Today is going to be a fun topic and nothing too serious!
As you may know (or if you’re new, you will know soon), cosplay can be freaking expensive. A lot of us are spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on our cosplay projects. The costs can definitely add up. And if you include expenses related to attending an Anime/Comic cosplay convention (e.g. travel, hotel), you can see how expensive this hobby can be!
But what if you decided to not take part in cosplaying? What if we wanted to hang up our costume for good and try something else? Well, that’s my thought for today.
In this post, I’ll go through 5 things I’d spend my money on if it weren’t for cosplay. I think of all the money I’d have to spend on other things in life. Maybe this post will give you some ideas as well.
Okay let’s get into it!
1. Traveling
If you’ve followed my blog, then you know that I LOVE to travel! So naturally, if I were to have some extra money left over from not cosplaying, it would probably go straight into my travel budget. I already have money set aside for traveling. But if I wasn’t a cosplayer, I would just simply do more traveling than I already do!
Now what’s interesting for me is that I cosplay AND travel at the same time. I like to visit places with good cosplay conventions. So if I weren’t attending conventions, maybe I would travel to different places I haven’t been yet. There are a lot of places I want to see, including many countries in Asia and in the Caribbean!
2. Video games
Ah yes! I have been a video gamer my whole life. And although I don’t play as much video games as back then (who has as much as we did when we were kids), I still enjoy them and try my best to play as much as I can.
These days though, I only focus on a couple of games. Although the reason is because of time constraints (i.e. I’m a busy man), another factor is that video gaming is really expensive these days!
I remember back when I was a kid, a console would be under $300, controllers were at most $40 and video games were around $70-80 (in Canadian dollars). But now, video games can be easily $90, controllers are $80 and consoles are well over $400.
To be fair, I can understand the reasoning for the price increases. Video games are much more expensive to develop now (e.g. making Donkey Kong is a lot easier and cheaper than a massive game like Grand Theft Auto V or Genshin Impact). And things have gotten more expensive in general.
But at the same time, it makes it harder to own and play a lot of video games. Buying 10 video games can cost you nearly $1000!
But if I had some extra money left over from not cosplaying, then you can bet I’d buy a PS5 and play some of the video games I’ve wanted to play for a very long time! I actually have an entire list of games that I still need to get around to playing, including Grand Theft Auto V!
3. Restaurants
I’m kind of a foodie to be honest! Although I try eating healthy most of the time, I do enjoy trying new cuisines and restaurants. These days, restaurants are pretty damn expensive with inflation. But if I had some extra money from not cosplaying, then I would splurge some of the spare cash on new foods and restaurants.
I’m not big on fine dining at the moment because the portions are small and I have a big appetite . But I wouldn’t mind trying some fine dining once in a while.
Here are some cuisines and/or restaurants I had in mind if cosplay wasn’t a thing:
- French cuisine
- Fancy Italian restaurants
- Tapa’s
- Michelin Star restaurant
- High-class sushi joint
Fortunately, I live in a large city with a gazillion restaurants, so I would have no problem finding some new restaurants to try!
4. Shows (NBA, concerts, movies, wrestling)
As much as I like cosplay, I also enjoy a night out going to events and shows! I’m a basketball fan, so I would be spending some money on a lot of NBA games. These days, NBA games are really expensive to attend. So I would be spending some of my spare money on watching some hoops.
I also am a fan of wrestling, so I would be buying tickets to see more wrestling shows! If you didn’t know, wrestling events are a lot of fun. You can chant stuff, bring signs and cheer on or boo your favorite wrestlers.
I’d also go to various other shows, such as:
- Concerts (they’re super expensive these days!)
- Movies
- Musicals
- Racing shows
- Conventions which are not cosplay-related
5. Clothing
Last but not least, I would spend some of my money on clothing! To be honest, I’m a really frugal person, so I find it hard to buy new clothing when I don’t need them. Not only does new clothing take up a lot of space in the house, but it also costs a lot of money too! Like a T-shirt can easily be over $50, depending on the brand name you buy.
So ironically, if I wasn’t buying new cosplays, I’d be buying another type of fabric…clothing! I’d brush up on my fashion style in my own personal life, not in cosplay.
Would I ever do this?
So now that I listed 5 ways I would spend my own money outside of cosplay, would I actually do this? No way!
As much as I like video games, traveling and/or restaurants, I enjoy cosplay as well. And I’m more than happy to spend my hard-earned cash on some costumes! Cosplay can be expensive, but we are also good at saving money and budgeting to afford cosplaying.
How would you spend your money if cosplaying didn’t exist? Would you be spending it on other stuff? Or simply save it up and leave it in the bank? Let me know in the comments below!
My name is Roger Senpai. I’m a cosplayer that’s been in the community for well over a decade now. I’ve traveled all over the world to Anime and Comic conventions and hosted my own cosplay events. Now I’m writing articles for new and experienced cosplayers like you to help inspire, save you money and improve your cosplays!
