Making Your Hobby Pay!

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Hi. My name is Dannelle and I am a scrapbooker.
(this is where you, my support group says "Hi Dannelle...")

I picked an expensive hobby to enjoy -- between tools, paper and embelishments, it could run a person thousands of dollars a year! I am not that crazy, LOL!

First of all, I have made it my "use it up" year. This does three things for me :
1) I will have less to pack!
2) I save money as I will only be buying adhesives!
3) I am more creative in how I use my supplies!

That being said, I am the proud owner of a Cricut. (you fellow scrapbookers know what machine I am talking about). I have the original bug AND an expression. I also have 50+ cartridges for them to use - which also work with my Cricut Cake. (did I forget to mention that I have one of those too>?)

I can proudly say that I have NEVER paid the full retail of $89.99 for a cartridge, in fact, the average price I have paid is about $24.

How do you make your hobby pay for itself? Here is my way:

In the reality of a family with a 3 year old, there is no real way to scrapbook when you have no scrap room to do it in. Your darling little helper wants to create a masterpiece too - and help you on yours. It doesn't work, LOL!

I organize weekend crops for fellow mom's a few times a year at a hotel. I rent the meeting room, bring all of my tools for them to use on a communal table, and we do a pot luck of sorts for yummies to eat all weekend. This helps keep the cost as low as $30 for them, we have 48 hours to spread out on our own tables and get creative, and do the female bonding thing! It really does rock! We have created many new connections for each other and also created a lot of great memories while we create our masterpieces!

Occasionally, I take in more money than the cost of expenses. What do I do with the surplus? I use it to buy more cartridges for the Cricut and supplies for a quick, creative class for the next crop. I have taught them quick portfolio albums, how to make a gift album out of cardboard CD cases, coaster books, and more - always something different.

My hobby now pays for itself. I add new tools to my collection and it doesn't come out of my pocket - they all benefit because they get to use them.

Don't you just love a win-win situation?
:)
What is your hobby? How can you make it pay for itself?

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