How.

I am by no means a wealthy person.

I work as a Inventory Manager for an entertainment company. I make somewhere in the neighborhood of double the San Francisco minimum wage, which I'll let you do the research on. While SF minimum is among the highest in the country, living costs in the City are also among the highest in the country, so it all pretty much washes out.

My living situation is a compromise. My rent is low, but the price I pay for having low rent is having a tiny, tiny living space. Not including a separate bathroom, I live in roughly 150 square feet of space. To contrast, the average square footage of a hotel room in Vegas is probably in the 450-500 ft range. Yeah, I live in Celine Dion's closet. It's (barely) enough for a full bed, small desk, nightstand and a bookcase. Now, the good thing about this, is that a bed, nightstand, desk and bookcase are about all that I own. When I moved here from the South Bay everything fit in a 10-foot U-haul truck. One trip. I'm not a materialistic person, clearly.

So for this (cozy!) space I pay $600. Per month. In San Francisco. Average monthly rent in SF is around $3100. So yes, I'm in a closet, but living in a closet allows me to do what I really love to do, which is have experiences rather than stuff. I'm certainly not adventurous, as detailed in a previous post, but I can go out and do pretty much whatever I want a couple nights a week here in the City and, oh yeah, I can save up for Las Vegas, up to 4 times a year.

Another factor that allows my frequent Vegas excursions is my low debt situation. I don't have a mortgage. I don't have a car (or car insurance). I don't have credit cards (just a debit). The remainder of my assorted debt comes in at around $150 a month and will be completely paid off by late next year. Living expenses in the City can be high, but I do not have extravagant tastes and usually am fine getting by on microwave dinners nightly and rarely eat out. I'm in a bit of a food desert where I live, which helps keep expenses low. I rarely buy clothes and when I do they tend to last a LONG time. I've been known to go 5+ years on the same 10 pairs of socks. I don't buy Versace and wouldn't know what to do if I did. I'm a jeans and a t-shirt guy, even when it comes to Vegas.

I also don't currently have any other money-sucking commitments, like a GF or wife or kids or a hamster. It's just me and my 10 pairs of socks. I also recommend to any single guys who'll listen that in my experience it's good to claim single 0 on taxes, thereby almost insuring a healthy refund every year.

So my POINT is, all this adds up to my leading a very simple lifestyle and, though my income wouldn't at first blush seem to justify it, I'm able to take multiple Vegas trips every year; one with that tax refund referenced above and one or two others by simply saving up.

I will generally book a Vegas trip several months in advance. This way I have a goal to build toward and can break down how much I'm going to want to take divided by the number of paychecks until then and can figure out how much per check I need to save. Generally it's something on the order of $500 per check, which in my situation is tough, but do-able. That much per means 1 night out per check instead of 3, or when it's down to crunch time (a month or so before) it might mean no going out at all...last time I stayed in for a month before doing the THEhotel trip. It's all about discipline, which I've rarely had much of in my life.

I've never been a saver, at all, until recently. I've always lived paycheck to paycheck at best and at worst have gotten into the credit trap in the past, living way over my means and being neck-deep in debt. This makes it almost impossible to Low Roll as every month you're chasing the dragon of the stuff you bought a year ago and have no money left over to save. I understand, for better or worse, we live in a consumer culture and it's hard to ignore that pressure but if you're using a revolving credit card to pay for food or underwear or rent...you seriously need to sit down and have a conversation with yourself. Trust me, I've been there and you don't want to go down that road. The prospect of blowing money in Vegas has been the impetus lately to save money...there's irony in there somewhere I'm sure.

The lifestyle I live isn't practical for many, or maybe most people. Most people have family commitments, or outside financial commitments, or just don't make enough disposable income for whatever reason to be able to make a run to Vegas several times a year. I also have the advantage of being less than 2 hours in the air away from The Strip, and my flight costs are usually at or less than $200 round trip. If you live in Botswana, clearly we're talking about an entirely different travel cost structure.

Anyway, I wanted to lay out how I'm able to pull off the multiple trip per year thing and hope that some of what I have worked out can work for y'all.