I apologize in advance to farmers who accidentally run into this article. I’m not talking about any goats here, I’m summarizing how much a year-long making project can cost. I’m writing this for a single reason – because it is something that I would’ve loved to have read before embarking on such a journey. I’ll be honest, the cost was a concern before starting this. From previous experiences, I knew making can be a costly hobby. There are a lot of things you can do, and I did, for free. But for many of my projects, I did indeed need to buy materials and/or tools.
I tried to keep a tally, but I am sure it is not perfectly precise. And of course, there are stuff I didn’t count like tools I acquired because I needed them for something else but then used them in a project, or just various bits and pieces I had laying around for some other projects or for whatever reason.
As you can see, a whole year of making has cost me just under 500€ (probably a little bit over counting in the things I forgot). All things considered, that is not expensive at all. Especially considering that half of the price is the 3D printer and filament, which, to be honest, I would’ve bought anyway. Without that, it comes out to around 20€ per month which is a little bit more than a streaming service, or like a monthly bill for electricity or internet or something like that (depends on where you live and what kind of service you have). In my opinion, that is a very reasonable price to pay for what you can accomplish with it.
There is a really nice thing that happens when you commit to something and slowly work on it for a prolonged period of time. When you just start, you need a bunch of stuff and you don’t have anything. But over time, you acquire a lot of tools and materials which you can then use later on. As I went through the challenge, I found myself being able to make some stuff without buying anything or very little. For example, for the kitchen wall storage thingy I only bought some screws. Everything else, I already had from previous projects. Or the MIDI keyboard where I had everything I needed because I was already collecting parts for an awesome keyboard I plan to make (when I do, I’ll write a blog post about it).
I know, this is just like a cooking show when the host just pulls out a very specialized ingredient or piece of equipment like it is something everybody has. And I always hated when I try to look for a recipe and realize I need a Whipping Siphon to make that pretentious-looking foam sauce. You might ask what even is a Whipping Siphon, and that is exactly the point. You won’t have that in your regular kitchen equipment. But if you decide to take cooking up as a hobby, one day you might get to a place where you’ll be able to but that, and where you will actually use it.
My point here is that when you get into a hobby, don’t be daunted by all the tools and materials you need to work on stuff you want. You can always build your arsenal slowly. And before you realize, you will have much more than you could have imagined, and for much less money than you would’ve thought.