Iāve never done it intentionally, no. I have only ever had brief periods of my adult life where Iāve had a steady income, though, so Iāve never quite had the luxury of buying anything just 'cause.
Despite that, I always figure out a way to buy things I really want when I want to, usually at release. That only tends to amount to ~3 purchases of games at full price (full pricebeing $10,000,000 CAD or I guess now $70 if not $80 USD) per year, then also perhaps a smattering of maybe another ~4 games that are either games that are full price which are temporarily on a steep enough discount, or just less expensive games in general. That maybe also rounds out to 2-4 game consoles a decade, I suppose. I rarely if ever buy hardware.
For me, paying for games at full price is strictly for something I donāt want to wait for. So things Iām highly anticipating.
I buy games more often when I have more money to spend, but I have a price threshold for what Iāll just pick up without any particular plans for playing any time soon. If times are good that threshold is maybe around $30 USD, though in practice I would only spend that much on something I definitely know I want to play and just donāt have definite plans to do so when the opportunity to get it at that price arises. In practice the threshold is probably more like $20USD for something Iām, like, āwanting to check outā or āheard was good,ā if that makes sense.
To me the concept of a ābacklogā kinda doesnāt exist. Like, I have a game Iām playing, and I might have one or two games in mind to move to once I finish what Iām playing or get bored of it, or if itās an unreleased game Iām anticipating Iām waiting for it to release so that it can shoot up to Now Playing priority, but thatās it. All other games might as well not exist, and Iām not committing some kind of moral failure by not playing them.
Or, at least, maybe the way to think about that third category of all games in existence that Iām either not playing or are not planning to play soon, it makes no difference if I own them or not. They donāt get upgraded from that category until I own them or can own them, and really, itās always best if they can be acquired and remain on Might Play Soon Standby status while theyāre heavily discounted.
So maybe it would help you to put a moratorium on not buying new games. It might help to just rid yourself of the concept of a backlog altogether. Just trust that you know enough about games to be able to figure out what to play next potentially up until the day you die. There is only the game(s) youāre playing or the game(s) youāre planning to play soon and those two lists should be like 2-3 games max individually and 5 games max combined. Even that is being generous, I really only ever play 1 game at a time and might need at most 2 games to choose between to go to next.
Maybe itād also help you feel less down about the loss of autonomy in your life to maximize your free time by choosing what youāre playing and seeking to play more strategically. By which I mean, maybe itās time to focus on the games that will be best enjoyed in whatever length and regularity the limited free time you get is. So like, donāt play something that would be best enjoyed with longer play sessions if you rarely if ever get long play sessions. Find something that can be meaningfully enjoyed in sporadic 30 minute bursts throughout the week or something. That might rule out SaGa games for a while lol.
Not exactly what you asked but please donāt feel bad about feeling like this is a hard time in your life. Donāt wanna assume to much about your situation but even a few generations ago people had extended families and friends to help out and daycare didnāt cost an arm and a leg to help them out with just the immense time commitment that goes into comprehensive childcare. Most people these days are doing parenting on hard mode so itās not unlikely that you are too, and if no one else has said this to you before, itās not unlikely that having as little free time as you do right now is not unlikely to be, like, literally unnatural lol, so feeling depressed about it is probably not your fault. If youāre lucky maybe friends or family around you would be more willing to help you out and cheer you up than youād think, even if that doesnāt mean dumping your kids on 'em it could maybe mean pitching in around the house or helping you run errands so you can look after the kids, and then you can maybe allocate some more meaningful stretches of free time that will help you feel more refreshed.
. Itās also not like the game will go anywhere so if you want to re-evaluate it, perhaps you can when your free time is less of a precious commodity.