Resisting the Urge to Spend

I decided that since I wasn't going to run out and buy all of the supplies necessary for my new hobby, I would just look for a book on the subject. Books aren't too expensive and I could learn more about the subject. Well, I started looking for books on glass beads, lampworking, and jewelry making. My, there are a lot of them. I looked on ebay first and found a few that looked interesting but then I wanted to be sure I was buying the BEST book on the subject so I looked up some titles on Amazon. I discovered that the most popular, all-inclusive book was Passing the Flame by the woman at this site: corinabeads It costs $75 plus shipping! Yikes. It isn't sold through Amazon but there were some for sale for $51 and up through other sources. Still too expensive. There were other cheaper books on ebay but I thought I should be sure of which book to buy before I spend even $10. So, I looked up bead making at the library. Some of the titles were at my local branch and the library was even open in the afternoon on Sundays.

I went to Michael's Arts and Crafts store to buy more Christmas gifts and now I remember why I don't go there very often. That place overwhelms me. I want everything and then I start to feel guilty because I have so many arts and craft supplies at home that I don't use. 2 years ago when I still had a high paying job, I bought a sewing machine, serger, and embroidery machine. I spent about $800 for all 3. Two of them were used and the sewing machine was new after the used one I bought first wouldn't work so I returned it. Since then I have sold the embroidery machine, never used the serger because I still can't figure it out after 3 people and a video showed me how, and the sewing machine, I have used it a few times but not nearly as much as I should for something that costs so much. I also have an airbrush (but no compressor to run it), a woodburning kit, a dremel, lots of polymer clay, and many paints, pencils, charcoals, pastels etc.... I made it out of the store for $85, but it was all for gifts, nothing for myself.

On the way home I stopped at the library and found many bead books. Some glass, some polymer, some "other" beads. Now I have 8 books to look through at my leisure and I didn't have to spend any money on them. Those books also gave me some ideas. I can start making beads with less expensive materials and set-up costs such as paper, polymer and metal and see if I can make anything that people want to buy before I invest in a torch, gas, glass and kiln. I really don't want to dip in to my savings so I think I will only let myself use money that is left over from my monthly budget. I think I should limit it to $100 a month also. And I can't start anything until I am settled in one of my houses. I do not want to have to cart my supplies back and forth between my house and RV. Right now I will just have fun planning and dreaming.