How do you afford the things you love?

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My parents were always antigun, I lived with them through college, moved out when I was 25.

I just bought my first gun (handgun, MP9), and now I'm 26. I'm getting married, and have a 3 month old daughter.

I'm hoping to just get the things I want (Saiga/AK conversion, M44, CZ82,...etc) as money allows from saving up, being I'm not exactly rolling in it. I'm a software engineer by trade.

working hard...pretty much that's how you get anything of value.
 
The best way to purchase really nice guns is simple.

Get off your butt, go to the gun store, pick out exactly what you've always wanted, then put $100 down on a lay-away program.

Next week, go back and give them $50.

The following give them $100.

Whatever you can afford.

Soon, you will make the final payment, and it will be just like Christmas when the shop owner lifts that case over the counter and says, "Here's your firearm".
 
Single
Bought a modest house
No big-screen TV or videogame systems
Drive used vehicles
Engineering job

Kharn
 
half of my guns were passed down. along with some of my reloading equipment. ( I sware to god reloading stuff procreates at night in my shed).

I am not working living off of a gibill and college loans. I am finished on May 13 with my 2 2 year degrees. I look for the best deals and save my money. But there is not a whole lot their right now. I stock up when the price is good. Then I trickle it out over the longest amount of time I can.

I should have some good change comming in after college and I have a wife that has a good paying job.

You just have to work at it. there are times in life where guns and shooting have to take a back seat. When I was 21 a E-4 in the Army with a wife and kid moving half way across the country no car no furniture and no pay for 6 months. I did what I needed to do. I cut cost I shaved my own head slept on the couch of my cousin. stopped smoking and drinking.

No one says you have to go to the mall to buy cloths. Shop at the goodwill. Cheap almost new and new cloths. That can cut a huge chunk of money free.

Also no one says you hve to have a $3000 rifle to go deer hunting. Last few deer I talked to did not care how much the rifle cost that killed them. So a $300 stevens or a $900 Remington huh? You see where I am going. Heck you can get a Mosin for $75 to $100 that will kill a deer. Then you have saved more money because for the cost of $25 to $50 you have meat for more than a month.


Or just find a rich older women and marry her and have a suger mamma.
 
For the majority of folks, what you can afford has more to do with how you handle money than how much money you have. Really and truly.

FWIW, http://www.crown.org/ has financial principles which were foundational for me early in life and have kept me on solid footing along the way.

The people I love come first. The things I love come later. Enjoying firearms with my children is "priceless" (and I pay the full balance on credit cards every month.)
 
Since about age 12 I've been given one-two guns per year as gifts, or people (immediate family) helped pay for part of the gun and I gave them the rest of the money so they could buy it for me.

I also traded/sold lots of stuff. I had about 3,500 dollars worth of Warhammer 40k figures that I sold, and I sold lots of video games, my paintball gun, etc...

I also have no real social life in the traditional sense of what a college kid considers one to be. I do not go out partying with people I hardly know, nor do I waste my money buying booze for my friends or people I hardly know. My friends and I mostly go shooting together, with the result always being that my biggest cost is ammo, and their biggest cost is that I make them pay for my lunch or my gas, or sometimes both. But when they've shot 400-500 rounds of 7.62x39mm through a weapon that I also provided, they ought to pay the 5-8 dollars it cost in gas for me to get to the range and back.

Anyway, you have to know what your priorities are... Eating out at a restaurant more than once every few months is not a priority for me. Going to the movies is not a priority for me... Having a BMW is not a priority for me...

I have a decent primary residence; I live in a fairly safe and comfortable area, so I spend every available dollar on weapons, armor, surplus stuff, etc... There's no reason not to.

Then again mind you that I also have a like-new Camry (although this was given to me, as was my first car before this, which was a like new Mazda 626), and I have about every video game system you can ever imagine, although I called it quits on Playstation 2 and will not advance beyond this in terms of the system tech level since I no longer have much time for video games as I have other priorities and obligations. I am mostly content to play a few hours of computer games each week, and I now prefer to spend most of my free time writing fiction and/or reading.


Oh, also, when your boss offers you overtime, it doesn't matter if you have to work the entire week of spring vacation or two weeks of winter vacation, take it! Also, 12-14 hour days are a good thing, take them when you can get them!


Also, when you get your student loan checks that are meant to cover gas/food, use the money to immediately buy an HK-91 and an HK P7 (this is what I did!) and then get used to either A- not eating lunch B- eating concentrated coast-guard style ration bars for lunch (or bags of peanuts, etc) and C- get somebody to carpool with and minimize your driving to 1-2 days per week (I do this as well). I probably eat about 2-3 dollars worth of food per day for lunch (not counting my daily pouch of Jack Link beef jerky, which my father pays for). Although sometimes I stretch out the $7 dollar value pack pouches over a 3 day period... I go through about $25-35 dollars worth of beef jerky per week, although I only use about $40 dollar worth of gas every 2-3 weeks.

Minimize your expenses and look for new ways to get money... I had considered taking part in a small-pox vaccine test, they said you would NEVER get small-pox, but when I read the list of possible "side affects" they were all symptoms of small-pox infection, so I scrapped that idea.


Also, it helps if other people, people who make much more than you do (such as my mother who makes 100k per year), buy your weapons for you. In the last three years she's bought about 8 guns for me. My dad bought most of my guns when I was 12-16, although a few of the purchases were just my giving him money I had saved, or my paying part of the cost. In place of going to Toronto or to Washington DC (when the school took kids on week long field-trips that cost $300-400 dollars) my dad bought me rifles/shotguns costing anywhere from $200 to $250, so he saved money and I was able to avoid going on a crappy fieldtrip. Not only that, but it was sort of a compensation for the fact that I had to spend those days in day-long study hall classes in the auditorium, a way to encourage kids to pay up the cash and go on the trip, rather than be made to sit around and face forward all day.

Guns are/were better than field-trips, and I had about 10 of them by the time I was 16, my favorites being my Romanian AK-47 (since age 13) and my Glock 17 (birthday present age 15).
 
Save money. Be as frugal as you can. Make sacrifices like eating out less, and pack a sack lunch.

Only pay cash. Don't put guns on credit cards. Otherwise, you'll wind up paying way more for it than you would with greenbacks.

Learn the fine art of negotiation. Wheeling and dealing is a part of gun trading. Learning how to do it is as much a part of it as checking the bore on a used firearm. You can save a lot of money over your lifetime learning this skill.

Don't be afraid to buy used firearms. I hardly ever buy anything new because of the good deals I can get when someone spends the rent on a new handgun or decides that deer hunting really isn't for him and sells that fancy pants rifle he bought so he could fit in at the hunting club.

Don't get in a hurry. Take your time. Don't buy the first one of something. If someone really wants you to buy that first one you see, they'll make you a smoking deal.
 
the hardest part of this hobby is the patience. You come on here and see people with massive collections and you just think "Why can't they give me just one of those, then i'd be happy." It hasn't happened yet and it'd only make me happy for a little while, then it'd just be another item off a long list.

I average about 1-2 guns per year, which is really depressing, but i'm in college so staying alive takes up most of my money. I try to eat out very little, Mac n cheese only costs $0.50. I drink very little Starbucks, buy clothes out of season so they are dirt cheap(you can steal winter clothes right now and no one cares). Also have to watch your entertainment spending. Drinks at bars are not cheap, so DD more often. You'd be amazed how many times you can stop and just not spend money when you start to think about it.


Oh, and shoot more .22 :D
 
BS in EE + MS in IT = support for my family, my horse habit, and my firearm habit.

To the OP: You are 18. Invest less in guns and more in your education, and you will be able to afford many more guns after you graduate. If your parents are willing to pay for college, then they are ultimately supporting your gun habit - they just don't know it yet. ;)
 
By going into debt.
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VERY bad answer.


I have a better one.... Staying OUT of debt.


I've spent 15 years of my life as an Investment Advisor. I cannot tell you how many people have come to me with saved money and ask me to invest it into Mutual Funds, Stocks, or whatever. Upon going through their finances, I then discover that they are holding $10-$20K in debt.

They look at me like I am nuts when I tell them that they'd be better off using the money they brought to me and paying off those debts. I then tell them that this ONLY works if they do not run the debt back up again.

Serously... Do you really think a Mutal Fund will consistently beat the 18% interest you may pay on a Credit Card??




If that doesn't get you, consider this... My grandfather grew up dirt-poor. He also grew up during the Depression. You just didn't spend money you didn't have then. As a result, if he didn't have the money for something, he didn't get it.

Later in life, he continued to apply that philosophy. Coupling no debt with sound long-term investments, a poor trapper's son who had to drop out of Jr. College to take over the responsibilites of the family young became a mulitmillionaire.



So am I telling you to do without your firearms related toys? Not at all.

I AM telling you to take a HARD look at everything else you are spending money on in your life. I bet you dollars to donuts that there is a lot of waste in your finances.

We are a society of instant gratification, consumerism, and debt. There are SO many things we spend money on that we simply don't need and will likely be a forgotten memory in a few days. We HAVE to have all of the status symbols we can get our hands on. Its sickening really.


A number of years ago, I applied the values of my grandfather to my own financial planning. Today-- at 36 years old-- I am in a home with no mortgage, and both of my vehicles are paid for. Granted, my Jeep could use replacement, but I will not replace it until I am willing to pay cash for the next one. It still gets me where I need to go, and if I am worried about it, my wife's car is new.

You will be absolutely shocked at how far your money goes when you have no debts to speak of. You'll be shocked at how much you have in your pocket for investments or whatever at the end of the month.

I am working now on the utilities to see how low I can get those.


In short, stay away from debt. It is the new slavery.



-- John
 
I have three kids, I put them on a stricked diet and I save the extra food money for guns :)

Actually since my regular full time job has great hours and im off every Friday after noon, I do work a friend which makes me an extra couple hundred a week. Of course I pay taxes on that money at the end of the year, BUT thru out the year thats gun money

J
 
I just work 60 hours a week. I'm only up to about 1 gun per year.

I'm not a huge fan of financing and layaway and stuff, but layaway for firearms is another matter. :) I have one last rifle that I'm making payments on. Then the lady and I have to start saving for a new HD-TV, bed platform, etc...

One thing that also helps me is setting aside $50-100 a check aside, and just saving and scrimping. Live like a college kid: mac n cheese, suave shampoo, ramen noodles. Plus having a job w/ a UPS account helps for eBay sales, because all that extra money you charge them for the free shipping you get... right to your pocket.
 
i'm sorry to say, like a lot of the others, that being patient is the way it is probably going to have to be. i'm just over 50, and still collecting, and still don't have enough money to be able to shoot as much as i would like either. there are at least 10 more guns i could think of at the drop of the hat i would still like to have. and as far as ammo goes, 2 or 300 rounds of everything would be a minimum if i had enough money. but i don't. so i buy what i can, when i can, and do the best i can to feed my hobbies, oh yes, i have a second, just as expensive hobby. motorcycles. so its a balancing act. and with the price of ammo, and gas, feeding them both is a balancing act all in its own. go to school, get a good paying job that you love, and the rewards will come with time. that's what i tell my son. if you dont, the rewards will be a lot fewer, and further apart. the choice is yours. what kind of a life do you want?
 
I believe TV to be a waste of money. The only reason I see myself having a TV when I have a place of my own would be to get weather updates, emergency news, and perhaps watch a few shows about guns. Although I'm not sure I'll be able to do the history channel or discovery channel as I probably won't have cable or satellite as I won't want to pay for any of that.

Aside from being able to watch movies and having the ability to play a few key video-games, I see no reason to keep a TV around.

Once I have kids I plan to keep the TV in a locked cabinet, which I will unlock from time-to-time to let them watch approved movies with me, and to play video games (I really don't care what the rating on a video game is, since I was playing "M" rated games at age 10 and I turned out fine, games such as Resident Evil), my main issue is crappy games with confusing ideas about human sexuality, such as Grand Theft auto with the sex crap.

A game where you shoot zombies is clearly fictional and fantasy, where it'd be hard to confuse a kid into thinking that it was a real way to handle issues, unless they were very stupid.

A game that shows seemingly normal people, real people (not zombies) in a real city, engaged in drug deals, attacking police, breaking laws, and treating women like sex objects, is much more likely to provoke responses and bad behavior since these are seemingly real and plausible occurrences in familiar settings.

I personally just do not see TV shows as being able to justify spending thousands of dollars just on the hardware needed to watch them. If somebody offered me an HDTV for 50 dollars, I might consider it, but I really have no use for such a thing anyway as the only time I see a TV show (aside from about two old favorites) is when my dad has the TV on and I happen to be in the same room. That and when somebody informs me of a neat show about weaponry or some particular battle that I like to study.

Basically it makes no sense to me to spend so much money on something that is not very useful, won't be used much anyway, and just doesn't do a whole lot of anything or add/contribute value to the family.
 
Basically my income exceeds my expenses. It took me a while to get into that situation. I spent many years paying off the student loans and the car loan and my credit cards. Now I'm debt free except for my mortgage, and that is relatively small because I bought a less expensive house than I could afford.

I'd strongly suggest making a budget showing your sources of income and your expenses, and see where the money's going. Then you can work on either increasing income or cutting expenses.
 
To the OP: You are 18. Invest less in guns and more in your education, and you will be able to afford many more guns after you graduate. If your parents are willing to pay for college, then they are ultimately supporting your gun habit - they just don't know it yet.
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That's good advice. College will be over before you know it, and will soon be a fading memory. Get good grades and a good job, and you won't have to worry about how to afford guns. You'll have to worry about where to put them all. :)
 
Get dirty. Do the work that wealthier folks don't want to do. Some of that might be tougher to find these days with a tighter economy (depending on where you live), but some stuff people just don't want to do themselves. Clean gutters. Dig ditches. Buy 2nd hand jeans and t-shirts from Goodwill for work clothes and don't be afraid to wear them out (major tip: buy first-hand, good quality leather gloves, though...trust me!). Work at the mom & pop gas station/car garage. Bust your butt and give an honest day's work for a day's pay. You'll be surprised at the doors that will open for you with a good reputation as a good worker.

In high school I hauled hay (the square bales the size of big coffee tables). I got ten to fifteen cents a bale and at the rate I worked, that worked out to ten to fifteen dollars an hour. By the time I got to college, no one else wanted to do that stuff, so I worked at the garage from 8am to 6pm during the summer and then five, six nights a week hauling hay.

I feel your pain, my friend. Been there...and, in some ways, am still there. Wife going back to grad school, three kids, still paying my student loans, plus usual bills. I had a little money tucked away from my birthday I was going to use for a S&W 10-5 at the local pawnshop...instead, it's going to pay a couple medical bills (am keeping a little of it back for some primers next week, though).

Whomever said "Spend it on your education" is right. If you don't have one, save for a .22. Use it as your main means of shooting pleasure for now. You can get a good used Marlin, Remington, or Winchester for $100 or so. With ammo still at $12/500 rounds, that's economical shooting. If that's all you can do, one box every two months or so, you will still be shooting more than I did for the first 10 years of my marriage.

Q
 
BS in EE + MS in IT = support for my family, my horse habit, and my firearm habit.
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BS in IE and MS in IT. How did I get it? Without going into my life's story, I joined the Air Force at 19. Picked Security Police so I could get a lot of range time in, volunteered for lots of extra duty and assignments that satisfied my desire for thrills and adventure. Got the BS and MS while in, got out with no student loans to pay back. Military service is a good way to earn money for college, and having a college degree goes a long way toward making better money.
 
My parents were very supportive, in spite of not being shooting enthusasts themselves. I had a few guns to get me hooked until I graduated college. When I got a full time job most of my spare change went to support my habit. And for me shooting is IT. I do not dilute my budget and time by pursuing any other sports.
 
Get your education. It will pay dividends in the long run. I'm a computer programmer. I've been doing this for over 20 years.

Like any career, your salary will increase over time. As you gain experience over the years, you will probably be rewarded with better pay.

In my own case, over the years I lost my two beloved Grandfathers, and an Uncle. I was fortunate enough to inhererit many great firearms from them. I will always cherish them.

I have also collected on my own over many years. Take your time, and try to be patient. Plan ahead on what firearms you would like to collect going forward. I think it's better to save up and get the firearms you want, rather than "settling" on something for less money.

Stay in school. Keep you nose to the grindstone!
 
Well. I drive a 10 year old car with 160,000 miles on it, I usually get most of my clothes as Christmas gifts (the advantage of having four older sisters) and have not bought any clothes for two years, I rarly go out to eat, I never drink on my own money, and I work my arse off and never buying a gun without selling another one in return.

Here is a good money saving trick I got from my dad.

My dad thanks to diabeties can no longer drive a truck and is forced to be a wharehouse worker making half of what he used to but still manages to save a lot of cash. One trick he does is instead of throwing his spare change in vending machines and 99 cent cheese burgers he saves it. Each night when he comes home from work he empties his pockets of all his dollar bills and change. On his dresser he has has four coffee jars, one for pennys, one for nickles, one for dimes, and one for quarters. And he has an metal box he puts his dollar bills in. I remember one time he saved 700 dollars in dollar bills, 350 dollars in quarters, 150 dollars in dimes, 120 dollars in nickels, and 60 dollars in pennies in about 8 months. Imagine what guns you could buy for 1380 dollar in loose change.

Just something to think about when you find yourself sticking quarters in the vending machine at work when there is a machine that gives you free water standing right beside it.
 
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