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SaturnV

SaturnV

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I'm terrible. I figured that 10-15% of my meager salary goes to a variety of materials related to rocketry :) I have 4 children, 2 small twins and this year my oldest son will be taught in a high school :)
If you want share what part of your budget goes to rocketry :)
Аnswers like "very", "incredible" when you give 0.5 percent of your salary are not very sincere :)
 
So far this year the most I've spent in a month is 12%, the least 0.4%. My average is 5.4% of my take-home pay.

I think 5% is an easy case to make.
 
64.9% of income gors to rocket stuff of one sort or another, but then i have no real expenses, so i guess i can get away with it for now....
 
Wow, I hit around 10% before I backed off of HPR. Then the grandrocketeers came and my budget is a lot lower. Mine now is about 1-2%.
 
I am at the point where it is very little. I have a build pile that I will probably never finish as it is so I stopped making purchases of kit & components. Occasionally I will run out of TB2 or paint, but that is my only liability.
Haven't bought a motor in more than a year. I only get to maybe 3 launches a year with my local (100miles away) club so I have close to a lifetime supply of motors in stock.
 
I had an initial investment of some parts like motor casings, chutes, harnesses, electronics, big tubs of Rocket Poxy, etc. that probably made me hit 25% of my take home for a month or two. But most of that stuff is re-useable. So now, with just needing mailing tubes and little bits here and there, I'm at 1% or less each month. When launch time comes a few times a year, buying propellant spikes me at about 5% for a month.

I have access to lots of bulk chemicals, so I'll experiment with my own propellant mixing once I clear L2. I already make sugar rockets and some sparky composite for 4th of July events, so I've had practice with it; just not in a formal environment like a Tripoli experimental launch with lots of people around at risk. I won't do that until I have lots of practice mixing, casting, and characterizing propellants and nozzles.
 
100% of my income goes to rocketry, but since I no longer have any income it doesn't amount to very much. :facepalm:
 
Thank you guys for a moment thought I was crazy, but now I am calm :)
 
I'd guess around 2-3% of my net income each year, including travel and occasional hotel expenses for the "away" launches I attend.
 
lawn tractor and chainsaw convert 87 oct to rocket money

full time job goes to household
 
Funny, I never equated how much I spend on something to how much I enjoy or "love" it. Since my hobby is discretionary spending I simply spend what I think I can afford. Never tracked how much.
 
I guess it depends on how you look at things.

In terms of my salary, I have to admit not much - less than 1%

But both my wife and I get a weekly "allowance" that is our own discretionary money that we can spend as we please.
For my wife, that goes to mostly clothes.
For me, rockets. So from my allowance, probably 75~80%. Some years 100%
 
les said:
...But both my wife and I get a weekly "allowance" that is our own discretionary money that we can spend as we please.
For my wife, that goes to mostly clothes.
For me, rockets. So from my allowance, probably 75~80%. Some years 100%
Click to expand...

That is the system we operate under too, and it makes for zero personal spending conflict. Therefore, it is easy to know that I spend less than 2% of overall income on rocketry, and I would say that I very much enjoy rocketry. If I stuck to low power, which I also enjoy very much, I could easily spend <0.5%. I don't think how much you spend is directly related to how much you enjoy the hobby.
 
Last edited:
Not a lot - I give myself $20/paycheck to spend on hobbies. . We have 3 kids - one is currently in braces and plays field hockey. One plays travel ice hockey. The third plays ice hockey and is getting braces - which leaves not much $$$ for extras. Most of my kits that are stashed away were Christmas presents from the wife.
 
I think about 2-3% which according to my wife is still too much. I work a summer side job at a local stock car race track about every second Saturday night and a lot of that pay is saved and goes to rocketry expenses during those long winter months. I'm only building and flying low power and slowly branching into mid-power so my budget can still stretch a long way.
 
From working full time and into retirement, my budget is "If I like it, I buy it." I don't even have a clue as to how much gas is as I'm always able to fill it up.
 
Give up smoking and use that money to buy rocket stuff. If you don't smoke tell the spouse you're using money you'd ordinarily spend on cigarettes or "whacky weed" (if you live in Colorado)
Yeah right, that ought to justify if for you! :flyingpig: Kurt
 
ksaves2 said:
Give up smoking and use that money to buy rocket stuff. If you don't smoke tell the spouse you're using money you'd ordinarily spend on cigarettes or "whacky weed" (if you live in Colorado)
Yeah right, that ought to justify if for you! :flyingpig: Kurt
Click to expand...

I thought the same that when I quit smoking I'd have the extra money to spend. The problem is the wife and kids got to it before I could.
 
I love rocketry because it broght my family together after my return from Iraq.
 
cwbullet said:
I love rocketry because it broght my family together after my return from Iraq.
Click to expand...

You can't put a price tag on that Glad you are back home-now you just need to get back to that warehouse of rocket kits you have after this last tour!

I prolly spent about $500 to get to LDRS 35-and didn't fly a darn thing! All my time was spent bonding with my middle and oldest sons and it was the best launch I've ever been to!
(It was also Wayco and Hardline's wedding anniversary-but they are so cool anyway-we drank flown champagne!)

Bottom line is it's not how much you spend but how much you enjoy what you've spent.
 
fyrwrxz said:
You can't put a price tag on that Glad you are back home-now you just need to get back to that warehouse of rocket kits you have after this last tour!

I prolly spent about $500 to get to LDRS 35-and didn't fly a darn thing! All my time was spent bonding with my middle and oldest sons and it was the best launch I've ever been to!
(It was also Wayco and Hardline's wedding anniversary-but they are so cool anyway-we drank flown champagne!)

Bottom line is it's not how much you spend but how much you enjoy what you've spent.
Click to expand...


And we enjoy rocketry alot. I did a quick calculation for last year and it came to 5%...but our 5% is going to be different from somebody else's 5% of course.

In 2016 Wayne and I attended 10 rocket launches, including LDRS and Hellfire. Wayne flew 92 motors in 75 flights and I flew 68 motors in 65 flights (and 2 bottles of champagne - it's my nose weight for the Gizmo XL....)

Point is we have fun and we get to do it together which is priceless.



 
How much one spends does not directly equate to ones love of the hobby. To insinuate that leaves out a wide variety of life factors that directly effect what a person can and should spend.

What I spend has little or nothing to do with my love of the hobby. As Hardline put it, what she and Wayne spend on rocketry works for them, and that is awesome. I know what I can afford is less than what she spends. There is nothing wrong with that, and as a matter of fact, that is how it should be.

What bothers me is when you hear of people spending to a level on any hobby that puts their financial well being at risk. This is especially true of folks spending relatively large portions of meager wages when they have a spouse and four kids at home. There is passion for a hobby, and the there is taking care of business on the home front- to me one of these things is really important and the other is a hobby. Not saying hobbies and such are not good things- they are.
 
With the cost of living going up we recently did a budget, after not having done one for many years. To my surprise my wife put down 7% of my income for rocketry. I promptly told her I was going to build a lot more big rockets :). Actual spending is around 2-3 % I think. Not excessive $ (IMHO) but it is a big time-sink (in a good way!).
 

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