The New Year is here!! And with the new year in full swing, many people are sitting down to make their yearly goals. Sometimes it’s mastering a new technique or working out more. For me, one of the most important goals to set at the beginning of the year is my budget. Now I know that an arts and crafts budget doesn’t sound very sexy, but hear me out. If you’re someone who’s feeling short on funds, a budget can help you enjoy your hobby without feeling overly stressed out about the cost of it. I’m going to give you tips on how you can create your own budget and walk you through mine as well!
Look at your art expenses from the previous year.
Take a guess at how much you spent on arts and crafts supplies last year, then write it down. Ok. Got it?
Now, look at what you actually spent. Is it a lot higher or lower than you expected? Looking at past expenses will give you an idea of what future expenses could look like. If you’re someone who spent more than you expected, maybe consider having a crafting budget that will account for that.
Make a list of what you want.
Next, start a list of all the supplies (stamps, dies, paint, pencils, tools, etc.) that you want but don’t have today. If you have something like an Amazon wishlist, the next step will be very simple. Add up the cost of all the things you put on the list, and voila! You now have a rough idea of what you could end up spending this year.
Identify which supplies are truly needed.
I wish I could buy all the things, but do I really NEED them? And more importantly, can I afford them? I wrote a post a while back that talks about repurposing what you already own for new projects. I’m a huge believer in doing that. When you’re thinking about your arts and crafts budget and are considering buying something, ask yourself these three questions. They will help you avoid spending frivolously.
- Do I already have something similar?
- Is this item going to be multi-functional
- Do I really need it?”
Be realistic about what you can afford.
Budgeting is a negotiation between what you want to purchase and what you can afford. I would love to get all the newest toys, but I also need to pay bills and buy food. So, I probably can’t afford everything on my massive wishlist.
Go back through and narrow your list down a bit. Remove the stamps and the dies that you maybe don’t love so much. Get rid of the embellishments that you probably won’t use. Do this until you’re more comfortable with the overall price of what’s on your list.
Remember, even though you have a list, you WILL still buy things throughout the year that are not on the list. New seasonal releases will come out. A new paint color might catch your eye. You’ll realize that you need more paper and forgot to add it to the list. Your list is a jumping-off point and shouldn’t be your final budget number. Give your arts and crafts budget a little bit of buffer space.
Decide on an arts and crafts budget amount.
Once you’ve taken all of the things above into consideration, set an amount for yourself. This crafting budget amount should be affordable but still realistic. If you’re new to crafting and you don’t have many supplies, you will likely be spending a bit more money to build up your inventory. If you are an experienced crafter, you may find yourself buying items that need replacing or things you’ve run out of.
Looking at a real-life crafting budget example.
I’ll walk you through the process using myself as an example now that we’ve laid the groundwork.
I have a few of the larger ticket items already, so my arts and crafts budget will focus mostly on restocking my favorite supplies or new techniques or designs I’d like to try. Since I spent a bit more than I wanted to last year, I’ll curb my spending a little bit this year. I added everything up on my list, and it totaled to about $615. That was higher than what I wanted to spend, so I went back through and removed things that were less important to me. At the end of the exercise, I had a wishlist that was approximately $356. I also know that I’ll want some of the seasonal items throughout the year. So, I decided to add a bit of cushion to account for that. I landed at a crafting budget of $480, so about $40 a month. It will probably allow me to buy 2-4 items a month depending on their cost.
I hope you found this budgeting exercise helpful. I also wrote a post on how to shop big craft sales if you’re looking for ways to get more bang for your buck this year. Check it out, and follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest for the latest updates!