How long did it take you...

[Mansnake]

...To save for your first telescope.

I'm just wondering how long it takes people to save the money to buy your first telescope or next bit of kit. Do you take the credit card route?

Iv'e been saving for a while now and I'm feeling a bit deflated as it always seems like one step forward and two steps back! It seems like whenever you want to save for something there's always something else that needs fixing or replacing!

At least I have my bins..

[Ganymede12]

Hmmmm...

1 Day.

(I had lots of Birthday Money)

My second scope took quite a bit longer....

[MorningMajor]

My first scope was a gift - everything else after that was stick it on the credit card and worry about it later approach - not really a sensible approach I agree - but hey!??

[The Sailor]

Sorry Lewis but dosh in the bank so just buy, pity I have not got the knowhow to use it

Jim

[wookie1965]

6 years but everytime i had enough money something broke i.e fridge freezer, washing machine something always came up.

[Mansnake]

Well with my birthday and xmas coming up im hoping to get some money then i might pop it on a credit card and pay off what i have saved then pay off the rest as and when

[Daniel-K]

be patient its worth it its took me a year to get what i wanted

[FarSide]

I bought mine after a months wages saved. That said everything since has taken me so much longer for some reason; my NEQ6 took me what seems like an age to save up for!

[wookie1965]

Im now saving for new mount and camera ill let you know when i get them in 2018.

[starnut]

I first thought of buying a telescope in January this year, found one on ebay in March it was a bit much than I wanted to pay so I had to wait to buy all the extras and this month I bought my last eyepiece and now ready to go after spending £1500.

[Capricorn]

Never considered it as saving, if I had the money then I would buy, usually did have the money.

If I didn't have the money available and spare then buying never comes into it.

Saving specifically for anything isn't something I do, tend to just not spend money so I have some around in case needed. Equally if I had £500 available than no way would I go spend £500 on anything in the astro line, I might find I had £1500 available then perhaps spend £500.

I would not consider restricting myself now for something in the future, just don't have the mind set to save for something specific.

[Mansnake]

I know it will be worth the wait.

[rory]

i had winner on a footy bet which bagged me about £90 ish, my first scope was £112 on offer ( astromaster 90mm ) so pretty much got it without saving. then the dob was £100 second hand ,with the £50 i got back for the sale of the astromaster i only had to find an initial £50 ! so ive been lucky.

[jonathan]

During my first couple of years in my current job I saved like crazy, built up a considerable amount in my bank account, so now I have a nice cushion for any spending I want to do - I can afford to buy now, replace the pennies later. Always like to keep that cushion there, so I build it up again after each big spend. There is still a threshold that I don't like to go under, so will still effectively save for a while if I don't feel comfortable about spending just yet.

So for me it was more a case of indecision and doing lots of research into the scopes available in a reasonable budget that took the time, not a lack of funds. It was a year since getting into the hobby before I bought my first telescope, used binoculars and the SkyScout during that time.

[Mike73]

I used to have a darkroom for my photography addiction but the price of silver these days meant that traditional wet printing was getting ridiculous so I sold all the kit from there which payed for my first and part of my current scope.

Yesterday I made the final payment on my incoming 16", that has/will been funded by the sale of my 12", a PPI payout (thankyou very much Lloyds ) and a small bit on a 0% CC.

I can honestly say that every penny spent on astronomy has been 100% worth it!!

[jnb]

Almost regardless of what 'it' is I find it takes me longer to decide what to buy or whether to buy than to save for it.

(This is more a reflection of my indecision than my finances)

[stonemonkeylives]

I got some back pay from work which I used to get my telescope with, a Sky-watcher Explorer 130P StaTrak, it isn't any thing special but it means I can go out and observe most things. Plus it gives me a chance to learn my way around the night sky. I'm going to start saving for a better mount in the new year and just add to my scope before looking for a new one in a couple of years.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Ags]

I spend about 550 euros a year on astronomy and photography (for the last two years, but less this year). Every purchase was a painful negotiation with my partner, so eventually I started an account for astro purchases, with 50 euros going in the account each month. Then my tax situation went from bad to worse and we had to stop all superfluous spending so the astronomy budget stopped. Now I have a personal spending budget of 20 euros a month (for everything, not just astronomy).

The only way I can afford nice things is by working harder - I have just started a second job in the evenings and I am trying to set up a little business.

It can be hard coming on the forum and reading about people discussing which Ethos to buy next!

[JB80]

I haven't really saved at all, my scopes have either been a gift or I just paid for them straight up. Although now I am saving for my next scope because it will be a substantial purchase. I could buy it now from account money but I want to save that for family and holidays etc.. plus it'll feel more like I have achieved my goal at the end.

I may end up selling off some music collectables I have to help as I look back on what I spent on those and thought that cash would be of more use now rather than sitting in a box doing nothing.

[Astro Imp]

I was fortunate, just as I decided to buy my scope I received a nice little cheque from the tax man.

[David Smith]

As with a few others above, my first was a gift from my parents. Took me 15 years to get around to deciding to get an upgrade, partly due to financial constraints. But once I had made the decision I just had to wait for my annual bonus from work.

[Qualia]

...To save for your first telescope. I'm just wondering how long it takes people to save the money to buy your first telescope or next bit of kit. Do you take the credit card route?Iv'e been saving for a while now and I'm feeling a bit deflated as it always seems like one step forward and two steps back! It seems like whenever you want to save for something there's always something else that needs fixing or replacing! At least I have my bins..

I worked out what would be my general monthly expenses - food, rent, bills, travel costs, etc. I then worked out what I needed to save or put forward with my girlfriend as part of our relationship team (in much the same way as house chores). I realised that expenses p would come straight out of my sallary q.

With that done the following observations were made:

• any consumptive debt (that which will unlikely generate future cash flows) I made would merely represent future consumption taken today. My future would need to pay back that debt and with interest, so unless I staked on the assumption that my future was going to be as good or better or similar than it is now, I was taking a bit of a gamble (in my case), and in this case of astronomy and learning about the night sky a bit of a foolish one if I had to pay interest on it as well.
  

• people will generally spend to their limit. If you earn 500, you will generally spend that 500. If you earn a 1000, you generally end up spending that 1000.
  

With that done, I asked my boss to split my sallary, pay me this minimun sallary that I would need to live on and save for the rest. Appreciating that if I was given x, I'd spend x and if given y, I'd spend y, so long as I was okay each month it didn't really make a lot of difference what I earnt. Sure, things in life crop up (dentists, illness, accidents in the home, with the car etc) but there was always a way to get round them.

Okay, we have to go to the dentist this month and we only earn this much now, so this month we'll need to save a little less for holiday, or go out less, or we'll eat healthy but not so richly etc, or I won't be able to by my branded trainers and will have to do with my market ones etc. I found that there was always a way, always a means, and never to get into debt.

At the end of the year, not only had I managed to save for my telescope, its accessories and stuff, but I had also managed to save for a holiday and had a little extra to buy my girlfriend a really nice mirror for the hall. In the meantime, I had learnt a little about the night sky, had read about astronomy, had learnt a little about other stuff to take my mind off astronomy and the desire to own a telescope.

I'm doing something similar at the moment, cutting back on my sallary, putting the extra away as if it never existed, as I save for a portable dob. Knowing full well that if I took that entire sallary home each month, no matter what the situation, it would more than likely be eaten into.

[Ags]

We are barely making ends meet and have not been able to put away savings for months, but my dutch bank has started a scheme called pinsparen - save when you PIN money. So now we automatically save 10% of whatever we spend at the supermarket or other shops! It really works.

Another nice thing about my bank is the credit card. It is always paid in full the next month, so there is no temptation to get into debt.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I had the money in the bank already. I go by the rule, if i cant afford it without the use of a credit card - i don't buy it. How long it took me to choose the telescope.. is a different story lol

[Si W]

I have invested about £5000 over the last 5 years just gradually building it up like most people, so as an average just over £80 a month, However the average figure got blown right out of the water this year with the purchase of a NEQ6 pro, as far as where the money comes from, it's all overtime, work Bonuses, and birthday/Christmas money. I'm happy to say it's all mine, no credit, just hard earned money.