Paying for your hobby - how do you do it?

[orrimarrko]

I am always curious how everyone approaches this. Video game playing and or collecting is pretty expensive (for everyone except Christian, that is LOL ).

So, I was wondering how others afford it. Do you have a budget per month? Do you just spend whatever, and deal with it later? Do you set limits for the most part, and stick to them (for example - I will only spend $5 or less for any NES game, period)?

What do you do to come up with the financial means needed to pay for the expensive stuff? (Perhaps you just have a great paying job.)

I think it would be great to hear others ideas on the subject, and perhaps we can all learn something here.

Also, since I am an expectant father (my first), I am fairly concerned that I may have to put a halt to my collecting for a while.

Are there any parents (new parents) that may have any wisdom on enjoying the hobby with a newborn?

Thanks,
Steve

[gamergary]

Birthday and Special Occasion money plus allowance. I usually don't go shopping for games every week once a month if I am lucky but if I do spend money I am generally spending all I brought. :roll:

[Kejoriv]

I buy stuff at yard sales and flea markets (games and anything else collectible)and sell it on Ebay. I make enough money from that to fuel my collecting habit

[hezeuschrist]

I have a job.

Let me tell you, thats the worse avenue to making money :(

[eolsen]

Flea markets are the best places to buy stuff. And I usually sell stuff on ebay to get some extra cash since people usually pay good money for stuff on there(more than things are worth)

[maxlords]

Flea markets are AWFUL here. Everyone charges 10X too much and doesn't buy squat. I never go to them. I get about 65% of my stuff from pawn shops, yard sales, and goodwill type stores, and then sell it on eBay or the forums to fund the games I want to buy. The rest of the time, I buy up collections online and then resell em for a profit. I can't work, so I rarely get money that way for games, but I do use money I get as gifts for holidays/b-days/etc for games too. And I rarely buy anything brand new lately.

[Tritoch]

I buy stuff at yard sales and flea markets (games and anything else collectible)and sell it on Ebay. I make enough money from that to fuel my collecting habit

I'm not as much of a collector as I am a gamer, so this method works well for me too.

[ubersaurus]

I pimp out teenage runaways. Young boys, mostly LOL

No seriously, I only have an allotted amount of money out of my paychecks that I spend on games. I limit myself to how many times I go hunting and how much I buy per week.

[tholly]

I have some money saved up from last summer working and when I see something I want I buy it if I feel I can spare the money and if it is a good deal. I just started my "while im at school job" which is minimum wage tutoring 1-4 graders 2 times a week. the college pays us to go to elementary schools and amazingly last year when i did it i only lost $4.00 to taxes so it is a little extra spending money. I will get a job this summer since i already had the interview and the lady told me to call as soon as i am done with school so i can start ($8.50 hour) so I will save some of that summer money and blow some on video games. Other than that I get games if they are gifts or if my parents just offer to buy them.

[wcmiker]

I make most of my gaming money by buying things low and then selling high on eBay. I also get games as gifts.

Sometimes I use money I make from my job, but that's rare.

[Vroomfunkel]

Well ... given that I have only just got my first real job, and have spent the last, ooh, seven years living on effectively nothing, my hobby has had to fund itself. I bought a Megadrive in my first school vacation while I was working in a factory to earn some keep ... it was in a video shop then when I got back to school and had a look on the net, I suddenly realised that some of these games were actually worth money. A subtle plan began to form in my mind ... and the rest is history!

A few years later, 6 systems, a few hundred games - and a reasonable profit to boot! I have effectively spent nothing on it. That's the way it should be :D

Vroomfunkel

[Mayhem]

I have a "savings pot" of money for anything big... seriously big. It's supposed to be a deposit on a place at some point, but still, you never know. In general however I don't need to go into it as:

Earnings - outgoings - computer spending > 0

[Querjek]

Well, I'm only 14, so I can't get a job yet. I acquire most of my things through trading off my unwanted ones, with the occasional purchase. I try to keep a little money just in case if that perfect deal ever comes up.

[chaoticjelly]

I sell swaps/games I'm not that interested in on ebay

And I keep the really nice / mint ones, and just collect for 1-2 systems at a time

At the moment I'm looking to complete my SMS collection, and then maybe go onto SMD.

[bensenvill]

Well I'm still one of those college student (the 6 year variety). I have a somewhat generous spending allowance. I try to substitute things I shouldnt be doing for game money. For instance, if I dont smoke for a week, thats 20 bucks I have. If I dont drop 30 bucks at the bar on friday night, well thats even more.

But I've begun to shift my collecting interests, from masses of games worth a buck or 2, to only buying the remainder of my fond childhood games and the occasional rare gem.

~Tj

[Oobgarm]

Working two jobs keeps me going in the gaming world.

While I could probably eke by with only one, I wouldn't be able to buy games the way I currently do. Now that I think about it, that's not as bad as it sounds....maybe I'd actually have time to play the things I do buy. LOL

[zZSuperRetardZz]

1. Birthday and christmas money (thanks for the $5 grandma )
2. The Swap Shop
3. Pawn shops

I really need to get a job!

[omnedon]

I repair game systems for local game stores.

[Sand_monkey]

Well at the moment my student loan has been paying for quite a few Mega CD (Sega CD) games that I have been trying to get my hands on :)

[Mayhem]

Two Mayhems? :P

[Flack]

My wife and I both have really good jobs with the FAA. I am terrible with money and numbers, so I get x amount deposited into a separate account each week, and that's mine to spend on whatever. Makes it nice and simple for me -- I know exactly how much I can spend, and even if I blow my whole budget, I know I'm not going to affect our bills or anything.

People often think I have a huge budget because of all the arcade games I have, but I know I paid less for each of them than I did my PS2.

[bensenvill]

Two Mayhems? :P

dont forget the official Mayhem battlebot

http://www.mrgoodbytes.com/dp/bb/Mayhem.jpg


http://www.mrgoodbytes.com/dp/bb/Image.jpg

[Atari7800]

I have a decent job in marketing that pays my ridiculous mortgage, utilities, and medical insurance each month with 6% of my income put into my 401K. This leaves me with $4 left each month.

I do freelance advertising amd marketing work and some real estate to finance my food, emtertainment, and game buying.

:D

[slip81]

I have a fairly low paying job ($7 an hour), and since my girlfriend doesn't like the idea of the lifesyle I had before I met her (living at home, literally spending EVERY penny on collectables) I now just put a percentage of my weekly paycheck into a spending account, and I can use that money for whatever. It works out pretty well cause I also have a job at school that pays for my monthly bills, so the money I get from my job is used for games, comics, movies, gas and food.

[sisko]

I buy stuff at yard sales and flea markets (games and anything else collectible)and sell it on Ebay. I make enough money from that to fuel my collecting habit

Same here...but add thrift shops into the mix

[orrimarrko]

People often think I have a huge budget because of all the arcade games I have, but I know I paid less for each of them than I did my PS2.

So, what's your secret then?

[Sand_monkey]

Two Mayhems? :P

Yeah :) Mayhem in monster land was and still is one of my all time fav games! And i was only recently able to complete it, that game sure is hard =P

*cough*

[Jasoco]

My relatively low paying job at Kmart ($7) funds my addiction.

I usually try to keep it below $100 a paycheck. But sometimes I fail. And spend more.

When I go a-hunting, I grab what I am interested in. And when I have a nice stack, I look through and add it all up. If it's too much, I'll go through and ask myself, "Do I really need this one right now?"