#Sidequests – How I Funded Fun With Beermoney
For about the first year of doing beermoney, I used it to pay for non-essentials — things like groceries, games, gaming gear, and eating out.
I know I’ve been privileged to live this way, supported by my parents, and I’m grateful. I’ve always leaned toward alternative ways of earning — honestly, I don’t enjoy the traditional job route. The idea of applying to 10 or 20 jobs just to maybe land one interview (with no guarantee of getting hired) never sat right with me. It made spending money on fun things feel heavier — almost like I didn’t “deserve” it.
But I really enjoy gaming, and a lot of the games I wanted to play weren’t free. That’s when I decided:
I’d use beermoney to fund the games I wanted to play, and never touch the money I made from my year of working as a fry cook at a grocery store.
That decision shifted my mindset. I started learning how to save guilt-free for non-essentials, especially since I often earned beermoney while doing things I already enjoyed, watching shows, anime, or playing games.
Multitasking felt tedious at first, but humans adapt. Over time, it felt natural.
It even helped me feel less guilty for spending hours gaming, because I was monetizing it in a small way.
I wasn’t earning a lot, not even close to a part-time wage, but it gave me something I really valued: freedom.
I could choose how I earned, when I earned, and stack things together to get more out of the time I had.
This system helped me cope with the guilt of feeling like I was “wasting” time, even though I was lucky enough to live this way while going to school on and off.
So I started stacking even more. Beermoney + watching anime. Beermoney + games.
Sometimes even Beermoney + games + languages, so I felt like I was progressing on all fronts.
And then it became a cycle. I’d buy a new game with my saved up beermoney.
If the game didn’t require full focus, I’d earn more while playing while saving up for the next one.