Gaming on a Budget

So your working 40+ hours a week and putting all your money into rent, utility bills and that girl of yours, thats about $1,500 a month leaving your pocket. At times you just need to get away and play some video games, but with that kind of money going out the window how are you supposed to afford playing video games? Here are the "The Three Keys to Gaming on a Budget".

1. PC Versus Console Gaming
The biggest money saver you can is switch from buying game counsels to buying a desktop computer. The next time you are tempted to buy the Xbox One for $500 go out and buy or build a PC instead. A PC will cost you anywhere from $600-1000 for a decent machine that will run just as good or better then an Xbox. An Xbox will cost you $500 plus $50 if you want a second controller, another $5 a Month for Xbox Live, then there is the $35-60 games.

Also computers can do more then just play video games compared to an Xbox, for the same price you pay in a year, you can build a gaming desktop computer and buy 10+ games for less money.

The other bonus to PC gaming is when the next new counsel comes out, and they are wanting $700 for it. All you have to do is spend $200-500 to upgrade your machine to be even more powerful then that $600 Xbox.

2. Wait for Steam Sales
The best thing about gaming on a PC, rather then superior graphics and free internet connection, is great game prices. Every summer and winter, Steam does huge sales on a lot of their games. You know that game you really wanted that cost $60 even though its about one year old, well now its on sale for $10 through the Steam Summer Sale. Stinks to be your Xbox buddy who paid $60 for the same game you just paid $10 for. You actually don't always even have to wait for the Steam Summer and Winter sale, every week Steam puts a different game on sale. Worried you'll miss it, just add it to your wish list and steam will email you when the game is on sale.

Steam frequently allows you to play different games for free over the weekend. This will help you to know if you even want to buy the game. Some of those games you could even beat within the weekend and still get the achievements for it as if you owned the game.


Steam even gives games away for free at times. Last winter sale, Steam gave away L4D2 (Left for Dead 2) and in May they gave away Arma Cold Assault for free.

3. Humble Bundle
So you haven't done a lot of good in your life and your looking to redeem your evil deeds? Lucky for you Humble Bundle has been kind enough to allow you to give money to charity but not only that they will give you video games in return and not only that you don't even have to spend more then $1.

Humble Bundle releases bundles of games generally allow you to get 3-5 games for $1 or spend the average of donations to get 2-4 more and generally better games. They also have a weekly bundle and a video game store. In the store you might not be getting a discount but you will be giving 10% of your money to charity.

Not all the bundles are worth much money but when you do come across a golden gem, don't hesitate to pay the $1-10 for the bundle. You may not want all the games but generally at least two of the games you will be playing.

Results
Your budget one year later:

Console                                          Verses                                    PC

 $400-600                                      Hardware                                $600-1000

$60                                              Internet                                    Free   

$300+                                    Ten Good Games                            $50+

 $600 (lose old games and save files)            Upgrade               $100-500 (keep all games)

This is not a discussion about which is better, this is a discussion about gaming on a budget. Which is more financially cheaper overall.