BDSM gear on a budget
While thinking about topics to write about, my mind goes back to my own journey. While building the foundation of my adult life, I enjoyed many hobbies and the social life. So the budget for kink and fetish was rather small; hence, my collection of gear only grew slowly in my 20s. The older I got, the more my desires grew, and I realised that budgets should be allocated depending on importance.
After some disappointing experiences with moulded latex, I already told myself to only buy decent latex clothing. Saying that, I haven’t seen anything moulded apart from gloves or hoods in the past decade and a half. As most money went into buying latex and fetish gear, like gas masks and handcuffs, it didn’t take long before I also started making things myself. Spreader bars and whips are easy to make yourself. In a hardware store you can buy all the chains, rings and karabiners you could possibly need.
Scaffolding tube is also very useful; hence, you see many people using it in various ways. Many years ago I’ve bought some to create a spreader bar. The only downside is that it’s rather heavy and the connectors are quite bulky. So I went on a mission and made other spreader bars. This time from aluminium tubes using wedge bolts with a ring. They are super easy to create, lightweight and they only cost a few euro to make. You can see them in action here. Using the leftover material and various sorts of leather strands resulted in a set of matching whips.
With a bit of creativity, you see the possibilities for BDSM on a budget around you everywhere. Like cheap clothing pegs that can be used as clamps or a bunch on a string to be used as a ‘zipper’. Or kitchen utensils that can be used for impact play. The possibilities are endless; the only thing that stops you is your own imagination. Just make sure to wear your virtual ‘naughty goggles’ when going out shopping, especially when visiting your favourite hardware store.
Occasionally I still browse through Reddit/BdsmDIY. Personally, I find it interesting to see what people create or what they come up with. It still happens that I make a note of something I’ve seen on there. To use as an idea to create something for ourselves to try. But also to simply to expand our collection with useful tools to use for play. Our dream is to build a dedicated playroom in the near future. We already have quite the collection of gear; only the dedicated room is still missing.
Even though the budget hasn’t been much of an issue since my mid-thirties, I still enjoy creating things myself. Simply because you can only spend your money once and, more importantly, it gives you that extra bit of satisfaction.
When Fetish Erotica mentioned she wanted to try rope play, I did a bit of research. Looking at the prices, I decided to order hemp and make the ropes myself. Going through the process made me realise why proper rope is expensive. It takes various steps to prepare the rope, which takes up a decent amount of time. But slowly seeing the rough hemp changing into coloured bondage rope is very rewarding.
In more recent years I created bigger pieces like our own BDSM cross. As we live in an apartment, we lack a dedicated room for our fetish gear. So one of the main design requirements is that the cross needs to be reasonably compact for storing. So after doing some sketches, I translated the ideas into a building plan. After ordering various parts, I went to work. Shortly after, we had our first cross on the wall. The best thing is that it stores fairly compactly.
To bring this writing to an end, we choose to buy our fetish gear selectively. Pretty much only things that we can’t make ourselves. Over time we have invested in better tools and equipment. This makes it easier to create fetish gear, and it also works a lot easier. Creating things for BDSM on a budget is fun to do and, imo, very rewarding at the same time.
Fetics
