The 2009 list of Thrifty People - The Result

Tineash wrote:£300? £500? I don't think I've ever spent that much on games in one year, excluding hardware. Where do you find the time to play all those games?

Just a guess, but I would imagine I'm heading for something over £2000 this year on games (not including consoles).

EDIT - A quick count (meaning I've probably missed some) puts me at 85 games for the year, although quite a lot will have been under 20, just as many were probably 35 or more (plus RB instruments and a GH guitar), if you assume that they averaged £25 each (which is probably on the low side), then I've spent £2125 on games this year.

EDIT 2 - Also that doesn't include any downloadable games, at least another 20 of those, adds at least another £150 odd.

I'm under £200 for the year And that's including a bunch of christmas games that will last me into '09.

I posted this last week in the pick post thread;

mcjihge2 wrote:Here are all the 360 games Ive bought this year;



.......about £800, bank account am

Add to that Professor Leyton and Mariokart Wii.

I still don't understand why you people keep spending so much money on games. I bet a huge proportion of the stuff you've bought in the last few weeks either hasn't been touched or has been finished and will sit on a shelf forevermore.

Lovefilm is £15 per month, and for that you get 2 games at a time and by my calculations, that means you can hold on to a game for over 5 months before you've actually covered the cost of buying it new at £39.99.

There aren't too many games I'm still playing 5 months later. And hey, if by any chance you are then the game will probably be about £5 in the shops anyway.

mcjihge2 wrote:I posted this last week in the pick post thread;

mcjihge2 wrote:Here are all the 360 games Ive bought this year;



.......about £800, bank account am

Add to that Professor Leyton and Mariokart Wii.

Wow, I bought 3 of those, with 2 more as presents.

This year I bought:

GTA4
No More Heroes
Smash Brawl
Freeloader Wii

My cheapest year yet, although I have been skint all year.

I just totted up my 2008 spend to date. It came to a total of 42 games (comprised of 1 DS game, 1 PSP game, 5 Live games and the rest 360) with an approx price tag of £850. That averages just over £20 per game which shows I do tend to grab a lot of bargains as opposed to high price tag new releases.

Fishfingers, Stuffing and Gravy wrote:I still don't understand why you people keep spending so much money on games. I bet a huge proportion of the stuff you've bought in the last few weeks either hasn't been touched or has been finished and will sit on a shelf forevermore.

Lovefilm is £15 per month, and for that you get 2 games at a time and by my calculations, that means you can hold on to a game for over 5 months before you've actually covered the cost of buying it new at £39.99.

There aren't too many games I'm still playing 5 months later. And hey, if by any chance you are then the game will probably be about £5 in the shops anyway.

Of those games ive bought, Ive barely played Lost planet, Viva Pinata TIP, Quake wars, Frontlines FOW, and Unreal tournament 3. Of the ones ive bought recently Im intending to play fairly soon Left 4 dead, COD5WAW, Gears and War 2 and Far Cry 2 (not in the photo). All the others Ive pretty much "completed". I am suffering from a bit of FPS overkill.

Instead why not put a budget on the overall price of a game? Its easy to get caught up in the hype but this week one can find mirrors edge, Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 for less than £20 in last minute discounts. a month ago they were all double that price.

Try not to spend more than £20 on any one game, and wait 2-3 months before buying new releases. It might let you get through any older games you have left to finish as well.

marillion Col wrote:Like a lot of people, I spend far too much money on games and thought now is as good a time as any to change my habits.

I was going to limit the amount I spent on each game (I tried it last year but it didn't work) but thought I could still end up buying loads of games. Instead I thought I'd set myself a budget for the whole of 2009. I plan on limiting my total spending to £300 which, for me, could be quite difficult especially when you consider I spent over £200 in the space of 3 weeks in October.

Hopefully, this time I'll be able to stick to my resolution. There's plenty of bargains at the moment so I hope these will carry on into the new year. I bought Saints Row 2 last week off play.com for £18 and have just ordered Lego Batman off them for the same price. Also, if I delay getting new releases for a short while, I'm sure I'll be able to pick them up cheap a month or so later.

Is anyone else considering doing something similar or do you have a gaming related new years resolution?

Nah - it'll be easy enough if you just wait for the bargains. However, waiting for the bargains is always the tricky part.

Carlos wrote:Instead why not put a budget on the overall price of a game? Its easy to get caught up in the hype but this week one can find mirrors edge, Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 for less than £20 in last minute discounts. a month ago they were all double that price.

Try not to spend more than £20 on any one game, and wait 2-3 months before buying new releases. It might let you get through any older games you have left to finish as well.

I think tha's the trouble. You get caught up in the hype - "Next Edge 10", eveyone going mental on here, I know I just HAVE to play it now as I have worked myself that this is the thing I want and I want it now

F-Heonix wrote:

Carlos wrote:Instead why not put a budget on the overall price of a game? Its easy to get caught up in the hype but this week one can find mirrors edge, Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 for less than £20 in last minute discounts. a month ago they were all double that price.

Try not to spend more than £20 on any one game, and wait 2-3 months before buying new releases. It might let you get through any older games you have left to finish as well.

I think tha's the trouble. You get caught up in the hype - "Next Edge 10", eveyone going mental on here, I know I just HAVE to play it now as I have worked myself that this is the thing I want and I want it now

Ah the old hype problem. I fell victim to that last gen quite a bit, leading to me buying games I really didn't want that much for full price just because everyone else was playing them. I've learned to resist hype since then, and am enjoying my gaming much more now as a result (not to mention its much cheaper to boot).

Fishfingers, Stuffing and Gravy wrote:Lovefilm is £15 per month, and for that you get 2 games at a time and by my calculations, that means you can hold on to a game for over 5 months before you've actually covered the cost of buying it new at £39.99.

After what you said last time, I actually made a resolution to take up a Lovefilm sub next year. I figured their four a month limited one would do me, leaving me with plenty of money to buy the games I knew I'd want to keep. Then, as if by fate, a 3 months for free offer came through the post.

Yule Logster wrote:

Fishfingers, Stuffing and Gravy wrote:Lovefilm is £15 per month, and for that you get 2 games at a time and by my calculations, that means you can hold on to a game for over 5 months before you've actually covered the cost of buying it new at £39.99.

After what you said last time, I actually made a resolution to take up a Lovefilm sub next year. I figured their four a month limited one would do me, leaving me with plenty of money to buy the games I knew I'd want to keep. Then, as if by fate, a 3 months for free offer came through the post.

It is quite great i currently have the £15 a month on but share it 1 film 1 game contemplating upgrading to £18.50 i think is for 3 simultaneously out and unlimited rentals a month.

However I do still buy the odd game if i get an 360 or PS3 definitely will move up to the 3 a month.

I'll probably attempt to track the amount i spend on games and gaming equipment next year to see how expensive the hobby is but i dont think its too bad probably £250-300

HSH28 wrote::lol:

Theres no way I could do anything like this.

I'd be hard pushed to limit myself to £100 a month.

How do find the time to play all these games

You either don't play / complete them all or you have time management powers of which I could only dream

bear wrote:

Santapher wrote:I'm putting a £500 limit on what I spend this year(on games) as 2008 has seen me spend silly money on games.

Broken by May.

March.

Maybe even Jan in the sales

Renting is the way to go. It makes no sense to me to buy an 8 hour long game on release day.

I've no idea how much I've spent this year, but it's got to be in the region of £1000, maybe even £1500. I've had so many games, but I do tend to trade a lot back in.

I'm also a real sucker for hype. It's been a major problem with me for years and I end up buying loads of games just for the sake of it, even knowing they're not my cup of tea. Magazines don't help me either, so I'll probably be cancelling my subscriptions to Edge and Games tm as soon as they expire.

There's a few reasons why I'm doing this though, or at least trying. I've recently moved house, so my mortgage and bills have all increased. I also changed jobs earlier this year, taking a drop in salaray and no company pension. I'm still not paying into a pension so I need to sort that out.

But, I'd also like to think that cutting down on my spending will make me be more picky in the games I buy and also result in me getting more out of them.

I do buy far too many, and quite often buy 2 or 3 at a time. As a result a lot of my games get left on the shelf to gather dust until I decide I'm not going to play it and trade it in.

I know restricting myself to just £300 over the course of 12 months is going to be extremely difficult, but I know some of you do manage it, so there's no reason why I can't do it too. I just have to be strong and patient. I find it hard to resist getting big releases as soon as they come out, but a lot of that if the hype factor I've already mentioned.

edit - I've still got loads of games on the go. Probably enough to see some people through the next 12 months without having to buy anything else. Animal Crossing, Wii Music, Fable 2, GoW2, LBP, FIFA09, NHL09, Saints Row 2, Singstar, Guitar Hero, Rock Band.... and that's just a few. I've got loads more games sat on the shelf untouched for ages.

I still see £300 as a lot for a year in gaming. This year, without any set budget, i spent about £160 just on games(blimey).

£300 in a year isn't a lot if you have a job of average description. In a nutshell, it's one £30 (so taking into account average internet prices) new release a month for the first ten months of the year. I'm sure a hell of a lot of people here could find something they want each month, no worries.

Saying that, I simply have to try and keep to the 'one game at a time' principle with my baby due in Jan. Case in point: CoD: World at War was £27 in Asda first weekend of release. I frothed at the mouth and got it. As I type this, I've only played two MP games on it to see how it compared to CoD4. Other games have taken up my time, simple as that. If I'd waited until I actually finished what games I'm playing, who knows what price I'd be paying. Hell, I dunno if I'd even get it, with hindsight.