Thrifty Thoughts and Common Cents

My Husband, who I will just call Dear Hubby or DH for short, doesn’t have much of an interest in the penny pinching ways of a Frugalista. This is why I don’t let him shop and why he probably wouldn’t be a good ‘Frugal’ author. DH does send me random links of things that that he comes across which he feels I could write about to share with you, my fellow frugalistas. I haven’t’ quite figured out how to incorporate some of those things he sends into the blog here so consider this something that I can test the waters with.

Dear Hubby is a self professed “Ninjeek”: Geek by Day, Ninja by Night. While amusing it has some merit. During the day works in Information Technology doing all kinds of things that are a bit over my head like networking, systems administration, web hosting (for friends, family, and others referred by them - you can tell them I sent you and he can’t refuse) and the likes. During the evenings, studies martial arts, he is a black belt, and often assists with classes. I have mentioned in my very brief ‘Bio’, Dear Hubby tends to have expensive hobbies. He likes his technology, gadgets, gizmos and video games. Which brings us to the point of this topic.

I am sure many of you have a spouse or child who just loves their video games and having seen what we have paid for games, regardless of whether or not it was for console or PC, they can get quite expensive. We are talking $50+ a game and for some games where once it is beaten they never get played again this adds up to some wasted money.

So here is a list of some things that can help you curb the costs of your household’s video gaming habits.

Trade/Sell/Buy Used Games

So you have some old games lying around that you, your spouse or your children haven’t touched in what seems like decades. Turn those games into a couple bucks. You may not get much depending on how you decide to capitalize on your sale.

The easiest thing to do is trade games with someone. Naturally, if you have any extended family members that like to game you can trade games with them, or even borrow them. There are often people on sites such as Craigslist looking to trade games and even entire gaming systems.

Barring anyone to trade with or borrow from you can next turn your old games into some cash in order to buy other games with. First you need to accept the fact that unless you got the game at a really good deal to begin with, the odds are you will not get back what you paid for it. If the game is fairly recent, your best bet might be something like eBay.

You can check what the particular game is selling for both new and used and then make your price determination there. Ebay isn’t like it used to be and many sellers are selling for a premium or price gouging with insanely absurd shipping charges yet there are people willing to pay that. If you are fair and honest you are sure to sell your used games at a fair price that is higher than most other places to sell them.

On eBay you can still find some good pricing because not everyone is trying to rob you blind by charging $40 to ship something that cost $3.00 to ship. That said, while listing your games to sell, look around for what your dear gamers may be interested in. You may just find a deal you can’t pass up. Another really good place to buy used games cheap is a place like GameStop.

GameStop will let you sell them your old games (though you don’t often get much), trade in some games, and buy used games. Some of the more popular games don’t have the biggest discount but there are a lot of good deals to be had there. Find a local branch of GameStop or other similar store and check out what they have. The offerings will naturally vary by store so look around.

Rent Games (with low replay value)

One of the things I have done to curb some of the game spending, especially with those play once games, is to rent the game. If a game has a low ‘replay’ value, you can guarantee it is going to collect dust once it is done and now how frugal is it to have a $50 dust collector sitting around the house?

Go rent the game! Blockbuster will rent you the game for something like $8 for a week. If your gamer can’t finish in a week, you can keep the game up to 7 days past the due date without late fees. (Be aware, if you keep it past the extra 7 days, Blockbuster will charge you for the selling price of the game, which they will refund if returned within 30 days) If you are going to need more than two weeks with the same game, then you might as well go for their monthly pass. You pay $20 for the month and you can swap games as often as you like and keep them as long as you need. Be sure not to keep any game over the value of what it would have cost to buy it or you defeat the purpose of renting it.

If your gamers are die hard gamers, tearing though games in no time then an unlimited rental service like GameFly or GameZnFlix whcih work much like NetFlix in that you pay a monthly fee, they ship you x number of games and as you return them they ship out the next without any time limits or shipping fees.

Wait For A Sale

What more can I say? A good sale is any frugalista’s best friend. As if I haven’t stressed it enough to everyone I talk to GET YOUR SUNDAY PAPER. When you *GET YOUR SUNDAY PAPER* not only will you get your coupons for the week, but you get all of your sale ads. Check all stores that sell video games your are bound to find some really sweet deals from time to time. As gaming companies have new promotions expect some special sales pushed down from them. Also as new games get released older games go on sale. Best Buy has offered sales ranging from significant discounts to buying x number from a selection list for a discounted price.

So let’s recap this part:

1. GET YOUR SUNDAY PAPER
2. Get the sale ads from your SUNDAY PAPER
3. Read the sale ads from your SUNDAY PAPER
4. Worship your SUNDAY PAPER

Wait For A Price Drop

As I mention above, when gaming companies put our a new release some of their older games go on sale. On that same note, many of those games get a permanent price drop. Sure the game may not be the hottest game out, but you certainly can’t play all of the games at the same time. Wait for the price of those heavy wallet hitters to come down. They all do eventually.

Freeware Games

The first two links my Dear Hubby sent me on this front was a list of Freeware Video Games on Wikipedia. Freeware is basically Free Software or as I like to call it, Frugal Gaming. In the same vein, there is a list of Open Source Video Games, which are still basically free games but the code for the games is public domain.

Commercial Video Games Released As Freeware

The third link DH sent me was a list of Commercial Video Games Released As Freeware, also on Wikipedia. Similar to sales and price drops, some gaming companies will release their older games or games that didn’t sell too well as Freeware. More commonly you will find older nostalgic games that were once popular re-released as Freeware.

Resources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freeware_games
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabetical_list_of_open_source_games
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_games_released_as_freeware

Summary

Tell me what you think. Have you come across any good ways or ideas to save on your or your family’s gaming expenses? Share your ideas, spread the penny pinching love.

Tags: Free Video Games, Freebies, Freeware, Frugal Gaming, Gaming, Sunday Paper