andrew dodson

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On Budgeting

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A few months back, I mentioned that I’ve been trying to do better with my budget.  For the most part, I’ve made more positive progress than negative.  I’m not sitting where I wanted to be at this point, but I have paid off a couple of debts that I’d set a goal to pay off by this time.

Most people that know me also know that I like my “stuff.”  Seems like I always have something on my wishlist.  Being content is definitely something I need to work on!

With that said, having a lot of “stuff” in the drum world also leads to flexibility.  How does this relate to a budget, you say?  With my hybrid drum concept over the last month or so, it led me to think that I needed more stuff to make it happen.  With my electronic drums living at church most of the time, I wanted to put together another hybrid drumset that I could have at home and take to gigs with me.  It would save me a lot of time and effort if I didn’t have to go to church every time I have a JMB gig.

Here’s a rundown of what I thought I needed to make another hybrid drumset:

  • Drum module - $500-1000
  • Cables - $100
  • Rack - $180-300
  • Drum pads - $200
  • Cymbal pads - $200
  • TOTAL - $1180-1800 (basically the price for another electronic kit)

Here’s what has happened instead:

  • Drum module - traded a drumset for a drum machine; will also transport my Yamaha module back and forth from church.
  • Cables - put to use some cables I had at home and only ended up spending about $50 on what I needed.
  • Rack - Elected to use actual drum hardware instead (see next item).
  • Drum pads - My roommate had some very nice Pintech pads that he wasn’t using; I’m taking them off his hands for $160.  They can be mounted with standard L-shaped tom mounts, meaning I can use regular acoustic tom mounts.
  • Cymbal pads - transporting my Yamaha pads back and forth from church; putting them on regular cymbal stands.
  • TOTAL - $210

So, I was able to put to use several items that I already had on hand and saved a lot of money.  Always a good thing.

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Written by Andrew

October 10th, 2007 at 5:40 am

Posted in Personal, Shopping

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