I haven't bought a single issue in forever...

It's true.  No, this isn't a screed advocating comic book piracy - I'm talking about buying an individual issue of a book as opposed to a collected volume.  I used to be that guy that hung out at the comic book shop for hours on end.  If it had a Marvel, DC, or Image logo on it, I seriously considered buying it.  I bought my own copy of Previews so I could pore over it and see if there was anything else out there I might miss.   I was up to my neck in "underwear pervert" books and dropping a HUGE chunk of change every Wednesday.
 
And then I stopped.
 
A big part of the catalyst that changed my habits was getting married.  My (now ex) wife didn't understand my geekdom and frowned upon my hobbies.  I couldn't make it to the comic shop every week.  So I stopped buying new issues of my books.  And then I quit altogether.  It was a weird feeling not having the adventures of old familiar friends to keep me entertained every month.
 
Once the split happened, I considered going back to my old ways, but I couldn't.  I had taken a good long look at the funds I had been laying out every week and I realized that it was madness to keep doing that.  Which is how I learned to love the Trade Paperback.  These days when I see a book I am interested in, I may pick up a single issue to see if it's worth reading, and then I just wait for the trade.  I figure if it's good enough to warrant a collected volume, then it's worth buying the collected volume later on down the road.  Otherwise, I'll just say to heck with it and forget the book ever existed.  I have to wonder if other people do the same thing I do or if they still go with the fanboy "Must buy every issue ever made!" route.

yea TPB are really convenient, and in the end you buy the comic for the stories/art, and since the TPB is alot cheaper then buying single issue, it s a good alternative . so just just keep doing what your doing if your happy with it. 
 
and since your budget  doesn't allow to throw out a large chunk of cash each Wednesday, then you might as well wait it out.

It's just not the same with trades.  I buy trades of older stuff, but mainly buy single issues

I haven't bought a comic book in years. I usually go to buy either Showcases or Essentials once every two months. If you want a great read I suggest  Challengers of the Unknown Showcase any volume!

I'm a bit like that. I buy huge collected issues of comics, be it trades, or the digital collections that I have grown to love. I used to buy more single issues, but huge scale events, like Countdown, and Civil war, made me dubious about buying single issues, since just about every comic became a tie-in, and I really didn't like those events, so I just said "screw it" and figured that I would only pick up one or two comics regularly. Then, after One More day, I gave up on Spider-Man, and then after things like Cry for justice, and Dark reign, I just gave up on single issues period, and just decided to read through my collection. I occasionally get one or two single issue comic books, but it's not like I show up at my comic book store every week, or even every month, but instead, I just try and find something I might like, after reading through reviews, and look through the store every so often to see if they have it.

I love the TPB route, but the Fanboy route is even more appealing. I'm about to have every issue of Evil Ernie in the coming months and I am so geeked about it! 
But I completely see your point of view, you are a wiser man for doing this than you will ever know. Just be happy!

TPBs are better value, easier to store and have no ads, but there's just something about the individual issues that makes them special, imo. 
 
I get most of my stuff in TPB format, with the exception of a few titles.