Vault Bundles

[Great Gherkin]

After spending my first winter fishing and mining, I'm about to start my second year. I was looking at community center bundles that I haven't finished, and for the first time I actually read the Vault bundles. I almost ♥♥♥♥ myself when I saw that you need to spend 42,500 dollars (or coins?) to finish it. Is it just me, or does that seem like an insane amount of money? I've never had more that 30,000 at one time, and I can't fathom spending that much money on something that isn't seeds or farm animals.

Basically, I'm asking:
1. Why does it seem like so much money? Is it just because I'm only starting my second year? Or is it because I'm playing a laid-back game, and don't really know what I'm doing?
2. When did you guys finish the vault bundles?

[A Vacuum Full of Bees]

it's pretty easy to get 42.5k. go delving in the deep mines a few nights in a row and sell everything that isn't ore/coal, smelt the ore, then sell the bars. make some kegs and preserve barrels and toss every cheap crappy crop in the barrels, and every higher-value crop in the kegs. if you have animals, turn eggs and milk into mayo and cheese, then sell those. if you have high forage skill and have the "always get the highest star rank for forage goods", the truffles that pigs dig up sell for a huge amount.

if you took the mushroom cave rather than the fruit bat cave, selling all the mushrooms you get can net you anywhere from 300-1200 gold every other day depending on what the mushroom boxes give you.

if you've stockpiled a lot of stuff, especially crops, and have like 50+ in a stack, sell half the stack of each and you'll approach the 42.5k you need rather quickly. while you generally always need wood and stone, if you've got 3+ stacks of them, it's probably safe to sell enough to get back down to 2 stacks of each.

the vault unlocks the bus to the desert, which has a fair amount of trees, forage, and access to the Oasis shop. the upper left has a dungeon that, if you've gotten the skull key from the bottom of the mines, will open up an endless mine that has every type of ore and gem from the regular mine and more, but is full of dangerous enemies. if you've spent a lot of time in the mines, you may be close to getting the goal from killing Coal Sprites(the squeaky bouncing things in the ice cave parts of the mine), the reward for that is a ring that makes every monster you kill drop double loot, which can result in a HUGE amount of money from selling void/solar essences.

there's plenty of methods to make lots of money, experiment! :)

[Rio]

If you think the vault is a lot of money, you'll lose it when you see how much some of the 1.1 buildings cost. One of them is 10 or 20 million.

[illumisphaero]

now, in the second year, you should have the proper tools for mass farming and prolly even barrels. Make good use of that and you will be rich in no time. Also, remember the boost your finances got when you went from spring to summer crops, and then again when you went to fall crops? You will notice it much more in year two. by the end of fall, you should have enough money to buy all the vault bundles and then some.
And it get's better with every year as you clear out the farm and install sprinklers everywhere and maybe even build a dedicated winery. When you look back then, 42.5k will feel like lintmoney to you ^^

[dino_inc]

42k is nothing - if you invest in sprinkers you should be able to get many times that in a single harvest.

[I Kinda Fail]

A full chicken coop gets you 2.4k per day, assuming you get 12 eggs... If you have crops growing, and do some fishing and foraging on the side, it's easy to get that much money. The biggest thing is definitely crops though.

I usually grow 1 regrowing crop like blueberries, and sell the gold + silver star ones, then sell HALF the stack. I turn the non-regrowing crops like kale or melons into juice or wine, and turn the crappy crops (blueberries) into jelly.

Still, there's no real rush to get to the desert. However, you can make a LOT more money if you get there by summer, as a shop there sells starfruit seeds. Starfruit wine sells for over 2k, I think. Also there's an iridium mine, and an awesome new foraging food.