Vegas
is the most frugal trip I make these days. I used to visit Costa
Rica, going solo for a month at a time, and spend very little, but my
other trips now are usually not solo trips, and traveling with my
wife, we have to upgrade hotels and food and all expenses compared
to what fully satisfies my solo jaunts.
My
goal is to consistently break the popular stereotype of Las Vegas
that all visitors are losers, and to come home a winner. If I don't
win at the gambling at full pay machines, then I hope to win by
leveraging food, room and show value out of the gambling.
It
is the Jean Scott approach.
I
can't win great piles of money, but I can consistently hope that each
trip will be inexpensive or if I am very lucky, free.
So
here are the stats for this trip:
Airfare
– free on my Southwest charge card
Hotels
– 24 nights booked at an average of $9.25 a night.
Food
and drink – Averaged less than $12 a day with the upscale
Aria/Monte Carlo/Planet Hollywood prices offset by the Orleans/Gold
Coast/Veterans Day/Eastside Cannery freebies.
Transportation
- $35 for the bus plus $8 for one purchase error.
Gambling
loss - $928
14
Shows. Lounge acts and movies - $178. (13 of them averaged out to
$7 each, but the Chris Angel $87 ticket to be with my son skews the
math.)
To get a sense of how much gambling impacts the cost of the trip, just
taking the gambling losses and adding them to room costs makes the
rooms $48 a night on average, so this was still a bargain trip, with
all the value of the other events; it was a “losing” trip, but a
frugal one just the same.
Food
is less of an issue for me now that I can't eat much of anything and
the buffets are the easiest venues. At home I struggle with almost
all restaurant adventures and am constantly caught with blood sugar
spiking surprises. The surprise in Vegas is how much variety I can
eat, how many treats I can enjoy, and how easily my blood sugar
numbers drop to normal. I don't go in search of the gourmet Vegas
adventures because I can't, and solo eating also changes the fun of
eating upscale while buffets often offer opportunities to dine with
interesting strangers.
Lately
it just has not been practical for me to go to Vegas more than once a
year. That also reduces my cost. The air miles are there for me,
those American Casino Guide coupons good only once a year are ready
for every trip. MyVegas loyalty points easily add up to freebies
over a year.
I
don't keep track of tips. They add to the cost of the trip, but I
think of them as my way of redistributing a bit of my money to the
working poor rather than expenses, and I don't keep track of them
because I don't attempt to be frugal when tipping.
Still,
tipping at buffets is generally less than tipping at restaurants
because the buffet price is very inexpensive and drinks are included
in the buffet price and so even a 20% tip will be less in dollars and
at buffets 20% is overly generous. So I would argue that even
tipping in Vegas is a better value compared to other places visited.
I
also only tip when I actually use room service or check out of the
room, so that reduces my tipping housekeeping over the course of the
trip.
Finally,
I spend less in Vegas when I go than I spend at home living my normal
lifestyle. The stereotype is that we go on a spending jag to Vegas
where money doesn't matter, and then make it up back home. However,
the true impact of Vegas on my monthly budget is negligible.
Vegas
does spoil me for local gambling jaunts. No gambling I do as a one
or two day road trip from home is as frugal, as rich in value, or as
satisfying as being in Vegas.
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