Remembering Sahara

For me Sahara is the wonderland of frugality:

FREE SHOW
Last June I caught a free ticket from Goldstar.com for Matsuri. Someone on the VP Free board posted the deal. Goldstar charged a $ 9.50 handling charge, but I still counted it as a bargain and I loved the show. At the bottom of the ticket stub was a small coupon for $10 free play. I used it in the Sahara, playing a quarter a hand on video poker, getting enough to use up three matchplays on blackjack which was enough to play a little JOB 9/6 at the Stratosphere to protect points and wait for Huck Daniels. Bottom line was my $9.50 investment got me a free show and $27.00 change.

FREE FOOD

Last Xmas I had a month long birthday party in Vegas and my sons/daughters capped the party by coming over Christmas. We had a fine family dinner on Christmas Day at McMullan's Irish Pub across from the Orleans (with a $25 coupon from restaurant.com) and I washed as many homemade potato chips as I could down with pints of Beamish.

But Christmas eve found us starting in different places, wife and Frank birding (yes, this is possible in Vegas), Cory and Dana doing the Stratosphere roller coaster on coupons, me in the Gold Coast poker room, Keith and Bernie at MGM. The roller coaster riders called me and asked about eating cheaply around the Stratosphere. I told them I had Sahara coupons, but that it was one of the worst buffets. They did not care. All my sons were on very limited budgets. So I took a long, long bus ride to meet them. Deuce traffic was very rich on Xmas Eve. Still, like the US postal service, "coupon man" must get through.

While I was making my way to the Sahara, so were the birders and the MGM players. It was a perfect time to sign up for cards. There were eight of us and I was the VP coach. Playing a quarter a hand even unlucky at short pay VP one can reasonably expect to get $7-$8 dollars out of a VP machine and quit ahead after a lot of fun. This kind of low roller pleasure is enough for my low funded children, so that is what we did. One son on the free pull slot had also hit for an additional $25 in free play and $25 in comps. So when he quit, he had about $35 in his pocket and everyone (except one slot player) had a piece of the free promotion. So I suppose as a group we were $75 to $100 ahead and WITH ABSOLUTELY NO RISKED MONEY.

Well, we went to the Sahara buffet. On Xmas eve.

When we got to the line, the lady said that they were doubling comps that day. So now the kid had $50 in free food comps. With 2 for 1 coupons all eight of us ate for $26, less than the gas it would have cost to buy the food had we met at home. And I got to banter and talk and do NO DISHES.


The price was up, but so were the offerings. It was like no Sahara buffet I ever remember. The prime rib was wonderful. There was smoked salmon with onions, capers, and horseraddish sauce. And there were lots of choices all very good. It was great!

When we entered the line, I put the son with $25 comps first to see what he could get. Well, because the price had gone up, they told Frank that his comps were now worth $50, and so the first four people ate for 26 cents. I had ACG 2 for 1 for the next two couples. Bottom line is we ate for $26, less than I might have paid for gas to get the food had I fed the kids in my own home. And there was no cooking, no dishes, no trying to seat everyone, no missing all the good stories while I cooked.

Xmas eve at the Sahara. One of my favorite frugal memories.

Also, I think that buffet is a good cheap breakfast buffet if you are going to eat mostly fruit. When I was radically dieting a few years back, I found that they had a good selection.