A couple of things initially @Luseth - I think its fantastic you are trying to find ways to keep having a positive life and find some savings from somewhere, life is definitely too short to sit here thinking shoulda, woulda, coulda. In the same breath its a real shame that your hobby that you seem to love so much has to take the hit. If it was me, I'd change the goals to be more like 'principles'. This way you make decisions based on all of the above but it makes you feel like if for some reason a top game you really want comes out, you don't have to feel like you are restricting yourself. Thats just my 2p on that.
With me, I always try to not pay full price too with the latest games we play. I'll still get some games through the year on release but thats usually kept for games we've all been talking about and I'm excited to play day 1 with lots of other FGers. I procrastinate naturally, which is truly annoying for me but probably means I don't spend all my money straight away. I can look and talk about a game for months and still not pick it up until I finally get it in the basket....and then sometimes wait for days/weeks again 🤣
Outside of those moments though, I've restricted myself over many years with games, lucky to pick up so many of my retro games at such a cheap price out of bargain bucket Gamestation all those years ago. My hobbies are gaming, FG, then football for my daughters team and Rovers. And with other things, like food, drink, etc, I've just never been into it all so much so games is really where I spend my money...and on FG stuff of course for my stupid sins 🙈😅