When thrifty isn't necessarily a good thing

As the child of a Scotsman brought up in Yorkshire, you can imagine that penny pinching is something I am all too familiar with. Irritatingly, those principles were so firmly ingrained in me from childhood that they still influence my spending patterns on a fairly regular basis.

Which goes a long way towards explaining why, despite desperately wanting a PS3 and/or 360, I have only recently upgraded from my beloved original PS1 to a PS2 - a second hand one of course. We did buy a Wii when they first came out (ostensibly for the kids), but once I'd completed Twilight Princess I largely lost interest in it.
Of course a new console means new games. But naturally, I couldn't possibly buy those new either; cheap pre-owned being the only ones I can really bring myself to hand over my hard-earned cash for (well, Mr.B's hard-earned cash, but what's his is mine). Whilst over in England, I happened upon a shop that was a veritable treasure trove of inexpensive games, and couldn't resist bagging a bargain or six. Sadly, I went for quantity and price over quality so included in the handful I bought are some real pups, but as I've paid money for them I'm determined to play on regardless so it wasn't a complete waste.

So last night I was sat up till 1am trying to get my money's worth on The Golden Compass. I've never seen the film, was distinctly underwhelmed by the original books, and the only reason I bought it was that my friend's daughter had it on her dS ages ago and it didn't look too bad when she was playing it. Unfortunately I can't think of anything nice to say about it. The camera angles are usually placed in such a way to make it as difficult as possible with no way of changing them; there is too much dialogue and cut scenes that you can't speed up or skip; and the mini-games are repetitive and pretty dull (although some of them are occasionally infuriatingly tricky). Will I play through to the end? Probably. I've got to be able to justify spending that £1.99 after all. Will it drive me mad? Almost definitely.

Thriftiness tip of the day:
Should you have a temporary mental aberration and splurge £130 on a dSi but can't bring yourself to spend another tenner on something to keep it in, an odd fluffy sock makes an excellent case. The dS sits nicely in the top, and your games will stay safe underneath it in the toes.