How many of you have a certain budget you can spend on coins/currency each month. I think I'm going to have to set one after this month...my girlfriend my leave me when she sees what I spent!

Tell her it's some quality investment that you are saving up for a rainy day and you paid a lot less than what's it is worth.

But yes, I can't really get new coins nowadays thanks to real screwed world economy.

I tried the old investment speach...didn't work so well! But I have paid less for everything than book value, so that's good...and if shiat hits the fan I can walk in to a bank and cash it in.

I do and I highly reccomend this for every collector. Budgeting in general is a good idea and for discrtionary spending it makes a lot of sense. I find that without a budget coin spending is more variable with splurges here and there and it also leads to buying some things that aren't as good a fit into any collection. Knowing that only xx$ is available focuses the aquisition process. It's also nice because there are busy times, or periods where no good coin is available; during this time the cash builds up enabling a nicer purchase. If you are really patient you can even hoard your coin money for a whole year and then visit the closest major show to make all your purchases in person.

That's how I justify my buyings to myself. Sadly I'm the only one in the family who actually believes so

I don't really have a budget, and for me that is good and bad. For the most part I can pass on a lot of the coins I see, but then sometimes I am not as prepared for the items I find that I really want for my collection. In those cases, I either come up with the money somehow, or discipline myself by selling off those which no longer fit in my collection. Nowadays I am down to buying maybe 2 or 3 coins per year for my Saint set, so it's not like a monthly budget would accomplish much anyway!

I have to budget, or I get myself in big trouble.
I haven't purchased a new coin in nearly three months because I went over budget earlier.

I always set a budget and I always blow it. Oh well.

I try to keep it under $50 a month. Trying to go to college full-time and buy food for two really makes a dent in savings when you don't have a job.

My girlfriend says the same thing. "Why are you spending money on money?" Eh, I just say "sorry dear" and that's the end of that.

I blew my limit for September but only by a few bucks. I can't complain getting almost 110 coins for ~$60

Lol. I have a confession though. As soon as I see an ultra rare coin, I usually have a bad habit of borrowing (but don't worry, I always manage to repay it back)

One of the rare rubles that I paid for was around 300+USD at that time. I honestly thought it was bloody expensive that time, but right now, it seems to have blown over 1grand

But yes, if I didn't do it at that time, I really doubt that I would have gotten such rare coins.

I don't have a budget, i spend whatever i 'think' i can afford. Whether i'm proved to be right or wrong.

Although if truth be known, i haven't bought any coins since July. I have money in the bank now since payday was two days ago, but i really don't have the urge to buy anything.

There's a bust dime on the shortlist and one of two hammered coins, but i'm currently fence sitting on this one. No intention to get off until i'm pushed.

I've had days like that. I have been so keen to get certain coins i've sold other coins off to get them. Sometimes when my finiancial situation picks up i get the inclination to buy back the coins i sold the dealer, even though he paid me half book price for them and then marked them up at just over book price. For me this is a hobby of love quite clearly, i throw money down the drain more often than not.

My friends spend all theirs on booze, so i suppose i feel better because i'm not literally pouring the money down the drain.

Ditto.

Usually $30 or so a month for me. I have a habit of "borrowing" to make purchases.

I use to have a budget, but the past few months it has been nil, zero, nada. We had to save up for the wedding, and last weekend we bought our plane tickets to New Zealand(the honeymoon ) so now we're broke again and need to save up spending money for the trip. And ever since I got my truck my budget has dwindled. I use to have a budget of $100-150 a month but not anymore

I don't really have a budget, what I like to call it is petty cash. I have about $200+ in cash on my coin desk almost all the time. Sometimes I tap into it to buy something at the monthly coin show, most times I just add a few $$$ a week to it waiting for major purchases at the FUN show in January.

That's where I am now, squirreling away cash to take to one major show. selling off things I no longer want, duplicates and such and saving that money. Oh, I'll dip into it more than often than not, but it's usually small purchases.

nah. no budget. it's so limiting!

seriously ... i have a splurge once or twice a year, and i spend much less on coins than i do on, say, entertainment, so i don't think about it too much.

i did, however, like the idea about how a budget helps you bring more discipline to what you collect, though ...

and besides, i can quit any time ...

I almost spent about a years worth of budget today. Boy it took a lot of will power (and convincing from Erica) not to buy that $20 gold piece. Ouch...

my budget ends when I run out of money.....

My biggest problem isn't an annual or monthly budget, but rather how many coins I should buy with that money each year. Say $25 week = $1300 per annum. Say there is a $500 bonus throw in once per year. What works out best: 12 $150 coins, 1 $1800 coin, 2 $900 coins etc.

Major problem here too. I have enough laying around for a AU+ or low mint state $10 Indian Eagle. I love that coin design, but that would blow my whole bankroll. I can get 4 to 8 coins for my type set for that kinda $$$$.

My buying is very 'spurty' so I don't budget much. I may go a month of two without buying anything and then buy quite a bit the next month.

Also, I really don't buy many coins that are out of the 'petty' cash arena. $10 here and there doesn't require any budgeting for the most part.

If I know I am going to a show that is coming up, I will often start stashing some cash away but that is as close to a budget as I get, I think.

Although we've never met, I think I would fit in well with your group of friends.

As far as a budget for coins, I'm in the same category as Stujoe ($10 here and there). If I keep it cheap, it doesn't get on my lovely wife's radar.

I give my wife as much or more for her spending as I budget on coins and then everyone wins.

Same here...but that works out much better for me if I'm spending only $30 on coins this month. Plus, she throws my wine purchase $$ in with the coin $$ when she figures out how much I've been spending.
Oh, wait a minute.....you said "give your wife for spending." That's a nice system you've got there. The boss (that's not me) allocates the spending money around here. It's all good.

No budget for me. I don't really need one. If I had one, I'd go over it anyway.

Preface: Don't do what I do.

I don't budget, it ruins the fun for me. I just spend until it hurts, then back off and do something else that involves little or no money until it stops hurting. So far I have been blessed enough financially to get away with this strategy.

Set budget no.. What ever I thing I can spend without breaking the bank works somewhat. Just a little thin after a buying session. I don't collect expensive coins so I am not dropping a bundle. The dillema is alway do I buy a few higher grade coins or stick to the circ grades to go into my sets. Shows are always tempting, too much stuff to buy.

Tony

I used to have a budget, but lately it is spend, spend, spend. The last two weeks have been quite beneficial to my hobby

Same here.

I do not know why, but I went on a spending spree the past two weeks. Most of it has been towards the silver stuff I am after. So nothing too expensive. Oh yeah, but then there was that 5 kopeck and the gold 20 korona. Those started to be a bit more pricey.

Actually this was the most expensive individual piece:



8 Litrai from Syracuse, Sicily reign of Agathokleos (317-289 BC) 22 MM, and 6.85 Gr.

That is quite a dazzler! You made a great choice there. If you all keep showing me these interesting non-US coins, I may have to dive into another branch of the hobby.

Stay 'round here enough you get addictions you didn't think possible. As a result of being here, I collect Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain. With the exception of Netherlands, which I collected gold ducats from, I never collected anything from any of these countries.

Ancients are a recent phenomenen, only in the last year or so have I really dipped into that, and pretty much exclusively interested in Black Sea because of a family connection to that part of the world, and Syracuse because of the beauty of the coins.

I have a budget...my only problem is that it is already spent through August of 2008.

Ditto here!!

I mostly, sort of set a budget. Well, not really, I guess. When I have extra money I will often buy more coins. When I don't, I buy less.

Budget?

We don't have a budget. We have been getting a couple of thse and a couple of those. Basically trying to figure out what we would like to make our starting point, does that make any sense? Being new to coin collecting we can go to a shop and see a coin we have never seen before, so we will buy a chep one to check out. I like the walkers and the standing liberty quarters ( and I forget the other one). Somebody sent us some mercury dimes and we didn't have any of them that the other coinmonster likes. But she has expensive taste(what kid doesn't) she likes the peace dollars and the morgans.

So see we have alot to figure out. But we are having fun doing it so far. Thanks to all of you all to for helping us on our journey!

It is beginning to sound like this is one big Numismatists Anonymous group of some kind.

Hmmm... I also have European ancestry, Germany prior to 1871. The German coins I have seen are sharp designs...

I thought you people were nice, but this is downright cruel.

My budget is whatever I have to spend

Ah then you can easily collect coins from where your family came from. If their particular place did not have a unique coinage then somewhere nearby did, and they used.

BTW welcome to Coin Addiction Support Group. Coinaholics are us

Budget - On my to do list for 2006

Budget? I guess you can call this a budget! I used to smoke, now all the money that I used to burn, I use it to buy coins. I guess, I can't really call it a budget but more like a change of addiction.

Coins are much better for you than cigarettes

Ditto.......and hey if I gotta recoup that money back, that's why there is eBay.

I need to remove that habit and stick to only coins...Hmmm let's see.....a carton a week ($28.50) times 52 weeks in a year.... = $1482. Dang......I could get a real nice grade (VF) 1922 plain Lincoln Cent to finish off my lincoln set that way...... or a 1955 DDO#1 in XF to MS on eBay...... Hmmmmmmm.................

I'm getting a lot of coins from those sigarrets. I figure it cost me about $2.50 a day, what I do now is put that money away everyday in the morning in a jar and when I go to the coin shop I just take it all. The result can be a couple of coins or quite a few cents to finish that lincoln collection