When beginning to craft, it’s easy to be taken aback by the prices of basic materials. It’s no secret that many crafters have extensive collections of items worth a significant monetary amount.
But why exactly are craft materials so expensive? Is there a way to make your new hobby more financially accessible?
You overbuy materials
One of the easiest ways to spend a small fortune on materials is simply to overbuy them.
Most crafters are familiar with picking up bits “just in case”, whether it be an additional ball of wool to ensure you reach the end of your project before running out, or bulk-buying beads because it looks like a good deal at the time. While this may save you money in the long run, in the short term do you really need 50,000 small blue beads?
An easy way to help prevent overbuying is by purchasing a kit. All sorts of different craft kits can be found, from cross stitch and quilting kits to knitting and crochet kits from specialist sites such as www.woolcouturecompany.com/collections/crochet-kits.
You don’t finish projects
Be honest, how many half-finished projects does your craft cupboard hold?
It’s a rare breed of crafter who begins a job and religiously finishes it before moving on to the next. This means that you never use up all your materials. This costs you money both in unused and used items (is that half-finished quilt really of any use to you dumped in a box, unloved and unfinished?).
Your time has value
Most importantly, your time is a valuable asset that would be one of your biggest expenses were you to price your crafts. As explained by Success “Unlike money, you can’t earn more time”.
You jump between crafts
Starting a new hobby is always going to be more expensive than maintaining an existing one. The basic equipment is reused time and again, making subsequent projects cheaper as there’s no need to replace everything each time. If you jump around a lot, you have to buy basics repeatedly instead of reusing them.
