How much do you guys spend a month on gaming

[Ziggy]

Lately, I've been trying to not spend so much. Over the years, I've definitely gone on binges. But overall, I don't tend to spend a whole lot. I've been trying to space out my purchases. For example, this past month I bought Yoshi's New Island and I really wanted to get Kirby Triple Deluxe too. But I figured, I'll wait till I'm done with Yoshi before I purchase Kirby. There will be a lot of months that I spend $0 on gaming. There will be a month here and there that I might buy two new games and spend over $100. I guess I'm just inconsistent. I don't have a gaming budget set or anything like that.

[aaron]

I don't know about folks like AJ, but the Games Acquired thread has really helped me keep a better rein on game spending. I'd recommend everyone give it a try as a place to keep track of spending on a monthly basis.

i think i'm going to start doing this. it's the 1st of the month so it'd be a good time to try and start.

[TSTR]

it's the 1st of the month

wake up, wake up, wake up

[dsheinem]

I don't know about folks like AJ, but the Games Acquired thread has really helped me keep a better rein on game spending. I'd recommend everyone give it a try as a place to keep track of spending on a monthly basis.

i think i'm going to start doing this. it's the 1st of the month so it'd be a good time to try and start.

cool. It is really relatively easy. Create a spreadsheet with one column for "Money Out" another for "Money In" and then a cell somewhere that adds them together. Between PayPal, emailed receipts from online services, and online banking info it is pretty easy to keep track of where your spending went (e.g. at the end of the month I search my inbox for "Steam" and "Sony" to make sure I didn't forget to add anything from those services to my "out" column). If anyone wants, I can send you my basic Excel file so you can give it a try.

[Key-Glyph]

This has been an interesting read!

Out of curiosity, have any of you guys experienced backfire with a dedicated gaming budget broken down by week/month? By that I mean, do you feel compelled to spend up to your limit for every allowance period, since it's so clearly defined? Have you ever bought stuff past your limit and considered it an advance (e.g., you wanted to spend three budget blocks' worth of money so you forfeited new purchases for the next two rounds)? Do you allow it to roll over and wait for it to accumulate instead?

I don't have an official game budget myself because I rarely buy anything. When I make what I consider a "big" purchase, like a new system (e.g. my newish 3DS), it's usually after having put it off for several years and motivated by a recent gift card or something. I take a ridiculous amount of time to move on.

[aaron]

I don't know about folks like AJ, but the Games Acquired thread has really helped me keep a better rein on game spending. I'd recommend everyone give it a try as a place to keep track of spending on a monthly basis.

i think i'm going to start doing this. it's the 1st of the month so it'd be a good time to try and start.

cool. It is really relatively easy. Create a spreadsheet with one column for "Money Out" another for "Money In" and then a cell somewhere that adds them together. Between PayPal, emailed receipts from online services, and online banking info it is pretty easy to keep track of where your spending went (e.g. at the end of the month I search my inbox for "Steam" and "Sony" to make sure I didn't forget to add anything from those services to my "out") column. If anyone wants, I can send you my basic Excel file so you can give it a try.

i would love it if you'd send me that excel file.

[dsheinem]

Out of curiosity, have any of you guys experienced backfire with a dedicated gaming budget broken down by week/month? By that I mean, do you feel compelled to spend up to your limit for every allowance period, since it's so clearly defined? Have you ever bought stuff past your limit and considered it an advance (e.g., you wanted to spend three budget blocks' worth of money so you forfeited new purchases for the next two rounds)? Do you allow it to roll over and wait for it to accumulate instead?

Yes and no to these. I don't get too upset about going "over" in any given month as long as I feel I can make it up with some kind of sale or abstention later on in the year - it is really about the total for the year to me (even if I break it up by month along the way). Right now, for example, I know that there's a bunch of Fall releases coming out that I will want on release day, so I am going to try and not buy much that's pricey between now (the end of the Summer sales) and then (late September/October/November). I basically want to be below my spending limit for the year going into December so that I know exactly what I have left to spend. If things look like they will be going overboard, I've basically forced myself to sell some stuff to make up for the difference.

I can also say that my wife is MUCH HAPPIER knowing that I keep a separate budget for the hobby. She likes it even more when I have leftover funds for the month and kick some back into a non-gaming account.

That also means that I can make a better argument that stuff like replacing the broken PC isn't strictly something that should come out of the gaming budget

So here's some specific numbers to maybe put a finer point on things:

Last year I ended up earning $1406.65 for the year by substantially slimming down/refocusing my collection and flipping some lots. I did a big sell off in September, for example, that basically added $2000 to my gaming fund that, previously, was in the red.

Since I retained most of that extra money through to the end of the year, I ended up with about $120 a month to spend in 2014. Thus far, at the end of June, I've spent about $840 so far which is about seven months worth of that budget. That means that I have ~6 months over which I can mete out ~$100 a month to break even across the two years. If I flip lots, sell stuff, etc. along the way then I can add to that number and can spend more.

So that's a long answer to your question, but I hope it gives you a thorough sense of my thinking about spending on games.

[dsheinem]

i would love it if you'd send me that excel file.

Here's for anyone interested. It's very basic and hopefully self explanatory, but if not I can walk you through it. I've left in my items from June.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hjeqp2afy3eyu ... book2.xlsx

[mas]

i would love it if you'd send me that excel file.

Here's for anyone interested. It's very basic and hopefully self explanatory, but if not I can walk you through it. I've left in my items from June.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hjeqp2afy3eyu ... book2.xlsx

@Dsheinem:
That is an awesome way of keeping track. But what about if I don't sell games anymore and just keep games?
For me I thought of these steps especially if your past like mine was a hoarder and impulse buyer and im going to put my mind on this today starting the first.
1. I'm going to stop going to all thrift stores/gamestores, flea markets etc until the day of purchase. Before you know it its a sunday and I pull out 60.00 and spend it in an hr. Then two days later I see more games at a gamestop and buy them. It happens quick.
2. Decide what im buying for the day of purchase and only get that game or games for that limit. Then decide where is the cheapest way to get that game.
3. I need to calm down on the web looking at forums and best games articles or greatest hits or looking at for sale threads.
4. Keep track of my daily spending fund on lunch and coffee and drinks. All together im just going to save and save and increase my credit score
But those three keys for me will be essential. I believe 30.00 a month will be fine for me. Because if I can save 450 a month till xmas I wont be hurting and next year ill be very comfortable, not rich but ok to where if I take the kids out I wont be hurting

[Hobie-wan]

I'm a terrible cheapass when buying games most of the time, but it helps me not spend too much. Discounting a few things that were gifts for others and few bits of lots that will be sold on (and discounting shipping costs) I spent about $112 last month.