Monday, April 13, 2009

Part 1- The Prelude

My mission – get to Vegas for 2 on a $300 budget. I’m not talking about a $300 gambling budget, I’m talking $300 for everything we have to do – air, hotel, rental car, buffets, gambling & shows. I will give the caveat that I used 25,000 Delta Skymiles for this trip. I earned the miles during a 9,999 bonus mile promo from Delta by renting three cars for 3 hours each for $34 per rental. So, technically, I spent $100 on those miles. I will include this in my budget.

$100 – Car rentals for Skymiles
$10 – Skymiles Redemption for 1 RT airfare RIC-LAS
$177 – RT Air from RIC-LAS booked on expedia.com using a $50 coupon.
$24 – 4 nights (Fri – Tue) in Primm, NV at Buffalo Bills using an orbitz coupon code (4odwr75) for $75 off a 4 night stay.
$48 – Car rental for 3 days using a $10 per day promo on Avis.com

Total for Air + Lodging + Car Rental for 2 = $359 ($179.50 pp).

So, that leaves me with only $241 to meet my goal of $300 per person. Are you ready for an adventure??!

Step 1 – Luggage. I don’t have any luggage. After the house fire, it was hardly the thing I needed to replace first, so I don’t even own a suitcase. This past Saturday, I set out on a mission to find some luggage at a yard sale. After stopping at about 9 or 10 yard sales, I hit the jackpot – a multi-family sale on Pole Green road. They had about 10 different suitcases, and I picked a nice rolling bag – airline carryon size & a rolling bag set from Mary Kay. After much discussion, I was able to get all three bags for the bargain basement price of $8. I now have $233 left in my Vegas budget. Plus, I saved myself any checked baggage fees I might have incurred from a larger suitcase.

Step 2 – Coupons. I found a very popular Casino Guides/Coupon books that is purported to be worth its weight in gold. It is the American Casino Guide ($12.85 on Amazon.com – free shipping for 2.) There is also the Las Vegas Advisor for $37 (limit 2 per household.) It didn't end up to be feasible for me to pick this up because of time constraints. Total OOP for the two books on Amazon - $26 (free shipping.) Reamining budget = $207

Step 3 – Coupon Run. Using the plan that I devised here - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxvOiHCs8yHxAR3cO2NdTVg – I set out to hit 25+ casinos in 10 hours and earn $350+ by using matchplay and free slot play (assuming a 2% casino edge on even money bets and a 50% casino edge on slot play.) This is achieved by hedging my bets with my partners bets, thus guaranteeing the return of one matchplay. My Vegas trip is scheduled for 4/24. I will update the blog when I arrive.

5 comments:

  1. The Wizard of Odds website has a good article about the EV of coupons, match plays, etc (http://wizardofodds.com/chips). 50% seems low to factor the house edge on slots, especially since the minimum for NV is 75%. You could still have a better return playing a decent video poker machine. The LVA coupon book has some great gaming ones, too bad you missed out on them. 25 casinos in 10+ hours is quite ambitious, something I'd probably not do. We've broken out our coupon runs in sections per day (North LV, Summerlin, Strip, etc), although last year we did a run up Rancho with mixed results.
    If you are a member of the LVA, look us up there, the "ECLVA". We routinely meet in Atlantic City and are having our big LV meet at the end of July.

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  2. You never mentioned gas, which is a lot these days. Back and forth between Vegas and Primm? Not to mention running around your neighborhood looking for a deal on luggage. What's wrong with the $19.99 luggage they sell at Target or Walmart?

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  3. As a previous comment suggested, adding the Las Vegas Advisor Member Rewards Book to your Vegas attack plan is suggested. Between that and your selected source, you'd be armed with Las Vegas best gambling and dining coupon sources . The matchplay and free ace combinations available with these two sources greatly enhance your player EV.
    You did a good job stretching dollars in your approach here..well done.

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  4. I found a very popular Casino Guides/Coupon books that is purported to be worth its weight in gold. It is the American Casino Guide. beste casinos

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