Ah, yes, well, it's a fun hobby and if you approach it like that, all is good because every hobby has it's costs! And if you mine the right stuff, things should work out fine.

One thought to consider: When I mined various altcoins, I eventually sold them all for BTC and held that (as well as my LTC). But looking back, if I had just HELD the coins that I mined.. pretty much all of them have gone up significantly. Even 'crapcoins' like Reddcoin which was a crap coin even back then, is experiencing significant price action these days. I'm not sure what would have made me more money: having it all in BTC or just holding each coin individually. I think both are a viable strategy