When it comes to games, parents can suck

SneakyPenguin

SneakyPenguin

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i was at kb today, ready to take part in the 20% off sale, getting a game boy player, metroid fusion, duke nukem advance, chu chu rocket for gba, and tactics ogre for gba, for 136. now yes this is a bit much, so after me mum said no, i compromised down to the two hardest to find games, chu chu and tactics. but nooooo. parents cant see value. anyone else have this problem with parents preventing their game buying?
 
Well it's not really value to them cause they still see it as a waste of money. The value is yours basically since you paid zip, and even though you are trying to save them money, they can save a whole lot more by not buying anything at all.

Perhaps you can just try to get some money from your parents everyonce in a while and save it. Then you can purchase those games yourself, something along the way of an allowance, or if not, well time to get a job.
 
the real problem is i always pay them back, and they wont let me get a job. gaming is an expensive hobby, and my only income is 10 a week pity money from my granny. i so need a fricking job.
 
My dad considers owning an Xbox, GC, DC, and GBA is a complete waste of money, yet he bought a $20 grand motorcycle and he hasn't ridden it for 2 years. Thats probably why I haven't spoken to the hypocritical bastard after I moved out after graduation.
 
I started working when I was 15. How come they won't let you get a job? Most parents want their kids to get a job to start learning the value of money, etc... :?:
 
i had a job at mcdonalds, but god no i quit. i made less than 15 a week at that shithole job, and there are no places to work close to me. i need vehicle to get job. i wanna work at gamestop or eb or something, so im at least around games, but theyre 20 miles away. i so need my drivers license.
 
My parents don't give two shakes of a rats butt what I do with my money. I could spend 500 dollars on condoms and they would'nt care... They'd think I'm and idiot, but they wouldn't care.

I had my first job for about 7 months, but near the last months i was only getting $30 so I quit. I got a new job at a gas station, which is alot better. I'm not getting much money right now, but that's because of hockey and driving lessons, which are all done by the end of this weekend. YES!!!!
 
one think i am glad about is that my parents dont gripe too much about a game here and there. after hearing my friends go on about how their parents dont let them have certain games or wont give em much money, im thankfull mine do. even though they both hate video games (my mom a lot more than my dad).

the best strategy ive come up with over the years though is not to ask impulsively, their less likely to buy it if i just want to buy for the sake of buying. i sorta let em know (over and over) b4 hand that i want a certain game. and ofcourse to limit urself on how much u ask them, too much causes them to just ignore everything.
 
[quote name='SneakyPenguin']i had a job at mcdonalds, but god no i quit. i made less than 15 a week at that shithole job, and there are no places to work close to me. i need vehicle to get job. i wanna work at gamestop or eb or something, so im at least around games, but theyre 20 miles away. i so need my drivers license.[/quote]

Awww that sucks. Well enjoy the time spent not working, cuz that's all you'll be doing the rest of your life. :wink:
 
if you are almost 17 and your parents won'tlet you get a job, you have more problems than not being able to buy tactics ogre.

seriously though, your parents should rejoice that you want to get a job. when i was 17 my parents had to get me a crappy job just to motivate me to get one i can tolerate. everything worked out pretty ok, but it took some pushing. point being: you've got some chutzpah, kid.
 
[quote name='moiety']
[quote name='SneakyPenguin']
i had a job at mcdonalds, but god no i quit. i made less than 15 a week at that shithole job, and there are no places to work close to me. i need vehicle to get job. i wanna work at gamestop or eb or something, so im at least around games, but theyre 20 miles away. i so need my drivers license.
[/quote]

Awww that sucks. Well enjoy the time spent not working, cuz that's all you'll be doing the rest of your life.
[/quote]

I second that. Stay out of the workforce for as long as possible, unless you like getting legally robbed by Dubya and a bunch of old retired folks. Non-salaried positions take 12.9% of your weekly paycheck for FICA alone.

Plus part time is so much more carefree than 8-6....
 
Not too long after I turned 16, I got home from school one day.
Dad: How was school
Me: Ok.
Dad: Learn anything?
Me: Not too much [this part of the convo was a ritual.]
Dad: Okay....*pause* I got you a job interview.
Me: Um, OK. When and where?
Dad: Hardee's. Thirty minutes from now. You should change clothes.
Me: Um OK.

So that's how I got my first job. They had been suggesting I get a job, but I just never got motivated to start making those 'cold calls'. But I worked there for about a year, and granted, I was making 3.85 an hour, but it was a job, I learned a lot, and started on my way to a career, eventually [not at Hardee's.]

While I don't like the massive taxes we're paying, to say we're being 'robbed by Dubya' is fallacious. Firstly, the Federal Income Tax was initiated as a *temporary* measure either during or immediately after the Civil War. [There's no such thing as 'temporary' in government.]. Secondly, almost every person who pays federal income taxes, saw a reduction in those taxes with the recent tax changes. Thirdly, social security taxes are not taken out or added into the same budget as Federal Income Taxes. SS taxes are paid out to recipients immediately as they are taken in from the workforce; thus, if there's an imbalance in the work force [as there is about to be], something's gotta give.
Don't be too choosy with your first job--any job is a learning experience, and you never know where you'll end up. Right after college I took a job as a clerk in a convenience store; I needed more pay, right then. Within six months I was manager of the store, and that changed the next few job decisions I made.
Somewhat-relevant advice: I know this will be hard to hear, but if you do get a job, *immediately* start saving some portion of your money, 10-40% if you can. Doesn't have to be in anything fancy, although if you could get a low-fee Roth IRA that would be great; even a savings account [that you don't touch] or savings bonds would be better than nothing. You'll start to build up a solid, growing nest egg, and get into a habit of saving--I wish I had done it when I was 16 or 17.
 
[quote name='dtcarson']

While I don't like the massive taxes we're paying, to say we're being 'robbed by Dubya' is fallacious. Firstly, the Federal Income Tax was initiated as a *temporary* measure either during or immediately after the Civil War. [There's no such thing as 'temporary' in government.]. Secondly, almost every person who pays federal income taxes, saw a reduction in those taxes with the recent tax changes. Thirdly, social security taxes are not taken out or added into the same budget as Federal Income Taxes. SS taxes are paid out to recipients immediately as they are taken in from the workforce; thus, if there's an imbalance in the work force [as there is about to be], something's gotta give.
Don't be too choosy with your first job--any job is a learning experience, and you never know where you'll end up. Right after college I took a job as a clerk in a convenience store; I needed more pay, right then. Within six months I was manager of the store, and that changed the next few job decisions I made.
Somewhat-relevant advice: I know this will be hard to hear, but if you do get a job, *immediately* start saving some portion of your money, 10-40% if you can. Doesn't have to be in anything fancy, although if you could get a low-fee Roth IRA that would be great; even a savings account [that you don't touch] or savings bonds would be better than nothing. You'll start to build up a solid, growing nest egg, and get into a habit of saving--I wish I had done it when I was 16 or 17.[/quote]

Some great advice!!! Thanks . . . I'm going to show this to my 15 year old son!!
 
[quote name='dtcarson']
Somewhat-relevant advice: I know this will be hard to hear, but if you do get a job, *immediately* start saving some portion of your money, 10-40% if you can. Doesn't have to be in anything fancy, although if you could get a low-fee Roth IRA that would be great; even a savings account [that you don't touch] or savings bonds would be better than nothing. You'll start to build up a solid, growing nest egg, and get into a habit of saving--I wish I had done it when I was 16 or 17.[/quote]

That's what I did, and trust me you won't be sorry. Very good advice, as teenagers are the top spenders in the country (since they don't really have any bills!)
 
I loved being a kid. I don't miss not having money or a car, however. Having sex without worrying about getting caught is cool too ;)
 
[quote name='moiety'][quote name='dtcarson']
Somewhat-relevant advice: I know this will be hard to hear, but if you do get a job, *immediately* start saving some portion of your money, 10-40% if you can. Doesn't have to be in anything fancy, although if you could get a low-fee Roth IRA that would be great; even a savings account [that you don't touch] or savings bonds would be better than nothing. You'll start to build up a solid, growing nest egg, and get into a habit of saving--I wish I had done it when I was 16 or 17.[/quote]

That's what I did, and trust me you won't be sorry. Very good advice, as teenagers are the top spenders in the country (since they don't really have any bills!)[/quote]

no no no, you all have this all wrong, use your life savings to buy stamps, yes STAMPS you'll be rolling in dough before you hit 25
 
My mom usually lets me get whatever game I want (as long as it's not M-rated, yargh!), but she has completly cut me off from new consoles. I can now only get a new one if I get rid of one of my old ones, which I simply will not do. Damn mom!
 
[quote name='SneakyPenguin']16 pushing on 17, but i need a car to get a job, and i need a job to get a car. sometimes i hate living in the sticks[/quote]

Are you planning to go to college? If you do, then in a year or two you can do what I do: get an on-campus job so you don't have to drive to work.

And I hope I don't sound like I'm putting you down, because I really don't mean it like that, but do you realize that you're making $40 a month for not doing anything? :) When I was your age, I didn't get an allowance at all! (I also had to walk to school five miles in the snow, uphill both ways. ;))

Damn, did I just use the expression "when I was your age"? :shock: I'm only 20. I'm too young to be talking like this. :(

Anyhow, here's some advice:

-Be a cheapass. "Greatest hits" games are $20, you can buy two a month. You don't need to buy a game the second it's released. $50 is way too much to spend on a game when there are so many other great games that are cheaper.

-Buy games that take a long time to play and/or have a lot of replay value. You don't have to buy a new game every month if the same game can hold your interest for a long time.

-Suck up to your parents. Is the reason why you can't get a job just because of the car issue or are your parents against it because of education? I know when I was in highschool, my parents wouldn't let me get a job because they didn't want it interfering with my homework. That was also their reason why they didn't like it when I played videogames. If that's the case with you, then study hard and get good grades to show your parents that videogames don't have a negative impact on you. They'll be more likely to let you get games if they don't view games in a negative light.

Good luck.
 
It's funny with forums, well me personally, that usually I assume whoever's posting is the same age I am... but reading some of these posts I'm a bit older Someone should set up a poll of everyone's age.

Anyways, technically it's their money so they can judge how much to spend on games. Its not much value to them, because they don't play the games. Don't worry, when you get older and get a job those games will probably be selling less at what you would've bought them for on EBay. By then you'll have enough to buy all that stuff and then some.

And dtcarson: I wish I had known that when I was a kid otherwise I'd been rolling in doe rite now.


And bfg9k, what you said reminded me of when I went to the airport with my family and had some condoms in my pocket from some previous extracurricular activities. Of course I had to set off the metal detector and had to take everything out of my pockets, including those condoms... in full view of my parents and extended family...

So what was the point again.. I guess you can go for a while without being caught but sooner or later its aired out like so much dirty laundry =/
 
wow a lot of good advice here. my story goes like this. the job problem is a mix of car and education. i was doing shitty in ap us history (granted im in 3 ap classes so it a lot of work), and we cant really afford a car. but now im doing good in school, but the car thing still kills it. i know i can get like 2 games a month and i sometimes do, but the thing is, i dont realize when sales come up, like when i can get four or more. i like to sometimes dip into the next month, borrow ahead to get it now. i used to be able to do this, but no more. and with any new job, i was planning on saving at least 50%, starting after a few weeks to get settled. my friends make like 100 a week at their part time job, so thats a game a week and 50 in the bank. it just seems im screwed until i get that job.
 
[quote name='magilacudy']It's funny with forums, well me personally, that usually I assume whoever's posting is the same age I am... but reading some of these posts I'm a bit older Someone should set up a poll of everyone's age.[/quote]

bt-search2.gif


http://cheapassgamer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6719
 
I didn't get a job til the summer right after HS graduation -- got a car (I paid 1/3rd of it from cash I had saved up over the years) for $3400 and then I began working at this postal encoding center.

Worst, job, ever. Sure, I made $11.97 an hour ($13.02 if it was after 6 PM, which almost all of my shifts were) and you only had to work 4-5 hours at a time. We got 5 minute breaks every hour.

However, between those 5 minute breaks, all you did was type as fast as you could. You'd enter zip codes, addresses, etc; the computers were like, some garbage from 20 years ago -- seriously, they reminded me of the old Apple IIs everyone used to use in elementary schools in the early 90s.

I was great at the job, first person to pass the training, scored the highest on several of the testing things, but then after about a month, I just quit. My hands felt like they were gonna fall off and my wrists would literally burn while I typed. It just wasn't worth it.

After I quit, I started my first semester of college, and had a new job, on campus, in the computer helpdesk area. It's much better, even though I only get paid $7.50/hr. I guess the moral is, try to find a job that you'd like and pays decent. Don't just go for whatever pays the most. Find a happy medium.
 
Excellent advice--there's more to a job than the pay. You're not going to find the 'perfect' job right out of HS or college, you probably don't even know what you're interested in at that point. [The job I'm at now is for a company I never heard of before I interviewed, and a job I never thought of, but I've been doing it for 3+ years and love it, in general.]
And yes, you can't get paid enough to work at a job you *hate*. Not dislike, not tolerate, but *hate*, and I've been at a couple of those jobs. It will affect every other aspect of your life also.
And I do appreciate that with most any job, getting there can be an issue--not to go all grade-school on you, but do you have a bicycle? Is there any place you could work within biking distance? Do you have any neighbors/friends you could carpool with?

I think it was yesterday, Clark Howard said that a 25 year old who saved 200$ a month only until he was 35, would retire with a million; but a 35 year old, assuming the same rates of return, would have to save 200$ until he was 55 or 65 to retire with a million. Might not be it exactly, but it was something incredibly different.
It's hard to realize, but the choices you make now can make a huge impact later on. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun, just don't be stupid. If I could travel time, I'd like to go back to my junior year in HS, through, oh, my junior year in college. Good times, but I'd have a little more fun than I did. Too many times I spent my energy and time on something that really didn't matter in the long run. But hindsight is, after all, 20/20.
 
When I was a kid my stepmom always said gaming was a waste of time and also it was a sin (religious fanatic). She thought the games were made by the devil or something like that. All my friends had systems and so I played a lot at their house. I did manage to get a computer from my uncle and then I saved up to buy a Commodore64 when I was 16. I started working when I was 12 so I could do what I wanted with my money. Videogames were really expensive back then. Nowadays kids complain but they got it easy. It was really hard to get used games...if not impossible. Also there was no internet deals and discounts so you relied on a chance sale when you went into a store...which you did every now and then. Games were $40-$50 back then...same as now. Except that $50 really was a LOT of money...a movie was $2 and a candy bar was a quarter.

Umm....I think my point is that games were NOT a waste of my time. I now own a game store and there are TONS of people employed by the game industry. So maybe if you convince your parents that you want to be in the game industry and have a career as a programmer, designer, or whatever...that you could justify the buying of games as research into your chosen career. lol
 
oh and you can get a job without a car!

thats just a lame excuse...you cant ride a bike or take public transportation? Jeez....

I am 34 and I never had a drivers licence. I either walked, biked, or took the bus to work. I could care less what others think. On payday I was the man. I could buy comics, games, go to movies, or whatever I wanted. A car is just gonna take all the money you earn at a job anyways. Gas, Insurance, repairs.
 
Defender, you live in NYC right? There's not really any need for a car in New York, in fact its probably more than a hindrance than anything else. That's why I want to live there some day...
 
Yep, I remember paying about 35 bucks of my hard-earned, lawnmowing money to Eckerd's [!] to buy....Pac-Man for the Atari 2600.
Apart from birthdays and Christmases, my folks pretty much provided the essentials [within reason, they'd buy me a pair of sneakers for a new school year, but not 40-100$ 'popular' pair.]
So I bought most of my 'entertainment' [and some other expenses--gas, a portion of my car insurance, etc.] out of my own money. It really means more when you buy something oyu want with your own money.
And that's true, it was very hard to find used games, and rental stores were almost nonexistent, so the best way to do it would be for you to buy Game A and a bud to buy Game B and lend them to each other.
Re: a car--I had to have access to a car to get to my work [I could ride my bike, and did sometimes, but it was a couple miles, so if the weather was bad or depending on my schedule, that wasn't an option. Plus I'd be riding back at close to midnight, which my mom didn't like.] My mom taught school, and I worked after school, so that worked out--I'd either borrow her car, or she'd drop me off/pick me up.
And yes, a car has inherent expenses, but a lot of people do live in the suburbs, where access to a car is almost essential. I'd rather deal with a car than live in NYC, no offense intended to anyone there--and big cities generally have higher living expenses anyway, so it balances out. We visited Manhattan a few years back, and house-sat a friends apartment. It had an excellent location, but she was paying 1200 dollars for an 'efficiency' that was maybe as big as my living room. And that was 300$ more than my house payment at the time. So it evens out :) If I lived there, I would definitely take advantage of the subways and buses and sidewalks and all, but I can't handle the crowds/population density.
Whether games are 'waste'--well, it's a hobby. Apart from the low percentage of people who get to work somewhere in the industry, I'd say it falls under entertainment expenses. How much to spend on entertainment depends on each family.
 
When I was a kid, my parents bought me an Atari 2600 (without my even asking) and kept my brother and I pretty supplied in games. That's where it ended though. I had to scrimp and save for a NES, and scrimp and save for every game I bought. I only had about 7 games. Rentals cost $3 (for only 1 lousy day), so I did that more than buying. I started mowing lawns, which gave me about $50 a month, but that had to last me for all the months that I wasn't mowing. I never was able to afford a SNES. But now, all these years later, I've got more games than I have time to play. Just hang in there, it won't be long before you'll be able to work and buy more games.
 
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