Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give You a Hard Time?

Hello,

Very new here (just joined yesterday). Anyhow, I think I may be getting my first Fenix light in just a few days, but this is not a discussion about that new purchase. This is regarding my flashlight and knive obsession. As I've told my family numerous times, "a man can never have too many knives or flashlights."

They think I'm a little nuts, lol. Anyhow, in the past I would just buy crappy lights from the store but now after finding this place I think I'm going to start moving into more professional lights. I never knew this place existed to be honest and until yesterday, I had heard of surefires, but never the other premium brands like Fenix and what not. I guess you could say I was ignorant and never knew there was a whole world of premium flashlights out there. All this time I thought Maglite was the "king of flashlights." Yes I know you probably think I'm nuts for saying that, but it's what I thought up until a few weeks ago.

Anyhow, my question is, does your wife or significant other give you a hard time about the amount of flashlights you have? My wife tends to not really care that much. I guess there are worse things that a guy could be doing than buying another flashlight. However, once in a while, I get the whole, "another flashlight?" question. Ha ha. It's harmless, but I'm sure she is just unable to grasp why I want a new flashlight so often.

Normally my flashlight purchase is 10 bucks or so. But now that I discovered premium lights, the purchases might be more like 50. So let's see if she starts giving me a hard time now.. ha ha.

Anyhow, it has been fun here so far. I never thought I'd be a member of a flashlight forum, but here I am nonetheless. :huh:

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Liquidspaceman said:

Normally my flashlight purchase is 10 bucks or so. But now that I discovered premium lights, the purchases might be more like 50.

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50? That is only the lower end of quality lights, 100-200 is the middle ground and 500+ gets you the real gems.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Not sure that I could ever justify paying 500 bucks for a flashlight honestly. I may have a hard time paying 120 for one other than tax return time (right now in other words).

To me, 500 bucks is a new handgun. I would rather have a new Glock to be honest. But that's just me personally. No offense to those that own 500 dollar flashlights of course.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

No, she doesn't. She has her "own lights" and "borrow mine".
I know she thinks it's practical to always have light when needed.
She probably use the Zebralight H30/H60 most right now (when XC skiing).
She's not a "flashaholic" but can be picky about brightness, tint and which lights "feels best to hold" and so on.

I love my wife!

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Welcome Liquid! You've got lots to read about here. Enjoy your stay! Read a little in the HID and spotlights forum.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

The fact is that when you own both you find that you want to refine/upgrade what you own instead of buying more quantity. So it is more an increase in quality rather tahn quantity.

Most of the flashlight owners never jumper to a 500+ for the first one. They just kept upgrading... however you might see guys that want to collect, and that's a diferent story.
When you start to play with high power but rather small flashlights, you start to want to own a polarion...

personally, I never own more than 3 flashlight now. (Yes, I had a LOT more in the past)
A really small one in my keychain, a powerfull EDC and a nice HID to have at home or in the car.


ps- the same goes for knives... you start with spydercos and SOG, but soon you go all the way to sebenzas and striders and some might end up with william henry's!

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

I try and keep my spending in check, around $20/month so she doesn't mind. Usually that goes towards DYI parts. Once a year I'll splurge on something big, in the $50-$100 range:twothumbs

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

She may shake her head and roll her eyes, but I'd almost bet she's telling herself to hold her tongue, things could be worse. I stopped worrying long ago.

Geoff

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Liquidspaceman said:

Not sure that I could ever justify paying 500 bucks for a flashlight honestly. I may have a hard time paying 120 for one other than tax return time (right now in other words).

To me, 500 bucks is a new handgun. I would rather have a new Glock to be honest. But that's just me personally. No offense to those that own 500 dollar flashlights of course.

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That's funny. You don't know how many people once said the same thing, but now own more than one $500 flashlight, or a $5000 collection of flashlights...

Not that that describes me or anything :devil:.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Liquidspaceman said:

Hello,
Anyhow, my question is, does your wife or significant other give you a hard time about the amount of flashlights you have?

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No, but I have to be careful about what lights I use when I go out nightwalking with her. She doesn't like my light outshining her favorite L-mini Q5. (No P7's, MC-E's, R2's, HID's, etc.)

It's a pity manufacturers don't cater to the other gender. It seems most flashlights are geared for men - black, tactical, heavy. There are a few exceptions, but not many.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

My wife tends to be more upset when I'm on this forum for too long.
But when I want to purchase a flashlight, I tell her I really want a flashlight that is expensive, like $125.00. (But I really just want a less expensive light).Then when she complains about it, and eventually accepts it, I'll say O.K. I could be happy with a less expensive light ($50.00- $90.00). She's then happy about the purchase.
Feel free to use this technique, it works quite well. But just in case it doesn't don't blame me, its use at your own risk.
Wecome to CPF!

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Actually, my wife finds the flashlight hobby has rather useful. She also doesn't give me a hard time about how much I spend on flashlights. But since I manage all of our family's finances, make most of the money, pay all of the bills, make all of the investments she generally has no idea how much we save or invest vs spend on food, hobbies, vacations, etc. Besides, she's MUCH guiltier when it comes to shoes and handbags, which is rather guilty indeed as I am one of the "enthusiasts" with $500 lights. My personal rule is to not let any of my (or her) hobbies noticeably affect where I want our financial situation to be. And of course, the most important rule is never to get into debt to pay for any hobby because that's much crazier than spending $xxxx on a flashlight.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

HKJ said:

50? That is only the lower end of quality lights, 100-200 is the middle ground and 500+ gets you the real gems.

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therein lies the technique. i make it a point to show my wife, "oh look at this nice custom light. hmm $699. i would never spend that much." it sets the benchmark high.

although i think she uses the same technique with shoes/bags..:thinking:

wives nag in general, i thought that was a given.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

not really... when a new light pops there is always a little polite ribbing but nothing more. actually, flashlights tend to annoy my 8 year old daughter much more. that's probably because i like to annoy her with them.
besides, i never give my wife a hard time about the fact that she has at least 45 pairs of shoes.

Considering your taste, she should!!

Liquidspaceman said:

I would rather have a new Glock to be honest. N

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$500 is about $450 more than a glock is worth!! :devil: :duck:

FLAME SUIT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:naughty:

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Off and on mine complains. I tend to get into new hobbies, buy a lot and then pare down when I really find out what I want. When I got into watches I had over a dozen, now just a couple, knives same thing but double and now *only* about a dozen left. With lights I think I have plateud (or at least slowed down) as far as quantity and have been concentrating on quality and features and I have been doing some mods and getting more comfortable with that. That initial buying spree is when I get the most flack, during the "paring down" period it tapers off. I have been getting crap for 10+ years about my motorcycle related purchases but perhaps that's because there has never really been any significant "paring down" period, although I do usually sell off the parts I remove that were replaced for more expensive parts.

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

Whats not to love about a Glock(excluding 26 and 27 which don't have light rails)?

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

I see a few trends developing.

Wife has shoes/handbag collection = :thumbsup:

Wife likes and has her own flashlights = :thumbsup:

Maybe the key is to get her into one of these categories instead of convincing her why $500 is a reasonable price to pay for a flashlight (which it probably isn't)...

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

The bottom line is all about spending OUR money prudently and responsibly. My better-half was really impressed by the ceiling-bounce illumination provided by the M6 during our last unfortunate blackout. Our kids are young and having that extra bit of light in the dark was a family-life saver. She is a tech-world professional and I am sure she must have googled all about the prices on the M6's and my other hobby gears. In any case, as long as the CPF expenses do not disrupt the family budget, my hobby-life is at peace.

Fortunately, actually maybe UNfortunately, she is into high-end electronic appliances. We recently bought our first 40" HD 120Hz TV and now she is talking about replacing all TV's at home and "move the small 40" into the bedroom". On top of that, there are new Apple gears on her lists and something about juicing up the WiFi at home. I am going to demand an audit review of our household appliance expenses. :devil:



With Aloha,

Clarence

Re: Does Your Wife or Significant Other Give U a Hard Time?

I NEVER tell the Mrs how much my lights cost :naughty: