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[Pilgrimzero]

Starting off Im a Gen Xer so yeah old or whatever.

I rarely buy a game new and mostly buy when they are "on sale" or thanks to Epic "free".

I never pay to watch game streamers.

If I play an MMO I use the free option with all its restrictions. Or play on EQ via Project 1999 (my preferred classic MMO) which is free.

Subbing to tv/movie streaming channels is done at the minimum. HD on Netflix? Don't need it. Hulu with commercials, that's fine.

Etc etc etc cheaper is better in most (but not all) circumstances. "Never pay for what you can get for free."

Well over on FB I got into a discussion about paid for MMO and mentioned "Well wouldn't it be nice if the service was $10" and most people disagreed. They are happy paying $15. And I don't get that as all. If given the option to pay $10 or $15 for the EXACT same thing you'd pick $15?

And thus I'm just at a point of "Am I the weird one for trying to save a buck?" Especially with life seems to be getting harder and harder especially for the younger folk.

Thoughts? Younger folk with your avocado and candles, what say you?

 

[ThatStupidLion]

stop being poor

i do the same thing essentially, but im not a Boomer, Boomer.

 

[Pagusas]

I mean, if you are poor or not well off, and have no idea how to budget or save, sure, be cheap.

I pay for streaming services because its coinvent and no adds, and because paying for them or not paying for them has no effect on my budget, future retirement potential or anything else.

As i get older (gen x'er also, well ish, born mid 80's) time is FAR more valuable to me than money. I'm set for retirement, lots of people my age are. We have thousands of dollars of disposable income a month, so why not use it to make life as nice, fun, convenient and easy as possible?

 

[tsumake]

‘Geriatric’ Millenial here. I’m kind of in the same camp. I often think to myself “how often will I use this thing?” If said purchase is just going to lie on a shelf (and I’m not looking to collect something) it’s probably not worth a certain price. I never buy games at full price, and often wait for deep sales.

Perhaps it’s a factor of age. The excitement buying novelty is not what it used to be. You’ve probably went through the hype train many times on this game/system/tech, as did I. The same probably goes for media. Me personally, I stopped watching TV when I started high school, and never missed it. So this fascination with tv shows eludes me. I get streaming for movies.

It’s a question of what you want to use your discretionary income on.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

gen x'er also, well ish, born mid 80's)

I'm mid 80s too

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I mean, if you are poor or not well off, and have no idea how to budget or save, sure, be cheap.

I pay for streaming services because its coinvent and no adds, and because paying for them or not paying for them has no effect on my budget, future retirement potential or anything else.

As i get older (gen x'er also, well ish, born mid 80's) time is FAR more valuable to me than money. I'm set for retirement, lots of people my age are. We have thousands of dollars of disposable income a month, so why not use it to make life as nice, fun, convenient and easy as possible?

Lower Middle class here who sucks at saving $, despite my efforts LOL.

I'm late Gen X. Born 77.

Mid 80s would put you in the Millennial group yes?

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Hmmmm


Yeah I don't mind paying subscription fees for certain games but miss me with those $70+ UFC PPVs

 

[Pagusas]

I'm mid 80s too

lol.. yeah, i just cant bring myself to identify with millennials.

 

[tsumake]

Lower Middle class here who sucks at saving $, despite my efforts LOL.

I'm late Gen X. Born 77.

Mid 80s would put you in the Millennial group yes?

Do you enjoy what you have?

 

[Pagusas]

Mid 80s would put you in the Millennial group yes?

I choose to identify as a Gen X'r.

 

[INC]

Why i never pay for your mum

 

[BigBooper]

The right time of the year and avocados can be had for like $.20 a piece.

If I can get it cheaper, yea definitely will. I also like paying more for a higher quality item. I'd rather have one good item than a pile of crappy ones. Don't ever pay for superfluous stuff though, like skins in games.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I choose to identify as a Gen X'r.

We are pretty awesome.

 

[poppabk]

There is also a saying "you get what you pay for" ie don't be surprised if what you pay less for is poorer quality. Neither are entirely true, and definitely aren't maxims to live your life buy.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I never pay to watch game streamers.

There's saving, and there's not throwing your money down the drain. This one belongs to the second category.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

I choose to identify as a Gen X'r.

WOW. you're transgenerational.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Gaming is a hobby that takes commitment.

 

[Ikutachi]

 

[MastaKiiLA]

I pay for things I use. Netflix, 4k movies, and the random freemium game. Some things I don't like TV. I won't put myself in debt with any of my habits. That's all that's important.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

Gen X best gen

 

[Termite]

I see your point OP, but when it comes to software it has been ridiculously undervalued.

I'm in my late 30s, and people are out dropping $80 on a bottle of wine with a dinner, and then they see an app for $3 and they think "The fuck? PAY for an app? This is a rip-off, it should be free."

One is fermented grape juice, mass produced, with a fancy label stuck on it. The other is the product of a team of 10s of highly trained programming engineers. But we're happy dropping $100 on one and feel like the other MUST be free.

And I do the same. I'll drop $2-3k on a long weekend away without much thought. Hey, it's a holiday! But when I see a game (a good game!) for $70, I think "Fuck that, I'll wait till it's $30." And I'm not sure why. But I reckon it's a society-wide undervaluing of all digital goods.

 

[dem]

I make a decent living.. my wife makes a decent living. Plenty of money in the bank.


Sometimes I squeeze ketchup packets into the ketchup bottle.
I do this on the sneak.. so my wife doesn't divorce me.

Ketchup is free at every fast food restaurant!!! I'm going to save us at least 20 dollars over our lifetime.

I will spend money on nice things. I will not spend money on useless shit like a video game skin or a $25 dollar new release rental. I would never pay full price for a game unless its for my kid on a special occasion like christmas.

 

[tsumake]

Kinda see where you’re coming from, but:

- Winemaking is more than “fermented grape juice.” It’s a resource and time-intensive process. Additionally, you pay more for a bottle of wine at a restaurant than you do at a liquor store. In a restaurant, you are paying for an experience, not just food. It’s akin to paying exorbitant prices for popcorn and drinks at a movie theater. Technically, you could ferment grape juice and home for next to nothing, and you’re welcome to do so.

App stores have millions of potential users, and competition is fierce, which drives down prices.

Also, how do properly value an intangible object?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'm a cheap fuck too, but do have 4k cable, a nice car and TV. So some things I'll spend on.

But for gaming and Netflix and split it with my brother or buddy, I buy stuff on sale, if I make bank on stocks I'll treat myself to dinner, but nothing huge.

Never done mtx, mmo sub plans, spotify etc.... Game Pass $1 deal sign me up. Game Pass at $20/mth? Not sure. I'll cross that bridge when the sub plan is over.

Never paid or donated money to YT guys, gofundme, kickstarter etc.... News site wants me to sub for $5/mth? No thanks. I'll find info I need on another site.

I will call up my cable company to chat deals every couple years to back my monthly payment to something reasonable.

I do spend money on nice gifts for people at Xmas. Spent $1000 on my nieces a few years back getting them a Switch, and tons of games and gear. I'd rather buy people something they like at Xmas than spend that kind of money on me buying random shit I dont need. If I do need to spend money, I'll put it to improving the house. I spent $3,000 a few years ago getting all my gutters and downspouts redone as they were old and leaking.

 

[*Nightwing]

 

[Termite]

Kinda see where you’re coming from, but:

- Winemaking is more than “fermented grape juice.” It’s a resource and time-intensive process. Additionally, you pay more for a bottle of wine at a restaurant than you do at a liquor store. In a restaurant, you are paying for an experience, not just food. It’s akin to paying exorbitant prices for popcorn and drinks at a movie theater. Technically, you could ferment grape juice and home for next to nothing, and you’re welcome to do so.

App stores have millions of potential users, and competition is fierce, which drives down prices.

Also, how do properly value an intangible object?

I understand the economics behind it from a supply and demand issue, but from a user value perspective it's just so skewed. A bottle of wine at a table of 4 lasts 20 minutes. That's it. It's gone.

Some free apps you use multiple times a day, for years. They can add enormous value to your life. They are constantly worked on and updated. Yet the total reluctance to pay for an app, while being so price insensitive to physical goods like wine, tells me that it's a societal perception issue with intangible goods as much as anything else.

And yes, software devs helped caused this by realizing that the best strategy was to acquire users for free and then monetize the whales or monetize the entire userbase through selling their data. No doubt. But it's still shitty that people think they should never have to pay for an app, or that software is worth so little.

 

[Kenpachii]

I think differently about it. i dumped in the first month like 200 euro's in elder scroll online which is pretty much free.

I rather have everything in a game or else i won't be bothered with playing it.

Same goes for stuff like anno 1800, i buy it all with all expansions dlc's everything. If the developer doesn't give me the option i won't buy it.

As for subscription services. My ISP has everything included already in it. If they didn't i would move over to another company that does.

 

[Ballthyrm]

Apart for the "If something is free, you are the product" , there is a lot of things where price = quality when you know what to look for.
I know that in modern time the 2 are often unrelated and you more often pay for the brand and not the product.
But there is still a few things where I'm more than happy paying full price.

Getting things for free means you don't get to "vote" in reality.
The world get defined by people paying for stuff, if you don't pay anything, you don't get to choose as much.

Beggars can't be choosers

 

[Nester99]

While I enjoy “free”

Paying for Quality is often much better if you value your limited time.

 

[Fbh]

The one thing I've always kinda been cheap about is eating out.

Unless it's a spectacular meal it's just so expensive for something you'll have eaten in 20 minutes and then you'll probably forget about in a couple of hours.
And almost everyone I know spends tons of money on it as if it was nothing. Even those who are broke, they'll complain about not being able to afford this or that but then they'll drop $40 on a steak with some craft beers or whatever multiple times a month.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Op must be shit out of luck with women then since he doesn’t pay.

 

[Kamina]

Like porn.
Enough lasses eager to show their goods for free, so no need to pay.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The one thing I've always kinda been cheap about is eating out.

Unless it's a spectacular meal it's just so expensive for something you'll have eaten in 20 minutes and then you'll probably forget about in a couple of hours.
And almost everyone I know spends tons of money on it as if it was nothing. Even those who are broke, they'll complain about not being able to afford this or that but then they'll drop $40 on a steak with some craft beers or whatever multiple times a month.

Thats ok. I'm cheap on food too.

If people actually saw what the ingredient costs for a steak and lobster dinner or a $20 plate of pasta, they'd throw up.

Typical margin on food and drink (drink being more) is somewhere in that 70-80% range. Of course it depends on the item. Carb heavy shit is like 90% margin.

I totally get it that it costs money to lease a restaurant and pay people and insurance etc... But on the pure product costs, it's virtually nothing. As my buddy used to tell me about his parents restaurant, their main focus isnt even the food costs. Its more about labour costs, rent and garbage pick up fees. That giant metal bin a garbage truck empties a few times a week isnt free and built into property taxes like garbage pick up at your house.

 

[IntentionalPun]

If people actually saw what the ingredient costs for a steak and lobster dinner or a $20 plate of pasta, they'd throw up.

Steak is often sold at a loss essentially at a restaurant when factoring in the cost of operation.

Just depends on the restaurant; but it's often the best deal on many menus.

 

[TheContact]

Nothing is free. F2P are ads/mt and the diff between 10-15/mo can be the difference between that game existing or not existing. I appreciate trying to save a buck but in life you should invest in the things you care about

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Lower Middle class here who sucks at saving $, despite my efforts LOL.

I'm late Gen X. Born 77.

Mid 80s would put you in the Millennial group yes?

I’m confused, so you don’t like to spend yet cannot save? Where is the money going?

As someone mentioned above - as you grow older time becomes infinitely more valuable than money. I have no problem paying for convenience.