Cloudcroft/John;
I'm not sure how to take you comments, so I'll stay on The High Road and explain....
In the division of responsiblities in our marriage Mrs Scout pays the bills/handles the finances. We both make decent incomes, and have the usual bills (mortgage, groceries, car payments, utilities, etc). We are relatively debt free and each month put aside money into our emergency fund (for unusual one time of occurances like, having to pay the deductible because of an auto accident, cars need emergency repairs, Insurance covered everthing but X amount when one of the kids got sick and we took them to the doctor, emergency house repairs, appliances break, etc. ), plus we save money to fund a pair of college educations, and retirement (we each have IRA's in addition to the 401(k)'s we have through work).
That said, we have an agreement the we discuss what were going to spend, for anything above and beyond our usual weekly "allowance" expenses; groceries, gas, and lunches while at work. I normally brown bag it at least 4 days a week.
Guns, hunting trips, and reloading supplies fall into the "discuss" catagory (along with things like "the kids/I need clothes/shoes", one of the cars is due for service, an appliance is making a funny noise, and what we're spending on each kid and the relatives for Christmas, etc.).
After looking over the budget we agreed that $80 is what's available for "used" reloaders for the kids. Doesn't mean that things are so tight that we couldn't afford to spend more or buy them new ones. Just means that there were other priorities, and as I said she can't see spending $100-120 on reloader for a six year old that won't get used that much. Like I said she had no problem with spending several hundred on a 12ga progressive, she can see the value, as it gets used....alot. But my son is good for 10-15 minutes on the Lee Load-All, then gets bored (yes, shocking news: 6 year olds have short attention spans) and moves on to playing with his trucks, planes, cars or trains. Hard to justify the expense.
Our relationship is built on trust and if we agree that we will spend "X" amount on a certain item then that's the limit of what we spend. While we have said things like "I know we agreed on $40 bucks for Aunt Mary's gift, but I found this for $42.99, and it's perfect for her." I'd much rather say "I know we agreed on $50 for a new reloader, but I managed to get this one for $45."
Just as an FYI. My son refers to reloading as "Family Fun Night". After dinner we all go down to the basement, with me, my son and daughter operating a reloader. My wife will work on whatever it she wants to do; work, scrapbooking, on the computer, reading a book/magazine. Like I said, my son is good for 10- 15 minutes on "his" reloader, then he announces that he's bored and goes to playing with his toys on the floor behind us. Even when he gets his .410 reloader, since he only shoots ~5 shots a week at the range and we *might* find another five or ten .410 hulls to reload, it's simply not going to get used that much. The cool thing is that were all together as a family, in one area of the house, with no TV, radio or other outside interference, just us talking and being together as a family.
We've been married for 19 years and rarely fight over money, so our system seems to work, at least for us. Last year when I got my bonus we agreed that 2/3's would go into the "family fund" and I got 1/3 to buy whatever I wanted (I bought a new gun). As I stated, I could be one of those poor schmucks whose significant other won't even allow them to have guns or even go hunting/shooting. Mrs Scout appericates having a freezer filled with venison, wild turkey, pheasants, etc.
Hope that clarifies things for you, because Mrs Scout said thanks, but she doesn't need your condolences. I do appericate your speedy recovery wishes. My nephrologist said my kidney function is up to 76% and getting better each month so we're continuing on the same course of treatment for now and if things continue to improve we'll be looking a tapering off the dosages and working them down to "maintenance" levels. The oncologist/hematologist is going to start me on Procrit next week to help fight the anemia, so that should make me "less tired" all the time.
Oh, and BT69. A MEC 600 Jr. would defintely be a money saving/shoot more for the same amount option in your situation. I've heard/read (check over at
www.shotgunworld.com, and search/post a question in the reloading section) that .410's and a progressive press do a lot of aggrivation make. Also, I sinecerely apologize for the thread hi-jack. Please feel free to hi-jack any of mine.
