SueSew

Assuming you are not in a business, so you are not selling your work, how carefully do you account for your quilting costs?

I am now about one delightful but expensive year into this addiction, and I have carefully saved every receipt in a little spot in the second drawer down at my sewing desk. Sometime this week I will be reviewing every one of those receipts: the fabric and thread, the tools and notions, the books, the patterns, and classes. I will not cost in the stuff I borrowed from my office - from binders and binder-clips to the extra 60" table I use for ironing, but the rest is all 'on the books'.

I truly dread this.

I know my costs are way over my other hobby, veggie gardening, where I've got about $150 in fertilizers, mulches, lime etc, $100 in seeds and plants, an occasional hoe or rake, a new set of wood boards for the raised beds every 3-4 years, way less water than my neighbors spend on their grass, and I get a 25x50 space packed with a year's worth of fresh and frozen delights. By contrast, I've gifted five baby quilts, one bed quilt, two lap quilts, made myself 4 placemats and have one UFO and some leftover fabric. I know that now I have the rulers and books and all that, it will be a less expensive hobby...but still...

Do any of you have annual budgets for fabric, thread, tools/notions, books, patterns? Or do you just cap the total at so much a year?

I am not asking for personal financial data, just an approach to controlling cost!

Thanks!