How Do You Budget for Scrapbooking?

This week I was a guest on The Paperclipping Roundtable. As usual, it was a lot of fun and I am happy to be invited to be a guest. I had a minor child-related emergency about 20 minutes prior to recording and though the emergency really was really minor, it totally threw me off and I was not able to get mentally ready for the podcast as I had planned before recording.

Our topic was on budgeting and scrapbooking. One thing they became clear in this discussion is that what works for some of us might not work for others. Take scrapbook kits for example. I do not belong to any kit clubs. Molly McCarthy belongs to one to save money. Me and Nancy Nally don’t belong to kit clubs to save money. Which perspective is “right”?

Both perspectives are right. Personally, I don’t belong to a kit club because it commits a certain amount of money each month. I don’t spend money on scrapbook supplies every month as it is, so I don’t want to tie up that money. The other thing it does is that it limits my other scrapbook spending. I was a direct seller for a short time and one reason I quit is because it tied up my scrapbook money with one company in order to meet my quota.

What really works for budgeting? Knowing what you need. Nancy talked about this quite a bit in the episode and I believe strongly in this as well. For me, I spent very little on scrapbooking stuff outside of tool replacement last summer when I adopted my minimalist scrapbooking approach one year ago. I worked on using items from my stash. By doing this I learned what supplies I regularly used and which I ignored. I also learned what was missing from my stash and bought accordingly. I’ve been on a bit of a scrapbook shopping binge but haven’t scrapbooked but one layout in the last month. (Don’t worry, I’ll pick it up again, I just have hardly been home over the last few weeks and have had other priorities when I have been home.) I think everyone should just stop buying for a period of time to learn what they use and need. What should that length of time be? It probably depends on how often you scrapbook. A week? A month? A summer? Alternatively, maybe just go by number of layouts. Create a dozen layouts and then shop again. Or just look over your last dozen or hundred layouts. Look at the supplies you used. Look at your supplies and see what you didn’t use. There are lots of ways to learn what you use or don’t use but everyone should figure it out if they are serious about budgeting for scrapbooking in any way.

I also mentioned that I unsubscribed from a number of blogs after CHA. This is true. I was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed by the product but also by the sheer number of blogs I was following. Right now I subscribe to 131 blogs and several post daily or multiple times a day. I was subscribed to twice that many. I do this a couple of times a year. Some of the blogs I will resubscribe to in the future. For some, I still follow in facebook or twitter or get their email newsletter. I needed to cutback on this substantial flow of information in order to get done what I need to get done each day. Unsubscribing for me was not just about saving money, but also about saving time. And yes, I’m going to invite you to subscribe to this site, too. 🙂

The point is budgeting to scrapbooking is personal and there are a lot of ways to do it. If you want to read more about my adventures in scrapbook budgeting, you can sign up for my  newsletter and receive a free copy of The Scrapworthy Lives Guide to Minimalist Scrapbooking. You can also read more on minimalist scrapbooking here.

How do you budget for scrapbooking? Comment below or join the conversation on facebook.

Stephanie