When life events break your budget.. which part of your tank do you cut?

[mrhammy]

If anyone ever gets to this situation that they have to finance life from selling stuff from the tank, they have bigger problems, they need to grow up ASAP and start behaving responsibly.

I have liquid savings enough for years and I try not to have anything expensive in terms of money/time/space in my life or things I don't use daily, probably the two is not unrelated.

All my fish tank kit worth probably a few hundreds second hand and takes up very little space, so I don't see ever selling them - there is no point. Part of myself still don't like having them, cuz they are not necessities, but its a reasonably cheap hobby in moderation with a lot of satisfaction.

Most people do not have liquid funds for years. I have cash savings, a large amount of CC, and borrowing power if needed. I just went through this, sort of; I suddenly had heart problems and needed to be off work for 4 months; even with disability, it was a close-run thing. Then, Open heart surgery stopped any work on a tank for a few weeks and slowed me down for a long time. Trying to talk my wife through a problem with auto top-off from the hospital was very difficult, as you can imagine. So please don't say "Grow up and behave reasonably." sometimes life just happens and you can do nothing about it.

 

[BryanM]

This is a weird judgy thread.

 

[dinosaur_1552]

Most people do not have liquid funds for years. I have cash savings, a large amount of CC, and borrowing power if needed. I just went through this, sort of; I suddenly had heart problems and needed to be off work for 4 months; even with disability, it was a close-run thing. Then, Open heart surgery stopped any work on a tank for a few weeks and slowed me down for a long time. Trying to talk my wife through a problem with auto top-off from the hospital was very difficult, as you can imagine. So please don't say "Grow up and behave reasonably." sometimes life just happens and you can do nothing about it.

Sorry to hear about your heart issues.

There is a difference though in between having to sell a skimmer to be able to pay off swapping tyres on the car and unexpected heart issues which renders you unable to do anything lasting 4 months, it's not on the same level.

Your story just reinforces what I said, prioritizing financial safety is a good idea, cause you never know what happens. I spent A LOT of money on stupid stuff when I was younger, but since then I realized I can have half the holiday, half the car and half the fish tank while getting the same enjoyment out of them and keep saving the other half regardless - and I never looked back. I also call this "internal development over the years" the process of growing up.

 

[dndlyon]

I have a really strict budget and only hold aside $25 to $50 for "new tank expenses" each month - saving for a vacation, so I'm squeezing the budget right now.

My current tank (20 gal...oh, and a 10 gal) cycled with a sand bed, a bit of live rock, and ammonia additions for almost 8 months due to an unplanned financial thing. I just stopped spending and only maintained.

I added a few snails about 3 months ago, and my first 3 coral frags just last month.

I include routine stuff (salt, water, replacing test kits, additives, etc) as part of my regular monthly budget...like groceries.

I also keep an "emergency" amount in my savings for broken and/or unexpected life things.

With that being said, I have had emergencies that cost more than the emergency savings. At that point, every bit of my 'nice to have' savings stops, and I stay at just the basics spending until the savings is built back up. So, I spend just enough to maintain the tank - no new anything and no upgrades, just the necessary maintenance.

I didn't always have the emergency account, but my life changed when I started making that a priority. I was always behind and selling things to cover other things or juggling bills.

I did have an AMAZING 75 gal reef tank though but I was always juggling expenses and making credit card payments.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I just don’t buy anything new and work overtime when it comes up. All of my tanks are not budgeted because they are paid for with my extra spending cash. I work overtime to pay for them. But if there’s no overtime, then I don’t buy any livestock or unneeded equipment until it comes up again. Those on a fixed income may have to be a little more strategic in their spending.

 

[Fish Styx]

Nothing new at all. No upgrades, new toys, and certainly no livestock. Next will be any supplements, except for mission critical items (I run a KZ tank). Frozen cubes and others (i.e. Rods) are stopped in lieu of reef Jerky and pellets. Pellet are then changed from Nutramar to marine one, which will shave a few bucks. The drop in rollermat will be swapped out, and I'll just run socks for mechanical which will save on fleece. Then, finally, WC's done in 2 week intervals instead of weekly to save on salt.

 

[JoJosReef]

Folks! This is not an autobiography, it's a thought experiment (yes, provoked by an unexpected and quite anger-inducing car expense). I'm fine. Thank you for your concern and financial advice!

But like all things in life, everything comes at the cost of something else. Perhaps you are financially perfectly fine but you prefer to allocate your discretionary funds X% to reefing, X% to investing/college fund, X% to hang gliding, X% to diggeridoo lessons, etc. Perhaps you don't feel like using your liquid savings to pay for an unexpected expense and rather prefer to cut back on something else for a while. That's the question: if you *decide* to cut back on something in reefing, what would it be?

 

[KrisReef]

This is a weird judgy thread.

I would sell my daughter to finance my tank but she already got married and so I have missed the opportunity.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I cut any additions such as fish and coral.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

If I was @JoJosReef, I would just sell one of my kids.
Sadly, I do not have kids... So I can not reap those rewards.
But yes recently we had a sudden financial hardship arise. Our dishwasher broke. So what have I given up? Nothing. Hand washing dishes right now. JK. I am on the fence of spending $600 in parts to fix a nice dishwasher or spending $600 on a crappy new one and be done with it.

 

[KrisReef]

If I was @JoJosReef, I would just sell one of my kids.
Sadly, I do not have kids... So I can not reap those rewards.
But yes recently we had a sudden financial hardship arise. Our dishwasher broke. So what have I given up? Nothing. Hand washing dishes right now. JK. I am on the fence of spending $600 in parts to fix a nice dishwasher or spending $600 on a crappy new one and be done with it.

Same, actually. We just put in a new one and she says it doesn't get the dishes clean! The old one was supposed to last ten years and we had it two.

I'm not replacing it, but I will have to get her to use paper plates and thus far that hasn't been an option for her?
We eat out a lot now, and I am ready to give up eating just to escape.

End horse race-ism? I can't track that.

 

[armyvetheather]

If I need to cut back on costs, livestock is the first to cut back on. I generally will not do my weekly stop at the lfs to see what they have new, simply because I know I should avoid the temptation. I also do not carry cc debt and if I do, it's minimal at best so if I don't have the money for it then it just has to be skipped. I wanted so badly to buy a new light over the sales the last few days but I really need a new car so I'm pretty proud of myself for not giving in to some amazing deals.

 

[VintageReefer]

My tank really doesn’t cost any money to run…
My alk source is a tub of organic baking soda that will last me years

A bottle of calcium supplement is around $30 and lasts several months

I don’t do water changes and haven’t bought salt in 6+ years

I don’t use any filtration “media” or anything that needs to be replaced

I couldn’t make cuts if I wanted to, the tank runs itself and the filtration is an algae scrubber

 

[armyvetheather]

My tank really doesn’t cost any money to run…
My alk source is a tub of organic baking soda that will last me years

A bottle of calcium supplement is around $30 and lasts several months

I don’t do water changes and haven’t bought salt in 6+ years

I don’t use any filtration “media” or anything that needs to be replaced

I couldn’t make cuts if I wanted to, the tank runs itself and the filtration is an algae scrubber

What about when your lights break or your pump stops running? I think that was more of the point than the cost to run it...

 

[JTP424]

Definitely cutting on additions if money is looking tight.... then I go to food, I.E. I will cut back on the frozen/fresh and start feeding more dry/pellets... It's not much but it stretches the frozen so I don't need to buy a new batch.

 

[Dburr1014]

Isn't divorce rate like 50%?

Cheaper to keeper.

I found out the hard way.
My second says I won't get away that easy. To the grave.

 

[VintageReefer]

What about when your lights break or your pump stops running? I think that was more of the point than the cost to run it...

Sounded like he was talking about upgrades or running costs but maybe I misread

 

[Reefing_addiction]

So let's say you have an unexpected expense like a car repair that doesn't get covered by your warranty. Next imagine that you don't already have accounted for by great financial planning and you have to cut from your reefing budget. What is first to get the axe for you? Lighting upgrades? Controller upgrades? Pumps? New fish/corals/nems/macros/etc? Cleanup crew refresh? Water changes (HA!)? Other parts of the system? Interested to see where other reefers land. I'm still internally debating mine, but I think it would be controller, followed by corals/nems/macros (not fish), followed by lighting or pumps, followed by--if I'm cutting this far, things'is pretty bad!

Since my isssue is corals - it would be corals. I don’t have fancy equipment - well didn’t I finally did splurge on another Orphek. And if I ever want fancy controllers I’ll need to STOP buying corals or win them!!

I think I’d cut all unnecessary expenses though. So no upgrades, no new stuff. I’d probably have to disappear from R2R and block the streaming coral sales on my phone.

No fresh pods (I do add randomly even if not necessary).

So dosing stuff is a must but if it comes down to it I would go full DIY - unfortunately that also means if not be putting all those trace elements back in the tank and I do t do water changes!

But I’d also look at all my other expenses and cut there as well. Like I stopped buying Starbucks 4 days a week. And now I might let myself have 1 every couple of weeks. Just because DAM I spent lots of money there.

I’d honestly probably cut all extras out of other places first before the reef took a hit. I’m truly an addict and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

There is the increased light bill from reefing - maybe I could reduce lighted hours? Turn the temp on the tank down a smidge?

Oh man I’m not happy I started down this path of what ifs and what I’d do

 

[Reefing_addiction]

OH AND I definitely star at the tank real hard and see what I could either sell to another reefer for quick cash or if I need stuff from the LFS I’d bring stuff in for credit! It’s how I got all my salt water for my new tank (yes I know probably cheaper to mix it but heck I do t have that many trash cans to mix in and I’d still have to buy RO cuz I rent and no RO set up).

 

[Reefing_addiction]

A hobby is an extravagance and in principle is funded with surplus funds. It sounds like you live financially on the edge with little or no surplus funds. All spending on the hobby should stop except to maintain a healthy aquarium for the animals you have.

Sometimes an unexpected expense can’t even be covered by an emergency fund. And what if you get hit back to back? And the thing not covered by his warranty is something - that if he had time and wasn’t getting leaving for vacation - he would have thrown down about! Darn dealership said “we can’t find any problems now you must pay us” I call BS!

Anywho…. Sometimes the surplus is t enough and things get sticky!