How do you fund your guitar buying....?

spark240

I tend to buy guitars rather than sell....so trading is not my thing...and given that my average purchase is probably anything between £800 - £2k...it means some serious saving or cash accumulation.

I do buy and sell all other bits a bobs which can rack up few hundred quid, plus I  get the odd Premium bond win and maybe a stocks & shares hike so I flog some..

I've never gone down the road of  monthly payments but I guess its cool if you can afford it...

What's your main method of funding new gear ?

fastonebaz

I work 40 hours a week for 48 weeks a year and occasionally save enough to buy guitars, beer and music.   The rest I just waste. 

TeleMaster

I use pay now pay later. I put a chunk down and then pay off £200 here, £200 there and then just pay it off by the years end. 

Musicwolf

PRS Core models start at as little as four Root Canals.  You can get a perfectly playable SE model for less than three fillings.

roberty

I tend to accumulate gear on interest free credit and then rationalise my collection later to pay it off

RaymondLin

Disposable income, I had a lot more before, I honestly don't know how! Lazy J, Bogner, PRS, Gibson....lol

I can't deal with monthly payments, I want the Epiphone Les Paul Special, it's £340 on Peach.  £90 down and like £20 a month for 12 months.  That's like peanuts money literally. I spend more than that on snacks a month but I still can't bring myself doing it.

BahHumbug

I bought most of my gear when I had a good amount of disposable income.  I don’t have that income any more.  The last gear I bought was funded by selling gear I already had.  I’m really happy with the guitars I have now, so I don’t really get GAS very much these days.

vasselmeyer

When they were happening, all my funding came from gigs and I don't spend "family" money on musical gear. Although it's just a hobby, £50 for a pub gig, two or three times per month adds up. Especially when my setup is mostly settled and I can sell on stuff I'm not using. I rarely buy new and If I haven't made a big purchase for a few months, the slush fund adds up. Because I'm not gigging at the moment, I don't feel the need to buy anything.

In terms of dealing with the cashflow, the way I do it is when the landlord hands us the cash for the gig, I just use that as if I'd been to the cash machine and transfer the equivalent sum out of my current account into my "gear fund" account. That way I always know how much I have to spend.

Snap

My view on buying most things is, if you haven't got the money without borrowing, then you can't afford it. Save up rather than borrow.
I know that's different for things like cars and houses, but for non essential stuff like guitars there is no way I'd borrow money to buy one. 

munckee

If and when I get a bonus I pay 10% into my guitar fund to buy guitars and amps, other than that I sell to buy except christmas and birthdays when I generally buy pedals cables etc and give them to missus munckee to give me from the kids.

Stevepage

Usually selling something I already have or on a low Interest finance.

axisus

I don't have spare cash for big luxury items from my earnings. I used to build a GAS fund by putting half of my overtime money in, and sticking the rest into the household. OT stopped many years ago, but I have managed to keep a pot at around 2k, occasionally flogging stuff, sometimes finding a bit of spare cash somewhere. I stopped buying guitars quite some years ago, these days it's all about building materials and parts as I took up building guitars.

stickyfiddle

I go to work and they give me money in return. I never use finance, but do put everything possible on a credit card to get airmiles. 

I'd rather get rid of anything not getting regular use provided I know I can get another if I ever need/want so I try not to spend massive amounts of disposable income on new gear, but happy to spend a bit when I get a bonus or promotion or whatever.

My main issue seems to be increasingly-expensive tastes, which also helps keep a lid on things at least a little - I can justify buying a few pedals in a year, but don't want to regularly spend thousands on guitars. 

Musicwolf

Snap said:

My view on buying most things is, if you haven't got the money without borrowing, then you can't afford it. Save up rather than borrow.
I know that's different for things like cars and houses, but for non essential stuff like guitars there is no way I'd borrow money to buy one. 

This.  Cover the things that you need (which includes saving for retirement, kids university, future home repairs etc) then it's a case of deciding how you want to use your remaining disposable income.  There are probably far more things that we'd all like than we can afford so it's a case of deciding which you can do without.  A very large percentatge of my share of the disposable income goes on music gear.  I don't smoke, don't spend much on clothes, no other expensive hobbies, no fancy car etc.

Flanging_Fred

Grave robbing for gold teeth. It gets money for PRS guitars and also qualifies me as a dentist.

fretmeister

Everytime I seduce your mum she gives me a pedal.

Philly_Q

One of the few advantages of being old, decrepit and single is no longer having a mortgage.

ArchtopDave

I'm with @Snap. I made a rule for myself a long time ago that any non essential items of life,  and this includes guitars, are paid from spare cash in my current account.

Mudcrutch

Same as Philly Q above.
I also stopped  buying vinyl and CDs shortly after lockdown started.

stonevibe

I work, I buy shit.

LastMantra

I don't