How Buying a Video Game System Could Save Me Money

September 28, 2012

My kids always laugh at me when talking about video games.  Apparently, I’m the only dad that they know who does not own a video game system.  All of their friends have dads who play video games with their kids and when they are talking about “leveling up” or some new “zone” or “world,” I have absolutely no idea what they mean.  I’m a big fan of doing things with them that don’t involve video game consoles.   In fact, I haven’t played video games since Atari was “the” game system.  But, unbeknownst to my kids, that may be changing in the near future. 

One of the things I like to do with the kids is to involve myself in their world, and I have resisted that with the whole video game thing.  With my daughter, who is now a senior in high school and will probably be going away to college in just a few more months, I have been known to watch Glee and Pretty Little Liars with her, and even when I’m traveling for work, I watch “with her” by texting back & forth during the shows.  By involving myself in things that matter to her, we are able to talk about the characters on the show and that can turn into a conversation about what’s going on in her life. It’s been a goofy but effective way to stay connected.

I do the same with my sons but am missing an opportunity with them where the video game conversation is concerned.   My boys (13 & 10) took me into a GameStop last weekend and the guy behind the counter was talking to another customer about the Wii U gaming system. It sounded pretty awesome and all of their Wii games from their mom’s house can be used in this system and a whole bunch of new games are going to be available.

The question I had is the cost of the system.  It’s a bit pricier than I had anticipated, although I hadn’t anticipated being interested in buying a gaming system.  All in, with accessories, it’s close to $400 and I try to be very careful with my expenses.  After all, I’m a financial planner who writes blog posts that include a bunch of info about my real life.  What kind of example would I be if I were to be frivolous???

So if you’re confronted with this kind of choice, how can you justify the expense?  Here’s how I plan to do that.  For me to take the kids to a movie on a Saturday afternoon, even at the local $3 theater, it costs about $30-$40 when I factor in the cost of the tickets and snacks and it could be even more than that if we get out of the movie and decide to eat lunch or dinner in the same shopping center right after the movie.

If I take them on a hike, we end up buying drinks and snacks at a convenience store after we devour whatever it is that I packed.  Last weekend, we did a 5 mile hike with some serious hills, and then because we worked pretty hard during the hike, I ended up spending $20 to rehydrate & refuel our bodies, not to mention the ¼ tank of gas I burned on the way to and from the hike.  The way I figure this out is that if we do one fewer movie or hike or baseball game or some kind of activity that ends up costing way more than expected, all because we decided to stay at home, make lunch and engage in an epic Mario Bros battle, I’ll have recovered the cost of the gaming system in less than a year.  And, I’ll no longer be the only dad in their universe who doesn’t speak gamer-ese.  Who knows, I may end up really enjoying it too

Before making a big purchase, and I’d consider a $400 gaming system a big purchase, there are a series of questions I ask myself.

  • Can I afford the initial cost?  (or can I save a few bucks with each paycheck to build the needed funds?)
  • What is the ongoing cost?  (for the gaming system, it’s added games & accessories over time)
  • Will it change my lifestyle?  (I won’t allow us to be complete couch potatoes so I’m still working on figuring out this part of the equation)
  • What will the “unintended consequences” be?  (That’s where I see myself saving money on dining out during the hiking, biking, movie days that we have now.)

Maybe if you ask these questions you can either walk away from purchases that don’t make sense for you or have a well thought out justification for the expense.