What do you sacrifice/give up for your Lego hobby?

happyskunky

For me its food. I sit there and think do I really need that $5 burger when I can buy myself a small Lego set to have forever.

xwingpilot

Shelf space.

(And time spent on here!)

LuLego

Ohhhh. Good question!!!! Sacrifices do need to be made, it's true.

As I've got more into the hobby, it's pushed other pursuits out of the way. For example, I sold my guitar to buy all the new civil war sets.

I've been busy selling on eBay and my wife is happy with me buying new sets out of the proceeds from sales (rather than me 'paying' for sets).

also, as I've got more into certain themes it's meant I've sold off other Lego themes I bought (when I came out of my dark ages) and no am longer interested in.

does anyone else measure things in Lego? For example, I saw a pair of trainers I liked but didn't buy them as "that's a 6868."

lego doesn't grow on trees and most people don't have a bottomless Lego fund. 

ecmo47

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyuo7gm-aQ

Girls?

hkcrazy88

I used to collect Funko Pops. I started when they were relatively new, so I had some that were worth quite a bit so I've been selling them off to buy the older sets we like that we missed out on. :)

Jern92

Eating out, watching movies, taking cabs, driving (I walk whenever possible), shopping etc. I pretty much cut corners wherever I can so I have enough money saved up after a few months to buy some Lego and/or travel. 

Bricklover18

Space in my house :) 

TechnicNick

^ Ditto. If I bought a larger house, there wouldn't then be as much spare cash for Lego. First World Problems....

Jackad7

@lulego I find measuring things in Lego awesome. 

I gave up HO scale model trains and magic the gathering. I still have all my HO stuff I just put it away because like everyone has been mentioning space is a pain. Magic I sold off all my extra cards go open up skme currency flow for legos. I still do the other two from time to time but Lego took up the majority of their time.

MaffyD

Time and money.

akunthita

What a great idea to measure things in LEGO! I never thought of that, but I do naturally use LEGO color names for things (BrickLink names that is). Like the utility pole over there looks dark-bluish-gray, or that bike is definitely bright-light yellow...

As far as giving up stuff, for me it is time spent reading... sadly. I used to read a lot more in my downtime, and I do miss it. Now I find myself either building sets, or freebuilding, or planning new projects, or updating my wanted list on BrickLink. I do want to find a better balance between LEGO and books, as both have been lifelong hobbies.

DNA

Probably home space, less time in the middle of the night watching forensics shows and I buy less childrens books. I've been collecting childrens books from all over the world for many years. Since my college kid was a baby but I buy much less these days. It all works out anyway right now since my youngest two are only interested in the Jip and Janneke and Pluk van de Petteflet books. 

catwrangler

@DNA Hey, I love Annie M.G. Schmidt's stuff! My partner's Dutch so he's introduced me to a lot of writers and illustrators from there. We also collect children's books, though reading this thread I'm finding it really hard to judge whether other things are being sacrificed to Lego, or I would've slowed down on them anyway because of space. There's always a cycling of books in and out of the house as I read them and decide whether or not to keep them, but we both tend to buy faster than we read, so it's self-limiting because sooner or later there's not a nook or cranny left to fit a book into!

I suspect I'm just buying fewer non-Lego things overall, but since my other hobbies all involve buying cheap stuff (secondhand books and previous-generation videogames; zines) it's a matter of degree/frequency rather than having cut anything out altogether. The only thing I definitely don't do is buy magazines on impulse (I have a couple of subscriptions) - I just look at them and go, "I could get a CMF instead and have some money over." 

madforLEGO

I think 'space' in a home is going to be the number one answer here. I know that I no longer have a one and a half car garage (now just barely a one car garage) nor a large closet, or a 'dining room' any longer because they are areas for my LEGO habit. However, especially with higher prices, I'm finding it a bit easier to limit my purchases to only stuff I really want (like mods, the creator sets, city, ).

CHAINSAW

I sacrificed my life for my lego addiction.

Legopassion8

My soul. Muhahahahahahaha

willobee498

My sacrifice is more just a balancing act of my passions... what gets dispersed on cars, Lego, Transformers, and Nerf. 

ecmo47

catwrangler said:

@DNA Hey, I love Annie M.G. Schmidt's stuff! My partner's Dutch so he's introduced me to a lot of writers and illustrators from there. We also collect children's books, though reading this thread I'm finding it really hard to judge whether other things are being sacrificed to Lego, or I would've slowed down on them anyway because of space. There's always a cycling of books in and out of the house as I read them and decide whether or not to keep them, but we both tend to buy faster than we read, so it's self-limiting because sooner or later there's not a nook or cranny left to fit a book into!

I suspect I'm just buying fewer non-Lego things overall, but since my other hobbies all involve buying cheap stuff (secondhand books and previous-generation videogames; zines) it's a matter of degree/frequency rather than having cut anything out altogether. The only thing I definitely don't do is buy magazines on impulse (I have a couple of subscriptions) - I just look at them and go, "I could get a CMF instead and have some money over." 

My childhood copy of The Golden Treasury Of Carolina and her Friends by Pierre Probst is as treasured as any Lego set I have.

Salamalex

Clothes, shoes, handbags - These are only bought if absolutely necessary (unless its a new pair of DOCs, obviously) whereas LEGO...

snowhitie

Interesting question. I spend a little bit less on everything, and I follow @LuLego , I measure things in Lego. Do I really need this new dress? Or these two new dresses? Or what set(s) could I buy instead. I've  definitly cut down spending on art supplies since that hobby is playing a very silent second fiddle to Lego now, I buy less DVD's and jewellery and handbags.

Bookwise @akunthita Have you tried audiobooks? I am a lifelong reader, but audiobooks are great. You can listen in the car in traffic, while you do the dishes, when you are lying down resting but also, while you are building Lego. I don't always combine the two, sometimes I just like to concentrate on one or the other, but a lot of the time I do like a book in the background. There are some great books out there, I used audible (from amazon) and am a very happy customer. I won't go of thread to much, but if you want more info, PM me. Listening to a book is such a great experience, the narrator can bring a lot to the story (or on some occasions ruin it - but with audible, no problem, you can return it if that happens, great service!).

My son and I love doing our building and listening to Roald Dahl books and now we're doing Harry Potter. Read by Stephen Fry, it's amazing! So relaxing. I also love the Annie MG Schmit books - they are great! But that I read from the book to him ;)

Back to money vs Lego, also for our son, to show something is really expensive: that is worth 6 death STars e.g.

Or if he wants some crappy toy - obviously he's allowed to other toys then Lego, but I mean, one of those that are not worth anything. there was a big plastic  talking minion - it looked cute but they were asking 60 euro - what? All it could do was talk and farting noise. It didn't even move. So then we pointed out that it cost as much as a big ninjago set and he quiclkly changed his mind and went for a great boardgame instead. Just easier than euro's ;)

akunthita

@snowhitie, oh, yes, I use audiobooks all the time. Always when driving, and many times when working or building with LEGO. I have been listening to audiobooks all my life, and they are very much part of my days. But I find them to be a very different experience than curling up with a good book. Even reading and listening to the same book is not the same. Both great experiences, just different. :)

DNA

catwrangler said:

@DNA Hey, I love Annie M.G. Schmidt's stuff! My partner's Dutch so he's introduced me to a lot of writers and illustrators from there. We also collect children's books, though reading this thread I'm finding it really hard to judge whether other things are being sacrificed to Lego, or I would've slowed down on them anyway because of space. There's always a cycling of books in and out of the house as I read them and decide whether or not to keep them, but we both tend to buy faster than we read, so it's self-limiting because sooner or later there's not a nook or cranny left to fit a book into!

I suspect I'm just buying fewer non-Lego things overall, but since my other hobbies all involve buying cheap stuff (secondhand books and previous-generation videogames; zines) it's a matter of degree/frequency rather than having cut anything out altogether. The only thing I definitely don't do is buy magazines on impulse (I have a couple of subscriptions) - I just look at them and go, "I could get a CMF instead and have some money over." 

Hi catwrangler, Annie M.G Schmidt is so great! I'm a big fan of her books too. I brought her "A Pond Full Of Ink" to a school one day when we were supposed to donate a book and the librarian fell in love with it. She had never heard of her before that. I really like Fiep Westendorp's illustrations. My son Henri especially loves the Jip and Janneke illustrations.

My husband's Dutch as well. He was born and raised in North Holland. He's always communicated with our kids in Dutch and I speak English to them so I have a lot of books in the English and Dutch versions. My kids favor the Dutch version of any book that was originally written in Dutch. One of my sons recently read a book called Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman. Your partner is probably familiar with it. My husband liked that book a lot when he was younger and although we have the Dutch and English versions, my son said something was missing in the English version.

Speaking of running low on book space, my husband was saying we have so many books, we could open a book store if we wanted and we're running out of space to store them all so let's cut back. Then I started buying more lego sets and doing more builds. Then he said, "okay how about we get back into more books". :)

@ecmo47 I feel the same about a book I have had since I was a child. It's called Striped Ice Cream by Joan Lexau. I grew up in Southern California and our house burned down when I was in the third grade. Actually, our entire neighborhood went up in flames in the Bradbury/Duarte fires and I had that one book with me. I really do treasure that book. 

waynegg

Sleep 

aldredd

Exercise, probably :)

I certainly try not to allow it to impact family time, or anything we might do with the kids etc. I usually only build in the evenings when the kids are asleep.

I also try to fit it around my other interests (photography, computing, odd bit of cycling)