There are lots of useful guides on how to make treasure/gems! I don't see any recent ones on how to keep it, though, which IMO is a much, much harder task. Thus, I bring to you my Mad Miser Skillz and my sister's gambling advice.
The First Rule of Vegas: Decide how much money you are willing to lose.
First comes acceptance: we will spend, because Vegas is fun, and so are pretty pixel dragons, and that's the whole point.
In Vegas, this means walking in with $200 (or whatever), and playing until either:
In pixel dragons, the displayed treasure & gems in the top right are your chips, and the Vault is your pocket. Any time the displayed treasure is greater than X kT/g, you shove X kT/g into your Vault. You choose what X is based on how much you need for your playstyle.
For me, X=25, because:
The Second Rule of Vegas: Never go back to the ATM for more money.
You brought your $200 (or whatever). That's all you get. If you run out of the house money to play on, you can repeat use of the $200 that's in your pocket already, that you've been willing to lose from the start. But that's it!
In pixel dragons, this translates to not drawing play money back out of your Vault, ever. Never ever ever. It stays there until you have enough for the thing you've been saving up for.
NEVER EVER EVER.
Uhh, although, obviously... this is a rule that's going to get broken. A little. Sometimes. With the best of intentions, and extenuating circumstances. Honest. Maybe you changed your mind about what you're saving up for, or you had multiple things to save up for, or this new thing is going to help you accrue money faster in the long run...
Eh. Peoples is peoples. But, look, the rule is NEVER EVER EVER, and you should have VERY GOOD REASONS for breaking rules.
The Zeroth Rule of Miserz: Don't spend money.
So, that previous stuff was how my sister wins at Vegas. Or at least doesn't lose more than she meant to, and has lots of fun instead of lots of regrets. Now we come to the part where I'm just ridiculously stingy and wallow in guilt for a month over having bought a $50 game for the first time in like a year, or something.
The Zeroth Rule is impossible to obey, I'm really just putting it here to separate Vegas from Misers. And also because this is the unspoken Rule that makes you wallow in guilt and self-loathing when you fail, y'know? It's a stupid rule. Ignore this one.
The First Rule of Miserz: Don't window-shop.
I just love browsing the Auction House to see what pretty babies are out there! So pretty! MUST HAVE!
Just don't go there. If you're going shopping for something, stick to buying that specific thing. Don't browse. Don't impulse-buy.
(Unless you've consciously decided that's what you wanna do with this particular batch of play money. Moderation, you know.)
The Second Rule of Miserz: Wait as long as you can before buying a tempting thing.
So, in real life, when I get googly-eyed over a video game or a cookbook or some $800 deluxe indoor gardening gadget which obviously I neeeeeeeed, I put them on a wishlist instead of buying them, and I wait. In a week or a month or so, maybe I will find that my excitement has worn off, and actually, not only do I not need that thing, I don't even want it anymore.
I don't know exactly how to replicate this tactic in FR! I see wishlists in some folks' clan profiles, but I think that might serve a different cultural purpose - is it for gifting? I have some of my breeding project ideas saved as "Saved Searches" on the auction house, I guess. And there's always external spreadsheets?
The Third Rule of Miserz: Make it harder to access the money.
This is the Vault, basically. And real-life savings accounts, as opposed to checking. If that's sufficient to keep your spending in check, awesome. But a more extreme version is to hide the money, so it doesn't even look like money.
I'm not suggesting that you go off and buy stuff on the AH to hoard and re-sell later for speculative profit; that's high-risk and not at all miserly. But through gathering, Pinkerton, coliseum drops, etc., you acquire a lot of junk in your Hoard. It just kind of piles up, and a common suggestion in the money-making guides is to sell this stuff off.
I suggest, if you have trouble with not touching your Vault savings: do not sell your Hoard junk yet. If it hasn't been turned into money yet, you can't spend it. When you're closer to your savings goal, then sit down with the junk and sell it off.
I can't speak to how this policy might interact with stuff that's better sold on the AH, like Baldwin/Swipp items, apparel, skins, etc.; I haven't figured out that side of the AH yet, and I suspect it's possible some of that may take time to sell off.
The Fourth Rule of Miserz: ... nope, that's all I got.
Got any other ideas for how to Not Spend one's treasure?
The First Rule of Vegas: Decide how much money you are willing to lose.
First comes acceptance: we will spend, because Vegas is fun, and so are pretty pixel dragons, and that's the whole point.
In Vegas, this means walking in with $200 (or whatever), and playing until either:
(a) it is gone; it's been a blast, but it's time to cut yourself off;
(b) you have won more than $200, at which point you cash in $200 worth of chips and put it back in your pocket. Now you're playing on the house's money.
(b) you have won more than $200, at which point you cash in $200 worth of chips and put it back in your pocket. Now you're playing on the house's money.
In pixel dragons, the displayed treasure & gems in the top right are your chips, and the Vault is your pocket. Any time the displayed treasure is greater than X kT/g, you shove X kT/g into your Vault. You choose what X is based on how much you need for your playstyle.
For me, X=25, because:
(a) My favorite gamble is the dragon breeding; I play my chips on buying parents. Mostly I can get pretty babies for fodder prices, but really pretty babies can be quite expensive! I've decided that 25 kT/g is where an impulse buy crosses the line, and therefore I should never, ever, ever have more than 25 kT/g out.
(b) Sometimes I make money through the Coliseum and exaltation. Two fodder cost much less than 25kT and might exalt for more than that; I can flip chips to Vault pretty quickly. (Yes, I will mix metaphors if I want.)
(c) If I just Vaulted 25kT and now I have like 33 treasure, replenishing my play money isn't hard. I am lazy and I don't sell the crap in my horde as often as I ought to; so I can go click "sell" on a couple of stacks of crap and, bam, there's 25kT. The Fairgrounds are a good way to create 25 kT from nothing, too.
(b) Sometimes I make money through the Coliseum and exaltation. Two fodder cost much less than 25kT and might exalt for more than that; I can flip chips to Vault pretty quickly. (Yes, I will mix metaphors if I want.)
(c) If I just Vaulted 25kT and now I have like 33 treasure, replenishing my play money isn't hard. I am lazy and I don't sell the crap in my horde as often as I ought to; so I can go click "sell" on a couple of stacks of crap and, bam, there's 25kT. The Fairgrounds are a good way to create 25 kT from nothing, too.
The Second Rule of Vegas: Never go back to the ATM for more money.
You brought your $200 (or whatever). That's all you get. If you run out of the house money to play on, you can repeat use of the $200 that's in your pocket already, that you've been willing to lose from the start. But that's it!
In pixel dragons, this translates to not drawing play money back out of your Vault, ever. Never ever ever. It stays there until you have enough for the thing you've been saving up for.
NEVER EVER EVER.
Uhh, although, obviously... this is a rule that's going to get broken. A little. Sometimes. With the best of intentions, and extenuating circumstances. Honest. Maybe you changed your mind about what you're saving up for, or you had multiple things to save up for, or this new thing is going to help you accrue money faster in the long run...
Eh. Peoples is peoples. But, look, the rule is NEVER EVER EVER, and you should have VERY GOOD REASONS for breaking rules.
The Zeroth Rule of Miserz: Don't spend money.
So, that previous stuff was how my sister wins at Vegas. Or at least doesn't lose more than she meant to, and has lots of fun instead of lots of regrets. Now we come to the part where I'm just ridiculously stingy and wallow in guilt for a month over having bought a $50 game for the first time in like a year, or something.
The Zeroth Rule is impossible to obey, I'm really just putting it here to separate Vegas from Misers. And also because this is the unspoken Rule that makes you wallow in guilt and self-loathing when you fail, y'know? It's a stupid rule. Ignore this one.
The First Rule of Miserz: Don't window-shop.
I just love browsing the Auction House to see what pretty babies are out there! So pretty! MUST HAVE!
Just don't go there. If you're going shopping for something, stick to buying that specific thing. Don't browse. Don't impulse-buy.
(Unless you've consciously decided that's what you wanna do with this particular batch of play money. Moderation, you know.)
The Second Rule of Miserz: Wait as long as you can before buying a tempting thing.
So, in real life, when I get googly-eyed over a video game or a cookbook or some $800 deluxe indoor gardening gadget which obviously I neeeeeeeed, I put them on a wishlist instead of buying them, and I wait. In a week or a month or so, maybe I will find that my excitement has worn off, and actually, not only do I not need that thing, I don't even want it anymore.
I don't know exactly how to replicate this tactic in FR! I see wishlists in some folks' clan profiles, but I think that might serve a different cultural purpose - is it for gifting? I have some of my breeding project ideas saved as "Saved Searches" on the auction house, I guess. And there's always external spreadsheets?
The Third Rule of Miserz: Make it harder to access the money.
This is the Vault, basically. And real-life savings accounts, as opposed to checking. If that's sufficient to keep your spending in check, awesome. But a more extreme version is to hide the money, so it doesn't even look like money.
I'm not suggesting that you go off and buy stuff on the AH to hoard and re-sell later for speculative profit; that's high-risk and not at all miserly. But through gathering, Pinkerton, coliseum drops, etc., you acquire a lot of junk in your Hoard. It just kind of piles up, and a common suggestion in the money-making guides is to sell this stuff off.
I suggest, if you have trouble with not touching your Vault savings: do not sell your Hoard junk yet. If it hasn't been turned into money yet, you can't spend it. When you're closer to your savings goal, then sit down with the junk and sell it off.
I can't speak to how this policy might interact with stuff that's better sold on the AH, like Baldwin/Swipp items, apparel, skins, etc.; I haven't figured out that side of the AH yet, and I suspect it's possible some of that may take time to sell off.
The Fourth Rule of Miserz: ... nope, that's all I got.
Got any other ideas for how to Not Spend one's treasure?
