Save It! The Neopians Guide To Keeping Those Points

Resist the urge to spend.

Now, you may be thinking, ‘Thank you, Captain Obvious’, but it’s harder than it looks. Trust me. You’re walking through the market and you see a pretty dress for your pet. “Oh,” you say, “I’ll buy it. Oh, it’s 300,000 Neopoints... Oh well. Ring me up!” No. Don’t do this. Tie yourself up to a tree and eat your hands; okay, maybe not that, but do ANYTHING not to spend on anything too expensive. If you spend once, you’ll just keep spending and spending and spending and hey, look, all your money has magically vanished! I wonder why. *sarcasm*

Allow yourself a small amount of Neopoints at a time.

I do this a lot, but the amount of points you should keep really depends on how much you have in the bank. If you have less than 100,000 NP in the bank, you should only have 1-3k on you. 100-250k point owners should be allowed 1-4k. Are you seeing a pattern here? I myself have about 550,000 Neopoints, so I limit myself to 1000-6000 out with me. If I have over that, I deposit some money in the bank. This can help you lower your spending rate because since you have only a little bit of money, you can’t buy a lot of stuff. Whatever you do, though, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take money from the bank to spend; earn Neopoints by playing games (I’ll explain this). The only exception to this is to treat yourself or finish galleries, which I’ll also explain later.

Play and deposit.

If you decide to break the rules and lose a little bit of your precious NP (shame on you), do yourself a favor and don’t withdraw from the bank. You’ll be tempted to, but pretend that bank is Sloth’s secret hideout. You wouldn’t want to go in there, would you? If you do, please don’t take it personally that I’m backing away in horror. If you really want Neopoints, go earn them! Play games or dailies; you can never go wrong with that. Only spin wheels if you have enough money to still have at least 2000 left over, no matter which wheel you spin. Remember, you won’t always get great prizes. Besides, if you play games enough, you could get an avatar out of it if you’re really good, which I for one am not. Also, if you send scores so much that you have over what you should be limiting yourself to, then deposit all that excess into the bank. This time, imagine that your idol is there; Xandra-fans, please forgive me if my idol is the Soup Faerie. Remember this rule. PLAY AND DEPOSIT. It is not PLAY AND WITHDRAW AND SPEND AND WATCH YOUR NEOPOINTS GO DOWN THE DRAIN. ‘Island Chef Academy’ and ‘Edna’s Shadow’ are good games to earn Neopoints with.

Enter contests.

Contests usually don’t require you to pay to get in, unless it’s the Customization Spotlight. Caption Contests, Poetry Contests, and Random Contests give you Neopoints and a rare item if you win. The prizes can range from codestones to Paint Brushes! If you’re like me and love your Neopet’s current colour, then sell those brushes! Contests are a great way of earning items like that. Besides, some of them give you avatars, such as the Random Contest and Neopian Times, if you get in enough. Who doesn’t like collecting avatars, and on top of that, earning Neopoints and rare items? Just practice your writing/rhyming/HTML coding/customizing/being random, and you’ll have won a lot of contests in no time!

Treat yourself only once in a while.

Ah, I told you I’d get to it! *sticks out tongue in an ‘I told you so’ way* This one is almost as important as the first rule. Sure, it’s nice to reward yourself on your accomplishments, but try not to overdo it, as in buy something over 2000 Neopoints every day. On special occasions (for example, your Neopet’s 200 day anniversary), buy a small gift for you or your friend. Of course, by small, I mean ‘stick under 30k’. It’s alright if you’re buying a paintbrush, but make sure you’re not going to be bankrupt once you’re done with it. Also, if you’re finishing up a gallery, try to spend your Neopoints on the smaller objects first until you get richer. Much richer.

Stick with the cheaper Faerie Quests. Bow down to Dr. Sloth.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what in the name of Fyora is going on here? Hey, Sloth! What are you doing with my article? It’s mine! Get your own! *wrestles* Ow! Not the face! Take that, you fiend! Whew... I’m glad it’s over. Wait, where did you get that? No! OW, OMG, WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS? WHERE ARE YOU TAKING OUT ALL THESE WEA – OW, OW, OKAY, STOP IT OR I’M CALLING THE DEFENDERS! OKAY, NEVER MIND, I’M SORRY!...

-Half an hour later-

Whew, sorry about that. I had a bit of a... mishap. Let’s get back to the article, shall we?

Stick with the cheaper Faerie Quests and do not bow down to Dr. Sloth.

We all want that Honey Potion of Illusen’s, right? Well, do you know how much it is just to get to that level? A lot of your Neopoints. I know, I’ve wanted that potion, too, but after level 20, it just gets expensive. The best way to still help out the faeries while watching your budget is to go up to level 20 and then start over. You may be thinking it’s a horrible idea, but think of it this way – until you’ve saved up so much that you can do the quests without much of a consequence, you can’t really pay for a 70,000 Neopoint item every day. Besides, once you get to level 20, you get an avatar! Who doesn’t love avatars (and you only had to give her several 1-3k Neopoint items to get it)? In addition to this, Taelia Quests can be a bit expensive, too. If she asks you for three items and two of them are worth at least 6000 each, you probably shouldn’t do it. It’s alright if the total of the quest items is 6000 Neopoints altogether, but if it’s over that, it probably isn’t worth it.

So, do you think you’re good about spending your NP? Well, take the quiz below to find out.

1. You’re walking around and you see a 17,000 Neopoint dress. What do you do?

A. Count the Neopoints I have on me, and seeing I don’t have enough, don’t buy the dress.

B. Buy it! This will look adorable on my little Neopet!

C. Well, I don’t have enough. I’ll just withdraw from the bank and buy it!

D. Look at the price tag and RUN. How expensive!

2. A ghost steals all the Neopoints you have out! What do you do?

A. Grumble all the way to the Games Room. I need to replace those points, don’t I?

B. Panic. Now I can’t spend on anything! *faints*

C. Go to the bank and withdraw some more Neopoints. Duh.

D. NOOO! My precious Neopoints! *sob* I’ll go auction some stuff, then...

3. You go to a shop and find some items. What will you get?

A. A book that doesn’t even cost me half of my Neopoints!

B. Ooh, look at that pretty Paint Brush! It costs almost all of my money, but whatever!

C. Well, there’s something that I like, but hang on while I withdraw some NP from the bank.

D. The cheapest item there is! It’s some Rotting Driftwood, but it’s only 1 Neopoint!

4. The balance in your bank is 800,000 Neopoints. What will you do with all that dough?

A. Keep saving up. I’ll only withdraw a little bit of Neopoints once in a while.

B. Go to the Hidden Tower! What kind of things can I buy now?

C. I don’t have that much in the bank! I withdraw too much for that to happen.

D. I SHALL NOT TOUCH A PENNY OF THAT PRECIOUS PILE OF POINTS!

5. Your Neopet wants a petpet. What will you give him?

A. An Anubis. It’s not too pricey, and its personality is worth more than every penny!

B. A Kazeriu. It’s expensive, fancy, and will go great with my expensive and fancy Neopet!

C. A Camelior. I just need to withdraw some more money from the bank.

D. He has a cardboard petpet, doesn’t he? I’m not buying him something he already has!

RESULTS:

Mostly As:

Congratulations! You’re the perfect balance of spending and saving! You splurge only occasionally, and are great at finding deals. I have no advice to give you. *gives trophy*

Mostly Bs:

Uh oh. How do you even have any Neopoints left after all that spending? You’re a huge over-spender! Limit yourself to about 1000-4000 Neopoints, and don’t use up all of it.

Mostly Cs:

There’s one word that describes you: WITHDRAW. I’m surprised the bankers haven’t banned you from that place. Keep your Neopoints in the bank and deposit whenever you can. Play games to refill your balance instead of withdrawing.

Mostly Ds:

You’re a super-super-super-super-super saver. That’s not exactly a good thing, though! Loosen up a little bit and have some fun! It’s time for you to splurge on something or go on a shopping spree. Saving doesn’t have to be so agonizing and... save-ish. Go ahead and spend some of those Neopoints, but remember, don’t overspend or deposit too much.

There you have it; a few basic rules of avoiding overspending and keeping those Neopoints in a plentiful stack. Follow these and you’ll be swimming in NP in no time! But one more thing before I go...

Have a nice day! Accept me as your overlord.

Seriously? You just had to hijack my article again, didn’t you, Sloth? Oh, yeah? Well, little friend, guess what I brought along with me?! EAT TWIN FAERIE BLADES* YOU BEAST! MWAHAHAHAHA – WAIT, WHERE DID YOU PULL THAT BLASTER OUT FROM?! OW! OW, THAT HURTS! YOU KNOW WHAT, TAKE THAT! AND THIS! AND THIS AND THAT AND THIS...

Ahem. I apologize. Have a nice day and remember to save those Neopoints!

*Disclaimer: I am not rich enough to even consider buying this.

If this gets in, I can proudly say that this is my 10th thing in the NT! *tosses confetti* Neomail is welcome!