I can't play for crap really and have two tenors. I love them both, I get a little bit better every time I pick up a uke (except for when I backslide) so having the sounds that feed my ears and soothe my soul are what is important to me. Of course my Dolphin can do that but not quite the way my Kanile'a can, or my custom concert. I'm sorting and weeding and looking to get down to two tenors, two concerts, a cheap beater bari and about 4 sopranos. The sopranos are like potato chips, how can you possibly have just one...? And there is always resale.
McCabe's used to have a deal where you could rent an instrument up to $500 for $50 a month. But then you had to either turn it over of finish buying it. Play it for a few months, if you find you aren't completely happy with it or grow out of it, get another and sell the first.
BUT I really don't do much else as far as eating out, seeing films, etc. because we are just getting by with a little extra for the adult son, the youngest son (a Poodle) and emergency fund building. So they are my entire entertainment budget except for NetFlix. And I'm selling a lot of other antique and collectible stuff on eBay to move into a slimmer less is more phase, and to build aforementioned fund.
I only played about 4 months before i splashed 500 on a KoAloha Tenor.
