Alas and Alack!
I was confronted this snowy New England afternoon with unsettling news. My Saintly Spouse presented me with a report detailing the expenses I have run up during the last four years of “Serious” cannabis cultivation. To be fair, I requested this intel on a whim. Mere curiosity is not always an optimal strategy as it turns out. Some knowledge is better left untapped.
I had completely forgotten my ill conceived request when SS arrived and deposited herself at my elbow, clearly ready for a spousal communion session. Her sly smile should have alerted me to what was forthcoming. She handed me the three page report, gave me a pat on the shoulder and departed with a chuckle.
The first item on the first page was for my annual Fishing License, and I stifled an arrogant snort at that obvious error. Haw, that’s $19.50 is clearly unrelated to the creation or consumption of Canna! Unfortunately the rest of the 30+ entries on page one appeared to be valid expenses: equipment, supplies, seeds… Legit startup expenses for getting up to speed on the state of the art as illustrated on Overgrow and a few other (lesser) resources.
Page two continued in the same vein, but I felt a growing unease as every choice I’d made, good and bad, efficacious and egregious, was recalled, along with the clearly rising total sum involved. The expenses grew larger in size as I entered the “serious” phase, wherein my grow room morphed into an actual room with actual walls, dedicated electrical circuits, humidity creator and removers, smoke alarms, fire extinguisher globes, and of course, a suite of high quality LED grow lights.
Page three continued in that vein and I recalled discovering a seeming endless list of the little items that had become essential: a dozen of those little Chinese temp/RH monitors, a couple dozen quart Mason jars to house my rapidly expanding supply of great weed, several dozen dropper bottles once @ReikoX taught me the art of extraction, cloning supplies, etc. About that time I realized that I couldn’t regain the peaceful feeling without having a separate flowering tent, with the associated climate controls needed to accommodate my OCD enviros jones.
If this sounds like a confessional self-reproach, well, not a bit of it. I’ve put every bit of that gear to good use growing, harvesting, cloning, breeding, seeding and savoring the wholeness of our sacred herb.
I was still cool when I hit page three. It was when I realized that the report was printed double-sided that I snorted a mouthful of the (canna-infused) herbal tea I drinking! The blast of hot tea from my nose was a reality check!
Once I had mopped up the lukewarm spew, my superlative rationalization skills went to work on the situation and composure slowly returned. I mean, of course RhizoTonic is expensive, but there’s nothing else like it, right? Bags of soil & nutes: essential! The whole micro octopot and autofiller thing was fun and well worth the time and expense. The new ViparSpectra Pro lights, hey, they rawk! Etc., etc…
Beyond the adroit rationalization, though, my setup is capable of doing everything I deem worthy of doing to fully explore Cannabis in all of its manifestations. Using this gear, I’ve learned all the basic maneuvers and put them to use in a serious breeding project. I’ve got a few pounds of the best weed ever grown, a seed library with dozens of treasures… Whatever the cost, it was worth it to me.
All of that is a tediously long way to address the topic’s Question? How much does it cost to take home grown, non-commercial cannabis cultivation “To The Limit?”
For me, according to my overly meticulous comptroller Spouse, the number approaches $9,000, spent over four years, including equipment and all supplies except electricity.
I hereby bow to the consensus of whether that is good value, and I solicit your stories on the subject.
My “Crown of Creation: Frankenstein’s Daughter IBL sees first light.
Octos on AutoFiller Autopilot
All the basic maneuvers
-Grouchy 
PS, I just snuck in an AC-Inf CloudForge T7, and a ThermoForge heater…. SS hasn’t caught on to those yet! 
PPS:
Snark is clearly appropriate here, I can take it. @Foreigner…
But, also real curiosity, what have others invested in your State-of-the Art setups; @ReikoX, @Papalag, @Pigeonman, @DougDawson…
