The years of not buying

[Vanvlak]

Looking back at the last months of 2015 I bought a whole new lead pile when the old one is still immense. Kickstarters are very much to blame....I have a pile of boxes which I will struggle to store, so the buck stops here. It's time to paint stuff, not juggle around with storage solutions.

I'm posting about it to make myself stick to this:
1) No new model purchases
2) Modelling supplies (bases, paints, storage boxes, flock etc.) permitted when required
3) Occasional purchases of particularly sought-after models permitted.

Clause (3) will of course be the one to watch out for.
I am allowing myself the luxury of one new army to populate over the coming years - and I'm not saying which, as you helpful blokes would inevitably point me towards a whole list of sellers....I want to get these gradually, over the years, when opportunity strikes. All I'm giving away is that I was surprised to find out that there's one GW force which I've been after for years, and which I barely have a single model for. Given my drift away from GW, it was funny to realise that what could be my last new purchase force would be theirs. Ah well.

This year I managed to limit my purchases to a few bags of bases - but it's only the 4th of January.....!
Meanwhile today I received one of the many last-minute purchases of 2015 - one of the Pegasus sets of Gothic structures - the cathedralish one, from Arcane Scenery and Models - http://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/shop/pegasus-gothic-city-building-28mm-scale-set-1-scenery/. I seem to have qualified for free shipping (end of year, it seems), which was VERY welcome.

Ongoing activities: various odds and ends, and the LPL entries!

[beefcake]

Good luck. I find sales the hardest thing to overcome.
 I've done something similar but with my painting table. No new painting until the rest is done. It has also made me limit my purchasing funnily enough as there are things I want to paint now but am stopping myself and knowing that if I buy more stuff this will just get pushed aside.

[Comsquare]

Good idea, and good luck with that 

Should do something similar 

[Ahistorian]

I am attempting to limit myself to a maximum of £50 a month, plus income from hobby stuff like articles and figure sales. If it works, then next year - who knows!?

[Eric the Shed]

Like last year (2015) I will work on a zero budget - I can only spend what I can earn from the hobby. Last year I cleared about £800 on ebay and still have £200 to spend.

Its now getting harder to find things to sell but at the same time I am only going to buy what I use...

Next year might be harder

[joroas]

To stop my spending on stuff I won't paint for years, I only did two shows last year, a local small one and a tabletop sale that resulted in a profit.  In 2016 I may do only one show......

I found that avoiding WMMS, Worlds, Colours and Warfare saved me a fortune.......

There is stuff I would like but I don't need a new army!!

[joroas]

[Vanvlak]

And while we wait for the next 'oh yes you do' .....

It's not really a cashflow problem - it's storage - and time, of course. I'm counting the number of forces (ranging from 10-model teams to armies), and I'm up to 44 so far, and I will probably add another 30 at least. The larger sized armies have around 200 28mm scale models. 

[joroas]

Nor I, but my huge mountain of unpainted lead and plastic doesn't need adding to.....

[Vanvlak]

That's part of it too in my case.
I've gotten to the point where I've invested in models enough to keep me going a decade or so after my death, if I live long.
Unless my rate of painting stuff increases (unlikely before retirement) or I'm bicentennial...

[Drachenklinge]

Sorry to say, but isn't there one little fault within that logic? INMH minis need more storage, when they are painted, cause you either need a showcase  or some special bags. No more cramping them together into a far smaller box.

I wonder, why seemingly all of a sudden so many want to restrict themselves from "new stuff", and even for the next yearS! Good luck with that. 

Maybe it will be like these jojo diets ... you manage to eat much less, but afterwards you only get that frenzy for your favorite food.
Why not limiting to less £￥€$ or so-n-so-much minis per month, if need be, like already said? And you cannot push unbought minis onto the next timeframe. ^^

However, I totally understand your desire to decrease the lead mountain. 

[Mason]

Well, I am glad that you jumped on my KS before taking the 'vow'.
 

I aim to do something similar as I have several 'projects' awaiting my attention and want to use it to motivate myself to concentrate on them before acquiring any new ones.
The existing projects can all do with a couple of things adding to them too, so plenty to keep me busy.
 




(This does mean that my intended plan for a BLAM 2016 project is not going to happen, but hey-ho...I can take a year out  ).

[Vanvlak]

Sorry to say, but isn't there one little fault within that logic? INMH minis need more storage, when they are painted, cause you either need a showcase  or some special bags. No more cramping them together into a far smaller box.

I wonder, why seemingly all of a sudden so many want to restrict themselves from "new stuff", and even for the next yearS! Good luck with that.  

Maybe it will be like these jojo diets ... you manage to eat much less, but afterwards you only get that frenzy for your favorite food.
Why not limiting to less £￥€$ or so-n-so-much minis per month, if need be, like already said? And you cannot push unbought minis onto the next timeframe. ^^

However, I totally understand your desire to decrease the lead mountain.  

Actually, no - unassembled models (and most of my pile are actually plastic) take up more space than the painted ones.
Scenery is the one exception to this...

As for not buying new stuff: I know I will be tempted to buy several new items (the new FW Bloodbowl for example), but that would just make matters worse, whether the models are unpainted or otherwise. I am putting aside the cash I'd spend on models for improved storage (e.g. REALLY watertight boxes I can keep in our rather damp basement undeground, partitioned boxes etc.).
As for keeping off new stuff: as an example, one of my weaknesses is for mech type models - for example the Tau Battlesuits. So far I have purchased models which fit in this category at least 8 times over. Being strong favourites, I have actually painted 3 of these sets - two were one-off models actually, the third set included 3 models. How many more iterations do I need?

I have, as explained, left one force slot open to satisfy the itch; but I will not be actively hunting out the models needed, just getting them whenever opportunity presents itself.

Mason, your Kickstarter was brilliant, and given the 5-star service, I have no qualms about it. Same goes for the 3rd Oathsworn Kickstarter I backed. And the volume of these is manageable too  

In fact, as I suspect that rule 3 will be a loophole I will exploit (sigh), I should introduce another restriction - allowing only single models, or sets which I can manage to paint for an LPL round!

P.S. It's harsh, by the way, to do this now. I once bought GW stuff only, then discovered the big world out there, and now it seems that we're in a golden age of models, with companies of all sizes, cottage industries, crowdfunding, good sculptors, 3D printing, tonnes of cool material - we're lucky to be in on this.
 

[Dr. Zombie]

Best of luck with your plan. I am not sure I would have the backbone to see it through..

[Vanvlak]

Best of luck with your plan. I am not sure I would have the backbone to see it through..

I'm not sure I do - the 'last army project' is there just for those moments of great weakness.
But I'm trying anyway.
I also need to ramp up my painting, we need a 52-week LPL....

Maybe if I allowed myself to buy one model for every 100 painted....