I don't spend much money on cards anymore. I got back into the hobby in 2016, and for the first couple years I was buying cards pretty much every month. Nothing too crazy as far as spending, but it was the first time in the hobby with an actual income. I hadn't collected cards since I was a kid before that point so I was limited back then on what I could get. Starting around 2018 I started limiting my card purchases to an occasional rack pack or single pack from Target or Walmart every now and then. But since the craze of the hobby hit I haven't purchased many cards since they are either hard to find or not offered in retail stores.
When I got back into the hobby, I didn't have any kind of plan. I collect NBA and MLB cards, but pretty much I collect a little of everything that falls under those categories. Now that I have a lot more cards then I had as a kid, I think sometimes I have too many. Or if not too many, I don't have any kind of system or focus.
In the end all my cards are just neatly organized and placed in boxes that are in the closet. I just have them organized by year and set like they are here on the TCDB.
I find that I hardly ever look at my cards, other than looking through them on here. So sometimes I wonder what I am really even doing in the hobby since I don't seem to even really do anything other than get cards, look at them, sort them, and file them away. Then come on the TCDB forums and look at my collection digitally.
My son recently got into collecting Pokemon cards (or at least I introduced him to them to see if he would like trading cards). He is too young to know how to actually play the game, but he likes looking at them and we came up with our own easy game to play with them. Which is basically just dealing the cards out and turning a card over to see who has a higher health total. And cards without a health total are automatic wins. We flip a coin if they match.
I have been able to get 10 cards for a dollar from the commons box anytime we go to the card shop, and also have found some packs occasionally at Target for him. The reason I am mentioned that is I think I have been having more fun with those cards and handling them and playing them with my son than I have collecting my NBA and MLB cards recently.