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Cost of Swinging

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I'm curious, for those that are active in the lifestyle - what would you say your budget is or what kind of financial impact has it made on you?

 

For example - cost of memberships, clubs, costumes, dates, etc?

 

What creative ways do you find to keep the cost down?

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Funny this should be brought up in the forums, hubby and I were just talking about this over the weekend. I'd say we spend maybe $400 per month. Hotels, memberships, booze, door fees, gas, clothes. Hubby didn't even want to think about it :( Putting a dollar figure to it, it sounds exorbitant now!

 

I guess we justify it because we usually did something every weekend before swinging - bars, live bands, eating out. Most of those activities have been merged with swinging now.

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The most money we put out on is usually for Halloween. Costumes, hotel room and drinks, gas, door fees probably came to about $350. Usually, it's just drinks and gas when we meet up at M&Gs since we have no clubs. :)

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From June to the end of September no more than $100 a month. Gas was the biggest expense since nothing is local.

 

I think in October we spent way too much. We attended a weekend hotel takeover for 2 nights on the other side of the state. I had to budget $500 which included 2 nights hotel and party entry, food, gas and liquor. I try to justify some of the expense because my sister lives locally to the party and all the free time I spent with her. We had bought our costumes for the party a week before (free to us to go) which totalled $75. We stopped in a meet and greet a couple nights ago and the bar bill cost me $46. My total party expenses for this month is a little over $600.

 

Next month we won't have any expense.

 

In December we'll spend $300 and visit my sister again and stay with her on the Friday night. I won't go back to the party that is a two night party, I was extremely disappointed for what I paid (no ballroom, danced in the lobby which to me is not acceptable for the increased price). We'll use our existing outfits.

 

I have a nice collection of outfits now that it's been a couple years and I have no issue wearing them multiple times. We won't share a room (that's always been a disaster). I don't think we do anything to cut costs. sMy husband dj's (his hobby, not full time job) at one of the clubs and we use that money first for lifestyle fun. What he makes in a year at the club is probably what we spend in a year in the lifestyle.

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I'd agree with the $400/month if you averaged it out not including outfits/costumes. We can spend another $200 a month on silly stuff to wear to the themed events.

 

The biggest expense now is we go at least once a year on a swinger vacation. This year we did Caribe. 2012 will probably be Hedo. We are already signed up for the Topless Travel Cruise in April 2013.

 

We would be doing a vacation for the two of us (away from kids) anyways so not sure if you would count those :D

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Hmm, this all depends on how many items you are adding to it.

 

Such as gas. We wouldnt be staying home if we didnt go to lifestyle parties, so im not sure how much gas for the car would count. I would say that our driving has increased (parties tend to be 20-30 miles away), but not by a lot. So maybe $50/month increase.

 

Same goes with food and drink. We barely drink, and we dont eat out very much, and that hasnt really changed with the lifestyle. Maybe $25/month more.

 

Costumes and clothes are definitely an increase over our vanilla life. We didnt buy as many, the more "flattering" clothes that my wife gets now definitely fit into that category. I'd peg this at $75/month increase when you count shoes.

 

Party costs for us arent too high. Most parties here are $15/each, and that is 2x/month tops. We get hotel rooms every other month, maybe 6 rooms/year. So maybe another $100/month.

 

By far our biggest expense is babysitting. That is $40-60/night, and we get a sitter 4x/month. So another $200/month there.

 

In total, that means our fun hobby is ~$450/month.. eh, not bad, but still far from cheap I guess. Actually our costs have been going down too, because we've been avoiding babysitters so much. It was getting a bit ridiculous with having a sitter every week, so we have started to use sitters less often.

 

We dont have any clubs or memberships here, and we have not (as of yet) traveled outside of the metro area for lifestyle. Pretty much for us it's been going to a local party 2x/month, some of those being bar meets (which are usually free or a small cover charge) and the rest being $15/each.

We usually play at other people's places or host ourselves, hotels have been used, but not all that often and usually we are splitting the costs with others.

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I guess we get off lucky.

 

We usually do not have to worry about hotel rooms in the last 3 months we have gotton one $60.

 

we have friends who throw monthly parties but if you prepay before a certain date its only $25 so going with 3 months that $75

 

another party we went to was $40.

 

Oct was more because of the costumes but I had the base for mine so only had to get some extras. He needed a whole one but we got a deal so about $70 there.

 

My mom lives with us and is the babysitter so $0 :)

 

Then there is the $10 at wawa on our way home Im usually starving becasue I can't eat before meeting new people I get nervouse. And he always wants his coffee :) So wawa would be about $120 for the last 3 months.

 

I didnt add gas but in the last 3 months we have spend about $365.

 

Wow thats more then I thought.

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We are pretty frugal swingers. We don't go to the big on-premise clubs around here because we believe they are too expensive. We also don't travel too far to meet folks because we prefer friendships anyway, and its difficult to have a friendship with somebody who doesn't live anywhere near you. We usually play at either our or their house, so that cuts down on motel room costs. We dont have kids, and most of the time the couples we do play with are young enough to go to bed early and stay there. We normally wear sexy-looking but "normal" clothes, to cut down on the cost of outfits. Or we get really creative, such as the wife wearing a handkerchief as a top one night...

 

So really, that leaves us with our monthly 1x club visit of 15.00

An increase in alcohol consumption by about 40.00

Very minimal extra gas since we stay local...maybe 20.00

 

The only thing that is kind of tricky is like I said we often prefer to play with friends. So it will be a common thing for normal vanilla events with swingers too, such as a concert or whatever.

 

All in all I dont think we spend more than 100.00/month extra.

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Wow - seems like a pretty large range.

 

I don't know that we have an extra $300-400 a month to spend.

 

Since we don't have much locally by way of clubs or events I have to admit that the cost averages that most are coming out with it a bit discouraging.

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We never spent much money on swinging. Other than the cost of dinner when we met our playmates and gas to get to the restaurant, we spent almost nothing.

 

We played at our house or theirs and never went to clubs.

 

Alura

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We've had a standing weekly 'date night' for years. With our entrance into the LS we've just changed what we do. For instance, instead of spending money on movie and dinner, we go to a club.

 

So the net change in what we spend on our entertainment isn't that much.

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Yeah, I forgot about the dinners we spend $$ on when meeting new couples.

 

I would never spend $300-$400 a month for swinging. That's a car payment, people. I'd rather have a new car than swing.

 

I'll venture to say, adding food into the mix, we spend about about $300 every six months on swinging.

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I guess the answer lies in what type of venue you use to swing. In our case we have attended conventions in Florida and morphed those events into a weeks vacation (usually staying at a clothing optional resort) so engaging in that type of activity generally runs us a little shy of $3K (including airfare from NY, car rental for a week, gas, tolls, hotels, restaurants and sight-seeing); trips to Desire in Mexico usually run about $4K for 5-6 nights but it is all inclusive and no rental car expense and lastly going to a club in PA generally runs us about $300 for the weekend including hotel 2 nights at the Farm (about $130), admission to the party ($70), gas (to and from NY about $50), food and other misc. expenses another $50.

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We're cheap swingers too. We really prefer house parties or entertaining in our home, or visiting someone else's home. Going to a club is a big deal for us. My scottish blood really resents paying 40 or 60 dollars plus expensive drinks for a loud, crowded club, especially since I'm not a big fan of backroom sex on mattresses on the floor. (I will make an occasional exception for Oasis in Toronto- $80 for full access 11 am-3 am, and able to leave and come back as many times as you want AND stunningly finished playrooms!) The occasional dinner and drinks, sure, but we'd be doing that anyways for a night out. Hotel rooms are overrated as venues; I always have to tone it down and I don't like doing that.

 

That being said, we are splashing out on a hotel takeover in the Falls next month, but even that is only $200 for the weekend, plus a dinner and two breakfast vouchers. As long as we don't blow a ton of money at the wineries and outlet stores, we'll be fine.

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Some swingers spend $1000's on travel and such.

 

Others spend gas money and split a pizza.

 

Its 100% on what kind of swinger you want to be and what you want to(can) spend.

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Since we don't (can't) swing in town it can get expensive. Our tends to run along the lines on celtic239's. But, maybe its even worse...we recently bought a little place in Florida, close to lots of popular lifestyle activities. Now we could take family, it's not in a nudist or lifestyle resort, but so far only horizontal friends have come by to christen the place. So do we have to add $$$$$ to the cost? We might have bought it otherwise...hard to say. Maybe we'll retire there...

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If we had not discovered swing activities, we would have been spending the money on some other equally expensive activity -- we have never been people to simply sit at home munching popcorn and watching free TV. From this point of reference, I will put forward the proposal that swing lifestyle costs us nothing.

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We are on the staff of our local social club, so we don't pay admission. We DO however work on setup, decorations, and cleanup. We don't rent a room, it's close to home. We also have a membership at a clothing optional lifestyle resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have lodging available there at no cost, but we put money in for utilities. Gas costs us about $100 round trip, and we spend about $100 on food (eating out and buying groceries). We try to go once a month....but work has been slow, so more like every other month now. Guess it averages out right around $100 a month extra beyond what we would spend otherwise.

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If we had not discovered swing activities, we would have been spending the money on some other equally expensive activity -- we have never been people to simply sit at home munching popcorn and watching free TV. From this point of reference, I will put forward the proposal that swing lifestyle costs us nothing.

I tend to agree with this. We would be somewhere doing something regardless of our sexual status. Hell, swinging might even be saving us money.

 

Some swingers spend $1000's on travel and such.

 

Others spend gas money and split a pizza.

 

Its 100% on what kind of swinger you want to be and what you want to(can) spend.

 

I agree with this as well, and both style of swinger can be successful, or not.

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It all depends on your baseline reference. If you otherwise spend every night of the week siting at home eating peanut butter sandwiches , and watching rabbit ear TV , any hobby or activity will be expensive by comparison.

 

If you otherwise. eat out a medium priced restruants , go to club/ listen to live music/ dance , take the occasional basic weekend getaway, then then no big deal to displace some of that into meeting new people , or swing related venues.

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Yeah, when you write it out, it can look costly for some of us.

 

But, from the view of a cheap arse like myself, anything looks expensive. :lol:

 

We just view it as entertainment. Sure we might not be spending as much if we werent doing this, but we might be. We look at what our vanilla friends do, and their hobbies are stuff like sports activities, scrapbooking and so on, and most of them easily outspend us, and dont seem as happy.

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In a really active month we might put out $400 for hotel rooms, door fees, etc. On an average month is more like $50-$100. Our website memberships have long been paid for, so that's not an issue. I may have to go shopping again soon for outfits if we start getting really active again this summer. We do weigh the costs and check hotel prices before we even make up our mind to go, as a rule of thumb. Alcohol might run us $25/party since everywhere we go is BYOB and I like cheap wine (not gas station cheap - although we do have a couple of gas stations around here that are known for their wine selection) and Pet likes expensive beer.

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I hate thinking about the financial aspect of anything since I currently bring $0 into the household. But if I had to put a dollar amount on what it costs for us to swing...

 

We usually go out to dinner, just us, before going to any event so I'll gander that it varies between $50-$75.

 

If we go to the nightclub, about $30 for entrance and alcohol.

 

If we go to a big house party, about $30 for entrance.

 

If we go to a small house party, about $20 for alcohol and/or snacks.

 

I'll allow a generous allowance of $10 for gas.

 

In whatever case, about $20 monthly allowance for new clothes to go out in but that's assuming we reuse them several times.

 

And I'll throw in $10 a month to maintain a supply of condoms and lube.

 

If we go out to a swinging event twice a month, it adds up to $200-260. On the rare event that we get a hotel room and an overnight sitter for the kids...it can go up to $350-410 a month.

 

Lately, we haven't been out swinging often and when we do, we don't get a hotel room and we haven't been buying new clothes or supplies.... In the summer, we might "ramp up" our swinging and it could get expensive.

 

Good lord...I'm depressed about how much money flies out of the household income now.

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