Hey everyone, Pete here. I’ve been pretty busy, working hard on my frugal plans for the new year.
As some of you may remember, I made some resolutions for the first time last year and it worked fairly well, so I’ve decided to make some this year too. I found that they work best when there are targets, limits and tangible goals.
It’s taken me a little while to work out exactly what my goals should be for this year. I want to write at least once a month for this blog (whoops…), and I definitely want to spend less on gaming stuff. I was on a bit of an eBay splurge last year, and over Christmas I was sorely tempted by many shiny new things. Luckily, I kept away from them, but I can think of a few poor spending decisions I made over the year.
To achieve the frugal goal then, I have four measurable objectives this year.
Firstly, I will spend no more than £5 a month on games or gaming things. This is especially severe since I realised just how many models are boxed up in my study, and how many Dark Elves I failed to paint last year. Buying new things before old things are painted is a major sin, and this will help me limit my guilt. The other big reason for this is the expected arrival of my second child in June (hooray!) and attendant budget reduction. Small children reduce the time available to play now, but when they grow older the plan is to mould them into mini-gamers (mini-miniature-gamers, or mini-mini-gamers?). I always loved slow-burn strategy, playing the long game.
Secondly, I will be aiming to have a day of wargaming at least once a month. I had a nice day of Gorkamorka last month (a fantastic game, and still keeping the interest after all this time), and I’m going to try and schedule a game of Warhammer with a friend who got me into the whole hobby later this month. That’ll be a nice nostalgia moment.
Thirdly, I’ll be aiming to write on this blog at least once a month. I got a bit side-tracked by other things last year, but with better time-management I’m sure that I can keep it organised. A side effect of this will probably be more games nights (to make use of games already paid for) to help me find something to write about!
So that’s my ‘quick, you lost January already!’ catch-up post. We’ll see how well this plan works out. Expect to see insightful, detailed, analytical posts about gaming if I can organise my time better, or about carpet shopping for the nursery if my wife organises it instead. Fingers crossed, frugal gamers!
9 comments:
£5.00 a month is severe but as you said you have a lot of unpainted stuff, the extra loved one (baby) is another consideration and as you said a future figure painter for Daddy at the very least.
My thoughts exactly, TAL. £5 goes very easily, but assuming you stick to playing catch-up with last years purchases and playing games you already have stuff for you should be basking in a Frugal karmic glow.
I spend more than that on bus fare to the local club and weekly entry fees. Noble sir, your dedication is truly admirable...
Glad to hear of more people playing Gorkamorka, as it's seeing quite a resurgence over the last year, although its player base is still tiny compared to the likes of Necromunda.
Good to hear from you Pete. That's quite a Frugal target and I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on. At the moment I think I've got enough minis and games to get me through the entire year, but as Von says the cost of going to the local club does eat into my budget!
Thanks all - So far, I've had two Gorkamorka days and several games of Warhammer: Invasion already. Hopefully I can keep up the pace (at least until the gamer-grub is born).
Luckily, I have the games table, the scenery, and the space for any game so I don't have to trek out to clubs and stuff. If that were the case, I'd probably have revised the amount or ignored 'transport' and 'entry' costs. That would probably have a bigger impact on quantity and quality of gaming than buying more models would. A direct conversion of money to fun!
tUGS: I found your site the other day while googling for more Gorkamorka ideas, I was very impressed (although cringed a little at Mutie Healing background stuff). It's probably my favourite wargame!
I think I'll include the cost of attending the club into my gaming expenses but I may 'write off' the cost of the drink while I have there. I may have to add a poll to the blog to see what people think...
good luck with your frugal plans in '11
Hey Pete, glad you liked the site. Sorry to hear about your impressions of the mutie healing stuff. Anything you can suggest that we can do to improve it?
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