So this seems to come up a lot in the cycling world or just about anywhere else where a hobby can easily cost a years worth of salary.
How do you justify this to your family? Do you just hide all the evidence? Do you say it makes you a better partner? Interested in hearing your explanations/excuses for investing what could be a luxury family holiday, on yourself 
A year’s worth of salary? You’re doing it very wrong.
…or have a super modest salary.
To clarify, in a life time it could cost a years worth of salary
I have the don’t ask don’t tell policy lol but a years worth of salary? How many bikes you buying?
Oh heck that seems low lol in those terms!
That too 
Bikes currently occupy about 30% of my monthly salary
Well, you don’t HAVE to spend that much.
How do we do it? We each get a monthly allowance. Can spend on anything we want. No complaints after 7 years of marriage.
As long as we are still saving every month and not going into the negative she doesn’t care. Cycling isn’t my expensive hobby so that also helps.
We have our own bank accounts. Bills get paid and house expenses split, no complaints.
Cheaper to buy bikes, kit, trainers, tr subs, gels, and streaming services than a quadruple bypass.
It was easy for me: Without cycling: Me = GROUCH! 
But she won, too! She got a Peloton out of the deal and is a totally into it. She went from 1 day at the gym to 5or6/week on the Peloton. And now when we go on MTB rides on gravel/dirt she can push the pace making it a lot of fun!
My justification…
It’s great health benefits 
I’m usually home when you are just waking up 
I’m getting fit 
Fat loss 
Look, now that I cycle I gave up week long fly fishing vacations
I’ll take us all on a nice vacation every year 
Brilliant lol
When confronted, I just yell as loud as I can:
BIKES ARE PEOPLE, TOO!!!
p.s. – hate to spoil the dream, but “bikes, kit, trainers, tr subs, gels, and streaming services” don’t guarantee not getting a quad. 
Being healthy and satisfying my competitive nature on the bike is part of who I am. I am a better person because of the time I put into the bike and the time I put into it justifies the cost based on our income situation
I actually struggle more with the time than the money. Finding ways to balance time spent on myself and time spent on others is hard but I am truly a much better person when I have time to focus and drown out all the other things.
As for the actual monetary cost…every relationship is different, but I’d suggest you be fully open about how much you’re spending on your hobbies. Lying or hiding financial matters is not a good idea in my experience. Everyone jokes about it - but if you are lying to your partner about how much you spent on something you’re setting a bad precedent
I’m lucky to have met my wife in college when I was an athlete. She saw (understood) from the beginning how important being active in a sport was to me and accepted it.
For almost 12 years chasing the career and raising kids I wasn’t able to pursue any hobbies. When life opened up my wife was the one who pushed me towards mountain biking again. She said once I started riding I was much easier to be around.
As far as % of monthly income…I just make sure my family is taken care of first, bills/debt paid off, retirement goals met etc…the rest is up to us to enjoy. While we are young…
That brings up a good point. I started cycling before I met my wife and had the same event every year in early August. It’s an MS Ride I do with family (one member that has MS) that also happens to be on my mother in law’s birthday. The year we got married my wife must’ve thought that ride was over for me as we had a little argument, it wasn’t over and hasn’t been yet. I can tell it still bugs her 11 years later. Guess my point is I do push back a bit on my cycling commitment.
