The first new comic book day (NCBD) of 2008 hit on Friday (as opposed to its usual Wednesday because of the holidays), and while it was supposed to be the the first NCBC of Buy Nothing Year, thus my first week in a very long time without getting my weekly fix, I managed to stave off the expected symptoms of withdrawal, thanks to an XMas gift of store credit from my lovely wife (I think it was a somewhat self-serving on her part as she was a concerned that I'd no longer go with her to the store on NCBD, a ritual of ours since the day we met).
It's one hundred dollars of store credit, which, for me, won't go very far (especially not when I acquire a quartet of action figures with it last week and have, after two weeks, already blown more than half of it). I have an expensive habit. NCBDs for the foreseeable future will still be open to me, since I'm helping with store inventory in exchange for credit on Monday. I've asked about possible additional opportunities where I might be able to acquire more credit, but from the looks of things, the well is going to be dry until the August Fan Expo.
I'm trying to decide how best to utilize the credit. Should I just be business as usual, and pick up what I'd normally pick up every week until it's gone? If I do, then it's going to disappear rapidly and then it's a long, dry road until August. I think I have a plan though... it's called restraint.
Since I have invested so much in helping build Rack Raids over the years, obtaining material for review for as long as possible should be my altruistic objective. While I'd like to keep getting the books I enjoy (but don't review for, well, lack of anything fresh to say about them) I think picking up "books of interest" for the purpose of review should be core.
There's also a half-dozen mini-series and storylines I started reading before BNY began, so I'm also going to finish acquiring those (for review as well, of course), but other than that, I'm avoiding my routine purchasing. I've been given a bit of a reprieve, in a manner of speaking, so I need to be smarth, thrifty, and determined.