Should you tell your wife......?


My model railroading expenses are much better than the fellow across the street with his new fancy boat and trailer that sits in his garage more than in the water and both of us have wives that know what our hobbies cost. My wife still talks to me.

At least on a rainy day I can "Play With My Trains"!

Greg
I have been told by more than one former boat owner that the two best days of ownership are:

The day you buy the boat.

The day you sell the boat.

Never having owned one I can't say for sure. :)
 
My model railroading expenses are much better than the fellow across the street with his new fancy boat and trailer that sits in his garage more than in the water and both of us have wives that know what our hobbies cost. My wife still talks to me.

At least on a rainy day I can "Play With My Trains"!

Greg
Greg- and on those blustery winter days, when it’s 25 below, too.
 
Has my better 3/4 is a crafter, who is interested in my hobbies, and the fact that we share a hobby room, we both "try" to "sneak" stuff in. It's all in fun, and both of our responses when asked is "Oh, I got that a long time ago". That being said, the bills are paid, and we both have a reasonable budget.

-Steven
 
She has an idea of what's down there and when I get stuff (she''s home usually before I am). I don't hid it and usually get what I want when I want it and have an idea of where the finances are before I buy anything.

I learned before we were married that I'm a spender and she isn't. A lot of what we have and are financially is due to her and not me. I can earn it but spend it faster if she didn't handle the finances. We've been married a bit over 37 years (damn I'm old).
 
She has an idea of what's down there and when I get stuff (she''s home usually before I am). I don't hid it and usually get what I want when I want it and have an idea of where the finances are before I buy anything.

I learned before we were married that I'm a spender and she isn't. A lot of what we have and are financially is due to her and not me. I can earn it but spend it faster if she didn't handle the finances. We've been married a bit over 37 years (damn I'm old).
Wish I was married for 37 years, but she’s not even that old, so there’s that. 😂 😂
 
She has an idea of what's down there and when I get stuff (she''s home usually before I am). I don't hid it and usually get what I want when I want it and have an idea of where the finances are before I buy anything.

I learned before we were married that I'm a spender and she isn't. A lot of what we have and are financially is due to her and not me. I can earn it but spend it faster if she didn't handle the finances. We've been married a bit over 37 years (damn I'm old).
That's how it works here too! 😁
 
I tell my wife I'm going to get into a new hobby, and she tells me why I shouldn't, and I get into it anyway.

She bought my first locomotive, which was a G-Scale 2-6-0 Mogul...she paid $1400 for it as a "start-off" gift for my new hobby. I ran it on a 150-foot indoor layout, pulling a short freight consist.

I have a large retirement hobby budget, (over $25,000 spent on several large computerized Astronomical Telescopes), which did not cut into household expenses, so she generally agrees.

We have a paid-for home and no car payments, just utilities.
Brakeman Hal
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One of my favourite stories is an older gent who was given a room in the basement to build his dream layout.
It was however just a couple feet smaller than he needed to fit his track plan.
Over the following year he actually moved a wall a couple inches into the utility room every weekend when his wife was shopping until he gained the needed real estate.
From this I glean my inspiration!
 
Love the big Scope Hal! Mine is a lot smaller and unfortunately still in storage. I've got to get it cleaned up and working again. The controls are still programmed with coordinates up to 2008.
 
I told my wife that when we designed our house, there was going to be a layout in the basement. She wasn't very fond of the idea and mildly opposed it for several years. I finally told her that there WAS going to be a layout in the basement and started building it. She tolerates it now, but just in passing. But when I was still going to train shows she was going with me and actually carrying some of my loot.

BTW, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary on Sept 4th.
 
That can never happen to me, because nobody has a basement in the High Desert!

Our sandy soil will not support excavations that deep, so all our buildings are on concrete slabs.

I wanted a hobby room, so I had a contractor build me a 20' x 25' room attached to the 3-car garage.

Here it is:

Hal
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