Confess your ERE sins

[RightClawSouth]

Come hither my children and confess your sins against the word of Jacob!
I'll get us started...
Skiing.
Sigh, I love skiing so much but it is definitely not a cheap hobby. No way I'd give it up though. The winters in New England would make me want to hang myself if there wasn't skiing there as the winter savior
What are other people's ERE sins?

[jacob]

More confessions here.

[HSpencer]

<drops eyes, shuffles feet>
M1911A1 Colt Pistols (customized) 2 ea (matched pair) 5K

M1911A1 Les Baer (customized) 1 ea 2.5K

M1911A1 Springfield Armory (tuned) 1 ea 1.5K

M1911A1 Nighthawk (custom) (stainless) 1 ea 2K

M1911A1 Various Mfg and Parts (Lot) 6 ea (est. 6K)

AR-15 Rifle

Ruger Mini 14 rifle

Smith and Wesson .357/.38 spec/.44 Mag
(a good place to stop is here).

[jasoninmississippi]

HSpencer - I feel better about my AR-15 Rifle. I love shooting it. Jason

[RightClawSouth]

Wow, you have a veritable armory. Funny thing is, I wonder how much those are depreciating. I don't know much about the second hand gun market but I'd guess it's probably not that much. I do understand that bullets are kinda expensive though

[akratic]

My ERE sin is travel. It's my second highest expense after housing!

[Chris]

akratic: ditto for me. And it's almost entirely airfare. Kind of crazy to think I spend more on a few flights per year than I do for 365 days of food.

[JohnnyH]

*Booze: makes everything in life more enjoyable... Bars can get expensive. Need to learn to make my own. - $93.66/mo

*Gifts: Looks like my gift giving goes up as the recession/depression deepens! - $103.33/mo

*Electronics: normally this is fine. But I bought a 42" TV ($370) and a 4TB HTPC ($320) which I'm a little ashamed of. It was an upgrade year but this needs to come down and I should sell redundant and time vampire items. - $126.32/mo
Damn, those 3 categories cost me more than rent, food, internet, cell phone, electricity, health, automobile and entertainment combined!
As far as guns I know a guy who put his retirement into a historic rifle collection. In the last 10 years, he says it averages 10% a year, with no down years. Plus he gets paid to bring his collection to exhibitions.
Shooting guns on the other hand, ouch

[HSpencer]

Nice thing about the M1911A1 .45 Automatic, you can get a .22 cal conversion kit, which is a barrel and slide, for around $400.00. You then can pay for that item in savings on firing .22 against the cost of .45 ACP. This lets you practice with the hammer and triggers of your 1911's allbeit your not getting the ooomph of the .45 cal.

Also, I am able to use the police department's range for free, and I can buy the police .45 wadcutter ammo to practice with. This is much cheaper than the retail market. The police chief was an army buddy, and therefore I luck out on lots of stuff like use of the ranges and ammo, and getting my concealed carry permit pretty easily. Another good friend (army buddy) is a CPT on the State Police, so I can get most gun items at cost.

The "good ole boy network" helps on lots of things.

[JohnnyH]

@HSpencer: so you feel the 22 kit counts as valid target practice? I hear a lot of people who think it helps get comfortable with the gun, but not much more...
I have a 9mm, which I feel is acceptable for the range at ~13 cents/rd. 22 feels like a BB gun to me.

[OurLifeInc.]

My sin is 2 seats at Ford Field for the Detroit Lions 8 Sundays per year....it is my weakness!! Next year this will be cut in half. My wife only wants to go to 1 game, so I will only have 1 ticket and find a friend to buy the other seat, which should be easy.
I know, I know...the Lions is more like torture than a guilty pleasure....but I can't help it. The more they lose the more I love them...

[HSpencer]

@JohnnyH
I like the 9 mm and carried one while in the US Army, starting in 1990 (Gulf War). I was one of those obnoxious diehards who wanted to keep the M1911 as the service weapon. However, I had no vote of course and went over to the Beretta like everyone else.

I eventually got used to the 9mm, and was ok with it.

The .22 conversion kit gives you trigger time with your .45, and is a cheap alternative to buying commercial .45 ammo.
I am also getting into "Airsoft" which is a target BB you can shoot in your own garage.

[RightClawSouth]

@JohnnyH
re the booze - I posted this in the ERE Gambler thread... Very handy if you live near a casino...
You can print out a blackjack basic strategy chart and have it with you at the table. If you play a $10 table with reasonable rules (the most important being that you only play tables where BJ pays 3:2 NOT 6:5) then your expected loss per hour is only ~0.5% * $10 * 60 hands per hour = $3 per hour. While you are playing you get comped drinks. If you play at one of the better casinos ie the Wynn, Encore, Venetian, Palazzo, Aria, they will comp you top shelf alcohol. You really should tip the waitress $1/drink and you can probably get 3-4 drinks per hour. So you're effectively paying $7-$8 to gamble for an hour and get 3-4 top shelf drinks... WAY better than you could do at any bar.

[JohnnyH]

LOL RightClaw, good idea. There's a few casinos around and I'll always go when others are going. But I will bring a book and just sit with them, usually at a slot... Waitresses don't care as long as you tip.
The only problem is that rarely do you get full 12oz beers, they're usually 10oz plastic sippy cups.
I've been doing better with bars by strictly going during happy hour... Outside of that, I guess I need to do some of the following:

*find a friend that brews, or brew myself (lots of gear)

*develop taste for hard liquor, or least cheaper beer

*find a friend that works in the distributing business. Had one in my old town and it was fantastic

*quit loving booze

[jacob]

"Lots of gear" is relative. It costs about $100 to get started on beer brewing. It's competitive with buying better beer but it's difficult to beat fizzy yellow water. The homebrews I've tasted are easily better than stuff you'd pay $2+ per bottle for in the store.
I'd do it, but I don't have the temperature conditions for it (they need to be fairly constant to avoid turning the beer into beer-like). If anyone geographically close to me is interested in hosting a couple of 5 gallon carboys, I'd be happy to join in with $$ and time.
See http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrew ... -kits.html
There's a slight danger about becoming obsessive about brewing. I have a friend who got into it and soon he was talking about building kegging systems, etc.

[S]

Beauty treatments! I like dying my hair different colors and sometimes I'll go in for waxing or a pedicure. It does feel glamorous though. I try to go once every 3 months to the salon rather than every 8 weeks by getting something that'll look not horrible growing out and doing some light trimming at home. I also only go when I'm in regions with low cost of living. For instance, a cut and color that's $175 in Atlanta is $125 in Detroit.
I think travelling full time might be an ERE sin too, but I'm ok with that one.

[JohnnyH]

Yeah brewing out of kits is really cheap to start. And the beer can be pretty good... But all grain brewing is 2-10 times cheaper and much more delicious.
The only problems being initial cost, time investment, complexity, storage space. I too have seen friends go nuclear over it. I'm afraid to start!
It's illegal to sell your beer, but it would be hugely valuable to barter with people. Could probably get, for example, some bike/car repair for pennies in beer! Or barter for produce.
Urge to brew rising.

[Maus]

My biggest ERE sin is probably renting a 900 sq.ft. home for myself. I just couldn't handle the noise in the cheaper apartments I've lived in. Pros include a vegetable garden and quiet neighbors. The biggest contra is that my landlord won't let me sublet the other bedroom; so I am paying a premium for the tranquility.
Re: brewing. I've done it. I enjoyed it more as a kind of edible chemistry experiment. It just takes too much time and effort relative to the end product. It's like fixing a gourmet five-course meal that takes hours to prepare, then scarfing it down in five minutes. The enjoyment is out of proportion to the cost of the inputs. Then again, I'm perfectly happy with a Sierra Nevada and don't need the ULTIMATE craft brew (whatever that may be).

[aquadump]

re: brewing, I agree with Maus.
I actually didn't mind the time taken to brew. Once you start the first, you can brew a batch every two to four weeks, depending on your diligence.
In terms of price (without labor), I find that brewing beer from kits is equivalent to premium beer plus the added risk of failure. Brewing from grains equivalent to buying premium beer on sale. The cheapest beer buzz is in the PBR realm.
Not to knock brewing. I think it is a fun hobby, but not a cost saving activity, on the 5gal scale.
Proceeding furthermore on the tangent above:

http://www.getdrunknotbroke.com/

http://www.getdrunknotfat.com/

[JohnnyH]

It is hard to get reliable information on the cost of home brewing. People usually aren't frugal with their hobbies.
This guy says it can be done as cheap as somewhere between $1.25 and $3 per six pack depending on how you brew.

http://www.tedbrews.com/2007/11/cheapest-batch.html
Good beer at $3 a gallon, I think I'd die!
EDIT: lol, that last sentence suggests I'd be spending the same, drinking more with less time available. I think I'll keep my distance.