For some people my age, they have the cash available for spending on their hobby. And in all honesty so do I. But I will feel bad if I had to fork out what GW is asking for their kit. Especially when I think of how much plastic (crack) I am hoarding at home.
So what I am doing is simple. I buy second hand. 90% of what I own is bought second hand. My entire tau army is second hand except for Start Collecting set - which Is an awesome package and value for money.
Now, the thing is I don't only buy second hand of what I collect but all my friends as well. In this way I can broaden my search and broaden my purchases. I also quite frequent buy from people who has long ago left the hobby, but find a long forgotten box of warhammer in the garage and they sell it off cheap.
Upper left box is how I got some of the ones in the otjer picture.
Then I would take it in and sort it into the different armies, hand it out to my friends for cheap and sell it to other people. I would normally also try to take a nice and clean photo of what I am selling. Looks more inviting that way.
Normally this means I can keep a rhino or two, crisis suits or sometimes actuallu make a profit... which would obviously go into a purchase of fex airbrush, compressor, another second hand army ..
Another example of what someone just "threw" out, a fantastic trio of Space Marines
Obviously sometimes people sell of old stock or boxes they never started on. Those deals are like finding the treasure under the rainbow.
