His Hers Money

So I had a bit of a dilemma. You see, I am a Gamer. Essentially I get probably 60-70% of my entertainment out of video games, with about 20% from TV and the rest from going out for a few drinks with Hers and friends.

Overall, I feel this is great value as the amount I spend on video games per hour played comes out to be far less money spent than other forms of entertainment. If I spend $60 on a video game that I end up playing for say 40 hours that works out to be $1.50 an hour. Compare that to a movie at the theater which is normally say $7.50, for a total of $5 an hour for a 90 minute movie.

The key is to figure out which games will I play for that amount of time. So I spend quite a bit of time researching different websites and magazines, reading reviews and talking to other people that I play with to see what they’ll be purchasing. That’s a big key with the games coming out today as most of them are playable online against other people. This really enhances the amount of time that you can expect to spend playing the game as it is never the same game when playing against human opponents.

So I had my eye on both Eve Online and Grand Theft Auto IV. The key differences being that Eve is a purely online game and subscription based, while GTA is a single player console game with a larger initial outlay of funds. The subscription model is still a fairly recent idea when it comes to games. Everquest was the first really popular game that used it. Normally you pay about what you would or slightly less, for a normal game. After the first month, however, there is a monthly charge of anywhere from around $9.99 to $15.99 for access to the required online servers. This makes the company more money long-term but also opens up gamers to having a huge online world where they get to interact with others.

In the end I decided to get them both. I’m figuring that GTA should take me somewhere between one to two months to finish, unless I play it much more than I’m guessing I will. Then I’m going to sell it on half.com. I’ve had pretty good success with selling there recently and I figure that it should easily go for 75% of my initial cost. So if I get $45 back on my $60 purchase and play it for 40 hours (it probably will end up being more) that ends up being a little more than $.33 per hour of entertainment. Not bad.

With Eve, luckily it’s a slightly older game that’s been out for 4 years. It still has a thriving community of players, with greater than 300k subscribers. It is less than a lot of other games, with the first month coming in at $19.99 and the monthly fee after that being $12.99. So for essentially one night at the movies each month, I get a virtual world that I get to explore in a spaceship and interact with some friends. I see value in that.

In closing, just let me say that Hers does not share my ‘passion’ for video games and this obviously will be coming out of my discretionary ‘allowance’ fund.

Apparently SmartyPig is taking the time to listen to its’ customers and the blogging community. Their marketing team and even their co-founder are participating in discussions on various blogs on how to improve their service. Apparently the latest build of their website will include the ability to withdraw funds through ACH. This is great news and was the only real drawback to the site that I could see.

That allows users to save for bigger and better things. Say a newlywed couple want to start saving for a house down payment? Well instead of doing the traditional registration for household items, they could just refer friends and family to deposit into their SmartyPig account in order to help them reach their goal!

For myself, I’ll probably take advantage of the extra 5% that you receive for withdrawing to a store gift card since I’m saving for gifts anyway. The links below are generated directly from SmartyPig to give you an idea on what it looks like to show others your savings progress.

Last night, Hers and I took in a baseball game at the new home of the Washington Nationals, appropriately named Nationals Park. Luckily she gets free tickets as her place of employment has 8 seats reserved for employees throughout the season. This is good because the seats themselves (in the club level) would end up being pretty darned pricey judging from the carpeted interior where the food vendors and beer is located.

It’s never cheap when you go to a professional sporting event these days. Quite frankly they end up being about as bad as the movie theater, holding their guests captive. Just like any good consumers, we bought a program, a foam finger, and had dinner at the park. The damage just for my dinner alone was $20 for one beer (domestic), a chili-cheese hotdog, and chili-cheese fries. Now I’ll grant you that the food was GREAT, but it was from Ben’s Chili Bowl which is a D.C. institution and I could have gotten the same food I’m betting for half that price at another location.

So here are some tips for your next trip to the ballpark:

• Eat BEFORE you head to the game. Enjoy just a snack at the game
• Take public transportation to the game. This of course is so that you can also drink cheaply before the game if you must have a few brewskis.
• If you want to support your team, fine. Just purchase team apparel AWAY from the ballpark
• If there is a ‘cool’ hangout at the game where you don’t need special tickets to get to, purchase the cheapest tickets available and go there! At Nationals Park, it’s got to be the Red Loft bar in center field. It’s a great view, they’ve got other sports on TV while the game is on, and it’s just a great atmosphere.

I came across an excellent article by Paul Michael at Wisebread this morning. It asks the question “What will you do when gas hits $4 a gallon?” and responds with “I’ll pay it just like everyone else.”

And you know what? He’s exactly right. For probably 90% of this country, we’ll just suck it up, drink a latte or two less a week, and live our lives as we had been. Let’s face it, most people are not willing to fundamentally change their lives unless gas say doubles or triples from even where it’s at right now. People these days can’t live without gas, electricity, and the internet. They are staples of our everyday life.

Paul also linked a YouTube video that I found fascinating and left me wondering how long if ever that we’ll see something good come from this man’s invention?

We’ve now made it almost one full month in our new joint blogging endeavor. So far I’m very proud of the time that Hers has put into this as it really is her first blogging experience other than a few guest posts on my personal blog. I would like to start doing monthly updates of our financial progress and also the progress of this blog. I figure that with 3 1/2 weeks under our belts I would go ahead and do one now and then start trying to be on time at the beginning of each month.

We’ve been able to get one of my credit cards paid off, the engagement ring paid in full, and more than the minimum payment for the highest balance of my cards. Unfortunately, I had to pull $2,000 out to pay a retainer fee for a lawyer instead of paying down debt further. So overall, good progress and it will seemingly get better.

The site itself is receiving steady increases in traffic each week according to our install of Mint:

I’m hoping that means that we’re doing something right and that people can appreciate what we’re trying to do and our writing style. I’ve almost become obsessed with reading all of the other PF blogs out there in my newsreader each day and trying to participate as much as possible.

There should also be some semi-regular columns starting soon. I have what I feel are a few good ideas for series that will prove invaluable to us in tracking our progress and education in all matters personal finance related.

So we all know that it’s smart to have an emergency account. And it seems that most people recommend to have 3 to 6 months of your salary set aside. For those of us in debt it can be a delicate balance between saving and paying down debt. Do you save, do you put all your extra money towards debt, or do you try and do both at the same time? The third choice is the one that I have made.

I am putting money into savings at the same time as I am using the snowflake method of paying down my debt. Is that the best approach in a purely monetary sense? No. However, it gives me the self-satisfaction of seeing my savings grow and debts paid down to zero.

Another reason for my method is that besides the mental aspect, there is also the specter of small unexpected expenses. Just yesterday I did not have much change with me to park on the street for an appointment that was scheduled for 1:30pm. Needless to say, I was still waiting until almost 2 before I even got into the office. By that time my meter had run out and since I happened to be parked within a 1/2 block of the courthouse and police station, of COURSE I GOT A TICKET! The expense is not large. I can afford the $25 fine. But I don’t want to pay it and of course if I had a tight budget it is possible that it could create a problem.

Moral of the story? Besides taking enough change to pay for parking? Don’t focus entirely on your debt. The last thing you want to do is pay extra on say your credit card only to be forced to take a cash advance on the same card the following week. Give yourself a little breathing room.