[gimmito]

I was replying to a thread and the subject of budgets imposed by our wives came up. I thought that would make a great thread. So my question to all of you fellow reefers...How many of you actually tell your significant others how much you spend in the hobby ? Personally, mine is on a need to know basis !

[Jeremy0322]

I am one of the lucky ones. I dont really have to answer to the girl yet, but if i did I am sure as long as i was not putting us in jeopardy or anything she would be alright with anything. She loves this hobby as much as i do it seems, she does not like the part of setting up and maintaining, they are just beautiful little babies to her..lol

[gimmito]

Jeremy, Half the battle is getting your significant other into the hobby ! Once you do, it's a little easier to explain why you spent 50 bucks on a coral or fish.

[e_baer]

I agree with Jeremy. As long as I am not putting the family in any money shortages I htink my wife would be fine with it.

Right now I am only spending 35$ a week. That is not too bad.

[patrick1234]

well i just spent about 1000.
on the new tank and i spend about 300 a month on new tanks or fish
and as long as we have the money my wife dose not care

[mothergoose]

I'm lucky. my husband says go for it. Of course he has several toys that we dump money into as well. This seems to work for both of us.

[R-e-D]

well after i set up my tank my girlfriend said i can spen $20 a month on it (wtf) i just said ok. a nd keep telling her it is not done setting up yet

[dfurbee]

Don't forget about the female's with tanks! Well, as long as I am not spending too much, and am making the money spent. No one needs to know, right?

[dbirdsong]

I must say it is very exspensive. I am new to the hobby and have already spent more than I should. Need to know basis I would say. Not to many women think a fish is worth 50 bucks.

[thelastmucci]

Ahhh...the big question is when and how do you explain that that 120 gallon is getting filled up and you want to invest in a "fish room" if you can pull that off then you have some serious negotianting (sp?) skills.

[Adam J]

It was easy to get my wife to agree to my fish room.I just started talking about selling furniture to make room for my new tank.Like magic she thought the fish room was a GREAT idea.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Reef tanks have budgets?This is a big suprise to me lol.

[Jeremy0322]

For some reason I am not surprised by that answer at all Native. For some reason so far i have really not budgeted anything, i just spend money as i get it and eventually I will have everything i need to start the tank. I have a list and i just check things off the list, someday it will be full of check marks and then i will finally get it up and running.

[thelastmucci]

Well I've capped at 3K...if I spend more than that then I might as well pay someone to do it for me.

[rlcline76]

Budget?
I wish I could budget. I remember back in the day (several months back) when I said how cheap things would be because I had the equipment, did n't need anymore fish...put in a coral here and there. And then I find new sites with products I need to try, books I need to look at, new aspects of the hobby that I need to explore.
My husband is worse than me...good thing I have all the money!

[stephaniesquires]

Significant others should be treated like mushrooms (in this limited instance of course) kept in the dark and covered in bull@@@@. My SO has no idea what this hobby costs, and I'm not going to tell him!!!!
When they delivered the new 300 I let the delivery guys know if they said how much it really costs he would make them load it back on the truck and take it back!! Fortunately, he doesn't ask and I dont tell!!!

[Gieke]

I live alone and make a good living. My only limitation is that I live on the second floor of an apartment building. 55 gallons is about as much weight as Im comfortable with so there will be alot of money invested into the 55. Over $2,000 so far and I still dont have water in it yet. But I finally got some rock curing atleast. Water is going in tomorrow! (after they come and install my new carpet)

Why do you hide the cost from your SO? I was married once, I guarantee that 90% of your SO's would be happy to use it as an excuse to spend money on their own hobby.

[gimmito]

I think we can all agree that reefkeeping is a expensive hobby. Personally, I try to keep cost down by shopping on ebay & craigslist, diy projects, make my own food, etc.

By no means am I advocating not being responsible in one's spending...please pay your rent or mortgage before buying that new coral !

Initially, my wife would make me save all the receits and try to budget. We all know the main cost in the hobby is the setup (that's why I always tell folks to buy a setup from someone getting out of the hobby). After that it's not too bad. I just spent 100 bucks on 6 sps corals from a fellow hobbyist that easily would have been 2-3x that at a lfs. Prior to that, I had not bought a coral for 6 months.

My wife does'nt really have a hobby so she can't relate. The plus side is she has a taken a interest in the hobby (along with the kids).

I have invested about 3 grand in my 75 gal thus far and hope to do a 180+ gal in the future. Alot of what I have know will be going into the upgrade.

I tell my wife it could be worse...Our next door neighbor collects cars !

[rlcline76]

I thought about this. My husband got me into this hobby by buying the wrong equipment, not cycling properly...you name it. I came in to correct it. Upgraded all of the equipment...it was all fine and dandy until I decided that the tanks needed more color. Now I do not allow him any say on the tanks...he'll just mess them up. My justification for spending is the overall health of the system. Do I need GARF grunge...? NATIVE thinks so, NATIVE would not steer me wrong. Do I need almost every type of food with the best additives money can buy?...well, yeah. Do I need to make my own hang on side refugium so that I can have a planted tank and raise pods? No one will argue with that. Will I need to upgrade my lighting??? If I find a good reason consider it shipped.

[gimmito]

I like the way you think Becky !

[rlcline76]

He ain't going to fight with me, I'll have his crap packed up before he gets home from work...lol

[gimmito]

Ha, Ha, Ha...that's just hilarious !!!

[patrick1234]

gimmito

Do you have some other pics of your tank you can up load?

[FINDING_NEMO]

my wife dont mind me buying anything. i spent about 4k in a year in between my 2 tanks and thats counting dead fish. i spent $40/month in water alone. why should my wife care tho i just remodeled the kitchen and that was 4k, bought a 50" plasma and made a 3k payment on her car, and this was over 2 month. plus we only 20 and already own a home

[gimmito]

Originally Posted by patrick1234

gimmito

Do you have some other pics of your tank you can up load?

Patrick, Here's some updated pic's...

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...o/IMG_0743.jpg
hhttp://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj266/gimmito/IMG_0748.jpg
tthttp://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj266/gimmito/TX5057.jpgp:
//i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj266/gimmito/IMG_0744.jpg