Recently I calculated how much I spent on games. At $59-$60 for an XBox One game, $20-$30 for a Wii Game, and $50-$60 for a PS4 game buying just 3-4 games a month was costing me over $6,700 a year on games. Here is how I cut that to just under $300 a year.
First I go to Youtube and watch walk through videos, play online trials, and check reviews such as IGN, PC Gamer, and Metacritic reviews to reduce risk of buying games I won’t play much. This saved me from buying 10 game in ayear; over $500. Next I signed up for Redbox free rewards texts. I get about $8 a month in codes for free game rental. By renting games I don’t expect to replay repeatedly instead of purchasing I spend between $1.60-$12 to finish 2 games in a month instead of $80 to buy, saving about $40 a month. I also signed up for Gamefly, although there are other rental options. I spend about $22.95 a month and get to keep 2 games at a time. This lets me hold on to one game I expect to play repeatedly and then get one new game every week. It takes about 4-7 days from the time I send a game back to when I get a new game. This saved me another $40 in avoided purchases.
I look for digital versions of games. Often the digital versions drop in price quicker than retail versions. I bought a digital Zumba game for $10 less than the CD costs. I wait a month after game release instead of buying pre-sale copies so instead of paying $60 for Max Payne 3 I spent $40. I also buy classic highly rated games that came out about a year ago for feel of cracking open a game. I bought Far Cry, which originally was $69 for $9.99 on sale at Target. I bough some of the older Mario and Donkey Kong games for $5. I save more by signing up for Viggle on my smartphone. There are other similar ap which let you earn points for gift cards for stores such as Target, Amazon, and Walmart in exchange for your recording what is on your television. In exchange for about an hour of effort I get about $2 in gift cards a month.
I also search online at Amazon, Craigslist, and Ebay in addition to at Gamestop, Best Best Buy, and Walmart for newer used games at a 20% discount. I purchased Mario 3D World used for only $28 instead of new for $60 only a few weeks after release. I save more by offering trades on Craigslist. I put a list of games I no longer want and see if I can trade a few for a good newer game. I traded 4 old Wi racing games I never play for Mario Wi U Cart so saved $60 and cleared out my shelf. Similarly on Craigslist I look for garage sales with games. Often I can haggle and get decent 6 month to 1 year old games for $1-$2 each.
I saved about $30 on new gaming system by purchasing ones with the lowest memory and doing cloud gaming. Signing up for X-Box Live I can access games, sometimes for free instead of paying a fee, save data on the cloud instead of using my system memory, get free updates, and meet other gamers to trade games with for only $5 a month.
Last but not least I got a membership at a Gaming Cafe. They charge $5 a month and have free classic arcade games plus 20 different gaming systems and big screen televisions set up so I can play the newest games with others or on my own! This saves me over $60 a month by being able to play the newest games there instead of purchasing them.
