The usual here, coupons, price drops, sales, BUYING ONLINE, free shipping, no tax etc. Any little bit you can save helps, it all adds up in the end.
Trading games with other gamers recycles games, so you can get games you haven't played for ones you have played. It also makes 2 people happy and helps out another gamer. And I am not talking about trading games in at gamestop here!
Always have some money put away for a clearance sale, you never know when one is gonna hit. Once you find a clearance sale hoard it all (provided its stuff you actually want to play), then you will have games on the cheap to play for many months.
Also, buy older games. I am extremely frugal and do not own any of the newer systems, besides a Nintendo DS. Most games for this system drop to 19.99 in no time at all, with the exception of a few first party titles. Really easy to keep up with game buying when games are that cheap.
I purchased most of the systems I own at yard sales for under 15$ each, I think the most expensive systems were a 15$ dreamcast and a 25$ saturn with one game shipped from an online friend. The most expensive system I own is a gamecube (lol) that I bought for 150$ with a gameboy player.
No matter what your income level and if your really running out of games in your house to play (who can say they have actually had that problem?) you can always afford to spend 5-10$ on an older game so that you will have something to play. You don't have to spend massive dollars on games to play video games.
I agree with not buying things you don't need, then you can save for the things you really want, I am not going to list items because everyone has different priorities, chances are you can skimp in one area though and save money for another. Don't buy things based on hype, wait for impressions and reviews to come out, only buy what YOU feel is a good product and what you will use.
If you find a real boyfriend/girlfriend you will not need to buy them stuff constantly to earn their love. A gift is nice here and there but if you get to the point where you are spending all your money on your significant other just to earn their love something is wrong.