I have been unsuccessful curbing my game purchasing.... does anyone know a method/group that may help me? I fear i'm starting to run that line between collecting and addiction...
Are you buying new? Used? eBay? in person?
Sometimes when I want to reign in my money I try to do things to help myself budget. Like only allow myself a certain amount of money for a week. If I don't spend it all, it can roll over to the next week or go into some sort of piggy bank for something big coming down the line. Sometimes I'll only allow myself to use a certain amount of cash for a week or longer so that I don't buy things online on a whim.
There are free sites, too, like Mint.com that might help with budgeting.
I always buy used unless its a game I cannot live without/am super hyped about, which generally only happen around 4-5 times a year. I also never buy online (unless from you fine folks/limited run games).
budgeting isn't the issue I keep very good track of my money and even save ~$400 a month for house funds/retirement but my video game fund percentage has gone from >5% a year ago to ~20% of my income now (which is ridiculous considering I had a nice raise last year) and I just keep spending more and more.
the problem, to me, seems to be that years of going to the same game stores 2-3 times a week, The above average amount of my RL friends working at game stores/owning gaming stores, and my abundance of burnable income are causing me to keep falling into my ever worsening routines....
Its not a "bad problem" yet but I have been trying to lessen the amount I spend to no avail and its starting to scare me as I am going ever and ever closer to that zero/negative budget.