I set my 2010 gaming budget at $1000. With three months out of the way, let’s see how I’m faring.

MSRP Total: $339.91
Actual Total: $228.53
Total Savings: $111.38

After gift certificates, coupons and other deals, I’ve spent $228.53 thus far.

The game I paid the most for was Battlefield: Bad Company 2 while Peggle Nights win the award for least paid at the price of free.

I’ve acquired many games via use of EB Games/GameStop’s Power Trade including:

• Mass Effect 2
• BioShock 2
• Metro 2033

It’s true that I’ve fallen in love with the Power Trade promotion. And why not? Adding 25-50% on-top of a $40 trade in value game makes the trade-in nearly 1:1. Plus, I clear out old games I don’t want and I clear out trade-in credit which I use to supplement those trades.

My next Power Trade will be Super Street Fighter IV.

I still haven’t purchased every game I wanted to though. Heavy Rain, Demon’s Souls, Bayonetta (360) and Splinter Cell: Conviction are still off the list, but that’s what I need to do if I want to keep within my limit.

A few weeks ago, I documented my 2009 gaming expenses and mentioned that I was anticipating my 2010 gaming expense to hit approximately $1500. That’s a high number if you think about it.

At that time I was considering buying many games and while I still do, I didn’t factor in the release calendar. With so many games coming, I can space out my purchases and with the fact that many games are floating at the $59.99 MSRP, the amount of money spent should be less.

So with that in mind — and a bit of conservatism on my part — I’ve decided to set my 2010 gaming budget at $1000. I think that’s manageable and if I stick to my mantra of not paying MSRP regardless if it’s $59.99 or $69.99, I should be okay.

What are your targets, folks? Are there targets or are you just going to wing it?

The end of 2009 is nigh and I can say with certainty that I will not be making any more gaming expenditures. So let’s take a look through the year and see how much I’ve spent on this hobby of mine.

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