Money, money, money...

[vhal_x]

I'm just wondering if I'm the only one here who does this...

I have a money plan. For every month of the year.
I put income at the start of the month, and then subtract rent, bills, stuff for my son and food shopping, then do everything I can to see how many CE's I can fit in with the remainder of our money.

It can get quite frustrating, especially when it's a month that's looking to be pretty tight anyway, and there's so much you want to buy.

I often fuck myself up, looooong before the month has even begun, by planning to buy so much, that I'm left wondering if I can jiggle it about to somehow manage it.

It is a fully fledged addiction, and I thrive in it. My mind is always boggling away, trying to find new CE's to buy, or new sites to browse.

It was always my boyfriend who was the addicted one, but he has taken a back seat now, and my mind never turns of CE mode.

I'm only 19 right now, so have many years of collecting ahead of me, and for all the other things I've collected in the past, only to get bored of after a few months, this, is definitely not one of them. I can see this addiction lasting until I die

I wish I had been more sensible with money at the beginning of last year, saving for the last 6 months of 2011, so that would have helped to cover the cost of a lot of CE's, but of course, I wasn't collecting until March (whereas before I'd only helped my boyfriend find editions) but roughly in June I think, the addiction took hold.

Next year, I have the plan of every month, myself and my boyfriend are going to do our best to save £200 every month, so that by June, if we haven't dipped into it for anything, we'll have £1200 to spend on CE's in the second half of the year. It'll be hard, but will be, oh, so, worth it.

I wish that a list of upcoming CE's would be published at the end of every year, for the following years CE's, but so many aren't even announced until like 2/3 months prior to release.

Sorry I've rambled, I just had to kinda rant at myself and see if anybody else does these things xx

[john385]

first of all, DON'T take this personally, I don't know who you are or what you do...BUT, I've seen your gaming collection and your post number and activity.

From what I've seen, you're a mother of 19 with a boyfriend.

I don't know what job you have, but from what I've seen, you're shelling out a A TON of money for Limited/Collector's Editions on various games.

If you can manage to buy all of that and still have a comfortable life, then great! Good luck! But, if you're buying CE's somewhat obsessively and, I'll be frank, it seems like you do, then I don't know what to say.
Your money (or lack thereof), your call.

A friendly, human advice: you DON'T have to buy everything. You don't need Limited, Epic and Console edition of Gears 3 for example.

I've been on this forum a while because I occasionally buy some LE/CE and want to see what other people have, but when I've seen some collections...I can't help to think that some people are just swimming in money (considering how much all of this stuff costs) or they've become OCD about this collecting that they've "lost" the big picture ("I need to buy this or that LE/CE, who cares if I've maxed out my credit card").

Again, I meant no disrespect, we're just talking.

Regards,

- John

[vhal_x]

Originally Posted by john385

first of all, DON'T take this personally, I don't know who you are or what you do...BUT, I've seen your gaming collection and your post number and activity.

From what I've seen, you're a mother of 19 with a boyfriend.

I don't know what job you have, but from what I've seen, you're shelling out a A TON of money for Limited/Collector's Editions on various games.

If you can manage to buy all of that and still have a comfortable life, then great! Good luck! But, if you're buying CE's somewhat obsessively and, I'll be frank, it seems like you do, then I don't know what to say.
Your money (or lack thereof), your call.

A friendly, human advice: you DON'T have to buy everything. You don't need Limited, Epic and Console edition of Gears 3 for example.

I've been on this forum a while because I occasionally buy some LE/CE and want to see what other people have, but when I've seen some collections...I can't help to think that some people are just swimming in money (considering how much all of this stuff costs) or they've become OCD about this collecting that they've "lost" the big picture ("I need to buy this or that LE/CE, who cares if I've maxed out my credit card").

Again, I meant no disrespect, we're just talking.

Regards,

- John

No disrespect taken, the thread was more a lighthearted review on my collecting, with a hint of ranting in it, sorry if it didn't come off as such

Believe me, I'm not swimming in money (don't get me wrong, I wish I was!), I just try and get as many of the CE's I'm interested in as possible. I'd never max out my credit card on CE's, matter of fact, I don't even own a credit card (which is definitely a good thing).

I'd hate to get myself into debt over something I love, as the debt would mount, causing my love for collecting to decrease, so it is definitely not something I'd do.

We don't have any outgoings each month other than rent, bills and shopping for ourselves and our son. We have no credit cards to pay off and no debt (other than me owing my mother some money )

My post count is very high, considering I've only been a member here since June, it's because I love to talk about collecting and discuss different aspects, etc. Now, again, don't get me wrong, I am a member of a baby forum aswell, and have been for over a year, and my post count is less than my post count on here, that by no means at all, doesn't mean I love collecting more than my son it's just I feel I have more in common on here, and collecting can be almost an anonymous hobby/thing to discuss, whereas I don't really feel comfortable talking about my son on a public forum (especially since there is a lot of fakes on the baby forum trying to steal photos, etc).

Also, most of my collection is not recent purchases, a lot of it is from over a year ago, when it was only my boyfriend who was a collector (and when we had more money to spend as our son hadn't been born yet). The more recent purchases are from saving money each month, and a tonne of them have been nabbed for awesome bargains on eBay (lots of my DVD/BluRay CE's have cost less than a tenner

I don't own all of the CE's from any series yet, or at least, I don't think I do, and as much as I'd love to own every CE, I know it is just not possible And I preorder pretty much everything so as I can secure a copy if I have the money nearer the time, if not, I just cancel it, with the hopes of it either dropping in price or just waiting until I'm better off and picking it up much further down the line

Sorry for going on and on, I just felt the need to explain, as I don't want people getting the wrong idea, thinking I am drowning in debt, as I'm not xx

[twistedsymphony]

first of all I moved this to the Collecting Chat forum... as, if you read the forum descriptions, "Off Topic" is explicitly for topics that explicitly have nothing to do with collecting.


I have a degree and a well paying job, and while I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination my income and supporting my hobby isn't something I typically stress about.

-----------

Basically I have 3 bank accounts.
1. a checking account that my wife and I share, we use this account to pay bills
2. a personal savings account
3. a personal checking account

my paycheck is automatically split and deposited into these three accounts.

My wife and I determined how much we should split the monthly bills, and I have the proper amount deposited into the joint checking directly from my paycheck every month with a small buffer to account for fluctuation.

I have a portion of my paycheck automatically deposited into my savings account every month, and the remainder is deposited into my personal checking, and that is my spending account.

All of my bills are automatically paid by the joint checking, so as long as I show up for work I'm confident that my bills are getting paid. I get email notifications whenever a bill is paid and I usually just glance at it to make sure it's what I expect give or take a few $$ (not really necessary for the cell, or cable bill, but services like electricity can fluctuate month to month.) 9 times out of 10 my "buffer" is big enough to account for fluctuation. I review the auto-deposit one a year to account for mortgage and insurance rate changes but for the last few years I haven't had to make any changes.

Stuff like fuel for my car, money for food, etc. I pay out of my personal spending account.

Most people seem puzzled that my wife and I don't share savings and personal spending accounts but we both like the situation. She is free to go shopping/get manicures/etc as much as she likes because it comes out of her own account, and I'm free to buy tools/car parts/and CEs as much as I like because it comes out of my own account. When we want to make a big purchase like new furniture or home repair we discuss it and split the costs paying out of our savings.

Overall this offers pretty much ZERO stress over money, because I could potentially drain my personal checking and not have to worry about bills getting paid (I don't, but I theoretically COULD), not to mention the separation of accounts between my wife and I means that neither of us have to ask approval of the other if we want to buy something for ourselves nor do we ever have any arguments over money or spending habits.

I have a credit card but I don't use it unless I have to (certain things like renting a car require it).

I personally like the 3-account system I have setup and I highly recommend it for easily managing your funds and keeping stress over money low.

[vhal_x]

Strangely, I have three accounts but for some reason wasn't allowed a card for 2 of the three of them (although when I asked for a card on those two I was under 18, so that may be why).

I think I may take your advice TS, it sounds very clever, and would make life much simpler for me, although - I'll have to wait until after Christmas as all my preorders are on the one card right now and I don't want to edit my billing information for every single one, so I shall definitely use your method once the year is over.

And thanks for moving the thread, I didn't actually mean to post it in there (think I was reading another thread in there prior to posting), so thanks will try and remember which section I'm in before posting a new thread from now on xx

[Ryu Kazama]

My instant thought was for you to ease up on buying CE's and saving that money/investing it for your son's future (games aren't a great investment).

But yes, I save whatever I can for games, comics, figures etc. What others use on tons of clothes, drinking etc, I use on games.

[vhal_x]

I also save for his future (he has his own bank account which money goes into every month, forgot to add that as it does it anyway). And both myself and my boyfriend pay money into it, as does his grandparents and great-grandparents, so he is by no means going to have no future

Yeah I spend very little on clothes (whereas I used to be a label hound, always in Gucci, etc) but buying designer clothes no longer interests me, my interests have swayed right over to gaming/collecting, whereas before I was wanting to become a fashion designer, but had an interest in gaming, but not collecting, but now I'm not as into fashion, despite getting A's in all my fashion classes at school, and I want to do something in the world of gaming, it's just breaking into it that's my problem.

Especially since Rockstar North turned me down :/ xx

[lhurgoyf]

Working in the gaming industry is a horrible idea if you want to be able to afford all these collector's editions

It seems people like to save up for games, but I also hope you all are saving for your own futures-- emergency funds, retirement funds, etc.

[vhal_x]

Haha, of course, I've got a savings account but I never touch it, purely because if I do, there'll be no stopping me !

But if I work in a big enough company, hopefully I'll get some CE's for free ! Just kidding, nah, I'd love to work in the gaming industry, purely as I have such passion for it, but if I don't get into the gaming industry, I'd like to get back into teaching, as I was doing a course in University for teaching just before I fell pregnant with my son, and stupidly quit, when I should have stuck to it. I know teaching isn't the highest paying occupation, but I love it.

Despite being 19, I've taught for a good while in a few primaries in my area as a teaching assisstant (part of the course I was on) and also taught for a week in my own high school (so f*cking intimidating I tell ya! Especially since I'm only 5foot and most of the pupils were nearly 6foot!) so yeah, either gaming or teaching, either one and I'm happy xx

[twistedsymphony]

as someone who works as a programmer... I'm sure I would love working on video games, but with all the horror stories I hear from people I know in the industry I would think it's not worth it.

Most of them make less than I do, work longer hours, with fewer benefits, and have horrible turn over rates (ie: they lay-off most of the work force and rehire nearly every year). Not to mention I get the impression that it completely kills whatever joy they get from actually playing most games.

I'm much happier in a someone less interesting but much much more stable job where i can still enjoy my hobby.