How to Vegas Vacation on a Budget

Many go for broke in Las Vegas but if you plan your vacation right, you can stretch your budget to accomodate your length of stay in "Sin City."

Things You'll Need

• Some cash
• Time
• Spouse

Instructions

1. 

   Go to www.bookingbuddy.com to find the cheapest rates on airlines, hotels, and rental cars. As a sidenote, it is a waste to spend money on a rental car if you are on the strip as you can walk and save yourself a lot in rental fees, gas and valet fees.

2. 

   Go to timeshare presentations with your spouse. Select cash or a show for your prize for going and listening to the two and a half hour presentation. From money received as cash as well as gambling money, this was a valuable use of our time. I know we turned two timeshares down because they only offered $50 in dinner or show tickets that we've already seen so we decided it wasn't worth the two and a half hours the presentation took.

3. 

   Sign up for the club cards so you are eligible for comps and cash back. Many casinos also offer free bets or money towards a slot machine. I love freebies! Coupon books are great too in order to save money on a meal if you have to purchase it.

4. 

   Decide how much you are willing to lose and stick to your guns. If your budget for one night is $50 then don't take any extra cash with you- that way you don't have the itch to continue gambling if you lost the first $50. Place winnings away in a purse or pocket and do not dig them back out if you go on a losing streak. Walk away with your winnings and cash out!

Tips & Warnings

• When signing up for The Mirage Card, know it is tied to the majority of the casinos along the strip so don't just sign up for the card at the first hotel you come to. Different specials are offered at different hotels, but you can only sign up and get rewards once. Our first trip New York-New York gave us $10 to gamble in slots (activate by gambling your own $1) so years later I went back there to sign-up thinking I'd get the same benefits, but got nothing. Then when we went to MGM, they were giving away a t-shirt, 100 points, and $10 to gamble- but we couldn't partake because we had already signed up.

• Don't feel you need to get the extras. All casinos offer to double your points when you get to 400 points or triple your points when you get to 600 points, but most casinos do not give you 1 point per dollar. It's all formulated with odds, how much you bet, amount of time, etc. and usually is only at the slot machines. My husband sat down with $50, went up to $150, lost it all and somehow only ended up with 40 points! So pay attention to how points are tabulated and realize the hotel t-shirt is not worth 1000 points (it's cheaper to go buy it at the gift shop)

• Remember to play the odds and play by House Rules, especially at Blackjack. So many times newbies would sit down and sit on 15 when the dealer was showing 10 because they didn't want to bust, and it 9 times out of 10 results in the dealer winning, pulling a Blackjack if playing Single Deck or Double Deck Blackjack, and the whole rest of the table losing. Know you should take one for the table every now and then and it always comes back. I had the person to the left actually give me back what I lost because by me hitting and losing (on a split hand), she ended up winning $300. The great thing was she only bet with $25 chips and I had lost on my $5 turned $10 split hand so she placed a $25 chip down for my bet, and when I needed to double down again, she put down the other $25 since I didn't have $25 to do so- I won and she was happy and didn't ask for the money back. While this might not happen to you ever, anything is possible in Las Vegas!!

• Signing up for casino cards will get you on some casinos' mailing or email lists, but this is good because I get offers all the time for hotels such as Hooters, Excalibur, New York-New York, Treasure Island, and Mirage at $19 a night- it beats paying full price any day!

• Gambling can be addictive so know when to quit. If you feel you have a problem, call Gamblers Anonymous (the sign is posted at multiple points of every casino)

• Do NOT open up a line of credit at the casino. It's very easy to sign a sheet of paper giving you a credit limit and even easier to spend casino chips (somehow it doesn't feel like real money) but it can lead to a bigger debt, bigger loss, and INSANE percentage rates to the casino!