Perspective: What did you spend 5 dollars on last month?

Roughly converted from euros, here's a selection of things I spent expendable income on last month, each worth about 5 dollars or more (I am not a wealthy person, just a regular student):

- Quarter pounders (maybe one a week)

- Cheese (mmm.. blue cheese. the stinky stuff. Two doses of this)

- Sausages. Too many sausages.

- A crappy plastic water pistol to spray my dog

- Beer/Cider (5 euro a pint. Probably about twenty of these over the course of the month. This doesn't include misc. cans)

- Taxi journeys (from the town back into my apartment, I dont drive. 6 euro a pop. 5-ish times, easily could have walked)

- Phone credit

- General crappy take-away food

- Magic the Gathering cards (impulse buy every time I go to the store, prob around 5 packs a month)

- Rolling tobacco ( EU4.25 a pop, 4 of these a month)

- A dozen foam toy planes (I wanted to throw them all off the roof at once. figured it would look cool. It was a big flop.)

- Two DVD rentals (The Happening, coz lol, and Rollerball. about 3 hours of "entertainment", kept both for a week)

- A dumb t-shirt featuring a bird wearing a top hat and dressed up like an old-timey gentleman

- A lot of other stupid shit

- Giant Bomb sub

Now, while my list might not be representative of your average GB community member, you can see why I think the 5 bucks a month for a GB subscription is easily the best value on that list. Out of all my expendable income purchases, the GB sub has given me in the last month at least 15 hours of distraction ( videos that I ACTUALLY watched, not counting ones I didn't) .

If I put the same amount of effort complaining about the value of all those other things as some people expend complaining about GB, I would be committed.

I'd say the quarter pounders are the best thing on that list.

@laserbolts said:

I'd say the quarter pounders are the best thing on that list.

From the chipper at 2am, not good. >.<

Almost every day of last month i spent $5 on 2 12oz redbulls (local gas station has 2 for $5)

Couple of bags of Gardetto's through out the month

Couple of bags of Haribo Gummy bears through out the month

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight steelbooks from bestbuy (after trade n save)

That's about it. I don't really buy candy/snacks (other than Gummy Bears/Gardetto's, don't buy fast food, don't rent movies etc)

I'm jealous of your bourgeois burgers and foam planes lifestyle, the only thing I could afford last month was an album and I shouldn't have even bought that because I took it out of my college grant money for travel.

Ur momz

My list would just be food.

I'm trying to save my money...for some reason or another.

@Chop said:

My list would just be food.

I'm trying to save my money...for some reason or another.

You should trade it for goods and services.

Or t-shirts with birds wearing top hats.

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself. 
 
I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year)  
 
I really hate those "Oh, it's what you'd pay for a coffee!" arguments. Fuck you, I don't waste $5 on a single fucking coffee. 

@Khann said:

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself. I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year)

Well I did say expendable income, I do those things too. A part-time job keeps me in stupid shit.

Actually, this is an important bit of perspective. Consider not only the value of a GB sub, but the value of some apps and games that cost often-times less than $5, yet people still complain about how outrageously expensive they are, despite getting hours upon hours of use out of them, be it for entertainment purposes or utilitarian. Perspective is a good thing to have.

A sushi lunch.

@Khann said:

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself. I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year) I really hate those "Oh, it's what you'd pay for a coffee!" arguments. Fuck you, I don't waste $5 on a single fucking coffee.

Agreed. Wasted money is wasted money. Fuck coffee and Giant Bomb subs.

What are you doing?

This thread should be locked.

@Splodge: I like what you're doing here. Fuck the haters, they're allergic to perspective.

@Splodge said:

@Chop said:

My list would just be food.

I'm trying to save my money...for some reason or another.

You should trade it for goods and services.

Or t-shirts with birds wearing top hats.

I CAN'T!

You know that RPG horder mentality? I have that in real life.

Spotify account

also some boxes of Tracker bars (not sure if you get them outside of the UK lol)

@Chop said:

@Splodge said:

@Chop said:

My list would just be food.

I'm trying to save my money...for some reason or another.

You should trade it for goods and services.

Or t-shirts with birds wearing top hats.

I CAN'T!

You know that RPG horder mentality? I have that in real life.

God I wish I had that.

While it seems like you might want to cut back a bit, it is true that digital goods (like Giant Bomb) are markedly better value for money than most things, because they are virtually all fixed cost items. If I remember correctly (and it's been 4 years since I was in Journalism, so I might not) This is the "Long Tail" effect, where eventually all the money that company is getting from you is profit, so they can afford to keep prices very low. Now granted, there are prices that we pay for that, but in the case of a GB sub there's not really any "hard copy" that could exist. I mean, short of them starting a DVD magazine. Which would cost a hell of a lot more than 5 bucks a month for the same content, be alot less convenient, and place restrictions on how much content they could make. And when.

It's a good deal.

Condoms

Pollo Loco lunch

@TheHBK said:

Condoms

Pollo Loco lunch

That's a hell of a weekend.

Well since the point of your thread seems to be the value of a Giantbomb subscription I'll skip the what did I buy last month list and say that I think I get plenty of cool videos for my $5 a month. Maybe they aren't quite as numerous these days, but the stuff I enjoy most, which is really the Dave and Vinny stuff, is all subscriber stuff so as long as those two play some random ass PC games that are far too hardcore for me to even imagine playing at least a couple times a month I am good. I also like the Live Stream archive stuff. I thought the Olympic Games thing was quite interesting. And that alone was like 10 hours long. Speaking it costs me $6 to get two movies from Netflix for a month I think Giantbomb gives me more for my money. There honestly isn't a whole lot going on in the game industry these days so I don't blame them for the lack of content. They've put up a lot of cool videos on indie games I never had even heard of, and so on. I dunno. I like what I get for my money. All that said, you spent quite a bit of money on things that aren't required to live or even live happily. I've done it myself in certain months so I don't judge you for it, but saying that all those things are a worse invesment than Giantbomb is true, but none of those things are exactly wise investments in any circumstance. Saying you wasted more money on one thing than another is great and all, but the fact is you still wasted money.

@Raven10 said:

...All that said, you spent quite a bit of money on things that aren't required to live or even live happily. I've done it myself in certain months so I don't judge you for it, but saying that all those things are a worse invesment than Giantbomb is true, but none of those things are exactly wise investments in any circumstance. Saying you wasted more money on one thing than another is great and all, but the fact is you still wasted money.

Don't I know it. I am fucking terrible with money. Pretty good with other peoples, I worked in finance for a few years, but when it comes to my own I'm piss poor. I get impulsive.

I'll usually buy a game or two off of Steam. Got Supreme Commander and its expansion for a fiver last month and the first two Fallout games for less than $4 a few months ago. All these games combined have given me more or less 300 hours of entertainment.

Now, what you could have done was not spend money on just ten of those things (including the monthly sub) and bought a $49.95 yearly sub that is cheaper in the long run and comes with a $15-off code for a t-shirt in the store. What you also could have done was wait for GB's quarterly "sale" and "save" $15 on their own subscription, but you don't get the t-shirt code. You can even be more of a penny-pincher by just buying a monthly at the end of the year or after any major subscriber event and load up on anything you missed during your 30 day's time. (not what I do, cuz I like to watch live stuff)

I always try to find the best value for my dollar and $5 subscription to a gaming website isn't it.

@GenocidalKitten said:

So, what you're saying is that you'd actually be losing money if you don't buy a Giant Bomb sub.

Exactly. That was fifteen hours last month where I sat at my computer, instead of spending money on shiny baubles and cheap hand jobs.

I spent ~$5 on Mann-Up mode tickets for TF2's Mann vs. Machine mode. Sure, there's a free mode, but you don't get mad hats that way.

@Sploder said:

I'm jealous of your bourgeois burgers and foam planes lifestyle

This is the single greatest quote of the year.

The Walking Dead Ep.3!

Walking Dead Episode 3

A copy of Star Fox that I found at a thrift store

The PC version of Just Cause 2 (and all DLC). I'd played it on Xbox but I want to play it on PC.

I also had the opportunity to rebuy the PC versions of both Dead Space games, both of which I also have on Xbox so I didn't buy them.

I pay Gamefly $17 a month to send me nothing. It's been a week and a half since I returned a game, but since there's only three games on my queue from the past month (Sleeping Dogs, Darksiders II, and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron), none are available. I'm probably going to cancel.

For the past month, I went back and played games I missed (Binary Domain and Space Marine), but I'm tapped out. It's a crap-shoot because I don't really want to spend $60 on every game I play.

So $5 to GB a month isn't much of a thing for me.

An Expendables 2 movie ticket.

That's about it.

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself.  I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year)   I really hate those "Oh, it's what you'd pay for a coffee!" arguments. Fuck you, I don't waste $5 on a single fucking coffee. 

I come in here expecting an innocent thread about dumb purchases and I get your pro subscription propaganda? No thank you sir. Anyways, the only purchases I make for 5 dollars or less are usually just gross fast food for lunch at work. Usually subs from Subway, a couple Chick Fil A sandwiches, some Orange Chicken, or a slice of Pizza from somewhere with a cheap soda.

Games like Binding of Isaac which are more important to me than a Giant Bomb subscription.

@myketuna: $5 for a movie ticket?! Where on earth do you live?

Coffee. Lots of it.

DVD rentals? The fuck?! Does that shit still exist for anyone other than crazy people?

@TheHBK said:

Condoms

Pollo Loco lunch

Imagine the money you saved in the long run on those condoms.

BEST INVESTMENT EVER!

@Khann said:

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself.  I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year)   I really hate those "Oh, it's what you'd pay for a coffee!" arguments. Fuck you, I don't waste $5 on a single fucking coffee. 

You sound incredibly upset that people can justify having more disposeable income than you. Calm down

I spent $5 to "make it holler" not quite sure what it meant, but now I have to go to the doctor....

If people don't like it, they shouldn't be pressured into buying it. 5 bucks a month might not seem like a lot, until the subscriber videos start drying up and the reasons why are never officially given. The subscription is no longer a "keeping the lights on" expense.

People aren't simply complaining. It's more disappointment, with the lack of beloved subscriber features, and the lack of staff/community interaction. Frankly, it's none of your business what people chose to spend their money on. Does it affect you how many subscribers GB gets? Unless you work there, it doesn't. If this were the Whiskey days, I'd probably be alongside you waving the subscription banner. But we're no longer at an independent upstart that survives so heavily on subscription revenue. If people don't want to subscribe, they don't have to. They shouldn't be made to feel like assholes for it. It's no longer a donation, it's capitalism.

Chinese lunch specials. LOTS of them.

Walking Dead: Episode 3 is the first thing that popped into my head.

20 Chicken McNuggets.

Physics notebook.

5 $1 drinks at Buck Night at the bar last week.

Orange Dream Machine from Jamba.

That's all I can think for last month.

@Splodge: Huh so a 4 hour boring stream of shitty olympic games, lol i'll take the burgers! Do you work for GB?

I spent $5 on the third episode of The Walking Dead. I continue to love that game. Game of the Year so far, easily.

@Khann said:

@Fallen189 said:

@Khann said:

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself. I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year) I really hate those "Oh, it's what you'd pay for a coffee!" arguments. Fuck you, I don't waste $5 on a single fucking coffee.

You sound incredibly upset that people can justify having more disposeable income than you. Calm down

Not upset that people have more disposable income, upset that people think everyone has disposable income to waste on rubbish.

Jesus, calm the fuck down.

NICE TRY JEFF

@Khann said:

Not everyone wastes their money on dumb shit like yourself. I pay rent, bills and buy food. I'll buy a game here and there if I can get it for a decent price (recently dipped in to my savings for Sleeping Dogs... which I don't entirely regret), but any small amount of money I have left after all of that goes straight to savings (aiming to move country early next year) I really hate those "Oh, it's what you'd pay for a coffee!" arguments. Fuck you, I don't waste $5 on a single fucking coffee.

He did say it was expendable income. There are people that don't live paycheck to paycheck.

----------------------------

Here's what I can think of:

• Marlboros
• Energy Drinks (Required for 14 hour work days)
• GB Subscription

That's all I can think of.