Recently my wife and I sat down for the first time in a couple of years to review and update our budget. Since last adjusting our spending and saving plans I had gotten a new job, we bought a house, and we adopted a baby, so it was definitely past time to take a new look at the big picture of our finances.

The Unwelcome Discovery

Most of the adjustments we made were typical and fully expected—mortgage payments, baby supplies, and so on. However, one item in particular jumped out at me as I was going through our regular monthly bills: Our monthly Vonage telephone bill was way higher than I remembered it being.

I logged onto my account to try to figure out what was going on and sure enough: Since early 2009 our bill had gone from around $17 to over $30—a 68% increase! How did this happen without me noticing earlier? Let's start with a little background.

I've been an avid gamer ever since I bought my first Nintendo Entertainment System when I was ten. Today I have a Wii, an Xbox 360, and a PS3. My library of games includes major titles including the big Mario and Halo games, LittleBigPlanet, Batman: Arkham Asylum... you get the picture.

Even with a serious untreated gaming addiction, I manage to spend just a few hundred dollars a year on my gaming habit. (I'm not rich, after all.) I bought all three of the consoles mentioned above for a combined total of about $400 (today's retail price: $800), and I rarely spend more than $20 on a game, despite the fact that most titles retail for $50 to $60. Here are a few of the tricks I use to indulge in my gaming habit without laying waste to my carefully-constructed budget.

Patience Pays

Exercising a little patience can pay off in a big way. After just six months, that $60 new release can often be found for $40 or less. A year after they hit the shelves, it's not uncommon for me to find some games for $30.

Given the fact that each year around sixteen million Americans move to a new county, it's likely that at some point in your life you'll find yourself moving to an unfamiliar area.

Starting a new chapter of your life in a fresh locale can be an exciting and memorable time, but it can also be rough on your personal finances. Many of the expenses associated with a major move are unavoidable, but there's one major mistake that is easy to avoid: buying a home immediately upon arriving.

Maybe you're tired of renting and homes are a lot cheaper where you're going, or maybe you own a home in your old city and feel like it would be a financial defeat to go back to renting.

"If you rent, you're throwing away your money."
"Owning your own home is a forced savings plan."
"Home ownership is an excellent path to build wealth."

You've probably heard statements like these plenty of times. On television, radio, the internet, and in casual conversation. Such sentiments are common in any discussion that involves home-buying and personal finances. It's common knowledge that buying a home is a better financial move than renting. After all, you're building equity instead of throwing away your money, right? Well, maybe not quite... Rather than assuming the "common knowledge" on this subject is accurate, let's take a look for ourselves at some of the financial differences between renting and home-buying.

A Real-World Example

For the purpose of comparing renting to owning in this article, I'll be using real-world data gathered from my area (northeast of Seattle). Although most first-time buyers tend to move from renting an apartment to buying a larger, stand-alone house, as much as I can I will compare apples to apples.