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Your Monthly/Yearly Expenses


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OldCharlieStoletheHandle



Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Posts: 1288
Location: Mastic Beach, NY
PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 10:44 pm Reply with quote
2014 so far:

January

Anime $377.83
Manga $37.14
Books $65.26*

Total $480.23

February

Anime $472.80

Total $472.80

YTD $953.03

(*included Anime News Nina Kickstarter pledge)

I'm off to a pretty expensive start, and the above figures do not include another approx. $385 for my Wakfu Kickstarter pledge. I also have about $540 worth of anime & manga on order. I really need to slow down for a while.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:05 am Reply with quote
Much to my surprise, I managed to go the entire month without placing a single order, unless you want to count renewing my ANN subscription:

Anime: $54.48
Manga: $22.89
Subscription: $20.00

February Total: $97.37
February YOY: -$39.30

YTD Total: $225.92
YTD YOY: -$446.61

I'm rather glad I managed to stop myself from buying more figures, even though it meant leaving my Madoka Real Action Heroes collection not even halfway complete. 40% is nothing to sneeze at.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:51 am Reply with quote
February 2014

Grand total: $331.18

Anime: $271.17 (5 TV, 1 movie)
Subscription(s): $24.77 (GotAnime & Funi)
Sales Tax: $35.24

Lost $38.15 on currency exchange between CAD and US.

Assuming nothing weird comes up, I should have a cheap March and April. May will be a bit of a wild card because that's when AnimeNorth is and it's always difficult to estimate what I might spend there.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:34 pm Reply with quote
I just noticed that we have gotten this thread up to 58 pages in just 3 years and 3 months. Shocked

February was a more typical month, but still left me feeling unfulfilled.

Manga: 14 volumes for $132.19
DVDs: 0 shows for $0.00 I think this if the first month this happened since we have been keeping count.
Bluray: 10 shows for $447.81
Figures: 4 for $196.95
Tax: $29.37
S&H: $12.99
Total for February: $819.31
Total year to date: $1150.64

I mentioned when we started this back in December 2010 that I had records dating back to August 1997 when I first got into anime. Actually at that point I had all bills and receipts and other money records dating back to 1990. I initially saved them to reconcile my charge accounts and checkbook. I continued to keep them because it was easier than getting rid of them. They have to be shredded and reviewed for records that need to be kept. I initially had all my record back to when I got out of college in 1967 but several years ago I got rid of everything up through 1989. At that point the shredder died and I quit for awhile.

Last week I started shredding documents again. I mention this because when I got up to 1997 I wanted to see if I could reconstruct what I spent on anime, manga and associated goods. The answer is I can't, at least not in any detail or with any exactness.

For the first year or so my purchases were mostly from comic shops. Most of them provided register strips that showed only amounts, location and dates but not what I bought. Some didn't even show that much. As I moved forward I started buying from video stores and such. I'm up to 2000 in reviewing records and I find that some of those, including Best Buy had register tapes that self destructed and are now completely illegible. Also Walden Books where I bought a lot of manga identified items by their stocking code and not by name.

As I moved forward, the purchases from brick and mortar stores declined and I started buying almost exclusively online. Those I should be able to track. Interestingly, I found that in 1999 I was buying direct from both Viz and Dark Horse to obtain back issues. I had forgotten that.

I should note that in 1997 when I started in this hobby I was already keeping records in MS Money and later in Quicken. Those are still readable. Those programs require you to list expenses in categories. Unfortunately the category I established for anime and manga (Alan's Toys) also includes all my purchases of ordinary US comic books and graphic novels. For some years that was extensive. When I get a chance I'll see what those hold.

It will be interesting to see if I can recreate any of the years prior to 2010.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:43 pm Reply with quote
Why, Alan45, you diligent record keeper, you.

I only started keeping an itemized account of all my anime and related spending starting in January of 2011. That means I don't have itemized accounts for 2009 (the year I started collecting) or 2010. I remember that in my rough mental calculations, I figured I probably spent $5,000-ish in 2009 and $3,500-ish in 2010, but I also know that it is easy to under-estimate your true expenditures if you are not diligent about keeping track of all transactions.

I could kind of re-create 2009-10 by looking at my TRSI, Amazon and ebay online archives since that's where the bulk of my purchases came from. Just not that invested in the effort.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:06 pm Reply with quote
@Blood-
Keeping documents is easy. I keep them in a shoebox and sort them once or twice a year. Initially I kept the records for reconciling my checkbook and later charge cards. I also kept records for tax purposes. Actually it was easier to keep everything than it was to go through a years records and decide what to keep.

By the time I realized that they were taking storage space I needed for figures, it was too late to just dump them. The hard part is doing something with them. That takes work.

You have mentioned several times amounts lost in currency conversion. Is this actual fees charged or simply the difference in currencies? We have to pay a 1% foreign transaction charge for dolls Joy buys from My Favorite Doll in Toronto but that is the only additional amount I know of.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:35 pm Reply with quote
In my recording keeping, I only keep track of the differences in the value of our respective currencies.

So if something costs $10 US from TRSI and the charge on my credit card is $11.30 CAD, then I note I lost $1.30 in the currency exchange.

Note: I don't "add" this figure to my Grand Total or any other total. It's really just a way for me to see how much I'm "losing" when the difference in US and Cdn currency isn't in my favour. Man, a couple of years ago I was SAVING money when the Cdn dollar was briefly stronger than the greenback. I'm very nostalgic for that time...

Here's an example of how I calculate the currency difference using my last TRSI order.

I ordered 5 TV titles and 1 movie title and those six items came to $$269.17 US. That was $238.20 US for the items themselves + $30.97 US for sales tax. The total amount on my credit card was $306.41 CAD. To find out how the split between items and sales tax translated into CAD, I divided $238.20 US (the value of just the anime) by $269.17 US (the combined value of anime + sales tax). That gave me a figure of 0.88494etcetc. I rounded that up to 0.885.

Then I multiplied the total charge on my credit card ($306.41) by 0.885 and that gave me a figure of 271.172etcetc. That becomes $271.17 CAD. So I know that is the value of the anime in CAD. You subtract that figure from the total amount ($306.41) and you get $35.24 as the Canadian sales amount.

Fascinating, no? Wink
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Mylene



Joined: 07 Feb 2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Indiana
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:18 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:

I ordered 5 TV titles and 1 movie title and those six items came to $$269.17 [...]

Fascinating, no? Wink


Absolutely! I didn't know Canada also did double dollars.

Err...sorry, once I saw the $$ my mind went to Gunsmoke and never came back.

Back on topic, after Crunchyroll didn't get in the number of Maiko Madoka Magica figures that they presold and my order was cancelled, I ended 2013 on-budget for the year. 2014 has gone well thus far as well (on or just below budget), but I'm sure that will change soon enough.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:09 pm Reply with quote
@ Mylene - hmm, interesting to note that CR does that sort of thing. I haven't ordered a whole bunch of stuff through them, but I do have one figure on pre-order. Would not be amused to have that cancelled because they oversold and could not get all the required stock.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:18 pm Reply with quote
@Blood-
I thought it was something like that. I understand why you feel that way, but you haven't lost anything. At this point the one currency is simply worth less than the other. The problem is that they are both called dollars and have been fairly close to each other for a long time.

You are comparing apples and oranges. The US dollar is no more the same thing as the Canadian dollar than either is the same as the Japanese Yen. Do you consider it a loss or gain when the Yen gets stronger or weaker and your import figures cost more or less, or do you simply think that the figure costs more or less?

I always thought it was funny that the US adopted the dollar based on a then common Dutch currency simply to spite England (and then spelled it based on the common pronunciation). I also understand that the dollar sign was initially just a U superimposed on an S. Funny that other countries adopted both the name and the symbol for unrelated currency.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:40 pm Reply with quote
Yes, it's true that currency differences don't represent an absolute loss or gain, but they are a reflection of purchasing power. Here's a simple example: let's assume our dollars are at par and my yearly budget is $1,000. I buy 10 sets for $100 and that's my budget.

Now, let's say the following year, our dollars are no longer at par. $1 US dollar = 0.90 CAD. So if I want 10 sets for $100 each, it'll cost me $1,100 of my Cdn purchasing power to do so. If I want to stay within my $1,000 budget, I'll only get 9 sets instead of ten.

When I think of it like that, the currency difference does have a very tangible impact.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 9:16 pm Reply with quote
@Blood-
Yes, differences in exchange rated do have an impact, and yes, it depends on how you think about it.

You are strongly aware of variations in the US/Canadian exchange rate because you buy regularly from the US. However, these changes are no different than changes in the exchange rate between either of those and the Japanese Yen or the English Pound.

In the not too distant past, a lot of people were bewailing the Japanese/US exchange rate. I know this had an effect on the cost of figures I bought from RACS or through the comic shop. But I didn't see it as a loss, just as higher prices. Some on this board noticed the changes directly as I saw messages complaining of the Yen exchange rate. Strangely, as the exchange rate with Japan became better, for some reason figures didn't get any cheaper. I wonder why?

Look at it this way inflation has the same effect. Your money is worth less and gets less goodies. Believe me going through a couple of decades worth of records makes inflation stand out. However people do not see it as a loss, they just complain that prices have gotten higher and ask for a cost of living raise.

You do realize, that to the extant they can control the exchange rate, your government is likely trying to keep the value of your dollar low to encourage exports don't you? Would it help if they officially changed the name from the dollar to the loonie for all your currency?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 9:25 pm Reply with quote
@ Alan45 - oh yeah, I'm very familiar with the "let's keep the loonie low to encourage exports" trick. I think the policy is self-defeating. An industry that is artificially propped up by a low dollar policy has no incentive to improve productivity or innovate. Look at the Germans. They have an incredibly healthy export sector despite having a strong currency and despite having high labour costs. Why? Because they make high value products that the world wants. In Canada we are too much, "cutters of wood and hewers of water" as the saying goes. We rely too much on our commodities and not enough on trying to produce high value goods that the world wants (occasional exceptions like the Blackberry aside, which ain't doin' so hot these days anyway).

...


Wow, this got a little off-topic, eh? Wink
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Sailor S





PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:42 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:


Wow, this got a little off-topic, eh? Wink


Ah, but it was a fascinating off topic. At least to me, and that's all that ever matters.

However, back on topic, I was waiting on a couple items since I wasn't sure if they were going to get posted to February or to March, and since they've posted (to March) I can post up my February expenses.

Anime: $153.85 (5 items)
Manga: $92.74 (14 items)
Figures: $0.00
Misc: $23.46 (1 item)

February Total: $270.05

February was a significant month for me in large part because I didn't buy a single figure. This needs to happen more often because I have been rapidly running out of space to display them, and I find it completely pointless to own a figure and not take it out of its box. The box is for transportation purposes only, not for display purposes. Also, February needs to be the norm from now until my truck is paid off. I just have to take the attitude that if I miss out on something I want, so be it, that's life. I may have to give up my Collector Extraordinaire title because of it, but I will not put myself in debt for my hobby.

And the sole item in miscellaneous was my monthly Nyantype magazine. I sure pay a lot for a magazine I can't actually read. Good thing I only buy it for the pictures.
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Sohma_Curse



Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 512
Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:40 pm Reply with quote
Probably should start keeping track of my expenses, so after some quick calculations, I'm at $906.48 YTD so far (of which about maybe 1/3 is pre-orders yet to actually be charged).

Honestly though it would be a lot more than that, but I'm pretty sure I didn't leave anything out. I'm counting this as a small victory Laughing

Additionally, I've made $226 through anime sales on ebay in 2014. So, technically, I'm at 640.48 YTD.
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