The thread of willpower and fiscal prudence. And gherkins and water.
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So I have a slight habit of spending more than I should on computer games. Kinda got away with it as I've been lucky enough to have more than my fair share of disposable income, and a resonable chunk of time to game - but I now simply have a growing pile of shame (don't worry, I won't list it in full), little time to game, kids to fund, and a wife who may or may not go back to work after maternity leave.
So - something has to change!
This thread kind of has two purposes - a general one for any good advice people have on good ways to save or monitor [game or general] spending, plus also a specific way I've decided to track this.
On the latter - my plan is as follows.
1) When I buy a game, I log it here, so you can shame me. Further, if I don't play it at a rate of 1 hour / pound, I will give the difference to charity come the year end. Further, if I only play it after it's reduce in price, I will pay the difference to charity come the year end (where I can subtract £1/hour from the price I paid, before the new price). Hence, for things I buy, you lot need to tell me when I subsequently could have got it cheaper. Vouchers / trade-ins and gifts are exempt. Whoever guesses by 29 Feb most closely the amount I'll owe by 31 Dec gets to choose the receiving charity.
2) When I DON'T buy something I would have bought were it not for trying to be careful with cash, I log it here and feel pleased with myself, and add up THAT total come the year end too (for curiosity's sake only).
Both retrospectively from 1 Jan, as this was meant to be a New Year's thing.
How do you guys do this? Naturally more restrained than me? Forced to or the bills don't add up? Careful spending and selling on played games? Or do you sometimes feel you overspend too? -
BOUGHT ====== Game £Cost Hours Done £Owing The Wolf Among Us - currently unplayed £4.74 4h 44m 0h 0m £4.74 Cibele (not from wallet) £2.13 2h 7m 0h 0m £2.13 Humble Indie Bundle 16 (Sunless Sea, Doorkickers) £5.46 5h 27m 0h 0m £5.46 Humble Monthly (ARK, …) £7.71 7h 42m 0h 0m £7.71 Humble Nintendo Bundle £0.71 0h 42m 0h 0m £0.71 Airscape: The Fall of Gravity £0.69 0h 41m 0h 0m £0.69 Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition £3.75 3h 45m 0h 0m £3.75 Humble Weekly Bundle: Orbyt Play! (INK, Speedrunners, Divekick) £0.71 0h 42m 0h 30m £0.21 Tales from the Borderlands £6.49 6h 29m 7h 0m £0 Salt & Sanctuary £13.49 13h 29m 20h 0m £0 Dark Souls 3 £35.7 35h 42m 25h 0m £10.7 £81.58 £36.1 Exempt - Cibele (£0.86 from wallet) - currently unplayed - Geometry Dash (£0.78 from wallet) - currently unplayed - South Park: The Stick of Truth (4.99 from wallet) - currently unplayed - A Bird Story (£1.16 from wallet) - currently unplayed - Downwell (£1.11 from wallet) - currently unplayed - Tales from the Borderlands (£6.49 from wallet) - played a few hours SOLD ==== - PES 2016 £21) - Until Dawn £19) -
RESISTED
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- Humble bundle (Firaxis) - $15
- Uncharted collection - £25
- DkS 2 PS4 - £18
- Humble monthly thing with "free" Alien Isolation - $12
- Firelight (£13)
- The Witness (£27) -
I will strongly recommend operating on the presumption that most videogames are really bad and just ditching 90% of what you already have or plan to have.
In a world of heavily promoted abundance, only ruthlessness can rescue you. -
Yeah the stuff I've not bought is deffo stuff I'm glad I didn't buy (but still might have bought). So that kinda correlates.
All those existing games though - gonna try to at least play them a bit before ditching! -
Ruthlessly play Siren Blood Curse plz. -
Brooks wrote:I will strongly recommend operating on the presumption that most videogames are really bad and just ditching 90% of what you already have or plan to have.
In a world of heavily promoted abundance, only ruthlessness can rescue you.
This is a solid outlook, kinda done a similar thing the past couple of years. I buy about four to five games a year now. -
The Terror for me is going back to games I've already played to death.
Starting another Shogun 2 campaign is not productive. -
As above (DS and Brooks).
Spelunky helps a lot. I play the daily challenge every day, I don't play much else because it pretty much gives me my fix.
I've jumped in on big releases I'm interested in, such as fallout and witcher, but only via resonanly priced avenues.iosGameCentre:T3hDaddy;
XBL: MistaTeaTime -
So you're giving the money you save to charity?
I'm surviving on GwG, 360BC and EAA. I traded Gears that came with my Bone for FH2 and I've only bought Alien Isolation and Mine craft for stupidly cheap on sale.
I really can't justify game purchases as they are down the list of priorities having lost about 33% of my income to "austerity" while trying to fund a wife and four kids!
Good luck!! I've bookmarked this in case there's any useful tips.[quote=Skerret]Unless someone very obviously insults your loved ones with intent, take nothing here seriously.[/quote] -
My Steam list is over 200 games long, half of which I've probably not even installed, let alone played. So I can't help with any shaming really. -
I avoid spending more than I should on stuff by being in a permanent state of borderline poverty. Try that. -
Buy now, regret later.I am a FREE. I am not MAN. A NUMBER. -
I feel I've gotten better at not getting new releases asap but I have gotten quite a few in sales so my pile o shame is pretty solid. A slight improvement.
This is the first time I've ever earned real money so I've almost paid off my debts and will be able to save properly soon. Then I'll need to watch my spends a little more carefully. -
I am gonna be ditching some of mine. Again.
Gonna boil it down to just 2 or 3 games to play. Or something.
Helps if you get addicted to a constantly replay able game. Just play that and fuck everything else.
I'm gonna live nothing but Souls from March 24th. 3, then Demons, then replay 1. Then repeat until platinum/1000G for all of them. (Probably not)I am a FREE. I am not MAN. A NUMBER. -
My badger of a father has just demanded £10k that he gifted me. As I want the prick out of my life, my gaming budget may well be £0 for the foreseeable. That pile o shame may well be addressed. -
There you go muzz, I'll nominate myself as the person you give 10grand to.
You're welcome."Better than a tech demo. But mostly a tech demo for now. Exactly what we expected, crashes less and less. No multiplayer."
- BnB NMS review, PS4, PC -
Yossarian wrote:I avoid spending more than I should on stuff by being in a permanent state of borderline poverty. Try that.
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I remember you telling this sorry tale. You really should just tell him to fuck off.Stopharage wrote:My badger of a father has just demanded £10k that he gifted me. As I want the prick out of my life, my gaming budget may well be £0 for the foreseeable. That pile o shame may well be addressed.Come with g if you want to live... -
Not having a lot to spend certainly helps. I also only buy from sales, and even then think if it's something I'm really going to play. I rarely have more than a few games that I haven't finished with at any given time. Concentrating on one or two games until they're done or you've had enough of them also helps. -
Might be time for me to spend my money on more worthwhile things. 2016-cut the amiibo cord
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I did buy a sweet tweed blazer yesterday so
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Teacher +1.
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I try to wait for sales for anything digital (can think of less than ten games I've bought full price across two generations, excluding Virtual Console), even if it's a measly 15% off. I've also never bought a full game as a download if it's available on disc/cart at launch. Never ever ever. The pricing of full games as digital downloads is hideous - imo if a games costs £39.99 on Amazon, the launch price download should be £29.99 or less, and even then I'd go for the physical copy. Nintendo games can be sold, eveything else can be sold for peanuts or passed on.
Which leads me to my foolproof plan (spoilered, because it's probably nonsense):
Spoiler:Spoiler:Spoiler:Spoiler:Spoiler: -
I've pondered that approach before, and basically think i'm keen! The main downsides are (a) not ending up with the game in your collection and (b) varying length of games (and varying amount of game time per week) maybe meaning I take three times as l I NG to finish uncharted than elf does to finish star fox (or whatever).
I guess it also doesn't suit some games (eg SFV), but IN fir giving it a whirl! -
Fuck collections.
Sell it, charity shop it, give it away, bin it just don't be a slave to a shelf of shiny discs.
If you don't have a collection of games then you don't have anything to add to.
Just keep stuff you play on a regular. Keep a Halo, a Street Fighter, a Worms etc.
Get shot of that pile of shame as well, if you don't have one it is hard to justify buying the things you won't play.
What is working for me at the moment is buying things when I want to and have the time to play them. If I have a hankering to play a game or genre I will have a browse through the deal sites. If I find it cheap enough I grab the code, if not I don't bother. Knowing these hankerings normally last an evening I aim to get things for five to ten quid. Some games, like Fallout 4 I know I will put the time in so I spend more.
I have fancied playing a CoD campaign for a while now but it's never cheap enough really so not bothered. -
Moot, that idea crossed my mind before. In particular because I've gotten a few games off you already. And Muzzy and I have done a swap to two before. So it could work.
Juts not for some releases. I'm digital on SFV and Dark Souls for example. Cos they're keepers and day ones for me. Happy on others; I can wait a long time before I play Uncharted 4, or even Fire Emblem. But I'd prob go day one on Starfox (just to use your examples).I am a FREE. I am not MAN. A NUMBER. -
We've got a tidy little swapsie gang already. We need a name though, and a special tag for bus stops.
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Something to try and draw new people in, perhaps. The B&B Come Swappers?
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the main thing that controls my spend is resisting the urge to buy a next/new gen console....that then removes the need/temptation to spend 40-50 on new games in order to play at the same time as people on here.
this leaves me with PC gaming, which i then basically stick to steam. and don't buy anything new/full price*. i still buy more stuff than i play, and rarely break the £/hour value ratio on those i do, but the prices are low enough that my total spend doesn't get silly.
*the only thing full price for more than a tenner i think i've bought on steam in a number of years is rocket league, and that has beaten the £/hour ratio quite comfortably!
probably the biggest waste is the £40 a year on renewing ps+....the idea being i'll just use that for ps3 games (but little really tickles my fancy enough to actually play it) and i'll stockpile the free ps4 games for when i inevitably get one...except i'm still not that tempted to get one in the foreseeable."Like i said, context is missing."
http://ssgg.uk -
Yossarian wrote:Something to try and draw new people in, perhaps. The B&B Come Swappers?
Too messy.
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