Self control is needed in situations where your hobbies are endangering your finances. Once my account is under $3000 USD we know we need to stop spending. once the account accumulates more money then and only then if i feel comfortable spending more, I do.
I have owned
DX80
X70
R90c
MT18
BLF GT
GT Mini
ODF40C
ODL20C
TN42VN
TX25c2vn
tn40svn
I wouldn’t know about splurging on lights getting me into trouble, tbh. When your budget is tight enough that you can only comfortably buy a Convoy by saving for two months or more, you learn to manage your cash flow
Iron rules in my household:
If the item won’t fit in a few suit cases and/or truck bed, I won’t buy it (exception: furniture that will be left behind).
If I buy something of a similar group of things I already own, something else in that group has to go (given away or sold on ebay) - there is no point in having 392 lights or 138 knives or 4 sets of wheels for 1 car.
I know. Already have several lights and have ordered another one. The custom lights you have on here are also amazing, will probably order them as well
Guess I’ll get rid of something else to make shelf space.
For me, no money, no funny! I’ve been delaying buying some pieces/drivers….for mods for a while ’cause I know I can’t afford them at the moment in order to have more than 0€ before the end of the month.
My buying is, somehow, controlled to avoid being “zeroed”
I haven’t spent all that much on lights. I recently ordered a new headlamp to mod, other than that I haven’t bought a light or host for over a year… But driver boards from OSH Park, that’s a different story… and components for projects that become obsolete by the time I’ve got the boards from OSH Park because I’ve designed a new version using other components, which then are obsolete by the time I get them because new ones are on the way.
The other day I did a clean up of components, old driver boards and stencils… The money I’ve spent on stuff I’ll never use, it’s sad really, I feel like a hoarder. I might not be a flashaholic but I do have issues, that’s for sure.
It comes in waves….since I discovered this site I buy more - I already knew the Chinees webshops and their low prices.
If you compare prices with local webshops there is not always such a big difference, specialy batteries are better to buy local, in my case at Nkon. But tempting offers I can’t hardly resist….I try to stay with the decent but not to expensive brands like Convoy, Skilhunt, Astrolux, Nitecore, etc.
Same with knives…Ganzo, Enlan, Mora, Opinel will do for me….
I can just look at the local outdoor shop at a Fenix light or a Falkniven knife, but I’m satisfied with my low budget tools, so I can afford to buy more then I need without getting in trouble
The main issue I have is lots of small purchases - incl things I don’t really need or duplicates - not really considering how they add up over time. “Oh, why not it is only 15 bucks?” type-logic. And then of course at the end of the year you realise you have spent hundreds of dollars on stuff.
Great input guys. The bad part in my case is that I will ” Got to get item ” BEFORE it is too late syndrome. I missed out on quite few items so hence I accumulated this syndrome. Some that come to mind haunts me to this day.
Olight Seeker Copper
Wowtac BSS Coyote tan
Other Olight limiteds etc….
Sad part is most of the time lights are ” GOLDEN QUEENS ” meaning sitting stored away in boxes.
On the positive side, I do not buy store bought lights unless great sale price, good output. At least I save some money there.
I've rectified this by simply capping the number of lights I own. Found myself with 12 lights and felt like that was a waste. I only ever used my A6, SP32, and C8. No way I'd ever use the others. I'm not one to coordinate my accessories to my outfit. Decided to get rid of almost all of them and get three lights that I REALLY wanted. One badass EDC, one badass Thrower, and one badass Flooder. Covers every situation I'd find myself in. First of my new lights arrives tomorrow.
Now, when the time comes in a year or so and the new top-of-the-line Acebeam/Imalent/Sofirn/Astrolux/BLF Monster light comes out, all I have to do is figure out which one to replace if I so desire. Keeps things simple.
It’s a slippery slope…
When you want to get into modding, you have to stock all kinds of stuff…
LEDs, LED boards, wire, springs, switches, switch boots, drivers, optics, centring gaskets, you name it.
And often you still need to order specific parts you don’t already have.
So it’s never enough, even when you have too many parts…
