Try not to think of the hobby as expensive... I had a friend who once started to give me some flak about how much I had invested in my trucks. I looked at him, his cigarette habit, and then did the math. From my first purchase of a Tamiya Ford Aeromax in 2001 to my Knight Hauler in 2006.
In the time I had put into purchasing my trucks, building my trucks, and getting the custom items to improve my trucks; He had smoked and turned to ash enough cigarettes, that our "equal investments" would have still left me with a budget of just a little over $2,000 to use for my trucks at that time.
Be happy, build often, and have fun
- RCT