It’s kind of late in the year to be doing this, but one of the key topics I wanted to discuss when I started this blog was the financial side of figure collecting.  I hope to eventually share tips on how and where to save money on figures and provide examples of the real-world costs of figure collecting.

Along those lines, I established a budget for myself to cover all figure purchases for the 2009 calendar year.  I plan to share the results of that budget at the end of the year and take a look at whether or not I was able to stick to my budget, what figures I was able to get, and what I wasn’t able to get due to budget contraints.

Without further ado, here are the rules:

• $1,000 USD of initial funding shall be credited to the budget balance on January 1st, 2009.
• The total cost (including base price, tax, shipping, deputy fees, etc.) of any figure purchase in the 2009 calendar year shall be debited from the balance.
• The net gain (selling price less fess) from the sale of any existing figure in the collection shall be credited to the balance.
• Preorders placed in 2009 that will not arrive until 2010 shall count toward the 2010 budget rather than the 2009 budget.
• Any remaining balance at the end of 2009 shall be rolled over into the 2010 budget.

Basically, I gave myself $1,000 to spend on figures for this year.  If I feel like I need more than that, I can sell something from my collection to give myself more funds.  At the end of 2009, I’ll look at my spending patterns for the year and make adjustments to the 2010 budget.