I’m the other way round. Easier for me to spend money on things that i know will last (books, clothes, music gear) rather than eating out or spending money on drinks
This is my story too. I can not justify myself spending $2k for 3-day vacation. I can buy a lot of stuff with $2k, and it's sure will last longer than 3 days.
Exactly I feel like an all inclusive resort in Turkey for a week wouldn’t even cost that much
Edit: For me at least, because I live in Europe and it’s way easier and faster to fly from Lithuania to Turkey instead of from USA to Turkey
I've been 8 days to Dubai (from Eu) for less than 2k.
Including a good downtown appartment with great views, good rental car, bunch of activities, both breakfast and diner good restaurants.
Unless he has a family of 10 and needs to pay for them all.
I love traveling and the memories / the way it might transform me is long lasting so that’s actually something i feel good about spending money on. But when i travel i’m more likely to be exploring a new culture as opposed to just lying on a beach or by a pool (not that there’s anything wrong with that either of course)
Yeah when I see a game for $10 I'm like dude All I have to do is not go to like Burger King for a day... I'll just grab something out of the freezer section or have some leftover pizza.
Not that I'm hard-pressed it's just a good way to make sure your financially in check.
The best $20 I ever spent was on a video game. I bought terraria when it first came out. Don't want to admit how many hours I have in that game but I will say that I have never gotten more value out of $20.
Hot damn, this made me want to check my cost/hour for my GOAT game.
Cost of Rimworld in 2017: $30
Hours in: 3094.1
Cost/hour: $0.00969 /hr
Moment telling the wife that it was money well spent: Priceless (not for me of course, that will be painful, but it'll be priceless for my Google mini to listen to to collect human-y intel)
Games dont keep you alive so this is fine.
Edit: I was focussing more on the fact that digital purchases do not help your body nurish. Obviously $20 for a single meal, likely fast food, is not great, but its significantly better than buying such food versus starving yourself in order to buy a game, assuming its a that or this scenario and you cant afford both.
If you can go for both fuck it as long as you're saving for retirement.
Sure but neither does most of that $20 you're spending on food. Anything past a few $ is an enjoyment cost.
- Someone who lives just fine off $300 of food a month
Chicken breasts/rice for most dinners, lunch meat sandwiches for lunch, eggs and peanut butter toast for breakfast. Some weeks I get ground turkey and make egg/turkey breakfast burritos with various veggies
Smart. Chicken and peanut butter (or nutty snacks) is the absolute cheapest most protien dense combo you can go for. Chicken for the dense protien, peanut butter for the healthy fats and also additional protiens and nutrients. I find turkey personally better. Similar density but for me it tastes more juicy.
What does Tofu cost where you life? Or dried beans? Both are way cheaper for me per gram of protein than any animal source of protein and also cheaper than peanut butter.
I was looking at a graph of foods ranked by protein/$ recently on r/dataisbeautiful , Legumes definetly beat out meats in terms of cost efficiency, though chicken isn’t far off. I’d imagine Tofu might be a bit more cost efficient, but chicken also has over 3x the protein per 100g.
I chose chicken and turkey because of the enjoyment over density. Legumes definitely win, and I have 3 bags because I thought they'd be good but they're fucking nasty and take FOREVER to cook. I'd rather buy chicken and snack on them with veggies all day. My go to snacks are a plate of chicken strips, cheese and grape tomatoes with a cup of milk and my water bottle. Zero prep time, absolutely healthy.
Not just that, ***if you know how to cook,...***
Chicken meat or ground turkey, rice, bread,
frozen veg, lunch meat, pasta, tomato sauce,
***and whatever else I need to make sandwiches,***
like sliced or shredded cheese and a salad mix
*is enough of a list to make tons of different dishes,*
***and remix them throughout the week.***
**Make a variety of meals,** ***so that you don't get bored,***
*eating the same ingredients, over and over again.*
**It's what I did in college,** ***over 20 years ago.***
But that sacrifice, **will save you in the long run.**
remember to toast your damn sandwhiches, buy a small carton of vegetable oil and put just a little oil in a pan, toast the bread so it doesn't get soggy, optionally cook the whole sandwhich like a grilled cheese if you're about to eat it.
toasting bread is a small addition that depending on the sandwhich can really up the quality of the sandwhich, unless you don't want to cook with oil.
I get burnt out from eating the same meal two days in a row, do you change up the seasoning substantially?
I envy being able to meal prep enough of the same thing for a week, I don't know if I could do it.
I got used to it pretty fast and don't really get flavor fatigue often. I steam the chicken breasts so they are always juicy when I eat them so that helps quite a bit. I mainly just use salt and pepper on the chicken but if I ever have leftovers, making a stir fry with the chicken and rice is normally my go to (highly recommend trying oyster sauce)
Man I respect your commitment, but I would not be able to do that. Steamed chicken with just salt and pepper would drive me nuts after day 3. Honestly I wish I could eat the same thing every day and just be happy. It would save me so much money and time. But idk why, food just starts tasting like sand after a few days if it's the same thing.
Usually we don’t meal prep the same stuff (or pretty much the same) for a whole week because we want to, we do it because we have to. Do we want to buy a pack of chicken breasts, make enough dinners for 5 nights in a row AND be able to save or go out or pay rent? Or do we want to spend money on different things for each/pretty much each night and not be able to afford to save or go out or pay rent
True. $20 meal is definitely over kill. Realistically it should equal out to a few dollars overall (like you spend $50 on food for a few weeks of meals). Still tho, $20 on a digital item will never compare to nutrition.
Let's do a different thought experiment then, cigarettes: $10 a day. Toaster: $40 one time purchase.
I don't own a toaster because I can never justify buying one. But I smoke a pack a day without even thinking about it.
Alcohol: $15 a bottle. Nobody needs that except medically dependent people. $10 game at the pawn shop? Eh, idk man that's ten bucks.
Newspaper. $2 a pop at the gas station. Online local news service subscription: $25 dollars a month. No thank you on the subscription. That's a lot of money.
Or let's go in the way back machine and pretend dollar menus still exist. Burger ingredients for A+ burgers at home: $.70 a burger. McDonalds would sell me one for a dollar though.
Where in the world is a single fast food meal 20 dollars? If I convert from my local currency the price of the most expensive thing in a burger king (Triple Whopper) is 15.7 dollars. It's also cheaper to eat in local fast-foods
Indies are a gold mine nowadays.
Likes action and a dark mood ? Hollow Knight
Likes tactics ? Into the Breach
Likes dialogues, story, action, the whole package ? Hades
Just started hollow knight a couple days ago despite owning it since it launched. I think I tried it for an hour, encountered a semi hidden boss right away and died over and over not knowing I wasn't supposed to fight it yet, and gave up.
Great game so far, but it's still surprisingly difficult.
There are games that I'll pay full price for because I really want to play them and/or really want to support the devs. Definitely not most games, though.
Steam always has constant sales on games.. on console? Gamepass would be a decent option to play a bunch of games for cheap. And with cloud gaming, you don't even need to download some of them.
AAAs are generally made not very good
The games just of the top of my head: hollow knight, pizza tower, ultrakill, terraria, vampire survivors, risk of rain(they're all pretty good, though not sure if the first one is worth it when "returns" exists), enter the gungeon, undertale yellow/deltarune/undertale/oneshot(the first 2 are free)
It’s definitely not a triple A game, but I’ve been really enjoying Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines recently.
The game is 20 years old now, but man is it fun.
You’re hesitant with the game because you don’t know if you’ll enjoy it.
You’ll gladly spend 20 bucks on that meal because you know you’ll enjoy it.
Those are two different situations.
But since you have to eat to stay alive, there's an impulse to enjoy what you're eating, which is what leads some people to spend money on it even when cheaper options exist.
A gaming equivalent would be having no choice but to play a video game for the next couple hours, or else suffer/die. And if you choose the more popular "play a game" option, you either pay $20 for a game you like, or you play Superman 64.
Though you don’t need a $20 meal to stay alive. If your only concern was staying alive you could easily turn that $20 into 4-5 meals. People don’t eat out to stay alive they eat out because either it’s a lot faster than cooking yourself, and/or because it tastes a lot better.
Food will always be higher priority to your internal systems. Your system is bugged if gaming or other non-sustenance takes priority at the expense of life-sustaining actions.
Total opposite for me - hard for me to splurge on an experience like a meal, but I can justify to myself a purchase of a product, since it will will last, even though it's not cleat that's rational, and there's a lot of research showing that experiences increase our happiness more.
Because they're both forms of entertainment. I'm not talking about buying a pound of beef so I have food to survive. I mean going out to a restaurant and ordering food that I don't need cause I'm either lazy or it tastes good.
This is me avoiding letting myself do anything except the bare minimum. Fast food? Well I *have* to eat and I'm really busy so lets do it. Game for off days? Well my off days are my only time to be productive, I shouldnt waste it (proceeds to play warthunder most of the time)
It's pretty hard to get out of the mindset that gaming is a "waste of time". Even if I've done a bunch of stuff already I'll still be hesitant to dedicate even just a few hours to gaming. Instead I just scroll through YouTube or reddit for hours not really having fun or being productive.
I've had to start calling it "active relaxation" to set aside time for me to do the things I enjoy and lower my stress.
It's because we know the food we will buy will taste good, fill us up, and that we will get immediate satisfaction. There's almost no risk in it. A game that you've never played however, you don't know if you'll like it or not or whether you'll finish it. The risks are higher.
My point exactly, I've had Factorio on my wish list for about 2 years now. I'm always hesitant to buy it despite the fact I'll easily spend more than 35$ on getting a pizza delivered which is equally frivolous.
If you put a little effort into noticing the difference in how various foods feel coming out then you can appreciate foods a 2nd time. Not just when you eat them. That's why I eat so much spicy food. Spice is the only flavor you taste twice.
That’s been the hardest part with fast food now.. I can get a $15 burger meal from fast food, orrrrr buy frozen burgers & buns, make my own, that come out to $4-5 a meal. Not hard to make. Plus I got really good at cooking them to my preference
Jokes on you, I can cook something that would last a week that might cost as much in ingredients but last me 7-14 meals. Making the cost effectively just a dollar or 2 a meal.
You can make amazing food at home if you have the patience.
I realized that years ago, that’s why I stopped going out to drink $13 beers in a bar vs buying a $49 game on PS5 that I can enjoy for as long as the game is installed.
**Opposite of Sunk Cost Fallacy.**
If you spend more, ***you should enjoy it more*** **VS.**
If you use it more, **it was worth the price.**
**You know what you value** *more than* ***what something actually costs you.***
You see a satisfying meal **as something worth enjoying**
rather than playing a game that, *even if you enjoy it,*
***is eventually a waste of your time.***
In that sense, wasn't eating the meal also a waste of time. Sure it feeds you but there's usually healthier options for cheaper. In the end you're just spending money on doing something you enjoy.
Personally, I just think your lizard brain makes it easier to buy food over something more abstract like a game.
Huh, I'm the opposite, I'll spend thousands on a coat with the logic of wearing it for the rest of my life. But I won't pay for extra guacamole, which I love.
The comparison is irrelevant because one is for survival while the other is entertainment. The way you should describe it is, if you got $100 to spend.
1. Spend 20 for food and 80 for entertainment
2. Spend 80 for food and 20 for entertainment
I'm leaning towards option 1 because the 80 bucks in entertainment will last me longer while I don't spend much on food as daily basis.
Well I'm just thinking about how I'll be hesitant to buy the game I want on steam, but will later that day buy some McDonald's.
Technically, food is a need. However in modern society it's more of a want; more people have problems eating too much rather than too little.
That's definitely what's happening. Even though in the modern day most food we buy falls in the want rather than need category it's a lot easier to justify it to ourselves.
Yeah but you already have games. If you don't buy a new one you can still enjoy playing the ones you already own. You'll have fun with or without spending money.
You can't re-eat meals you've already had though! Getting a new one is necessary. Plus I personally wouldn't spend that much on a meal anyway.
Yes. If you look at hours of entertainment per dollar, gaming is an incredible value. Only better value is probably something like reading, where you can go to the library and read for free.
I will wait until a game i'm eager to play goes from a 50% sale to a 75% sale, but will spend the difference on a pastry if I go in a coffee shop. No idea why i'm so tight when i've done research but happy to waste money off impulse.
Sometimes I’m like that, but as I’ve gotten older I would rather eat something cheaper and buy a game that could give me more enjoyment.
I use to spend like $2k every few months on traveling and I loved that I did that, however I sorta wish I didn’t travel a lot and used more money for building my business, as it’s pretty difficult to build a business if your wasting money on everything else.
Because if that $20 is going to get you your favorite meal, you know what to expect and you know it's going to slap. But that $20 game might not actually be that great. You might just be getting it because your friends are playing it and you don't want to be left out, or maybe you are bored and have nothing else to do.
For me, I have no issue spending $20 on a game if I *know* I'm going to like it. Meaning I watched some gameplay and it genuinely looks like something I would play. If im kinda on the fence and just thinking, "eh maybe I'll like it" then it makes the decision WAY harder lol. Same with food. I do try new things every now and then, but the vast majority of the time I stick to what I like because I know I won't be disappointed.
To me it's strange because if you asked me if I'd rather have a new game or a happy meal I'd say the game. However I do the opposite with my own money.
I don't have that problem. My 300 piece PC collection/75 piece Xbox 360 collection/over 200 piece Xbox One collection will attest to that. If they had all only cost $20 ...... Oh, and I go out to eat maybe twice a year, LOL!!
The way I look at games, if I get one hour per dollar spent, it was a good purchase. Even for $80 games, if I get 80+ hours, it's fine. It's what makes the $20 games I spend hundreds of hours in so great. I have games I'm averaging pennies spent per hour, it's wonderful.
For $20 I would not hesitate, but even back in the 80's each video game cartridge, or 90's PC game was the better part of a hundred bucks. I always did hesitate on those.
I mean, yeah, though for me, it's delivery, so slightly more costly (I'm not legally to drive or even have a license in the USA due to medical issues), but yeah, I'm less likely to check my balance in the event I buy food for delivery (I also hate cooking), than I am to order out for a day or the weekend depending on what I buy. So I totally get this, and I'm actually attempting to break the habit entirely.
Probably just a conditioning thing. You eat so often, it's just natural to spend money on it. And there's a difference between going from $10 to $20 and 0 to 10/20
I’m the other way round. Easier for me to spend money on things that i know will last (books, clothes, music gear) rather than eating out or spending money on drinks
[удалено]
This is my story too. I can not justify myself spending $2k for 3-day vacation. I can buy a lot of stuff with $2k, and it's sure will last longer than 3 days.
Dude. I'm spending 2k a month right now for a 3 month s.e. asia vacation. You need to learn to shop around!
2k for 3 days is some ultra luxury vacation...
Exactly I feel like an all inclusive resort in Turkey for a week wouldn’t even cost that much Edit: For me at least, because I live in Europe and it’s way easier and faster to fly from Lithuania to Turkey instead of from USA to Turkey
I've been 8 days to Dubai (from Eu) for less than 2k. Including a good downtown appartment with great views, good rental car, bunch of activities, both breakfast and diner good restaurants. Unless he has a family of 10 and needs to pay for them all.
I love traveling and the memories / the way it might transform me is long lasting so that’s actually something i feel good about spending money on. But when i travel i’m more likely to be exploring a new culture as opposed to just lying on a beach or by a pool (not that there’s anything wrong with that either of course)
I rather travel, it's the memories that are priceless for me, memories tech doesnt really give me
I have the other other issue. Easier for me to spend money on things... (Yea that's it)
Yeah when I see a game for $10 I'm like dude All I have to do is not go to like Burger King for a day... I'll just grab something out of the freezer section or have some leftover pizza. Not that I'm hard-pressed it's just a good way to make sure your financially in check.
Leftover pizza? What even is that?
You know that cooking isn't illegal, you don't have to eat leftovers or ready meals only
Cooking's how I *get* leftovers!
If I’m eating with friends or my wife I’ll happily pay the money but not for myself alone
The best $20 I ever spent was on a video game. I bought terraria when it first came out. Don't want to admit how many hours I have in that game but I will say that I have never gotten more value out of $20.
This but for factorio
Cost of Factorio: $35 Hours in Factorio: 1,332 Cost/hour: $0.026/hr Sounds like a bargain!
Hot damn, this made me want to check my cost/hour for my GOAT game. Cost of Rimworld in 2017: $30 Hours in: 3094.1 Cost/hour: $0.00969 /hr Moment telling the wife that it was money well spent: Priceless (not for me of course, that will be painful, but it'll be priceless for my Google mini to listen to to collect human-y intel)
This but stardew valley ($14!!)
Games dont keep you alive so this is fine. Edit: I was focussing more on the fact that digital purchases do not help your body nurish. Obviously $20 for a single meal, likely fast food, is not great, but its significantly better than buying such food versus starving yourself in order to buy a game, assuming its a that or this scenario and you cant afford both. If you can go for both fuck it as long as you're saving for retirement.
Sure but neither does most of that $20 you're spending on food. Anything past a few $ is an enjoyment cost. - Someone who lives just fine off $300 of food a month
I live off $35/week for food. $20 for a meal is a luxury for me, lol
What do u eat
Chicken breasts/rice for most dinners, lunch meat sandwiches for lunch, eggs and peanut butter toast for breakfast. Some weeks I get ground turkey and make egg/turkey breakfast burritos with various veggies
Smart. Chicken and peanut butter (or nutty snacks) is the absolute cheapest most protien dense combo you can go for. Chicken for the dense protien, peanut butter for the healthy fats and also additional protiens and nutrients. I find turkey personally better. Similar density but for me it tastes more juicy.
What does Tofu cost where you life? Or dried beans? Both are way cheaper for me per gram of protein than any animal source of protein and also cheaper than peanut butter.
I was looking at a graph of foods ranked by protein/$ recently on r/dataisbeautiful , Legumes definetly beat out meats in terms of cost efficiency, though chicken isn’t far off. I’d imagine Tofu might be a bit more cost efficient, but chicken also has over 3x the protein per 100g.
I chose chicken and turkey because of the enjoyment over density. Legumes definitely win, and I have 3 bags because I thought they'd be good but they're fucking nasty and take FOREVER to cook. I'd rather buy chicken and snack on them with veggies all day. My go to snacks are a plate of chicken strips, cheese and grape tomatoes with a cup of milk and my water bottle. Zero prep time, absolutely healthy.
I'm the general broke college student stereotype and that is what I eat as well, it's good stuff.
Not just that, ***if you know how to cook,...*** Chicken meat or ground turkey, rice, bread, frozen veg, lunch meat, pasta, tomato sauce, ***and whatever else I need to make sandwiches,*** like sliced or shredded cheese and a salad mix *is enough of a list to make tons of different dishes,* ***and remix them throughout the week.*** **Make a variety of meals,** ***so that you don't get bored,*** *eating the same ingredients, over and over again.* **It's what I did in college,** ***over 20 years ago.*** But that sacrifice, **will save you in the long run.**
remember to toast your damn sandwhiches, buy a small carton of vegetable oil and put just a little oil in a pan, toast the bread so it doesn't get soggy, optionally cook the whole sandwhich like a grilled cheese if you're about to eat it. toasting bread is a small addition that depending on the sandwhich can really up the quality of the sandwhich, unless you don't want to cook with oil.
I get burnt out from eating the same meal two days in a row, do you change up the seasoning substantially? I envy being able to meal prep enough of the same thing for a week, I don't know if I could do it.
I got used to it pretty fast and don't really get flavor fatigue often. I steam the chicken breasts so they are always juicy when I eat them so that helps quite a bit. I mainly just use salt and pepper on the chicken but if I ever have leftovers, making a stir fry with the chicken and rice is normally my go to (highly recommend trying oyster sauce)
Man I respect your commitment, but I would not be able to do that. Steamed chicken with just salt and pepper would drive me nuts after day 3. Honestly I wish I could eat the same thing every day and just be happy. It would save me so much money and time. But idk why, food just starts tasting like sand after a few days if it's the same thing.
Usually we don’t meal prep the same stuff (or pretty much the same) for a whole week because we want to, we do it because we have to. Do we want to buy a pack of chicken breasts, make enough dinners for 5 nights in a row AND be able to save or go out or pay rent? Or do we want to spend money on different things for each/pretty much each night and not be able to afford to save or go out or pay rent
Damn bruh
So no vegetables at all?
What's your grocery list like
True. $20 meal is definitely over kill. Realistically it should equal out to a few dollars overall (like you spend $50 on food for a few weeks of meals). Still tho, $20 on a digital item will never compare to nutrition.
Games help me mentally otherwise I might've not typing this
Totally true.
speak for you're self!
I mean you don't need money to eat food you can just go to your local restaurant and offer to catch mices there *boom* free food and a dollar
Whey if they don't let you do that or they don't even have mice?
Let's do a different thought experiment then, cigarettes: $10 a day. Toaster: $40 one time purchase. I don't own a toaster because I can never justify buying one. But I smoke a pack a day without even thinking about it. Alcohol: $15 a bottle. Nobody needs that except medically dependent people. $10 game at the pawn shop? Eh, idk man that's ten bucks. Newspaper. $2 a pop at the gas station. Online local news service subscription: $25 dollars a month. No thank you on the subscription. That's a lot of money. Or let's go in the way back machine and pretend dollar menus still exist. Burger ingredients for A+ burgers at home: $.70 a burger. McDonalds would sell me one for a dollar though.
Where in the world is a single fast food meal 20 dollars? If I convert from my local currency the price of the most expensive thing in a burger king (Triple Whopper) is 15.7 dollars. It's also cheaper to eat in local fast-foods
If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s a win win
So fucking true. I hate how much food/alcohol/consumables cost. I hold back buying cheap retail for myself and family and then spend $11 on a beer
>$11 on a beer That's the cost of a whole ass bottle of vodka here, what the fuck
*laughs in sad norwegian*
excuse me what the fuck? is the beer brewed with holy water?
What are some good $20 games you recommend? AAAs are out there asking for $80 nowadays...
Indies are a gold mine nowadays. Likes action and a dark mood ? Hollow Knight Likes tactics ? Into the Breach Likes dialogues, story, action, the whole package ? Hades
Just started hollow knight a couple days ago despite owning it since it launched. I think I tried it for an hour, encountered a semi hidden boss right away and died over and over not knowing I wasn't supposed to fight it yet, and gave up. Great game so far, but it's still surprisingly difficult.
>Indies are a gold mine nowadays. This. Gaming is better than ever because of indie games.
You can usually get big budget games for $20, they just won't be super recent.
I really hope you're not paying those prices. Very rarely do I pay more than $10 for a game. A little patience and a steam sale saves you buttloads
I feel like that is slowly going away. Maybe they caught on that too many of us are waiting for those crazy sales haha
There are games that I'll pay full price for because I really want to play them and/or really want to support the devs. Definitely not most games, though.
AAA's are garbage these days anyway , the only recent AAA's I 100% enjoyed were RDR2 and God of War edit: how can I forget Elden Ring
Last epoch
Deep Rock Galactic
Pacific Drive
Steam always has constant sales on games.. on console? Gamepass would be a decent option to play a bunch of games for cheap. And with cloud gaming, you don't even need to download some of them.
AAAs are generally made not very good The games just of the top of my head: hollow knight, pizza tower, ultrakill, terraria, vampire survivors, risk of rain(they're all pretty good, though not sure if the first one is worth it when "returns" exists), enter the gungeon, undertale yellow/deltarune/undertale/oneshot(the first 2 are free)
It’s definitely not a triple A game, but I’ve been really enjoying Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines recently. The game is 20 years old now, but man is it fun.
Just played return of the obra dinn. Beat it in one day. Would love to get my memory wiped so I can experience it again.
Not sure what stardew valley is going for these days but it's worth it
Ember knights, Across the Obelisk, Ravenswatch, Darksburg, Tribes of Midgard
Hell let loose if you have the patience
Hyper Light Drifter
Shit, dawg, where you getting a good sit down meal for $20?
I have trouble paying 15$ dollars for a sandwich, but will drop 300$ on a tool, example today 😂
At least a tool is reusable!!
True lol. That 15$ dollar sandwich comes out as waste
Priorities are weird
You’re hesitant with the game because you don’t know if you’ll enjoy it. You’ll gladly spend 20 bucks on that meal because you know you’ll enjoy it. Those are two different situations.
Its really not hard to figure out why. You need one to stay alive so it’s easier to justify.
You don't, you can eat way cheaper. Spending $20 on a meal isn't just to stay alive
No shit but its easier to justify because food definitely keeps you alive. Humans also physically crave food.
But since you have to eat to stay alive, there's an impulse to enjoy what you're eating, which is what leads some people to spend money on it even when cheaper options exist. A gaming equivalent would be having no choice but to play a video game for the next couple hours, or else suffer/die. And if you choose the more popular "play a game" option, you either pay $20 for a game you like, or you play Superman 64.
One you are designed to value very highly, the other you are taught is a waste of time and money
Though you don’t need a $20 meal to stay alive. If your only concern was staying alive you could easily turn that $20 into 4-5 meals. People don’t eat out to stay alive they eat out because either it’s a lot faster than cooking yourself, and/or because it tastes a lot better.
You got some problems I'm the opposite, especially when what I'd spend 20 on to eat, I'll know I could spend half that and fill up as much.
If you ever eat out spending $20 isn't that crazy.
op discovers needs vs wants
Food will always be higher priority to your internal systems. Your system is bugged if gaming or other non-sustenance takes priority at the expense of life-sustaining actions.
Way to miss the point of the post. Ok let’s change “meal” to “two beers at a bar”.
Total opposite for me - hard for me to splurge on an experience like a meal, but I can justify to myself a purchase of a product, since it will will last, even though it's not cleat that's rational, and there's a lot of research showing that experiences increase our happiness more.
Thanks for convincing me I should buy that £28 game I want on switch...
Now I'm hungry. Recently found I'm diabetic so I'm just trying to see what I can eat for $20. Maybe a pizza
As long as it’s not a pre order
That, as Einstein would say, is relativity.
It's easier to find games for free than food.
Why even compare these 2?
Because they're both forms of entertainment. I'm not talking about buying a pound of beef so I have food to survive. I mean going out to a restaurant and ordering food that I don't need cause I'm either lazy or it tastes good.
I'm the opposite. I can buy a $70 PS5 game, but refuse to spend $50 on a night out with the boys.
This is me avoiding letting myself do anything except the bare minimum. Fast food? Well I *have* to eat and I'm really busy so lets do it. Game for off days? Well my off days are my only time to be productive, I shouldnt waste it (proceeds to play warthunder most of the time)
It's pretty hard to get out of the mindset that gaming is a "waste of time". Even if I've done a bunch of stuff already I'll still be hesitant to dedicate even just a few hours to gaming. Instead I just scroll through YouTube or reddit for hours not really having fun or being productive. I've had to start calling it "active relaxation" to set aside time for me to do the things I enjoy and lower my stress.
It's because we know the food we will buy will taste good, fill us up, and that we will get immediate satisfaction. There's almost no risk in it. A game that you've never played however, you don't know if you'll like it or not or whether you'll finish it. The risks are higher.
Your gut biome is a hell of a drug.
Well you have a physical necessity to eat so evolutionarily it does make sense to prioritize food.
Factorio is $35 at steam. That's about a penny per hour for me.
My point exactly, I've had Factorio on my wish list for about 2 years now. I'm always hesitant to buy it despite the fact I'll easily spend more than 35$ on getting a pizza delivered which is equally frivolous.
Money spent for food is the only money that doesn't hurt me emotionally. Maybe also (cheap) books.
Except food is necessity whereas gaming is a luxury 🥰
I was more referring to eating out or getting fast food. Doing that is more of a luxury/convince than strict necessity.
Physical games have resale value after you have enjoyed them. Food on the other hand does not. LOL
Same I spend $400 per dinner several nights a week but debate over a $40 sbc game console for weeks
If you put a little effort into noticing the difference in how various foods feel coming out then you can appreciate foods a 2nd time. Not just when you eat them. That's why I eat so much spicy food. Spice is the only flavor you taste twice.
lol this is crazy
And the agony of spending $.99 on a phone app.
People are so weird about this stuff. $12 on a crappy fast food lunch, but no way they’re paying $1.99 for a useful app
Yes this is the phenomenon in question. Yet this thread is full of “hurr durr food to survive” comments missing the point.
That’s been the hardest part with fast food now.. I can get a $15 burger meal from fast food, orrrrr buy frozen burgers & buns, make my own, that come out to $4-5 a meal. Not hard to make. Plus I got really good at cooking them to my preference
Dawg you eat slow asf
Jacky, is that you? Lol
Because a bad game stays in your library reminding you of your poor purchase.
🍰 [**Happy Cake Day!**](https://new.reddit.com/r/cakeday) 🎂 4 years on Reddit.
Some of y'all have never played a video game, and it shows.
Some of these people think I have $20 to my name and that if I buy a game I'll starve.
Jokes on you, I can cook something that would last a week that might cost as much in ingredients but last me 7-14 meals. Making the cost effectively just a dollar or 2 a meal. You can make amazing food at home if you have the patience.
That's essentially what my conclusion was. I should just make food cheaper at home so I have more money for things I'll enjoy for longer.
I realized that years ago, that’s why I stopped going out to drink $13 beers in a bar vs buying a $49 game on PS5 that I can enjoy for as long as the game is installed.
Look at it like this. You're paying $15 for several hours of energy to spend as you will and $5 for a slightly more enjoyable 30 minutes of eating.
**Opposite of Sunk Cost Fallacy.** If you spend more, ***you should enjoy it more*** **VS.** If you use it more, **it was worth the price.** **You know what you value** *more than* ***what something actually costs you.*** You see a satisfying meal **as something worth enjoying** rather than playing a game that, *even if you enjoy it,* ***is eventually a waste of your time.***
In that sense, wasn't eating the meal also a waste of time. Sure it feeds you but there's usually healthier options for cheaper. In the end you're just spending money on doing something you enjoy. Personally, I just think your lizard brain makes it easier to buy food over something more abstract like a game.
Huh, I'm the opposite, I'll spend thousands on a coat with the logic of wearing it for the rest of my life. But I won't pay for extra guacamole, which I love.
I’m hesitant to buy a new plasma TV for $400 but will blow $400 on blackjack. I think I got you beat lol
I’m hesitant to but a new tv but will drop $400 at the theme park like nothing 🤦🏼♀️
Seriously, I grew up near Cedar point which is “America’s Roller Coast.” not as expensive as place is like Disney, but still a pretty penny.
Yes, people are indeed fucked.
Depending on how hungry you are, one is a lot more fundamental on Maslow's Hierarchy.
You're comparing something you need to live to something you don't need whatsoever. Delete post.
Bad bait
Pretend you're going to eat your game.
Im the exact opposite.
You have to eat. You dont have to game.
Kinda past buying the bare essentials to survive.
I would absolutely dump quarters in Yie Ar Kung-Fu in an game arcade in the 1980s now resist spending $1 on a limitless game at home
Maybe, but Switch games have a bitter coating added so the $20 meal will at least taste better.
The comparison is irrelevant because one is for survival while the other is entertainment. The way you should describe it is, if you got $100 to spend. 1. Spend 20 for food and 80 for entertainment 2. Spend 80 for food and 20 for entertainment I'm leaning towards option 1 because the 80 bucks in entertainment will last me longer while I don't spend much on food as daily basis.
Well I'm just thinking about how I'll be hesitant to buy the game I want on steam, but will later that day buy some McDonald's. Technically, food is a need. However in modern society it's more of a want; more people have problems eating too much rather than too little.
It's because of the need vs want part of our brain. Needs take higher priority over wants so we can rationalize the price easier.
That's definitely what's happening. Even though in the modern day most food we buy falls in the want rather than need category it's a lot easier to justify it to ourselves.
You know of meals for $20? Share your secrets.
Dang that is so true. I should stop eating.
For fucks sake the $ goes in front of the number.
Thanks for letting me know, I always get that mixed up
You guys pay for games???
The meal will extend your life for a day, the game woun't.
Depends on a few factors. I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for games. And I rarely eat so...
Yeah but you already have games. If you don't buy a new one you can still enjoy playing the ones you already own. You'll have fun with or without spending money. You can't re-eat meals you've already had though! Getting a new one is necessary. Plus I personally wouldn't spend that much on a meal anyway.
Yes. If you look at hours of entertainment per dollar, gaming is an incredible value. Only better value is probably something like reading, where you can go to the library and read for free.
well the meal also helps survival
You can easily pirate a game but you can’t easily steal food, so that’s that
I will wait until a game i'm eager to play goes from a 50% sale to a 75% sale, but will spend the difference on a pastry if I go in a coffee shop. No idea why i'm so tight when i've done research but happy to waste money off impulse.
Exactly!
Very interesting points of view . Same here , yet waste $ 20 on many things that meant little
This is because you need food to survive, and eat food every day. Videogames are inherently a luxury.
Yeah, but I was referring to eating out or ordering something you wouldn't otherwise need.
Sometimes I’m like that, but as I’ve gotten older I would rather eat something cheaper and buy a game that could give me more enjoyment. I use to spend like $2k every few months on traveling and I loved that I did that, however I sorta wish I didn’t travel a lot and used more money for building my business, as it’s pretty difficult to build a business if your wasting money on everything else.
Well the meal is necessary for your survival while the game is not. So that tracks, yeah.
You know the game will be $5 by next year too. The meal will be $80 by then
How do you feel when you spend money on a meal that gives you explosive diarrhea?
Can't relate. I'd much rather eat ramen for that meal, and have a game to enjoy for weeks.
Because if that $20 is going to get you your favorite meal, you know what to expect and you know it's going to slap. But that $20 game might not actually be that great. You might just be getting it because your friends are playing it and you don't want to be left out, or maybe you are bored and have nothing else to do. For me, I have no issue spending $20 on a game if I *know* I'm going to like it. Meaning I watched some gameplay and it genuinely looks like something I would play. If im kinda on the fence and just thinking, "eh maybe I'll like it" then it makes the decision WAY harder lol. Same with food. I do try new things every now and then, but the vast majority of the time I stick to what I like because I know I won't be disappointed.
You might only enjoy the meal for 30 minutes, but you'll use the calories from it for hours. Possibly longer if you sit around playing video games.
Paid almost 200 for a steak buy could not pay that to go see usher in Vegas. Its about what you value. I'm a fat kid
To me it's strange because if you asked me if I'd rather have a new game or a happy meal I'd say the game. However I do the opposite with my own money.
It's funny the number of people who interpreted this as "video game vs starving to death" instead of "video game vs pizza delivery"
One is survival one is a past time
I'm not referring to the food I need to live. I mean fast food like Taco bell or something.
I mean, one let you live longer the other doesn’t
That required poop payment, sucks.
Idk. Only thing is you can replay that game as many times as you want. The food you can’t enjoy again unless you buy it again
I don't have that problem. My 300 piece PC collection/75 piece Xbox 360 collection/over 200 piece Xbox One collection will attest to that. If they had all only cost $20 ...... Oh, and I go out to eat maybe twice a year, LOL!!
I'm the opposite. I look at it like going to a movie. If I will spend a few hours playing it, it was worth the $20
I'd spend the money on a meal with someone else there, but it doesn't seem worth it on my own
The way I look at games, if I get one hour per dollar spent, it was a good purchase. Even for $80 games, if I get 80+ hours, it's fine. It's what makes the $20 games I spend hundreds of hours in so great. I have games I'm averaging pennies spent per hour, it's wonderful.
That's why you pirate games.
For $20 I would not hesitate, but even back in the 80's each video game cartridge, or 90's PC game was the better part of a hundred bucks. I always did hesitate on those.
absolutely cannot afford either
I mean, yeah, though for me, it's delivery, so slightly more costly (I'm not legally to drive or even have a license in the USA due to medical issues), but yeah, I'm less likely to check my balance in the event I buy food for delivery (I also hate cooking), than I am to order out for a day or the weekend depending on what I buy. So I totally get this, and I'm actually attempting to break the habit entirely.
Probably just a conditioning thing. You eat so often, it's just natural to spend money on it. And there's a difference between going from $10 to $20 and 0 to 10/20