I consider myself a hobby musician these days and I've long come to terms with the cost of playing paid gigs. Some of the best musicians I know, and I'm taking about guys that have been draughted into headline bands for foreign tours, spend the majority of their year scratching a living, waiting for the phone to ring!
As a hobby, it beats just about any other. After all, I could spend a fortune on fishing equipment and sit at the edge of a river until I was good-looking, but no-one is ever going to come up and shake my hand, thank me for the pleasure I've given them and buy me a pint afterwards!
If you've ever had the good fortune to find yourself in a well managed venue, playing to a receptive audience and experienced that "moment" when you know you've connected in some way with the audience, then, like me, you'll know why you continue to turn out on all those other nights in the year to perform in a small bar in the back-of-beyond for next to nothing.
If we didn't love it we wouldn't do it.

C-flat.