What's your Budget

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
My budget is super tight. Even with a supportive wife who loves going flying with me. We just don't have a lot of disposable income right now.

If I'm lucky I can scrape together $50 or so every couple of months - that usually goes towards servos, occasionally a new motor or RX. Propellers are my big expense - though I'm getting better at not crashing as often and flying more pusher setups so that's starting to get under control ;)

I'm dying to try FPV but just can't swing the upfront costs. I have a small LCD screen and a decent CCD board cam from other projects...so it's really just a matter of getting a TX/RX combo. I've been considering a few low budget ways to do it but haven't managed to pull the trigger just yet.

And every now and then I can splurge a bit more and get something like my 9x or some new batteries. But my monthly average is pretty darn low.

I just checked and my total expenditures with HK are $532.22 with my first order in March of 2012. So 18 months ago...which averages out to just under $30 a month.

I've also ordered from a couple of other places ($100 or so on micro heli's, and probably another $150 on batteries and bits from other places when I didn't want to wait for overseas shipping or HK didn't have what I wanted.)

Factoring those in it comes to just over $40 a month. So it is possible to do it on a tight budget. But man I wish I could spend more on it!
 

tramsgar

Senior Member
Factoring those in it comes to just over $40 a month. So it is possible to do it on a tight budget. But man I wish I could spend more on it!

Maybe you have any stuff you don't use and could sell off? I've noticed that people will pay quite well for R/C stuff that's in good condition and available locally (i e fast). Being nice, pack well and ship fast usually makes buyers happy and I've managed to pass on quite a few "mystery parts" I've received from time to time.
 

themajik1

Monkey/Bear Poker
Mentor
Much more than I should, and not as much as I would like!

No really... Its true. I spend on average of $75.00 to $100.00 and I know I should not spend near that much, but this hobby has almost taken complete control.

I blame Flitetest for this!!!!

Lol, keep it up I can't take it with me!!!
 

KLJ4CCH

Member
I am about to blow 100+ bucks for electronics for my scratch build. I got lucky, my props last years, i haven't broken a prop in maybe five years. I had one servo (elevator) fail during flight, managed to fly her home and occur min damage. oh I broke a coil like 3 years ago and picked up one for a few bucks. my budget is ruffly around 20 dollars a month. counting just about everything I can think about.
 

epic.engineering

Senior Member
Well the $200 this month became $300... this is a slippery slope we're on..lol but if it makes you happy can you really put a price on happiness. :D
 
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Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
I got lucky, my props last years, i haven't broken a prop in maybe five years.

HOW?!?!? Had a collet fail on me yesterday and the prop dropped 10 ft to the grass and shattered. Had no thrust and nothing but it's own weight behind it:mad: It would haved faired *BETTER* if it had been made of glass!

Living on a $200/mo limit. Some months are easier than others, but let's just say I'm counting days at the moment . . .
 

tw-ryder

Well Grounded
Thanks to a forgiving fiancee, our two kids growing up, and life slowing down a bit as a result, I've spent... OH DEAR GOD, REALLY?!

Where's the shameful emoticon with the $400 a month since July? And we just got into this stuff... Who knew?
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Maybe you have any stuff you don't use and could sell off? I've noticed that people will pay quite well for R/C stuff that's in good condition and available locally (i e fast). Being nice, pack well and ship fast usually makes buyers happy and I've managed to pass on quite a few "mystery parts" I've received from time to time.

I have a hard time selling used stuff. For some reason I'd rather just give it away than sell it for a fraction of what I paid for it. But in this case I really don't have anything to get rid of. Just about every bit I've bought is in use - well other than spares and I'm not about to sell those off ;)

Most of the money I spend goes towards servos, motors, ESC's and RX's. And by the time they get here I usually have 3 or 4 plans in mind for them :D

I do have one motor I'm not using...but that's because it's got a broken winding and I haven't got around to trying to repair it yet...and since that motor kind of frustrated me I'm not in any hurry. Selling it doesn't make much sense since it was only $12 new so with a broken winding I can't even see someone trading it for enough to buy a servo or two.

But I'm not complaining either. I have a tight budget and I live with it. I'm just glad to have any budget when I have one. My $40 a month is anything but evenly distributed. I haven't been able to spend a dime on RC stuff in several months because summer here our A/C bill devours any funds for discretionary spending. The weather seems to have broken this week though so electric bills will be back to normal and I should be able to start putting a few bucks aside from each paycheck. When enough build up for an order - parts start flowing.

Really ready for it too. Barely flew at all the past 4 months due to the heat and I'm out of parts to keep building...but just minwaxed 6 more foam boards yesterday and have about 5 plans on my "to build" list that are waiting on me being able to restock on servos.
 

tramsgar

Senior Member
That means at least $400 just in shipping for 100 empty trackable boxes. Maybe if you order 100 servo gears in separate boxes :D

A very inventive suggestion which I recommend no-one:

Despite the fact that HobbyKing "value you as a [Platinum EliteClub] customer greatly" and promise you'll be "given the best service possible with prioritisation in support issues and warranty claims" they've taken almost a month of support time to not reimburse me for sending me some other guy's package. But they're very very concerned that I immediately send back that other wrong stuff they sent me instead of what I paid for... Stuff that btw has a substantially lower retail value than what the postage for that will cost them. So, they'd rather immediately lose money than giving me what I paid for or my money back. Frackers.

Sorry for the rant, but it had to be said. I hate them so and now it feels... about the same. Dang.

Yes back on topic that budget thing, I think I from now on will spend about $30 a month =).
 

DDSFlyer

Senior Member
I wonder what Flite Test's budget is on just batteries?! I'm sure Josh Bixler inflates that to over $200 but a month with his puffing habits...