How do you refrain from buying games?

Clean living and prayer.

Intentionally budget. Set aside a regular budget for entertainment (using cash may help some people visualize) and only spend within or under that budget. Prepaid debit or steam gift cards may help with this. Just realize how much you're spending and what you could (or worse should) have done with that money.

Look at your backlog before you make any buy, and only buy for yourself

Sorry, can't help. I don't have these problems :) The only thing I can advise you (apart from having no money) is not to buy something you're not sure you'll be playing till the next sale (or at all :D).

I try not to have any money when the sales come. Sadly, sometimes this does not work and I get relieved of that sweet moneyz by the Gaben.

My mom took down ALL money before the Steam sale, so it was easy for me :D Except the pain, when I saw: Don't Starve 1 eur, oh that pain!

Take all of the money you don't need in your account, and put it in a jar. Stare at that jar whenever you see a sale you'd like to spend some money on.

Regardless of the price, pretend that the very next unnecessary purchase is going to cost however much is in that jar.

Do you really want to empty the jar just for one purchase?

1.Each month I only send few dollars to my paypal account. This is the limit.

2.I never preorder (since Dragon Age 2) and never buy freshly released titles (since Skyrim). If I really want a game, I wait a few months to make sure it gets properly patched and reasonably priced. And to make sure it won't become a dlc milk-cow (since Battlefield 3) In which case I wait for goty edition.

3.I no longer get hyped. I have enough games to last me a lifetime already, I don't necessarily need more junk in my backlog. So I only buy stuff I really want to play.

If you don't want to spend the money on a game, don't do it. Use your brain to evaluate the benefits of obtaining the game against the disadvantages of giving up your money, taking into account the further potential advantages and disadvantages of waiting for a while before buying it. I use this simple tactic and very rarely suffer from buyer's remorse.

I'm One year on steam and bought 670+ games on it.I cant control myself to :DDDDDDD You are not alone in it :D And btw i think i start to get same problem with this steam level and badges :D

Spend all your money on something else, that way, you won't have any money to buy games :)

I have a major problem with this too. I only got a Steam account to begin with because I got an invite to the Dota 2 beta, and honestly, I blame Humble Bundle for getting me to spend money on games for Steam. Honestly the only thing that stops me is gaming on a budget. I don't even know why I'm buying games, I've pretty much been a pirate for years, but when a game is good or a deal is good, I'll buy it, even if I've played and finished it. Not to mention, I bought the Tomb Raider collection by impulse on Steam, and I own legit hard copies either on PC or PS2 of all but 1, 2, 3 and the latest (which I already had a illegit copy of). Essentially, I bought a whole lot of them twice. I've bought 5 bundles to date (each $5+), 3 of which in the space of a few days, and regret doing it, because I know I'll hardly play the games.

One way I have prevented myself from buying games in the past was convincing myself not to buy games while I had a backlog of games to play. As you can see from my story above, that's no longer working out too well. Secondly, I can't buy games for a console I don't have, so I never got any console after the PSP, I do however have a decent gaming PC, so any games that aren't on either PC, PS2, PSP or NDS, I don't buy. My last preventative measure is pretty much the one that still sticks: don't buy a game that doesn't have a decent discount. I will stop myself from buying anything that doesn't have at least 60% off, because I know I'll regret it later when it does go below 60% off.

After all this I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to get The Last Remnant and Half Life Complete when they were in the Winter Sale, but I didn't have the cash. :/ I guess what ou have to spend in the first place is the biggest issue, lol.

It's easy, you go to steamgifts then : unable to connect to database.

"Spent $350 on games I don't even have the console for"

. . . . WHAT, why wouldn't you get the console with that money instead so you can at least play one of them???

In recent years I started to look at games differently. I am less likely to pay more for a linear game like I used to. I now look for replay value in games. If I feel a game has low replay value, then it means the game has low value to me. That means I will only buy it when it is under $10 because I may beat it in a few hours.

Not having money is the best way to not buy games.
At least it works for me.

Simple: Dont have a money!

Same as most people. Self control and research.

I use backloggery (backloggery.com/) to reflect on what I have. I have defeated 58.2% of my backlog. I also use folders in my Steam to highlight CLOCKED vs BACKLOG. I even split up my backlog by playtime (see howlongtobeat.com).

I also do huge amounts of research on YouTube and general reviews, looking for more information, and a better idea of the style of game. I try to find someone cynical like TotalBiscuit (www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut).

Once I have this information, I look back to my backlog to see if I already own something similar. For example, it took me a long time to decide to buy Witcher 2 as I already had Skyrim and Dragon Age: Origins.

I also have always been good with money. I hate buying things full-price. Steam sales mean I tend to say 50% or better ... these days I say 75% or better. And I have to do the above steps before I even consider it. In most cases, games have been on my wishlist for months before purchasing. It does help that I am married with a child, so money is OURS not MINE. Therefore I have to be able to explain myself ... and we're pretty good at making each other feel guilty about game purchases.

Edit: I'm horrified by the number of people saying "Simple! Don't have money!" This whole 100% disposable income thing scares me.

I just take a look on my wallet...

By not having money to spend. Easy.

Well i just add some money to my steam wallet every new year, something like 200,00 that need to survive for the entire year, since i know there will be games i will want to buy and the money will going down i just try to look for better sales, trade more and sell some cards to keep things working, i recomend you try doing the same, not only you will buy wat you want but you will start seeing steam with better eyes i think.

I question myself like: Do you really need that game? Don't you have enough games to play? Why spend money on a game just because it's on "discount"? Do you really have time to play all these games? And the answer becomes obvious that even if sometimes some discount seems like THE opportunity, it is really NOT..other discounts will come from that game in the future, even cheaper ways to get it if you really want to. So i don't really Need to buy it. Try questioning yourself like that.

Being broke helps lol

I almost bought MGRR day one even though my PS3 was broken.
I bought Super Mario Galaxy before owning a Wii.
Bought Kingdom Hearts 3D before owning a 3DS.

Thinking about buying Infamous SS even though I won't get a PS4 for a long time.

It's the preorder bonuses man... that and I like helping the developers sometimes.

First world problems :)