For the "my wife will kill me" crowd

[danosix]

What has "the wife" ACTUALLY done in response to your G.A.S? (not because you gave her the dutch-oven )

I think that most of us fall into two categories - have enough money to be spending money on our hobbies without it affecting the household bottom line and those who don't. If you don't than the wife is going to kill them not for the new bass but for the fact that the electric bill isn't getting paid this month. If you can and she's telling you you can't than you need to assess your situation - either you have WAY too much stuff (that's most of us) or she's an evil witch who doesn't want you to be happy. In either situation you need to GET RID of SOMETHING.
I am totally NOT anti-wife or woman - I know WAY more men that are unreasonable about their wives' spending than women... but this response is gendered because it is responding to the "my wife will kill me" question - which is also something a lot of guys pull when then don't want to do something or don't think they should.
For the record I am in the first "NO" situation (not enough money to justify buying 'toys') and so my wife has "ruined my fun" a lot of times - but I get to sleep in a warm bed under a roof that doesn't leak, and I still have gone from a perfectly reasonable amount of equipment when we married (two basses one amp, one really cheap guitar) to a LOT of equipment (7 basses, 3 amps, 4 guitars, a keyboard - a bunch of pedals) in the 17 years since.

 

[Pudge Fish]

That's how my wife feels about my Jaguar bass. Maybe I can convince her to let me buy another one

I sold my extra Jag recently... I found one was enough for me, but its never leaving me. The CIJ version just needs a little love to become truly amazing.

 

[organworthyplayer337]

Going to be that guy.....
We have an agreement that i cannot use house money to buy any kind of gear no matter the price.
If i want something i have to sell something.
Same goes for her hobby.
But i can use my own money to do what i want.
But having 6 six children and 3 of which are in university makes it so i never have much me money.
So the answer is i love my wife too much to break a promise i made to her so i never had to deal with that situation.

Respect

 

[gjbassist]

Laughed. Every time an old one went out and a new one came through the door.

This just happened to me recently. I got a Yamaha five string in trade for an amp here on TB. When the bass arrived my wife asked why I got the bass. I told her I wanted to give five string another try. She laughed and said something about "me and all my basses". I haven't told her yet that I already traded the Yamaha for another bass!

 

[Doner Designs]

What has "the wife" ACTUALLY done in response to your G.A.S? (not because you gave her the dutch-oven )

I try to avoid ever getting to a "no" - that would be a bad precedent. It helps in my case that I'm the sole breadwinner and work my a$$ off to support our family. I get the odd questioning look and pointed question or comment sometimes - "that's beautiful...looks expensive." These comments are designed to and effective in terms of letting me know she notices and to help me avoid runaway out of control GAS. Now that I have built up a collection of nice gear I typically try to get rid of something on a one-for-one basis though that often involves a bit of an upgrade.

 

[Doner Designs]

 

[Marial]

As long as we can pay the bills and take care of things my wife doesn't actually care that much. These days I've gotten to a point where, for the most part, I can flip things and not have to go out of pocket. Of course, I'm not buying basses right now (the ones I'm GASing for are way out of my price range at the moment), but I'm able to satisfy my other GAS needs, including my budding analog synth obsession. Usually my wife is happy for me when I get a new piece of gear.

The struggle for us is finding the time for our enthusiasms. A 17 month old son and a mentally taxing job don't leave much time or energy leftover. We have to schedule the time. For instance, this afternoon I'm taking the kid out while she works on her art projects all afternoon. I'll likely end up making dinner too.

 

[covermego]

In my experience, guns (and ammo) are way more expensive than bass! Boating brought me nothing but financial damage! Bass is my only expensive hobby now (aside from a case of ammo here and there and bike repairs), which is when the GAS grew to fill the void. We're going to spend some spare cash on something!

"Buy a man a Fish dinner and you feed him for a day. . . Teach him to fish and he's broke for life - and hungry, since he knows nothing else but "catch and release"
I wanted a bass boat so my wife told be to throw my P Bass in the tub.

 

[jthisdell]

My wife wanted a nice digital SLR camera and I told her to go ahead and buy one. So she researched and searched.

Later I bought a new bass without telling her. When she asked how much it was phrased "Was it as much as a camera?". She was shocked when I said "Two". She then finally went out and bought herself a camera.

I use the bass a lot more than she uses the camera. Three gigs this weekend.

 

[covermego]

I got a Pay pal account a long time ago. I sell stuff, I buy stuff. My wonderful wife is fine with that and tolerates it amazingly well. And yes, I have a dutch oven and I know how to use it.

 

[Duder]

I sold my extra Jag recently... I found one was enough for me, but its never leaving me. The CIJ version just needs a little love to become truly amazing.

That's what I have, hot rod red. I really need to do a shielding job on it, but I haven't had the extra couple of bucks for the tape/paint nor the time (work+on-call+school+band). What else did you do to yours?

 

[InhumanResource]

I too have adopted the pay-pal system. My jazz bass has too many years of my own sweat and modifications on it to ever, ever get rid of but everything else is fair game. I usually trade + use gig money on anything that I spend, but lately she responded that my interest in trading a 5 string that I picked up (Lakland 5501 w/ mods if anyone is interested! ) is "annoying." Whatever. I spent this summer's gig money on a couple of used Ampeg cabs and a new head and am in the process of selling off my previous rig. Why not? Our bills are paid every month and my music hobby is cash-neutral from the house's perspective thanks to private trading and gigs. You gotta live, right?

 

[OldCityBassman]

My wife is cool with what I do since I'm pretty practical. I like buying, selling and trading. She says I'm an excellent "dickerer", her daddy was from Maine hence the term. I have a real nice Carvin bass with a koa neck and body I plan on selling and she says "its your prettiest bass why do you want to sell it?"

Its also good to have a spouse that does a more expensive hobby! In my case hers is professional photography, enough said.

 

[Gaolee]

My wife is very patient with me. I didn't spend money on much of anything except the house, schooling for her and my son, and keeping it all together for a very long time. Money went to things like my son's band trips, baseball uniforms, etc. Then it went to his college. So, there's some karma points, I guess. It doesn't matter, since I still have a scarcity mentality and agonize over buying things most of the time unless they are really cheap. And, if she objected beyond a good eye roll, I wouldn't spend the money anyway. She knows it and doesn't worry too much about me getting us all over extended.

That said, when GAS hits, I beg for forgiveness instead of asking for permission.

 

[shawshank72]

Good answer and yes, college costs a freakin fortune just for one kid. How do you establish the house money vs the me money ratios. If her hobby is of similar cost to yours it would surely be easier.

It is easier, her hobby can be used for her job at times and mine makes me money at times.
But when you do have an awesome wife i am more than happy to spend my me money on her.
Luckily she isnt high maintenance.
But with the kids getting older the money well is dwindling.
As far as establishing money we have 3 funds.
House and kids fund.
Savings fund.
Our fund.
Unfortunately our fund is the lowest percentage.
But that will change in the next 5-7 yrs so i can wait.

 

[dalkowski]

Mrs. has actually been on my balls for months about committing to lessons. I haven't a clue how we'd pay for them.

 

[Big Hoss]

I am not the "my wife would kill me" guy. I keep my costs reasonable, keep her hobbies / interests financed, and keep the bills paid. So she has no room to fuss.

I sold my Digitech BP50, and a few non musical related odds and ends to buy my Zoom B3, I sold my Ibanez SR500 to pay for my SX Hawk strat copy, and SX Ursa 2 5 stringer.

I am trying to come up with other items to sell off, but need quite a few at this point, to raise funds to grow my PA.

Anyone need custom, hand crafted Texas Pecan trivets or coaster set?

 

[T-MOST]

Besides not liking it and giving me a disapproving look? Nothing! LOL To her credit she has finally developed her ear enuff to realize that different basses actually "do" sound different. It took about 10 years but she finally got there. But in all honesty I don't have a desire to own 20 basses. I'm very content with 2 or 3. So whenever I've wanted to change them up I have always sold one off.

 

[blue4]

My problem isn't the wife, it's the guilt that follows a purchase. You know the whole, "I've a retirement fund, kids that need education, a kitchen that badly needs a new floor. What I do not "need" is a new jazz bass." But eventually it goes away.

 

[Tom Howland]

I give my wife half of all my gig money. She's happy. In return, I can buy what ever I want.