MSE Blog: Football and MoneySaving - A marriage made in hell

First off, can I say that in my view if you've paid your bills then your money is your money to spend as you see fit, whatever that might be - football tickets, clothes, musical instruments, gadgets, whatever. No-one should have to justify what they spend on and how much they spend on it, provided they can afford it and it's not coming at the expense of, say, food and heating.

However, I think in some respects with season tickets it's not so much the money as it is the time. Case in point: a couple of years ago my dad finally got a Liverpool season ticket, at a cost of about £850 for all league home matches. My mum isn't bothered remotely about him spending that amount but what she is bothered about is how much it eats into their lives in terms of things like going away for weekends because he 'has' to go to the match. Over Easter weekend, for instance, he drove down to my sister's on the Thursday night, went back to Liverpool for the match on Saturday morning, and then came back late on Saturday evening. Considering that my brother-in-law has Sky Sports and my uncle had offered to take the ticket off him for the day, I really can't understand why he'd choose to do that unless it was a major match (it wasn't). But then, maybe I just don't have the mentality of the serious football fan...

maman wrote: »

I don't think you're wrong at all. I think there are different reasons for being mse. Sadly I know many people on here are desperately short of money so it's the only way. There are others (and I'm fortunately one) who hate being ripped off and like to make choices about how we spend our hard-earned. If it's a Gunners ticket you want then fine, I'm sure you save in loads of other ways.

I have a season ticket, in fact I'm off to footie in an hour. We'll likely be in the Prem again next season but would have been there a lot quicker if we could have kept Theo and Alex! :rotfl: Enjoy!

I go when I can but cant really afford the outlay for a season ticket. People spend the money they earn on things, whether it be cars, holidays, getting drunk and so there is no shame (apart from choice of club) in going to football providing it is not taking money from more important spending such as rent etc. Oh and for maman, COYS.

My husband is very similar to you but supports one of your London rivals. I dread to think how much he has spent on Football this year. It's not just the cost of a season ticket either but all the added cup games, champions league, train/petrol costs let alone the "away" trips to Naples & Lisbon as well.

A lot of my friends ask how I put up with it and I often find myself saying that I enjoy having Saturday afternoons to myself to do my own thing like shopping or seeing friends. I also think there are a lot worse things you can spend your money on - namely gambling, drinking, drugs, etc.

I still call myself a Liverpudlian but haven't been to a match in years now, purely an armchair supporter. When i stopped going it wasn't so much about the cost, it was 'cos of the hours i was working and the fact that the players just didn't seem to have the same passion and desire to be in the team.
The first match i went was against Notts Forest and we got beat 2-1. It cost me 1/6d to get in the boys-pen then i started paying 3s to stand on the Kop, that was in the 60s. The first three seasons we won the League then the Cup then the League again, in the Shankley years before premadonna players.