Setting a Budget For Music Spending

Ooh --- rare is the time when a commercially popular MP3 isn't available on CD, used, for about the same money. Point being, even if I don't care that much about the music I don't like the idea of "sending a message" that says I like MP3s, which is how that likely gets interpreted as much as anything else.

 

Actually its uncommon for an MP3 album to be cheaper than a new CD by a popular band.

Sometimes the indies or reissue labels are more expensive so the MP3 albums are cheaper by comparison but a quick gander at Amazon looks like CD prices are even and in some cases cheaper (before shipping) than the MP3 version.

MP3 are convenient and space saving but they usually aren't money savers. Unless you just want one or two songs off a record. Even then it can be the same. I was thinking about downloading "Ebony Eyes" and "Sentimental Journey" by Bob Welch but I found a used CD on Amazon (fulfilled by Amazon, important for us Prime members) for $4.00. Two bucks more for the whole album, no brainer there.

 

If you just want to hear the music but don't need to necessarily own a high fidelity recording, Rhapsody is money well spent. Like a video game rental, having Rhapsody has saved from buying albums that I would've ended up only listening to once anyway.

Good luck to you in any sense. I hope you have an easier time keeping to your budget than I do.

 

Seriously considering that or Spotify. My A/V receiver has Rhapsody functionality built in.

Thanks, one month successful, the other month $10 over (faulty mental accounting). Third month. I think I can do it, thanks again.

 

Setting a Budget For Music Spending


It's too late for me.

 

I was about to start a thread about budgeting for music but I'm glad I looked around first. My wife and I have been doing the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps to help us organize ourselves financially.

We've been on Baby Step 2 (a debt snowball--paying off debt from least to greatest) since March 2011. We had a daughter in March of this year so we put a hold on our debt snowball in July 2012.

We basically put a good amount of money into savings in case we needed to cover additional medical expenses, etc. Now that she's four months old and doing very well, we decided to throw a lot of the saved money at our last line of credit (which is a student loan with Sallie Mae); in addition, we decided to really start managing our spending to get rid of this thing hopefully around October or November of this year.

Needless to say, my music purchases have been few and far between since the Summer of 2012. However, it's nice to control the urges to pick up random things. The only releases I got on vinyl this year (so far) are "...Like Clockwork" and a preorder of the new Arctic Monkeys "AM".

I probably won't be getting much with a $30 "blow money" budget every two weeks, but that's ok. We've gone from $108,000 of debt in March 2011 to $13,000 to date. Feels good!

 

If Dave Ramsey ever puts out a limited edition vinyl release of financial strategery songs, I'll buy you one out of my own pocket.

Really, though, congratulations - that must be one helluva good feeling.

 

Dave hasn't released any of his stuff on vinyl--leaving out a good demographic!

Thanks! Can't wait to kick Sallie Mae to the curb!

 

We do a budget for two weeks (I usually organize the budget the night before pay day).

My wife and I have recently improved in our budgeting skills. We were getting so tired of seeing all of the debit card line items in our balance book.

We now do a zero-based budget; we withdraw cash for two weeks and place them in labeled envelopes (bills and fuel are paid with a debit card). The leftovers roll into an emergency fund we are building.

Our pocket money category is very low right now, so I'm not buying a lot of music currently.

 

Streaming helps enormously these days. Stream on the phone and see if the music sticks. If so, then it goes into the "purchase" list.

How many albums have I bought in the past where I listen to it a few times, then I never listen to it again? Too many.

 

I've taken a different approach, although I think your point makes total sense for buying new stuff.

Since I don't have much pocket money in my budget, I go for releases from my favorite artists.

 

I have been on a strict budget for years for music purchases, which I never exceed, of $100,000 per week.

 

Spotify has curbed my spending on music enormously.

 

Light-weight.

 

Are you that guy with the largest collection in the world? The guy standing on skids of records?

 

I've never budgeted when buying music as I usually grab whatever interests me at the time even though I don't have an indespensible income. That said, I'm using Qobuz as a hybrid service lately and seem to be buying less and less so I thought.

 

Have I ever set myself a budget? Yes.

Did I stick to the budget? No.

Do I regret not sticking to my budget? No.

 

Budgeting used to be easy - you walk into a record store with cash in your wallet and spend less on discs than the money you have.

Now, everything has to be mail ordered, and calculating postage is dicey. There's no Canadian distributors, so everything has to be ordered from the States, or Japan, or Europe and there's no way to tell in advance how much customs will charge - it's completely random. And, of course, the only way to save money is to order lots at a time to save on the insane shipping costs. It must be SO much easier for people who actually live in the countries they order from.

So, not only do you have to wait 3-6 weeks to get the CDs (or BluRays) you just bought but, until it arrives, there's no way of knowing just how much you're paying for them.

I don't even pretend to budget any more. I just order whatever I want, when I want until the cards get declined. Then I stop for a little while.

 

If I spent even one percent of that each week I'd be on "skids", and they wouldn''t be records.

 

That sounds like a good plan, I wish I had the willpower to stick to a set budget. I usually end up spending what money I have left after paying all the bills, gift giving (it seems like every month there are multiple holidays/birthdays etc.. and I enjoy giving gifts, its no that) and anything else that may pop up.

I will say I'm not a very luxiorious eater. When it comes to food or music/movies/games I choose the latter every time. So some months I end up spending a pretty big chunk of money on entertainment, and some months I really have to plan ahead, especially for big releases. For example this month I've tried to keep as much money put aside as I can while still making some purchases that I wanted now (the 10 disc That's The Way It Is and 5 disc Young Man With The Big Beat both by Elvis were the big ones), as in June I won't have as much money to spend on entertainment, but I have the super deluxe Sticky Fingers pre ordered, along with the new Batman game.

Actually, as I read this I see I do kind of keep a budget, just to high of one!

 

I've tried to set up a budget for music purchases since I started this passion, but it's impossible I always end up spending more than I had planned.
There's always something interesting you have to buy. Maybe it's a limited edition you cannot wait to get in case it sells out or else a nice discount code you have to take advantage of... Well, I know they are excuses, but you only live once

 

I just noticed I posted that in 2013. We paid the rest off by March 2014, so we're debt free!

 

I actually disagree. You can budget for anything--you can create a buffer for one.

One day I plan on having a higher allotment of money going towards music purchases, and a list of things I want.

But that's cool. Honestly it's just a personal thing for me that has really helped my family save a ton for an emergency fund. You never know when a rainy day will happen...

 

I wish you all the luck in your objetive. I start this process this year: no more than $ 60 per month. I do it more for personal reasons than economic. I was overstepping my bounds in buying CDs. I am now more selective and enjoy more my shopping ... it's a smart choice.

 

I have an extra part-time job just for my music spending budget. I work one 5 hour shift a week at a CD store on my "day off". I spend the whole paycheck on music, at the store with my employee discount, 24 bit downloads, Murfie.com and SACD's. It's worked good for me, I learn about new music from co-workers and customers, I don't run up credit card debt, and I've learned to curb impulse spending. I do miss the reckless days of youth, but my collection does get to grow and I haven't had to sell a limited edition box set just to make rent for quite a while!