I wish I had a quilting budget I could stick with. I go in spurts, I belong to BOM's and everytime I go to pick them up I go crazy. So many new things are in and I just have to have everything.. Since DD retired (it wasn't planned) there has been a drop in purchases, not all because of money,but, the fact that he is home alot,makes it harder to run to the shop.
I really have to start using my stash.

how do we meet Sharon B???? ;)

Having a man around full-time is a HUGE change.

I have no idea how I ever managed to cook, do laundry, and other household tasks without his "supervision" :?

My husband challenged me not to buy any new fabric after noticing how much I spent last year when we were doing taxes... I do have about 78 UFOs... well I am only dreaming about 11 of those, and 19 of them are already pieced and waiting for the machine quilter (me), then I have 18 in kits that haven't started yet, just assembled toigether with the pattern. So that leaves about 23-4 projects I have started that are not to a finishing point yet. I won't have an excuse to buy new fabric for years and years.... or do I???

My triplet daughters are TURNING TWENTY next month, and isn't there a quilt pattern called "Turning Twenty" that uses twenty fat quarters????? Hmmmm. What do you think?? Time to go shopping?!?

You could cut some of your yardage into fat quarters :roll: and use them.

I know, what a party pooping idea that is!

I don't really have a budget but about 4 or 5 years ago I went for 1-1/2 years without entering a fabric shop (too much temptation). During that time I was able to pay off everything I owed include the house (which granted is small). I'm retired so my money comes in on the first and I first pay any bills including the one credit card I use online. After they are all paid off I set aside what I think groceries, hair cut, cat hair cut, whatever I think I'm going to need for the month then anything left I can spend on fabric or quilting "stuff". It works for me. It was very hard not to go to the quilt store for a while but it was worth every minute of it. During that time I got reintroduced to my stash and used up quite a bit of it but there is way more to go.

I like to fish too so I can't use that one. I do handwork on the boat sometimes if its not too windy.

"Having a man around full-time is a HUGE change.

I have no idea how I ever managed to cook, do laundry, and other household tasks without his "supervision" :?"

:roll: laughing....
I have the same problem uh...I mean blessing.

I organise the budget in our household so I don't have a choice but to be good with the discretionary money. Having said that I have to give credit to my DH for being very supportive of my hobbies both in praise (he always tells me that he is proud of the things I make) and also in trusting that I will not go berserk buying and letting our bills go unpaid. Some months I buy lots and other months go by with no purchases.

I started out that way but now I've started buying ahead when I see material I really like but then when I want to make a quilt, so often it won't work so I buy more. I have to say STOP and only buy for my projects that are actually in the works and that works for a while. My problem is patterns, I see a quilt I love and get the pattern, so far I figure that I have to live be at least 100 to use them all.

Gosh, I'm glad to see I'm in good company. When DH was alive, I had more income. Now I'm on a fixed one. I have splurged from time to time but now have a good sized stash. All I need is more time. Has anyone talked to the man upstairs about 48 hour days?