS VW camper soon, because I'm rapidly becoming an old-VW fan. I guess it's partly my personality. I'm quite content looking at stuff, but I don't often feel like I need it, which means I can be very selective in my "collecting".

Sometimes I wonder why I'm here, compared to some of the huge collectors, but I like keeping up with the Lego news, and it's a great community.

Um.. You might to want to put the vw on your buying it sooner then later list. I heard its going to go EOL b4 to long

plasmodium

^Yeah, I was wondering about that. Thanks!

The other thing which I guess I forgot to mention is that it does help when you're a uni student with no room and money which he feels he can always spend on something else...

slovakiasteph

3 months...it was a self-imposed budget thing, no fun spending for three months. Otherwise, I usually buy a set (or two smaller ones) every month, as budget allows.

AdeelZubair

For me it was between November 2013 and May 2014 (7 months) That was not purchasing any normal sets; although I did get a few ploybags from The Daily Mail and two sets for my LEGO Design project at college for parts. If it wasn't for the Very.com giving me £30 off £60 I would have been without LEGO for 10 months...

O_O

AndyPol

I managed 30 seconds once in 2013...... :-)

mathew

Roughly 30-60 days in Fall 2012. I missed some good deals and it bothered me. It's an addiction. We moved into a new home this month and I was adamant about not buying any more Lego. However I find it almost impossible not to scour the clearance aisles at Walmart. Amazon Warehouse. And check Brickpicker and Brickset hourly of course.

natro220

Almost a year - I am in the process of building a house, and it'll be finished in two weeks. Then, once I have money again, I'll be buying everything I missed out on! I already missed out on the Haunted House...I planned on making that my first post-house purchase to display for Halloween. Oh well....

Blakstone

I have gone a month or so before and hope to do it again now. But that isn't a savings as much as recovering financially from a spending binge. I got Pet Shop and five CMFs at The LEGO Store recently.

Oldfan

3 months in 2010, when I was between jobs. Lack of income seems to be the only thing that could stop my monthly purchases, as once the job situation was sorted out I went back to my normal monthly purchasing frequency...

[Cue the song "First World Problems" by Weird Al Yankovic...]

OrmskirkBricks

Since the end of my dark ages, I have purchased at least one set a month...I was not planning on making any purchases this month (January) but ended up completing the Series 14 set so ready for S15! 

Yodalicious

I probably haven't gone more than a month without a purchase since about July/August 2012. Sounds crazy when I say it out loud, but there have been periods of 2-3 months where I've only purchased polybags or small sets. So there is the occasional 60-90 day time period that I've only spent about $20-30 total.

Then there's been my current run since October 2015, which I take the 5th on. Not getting into how much I've spent over that time. Not at all. But to my credit, I have cleared out most of the older stuff on my wanted list as opposed to buying tons of new sets. 

chrisalddin

from me getting back in to lego and now?
best guess. 14 days.
that i remember. may have been longer at some point before Christmas.
i do not have good recall for memory.
i will have a better idea from now on as from the start of the year i have started to keep a log of when i got what set.
i wish i started to do that before Christmas. o well.

SumoLego

As soon as it happens, I'll let you know.

chrisalddin

Ok. This thread made me think.
So, i have just gone over all my buy's of Lego sets in the past 3 months.
i don't have dates for the Dimensions set's i got from Sainsbury's but i know i was picking them up at about 1 a week there for some weeks so.

from the 30th September 2015 until today.
the longest i have gone without buying lego in some form is. (go's and count the date's)
9 days!
O,M,G,!!!.
i know i had gone a little Lego crazy in the last months but WOW!
for any one who would like to know, i have got a total of 77 Lego Set's From the 30th September 2015 until today.
of them 77, 31 are Mixels. 14 are Dimensions. (6 of the 14 are the Level Packs or Teem Packs.) the others are Box set's from Ideas, Star Wars, Ninjago, Simpsons, The Lego Movie, Nexo Knights, Modular Buildings and City themes.

So What dose this make me?
for Shore if i am not a AFOL yet then i am close lol

SumoLego

JetWing34

This topic will make me think about my memory.

I remember buying Lego Batman #76011 on the 7th of November, and the next set I got was around Christmas time. It's about 53 days since I last had a Lego set in my AFOL days.

For those who want to know how many sets I have, I have 22 sets, mostly Star Wars sets.

KingAlanI

Oldfan said:

[Cue the song "First World Problems" by Weird Al Yankovic...]

You mean First World Problem by MC Frontalot?

-
I spent a bunch in late 2008, single purchases November 2013, January 2014, April May October 2015, and a lot more this month.
Magic the Gathering was my main hobby through June 2011, and I was big on music fandom from late 2009 to mid 2012. Currency collecting has been a constant.
Summer 2011, I had a job out of town. My collection wasn't with me and I didn't want to buy any more to play with by itself.

xiahna

since coming out of my dark ages I think I may have gotten to two and a half months... maybe lol

binaryeye

My earlier record of three months in 2014 was shattered by eight months in 2015. If not for the Pegasus Sleigh I found on clearance just before Christmas, I'd be on nine months and counting.

I guess I'm in a Dim Age.

Natebw

KingAlanI said:

Oldfan said:

[Cue the song "First World Problems" by Weird Al Yankovic...]

You mean First World Problem by MC Frontalot?

I knew there were other NerdCore fans in this group. Both artists have a song by that name.

MattsWhat

I haven't bought anything yet today, and it's nearly bed time! Although,  does ring fencing the money for all the sets revealed at toy fair count now or when they arrive? 

dragon114

2-3 year's

KingAlanI

Natebw said:

KingAlanI said:

Oldfan said:

[Cue the song "First World Problems" by Weird Al Yankovic...]

You mean First World Problem by MC Frontalot?

I knew there were other NerdCore fans in this group. Both artists have a song by that name.

You're right, Weird Al also has a song of that name. Going to PM you to avoid going off topic

brumey

nerdcore is awesome