It's time to get started...

Hi everyone, and welcome to a new Year of Frugal Gaming, I hope you're enjoying the posts from Pete and Von, I'm really pleased to have them on board and I'm interested to see how their Frugal Years unfold. If you fancy spending less and gaming more, then take up your own Year of Frugal Gaming. All you need to do is commit to watching your spending on gaming items by concentrating on good quality essentials that you know will get used, combine this with a dedication to playing more games and you're on your way. Hey, you only need to keep it up for 12 months, how hard can it be? If you're really keen, post a comment on the site or send me an email (to thefrugalgamer(at)gmail.com), I'm always looking for more contributors so drop me a line and I can give you posting rights on the blog if you fancy!

Anyway, back to reality, I'm afraid that my own year is not off to the best of starts. On the plus side, I haven't spent any money on gaming products so far, though this has to be balanced against the fact that I've not actually done any gaming this year, yikes! I think I need to get off my bum and arrange some gaming evenings, this might inspire me to get the paints out as well and get a bit of gaming momentum.

Speaking of which; this week I went to visit Von and drop him off some flock for his game board (see previous post) and picked up a boar chariot from him to go with my (yet to be started) Goblin army project. I'm got plenty of night goblins, a giant and various other units, I've even got the Army book, but I've still to get it all sorted out. Let's not even mention my Dark Eldar force for 4ok, though I did manage to pick up lovely metal tool box to keep it in (a mere £2!), my plan is to add magnets to the bases of the figs so that I can carry them around without them falling all over the place (or paying a fortune for a GW case).
As a gaming related aside, I've even started looking forward to this Christmas. One of my intentions this year is to make all the Christmas presents I'm giving, the first one I want to get started on is a piece of gaming scenery for my son (don't worry, he doesn't read this blog!) I've seen an awesome bit of terrain I intend to take inspiration from over at Doctor Merkury's Lab, a fantastic site which is well worth checking out. I hope he doesn't mind me stealing his photo!
And finally... I've now added a search box to the blog so you don't have to trawl through all the articles to find what you want. I've also added Facebook and Twitter functions so that you can post the latest blog entry to your Facebook page. Try it out, spread the word and let me know how you get on!

Happy Gaming

Six Months of Frugal Gaming

Hello all, it’s been a good gaming week. Even though I haven’t actually been gaming I've got plenty of painting done and finally finished off some terrain I've been working on (pictures next week). This week I'm having a look over the past six months, as I'm now halfway through my Frugal Mission....

Spend less
My first aim was to spend less on gaming and I've done pretty well. I've done well on this aim as I've tried to not buy more until I’ve got all my current miniatures painted and projects finished. It’s not been perfect, but I’ve severely reduced the backlog and I feel that when I’ve spent the money, it’s been on the things that I really wanted.

Surely the best way of spending less is to get things for free, and I achieved this by trading away some of my old and unplayed games via BoardGameGeek this is a great resource, and I’d highly recommend you check out the trading functions. Trough these trades I managed to get two full Blood Bowl teams, a copy of Power Grid, some Necromunda terrain and various other bits and pieces.

Game more
My second aim was to play more games. My stats for the year so far are:


This is a total of 41, compared to a total of 52 from the first half of 2008. This is obviously a decrease on my gaming from last year, though some of the games that I’ve been playing this year are slightly longer than those from last year (more Necromunda and 40k this year, compared to Memoir '44 last year), so I’ve probably spent more time gaming. This is partly due to a change on the way that I've been playing. I've recently started attending gaming clubs and haven't had many games nights at home, due to work commitments amongst myself and my friends. I enjoy attending the clubs, but I'm also keen to get my friends round more often.

Making money
The ultimate goal that I set myself was to make some money. This is the holy grail of any hobby, getting your pastime to pay. My main effort in money making was to sell terrain which I enjoyed, but it was a lot of work, for little reward. I managed to break even on my costs, have a lot of materials left over for future projects and even acquire some new toys (my air compressor). It was quite an experience running a stall and it gave me a new respect for people that do it for a living, it was also really nice to meet people who’d read the blog.

At the start of the year I had great success with the Bring and Buy stall at the PAW annual show.

However, when I went to Legionary at Exeter, the results were not so good. Only a couple of my items sold, though I did pick up some very cheap plastic Orcs for Blood Bowl! Pretty mixed results really, though I’ll definitely keep putting item in for sale in future Bring and Buys.

The best way that I’ve raised funds for gaming this year has been through the magic of ebay. I realised early on in my mission that there were certain figures that I’d never get to paint so the best thing to do was to sell them on. A lot went on ebay last week, and I was quite surprised. I’d picked up some old Citadel Empire figures a couple of years ago for a few pounds, I was planning to use them for Mordheim, but I decided to get rid of them as I suspected I could get my money back. I was surprised when I listed them all individually and I managed to make about TEN TIMES my purchase cost back. I was very happy (and very surprised) about this but I’m still not very happy about selling individual miniatures in ebay. It can get you great results as a seller (try it!) but it’s quite frustrating as a buyer.

Summary
So far, I think I’ve done well with spending less, and that it hasn’t affected either the quality of amount of my gaming which shows that Frugal gaming is possible. However, I’m gaming less than last year, not more. I need to get this sorted out! More games nights with friends and more attendance at Games Clubs are definitely on the agenda, this does mean that I need to get my Dark Eldar force painted (or at least assembled), so that's my next objective.

The past six months have been great and I’m enjoying my gaming a lot more, without the annoying feeling that I’m throwing money away unecessarily. The next six months will see more gaming, less spending and perhaps even making a bit of money from the hobby!
All the best, happy gaming!

The Final Countdown

I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from people on The Miniatures Page (TMP) after posting a link to my blog and outlining my mission. It seems that a lot of others out there wouldn’t mind clearing out their backlog of games unplayed and minis unpainted. While on the subject of TMP, if you haven’t read it, I’d pay it a visit. It’s the best way of keeping up with the new releases and various happenings in the world of gaming, as well as forums which can acts as a fantastic source of advice and inspiration.

It’s now time for my final countdown before I begin. The next time I post I’ll be a frugal gamer.
So what have I done in my last few days of freedom? We’ll I’ve done a bit of last minute stocking up. I received some early Christmas money and invested in a mould from Hirst Arts. Due to the fluctuations in the pound recently, these aren’t quite as cheap as they used to be (they’re imported from the states), but they still represent good value for money in the long run and I’ll review them as I use them later on next year.

This mould was bought from Hirst Arts UK, (run by Andy Slater from Terragenesis, an excellent site that I’ll also be reviewing in a future post) and arrived within days, great service and highly recommended.

I’ve also started planning how to bring in a little money. At present, this has taken the form of sorting out some old games and figures for a bring and buy sale in February. Not much, but a start.

And of course, I’ve been casting a critical eye over my unfinished projects, deciding which are first on my hit list and which can continue to gather dust for a few more months. One of my first few posts in the new year will be a stocktaking exercise to see once and for all what I need to get finished and that I need to get rid of. I’m expecting an emotional day.

So why not try the same? Have a look at the contents of your cupboards and see what can go and what needs a bit of attention to finish off.

That’s all for now, have a great Christmas and I’ll see you all in the new year!

The Mission...

The Mission: A year spending as little as possible on wargaming and boardgaming.
Secondary Objective: Game more.
Ultimate Goal: Make as much money from gaming as I spend.

Timeline: January 2009 - December 2009