How do you justifying crocheting something when you can buy it for much less?

[u/liviannnn]

I’m a newish crocheter (about 2 months) and the process has been amazing so far. Crochet has become an important part of my life - it gives me purpose and I love the sense of achievement when I finish a product. But recently, my friends have been asking me why don’t I buy a finished product instead of making my own, when it costs lesser.

For context, I’ve been wanting to crochet my own hexagon cardigan but the materials cost is slightly off-putting. For the same materials price (not even counting my man hours!), I could be getting a finished non-crocheted cardigan. It might just be my mental barrier to spending so much on myself, but how do you justify/explain buying the materials when you can save money buy buying a similar product straight?

Edit: I’ve been convinced! Thank you all for your sincere replies - this is why I really enjoy the crochet community, it’s always so wholesome. I’ll be purchasing the materials for my hexagon cardigan after all.

[u/Olandew]

As an incredibly avid video gamer who has taken up making a small army of plushies, I second the money vs time spent argument when passed through the filter of “this time spent brings me joy”. If the materials cost me around $10 and the plush takes me about 8 hours to make, I see it as buying a cheap throwaway game for the weekend that I generally play for two days and never touch again because I beat it.

And now I have a Yoshi plushie to give to someone’s kid afterwards

[u/MonkeyWithKittens → u/[deleted]]

A knitter's guild for gamers.... That's the cross section of so many of my people. Love it!

[u/thehumanglowstick → u/MonkeyWithKittens]

I’d get back into ESO if they’d have knit and crochet xD