Skint.

As the true countdown begins to the next trip (T-minus 30 days), a few observations and resolutions on the state of my Vegas obsession.

In short, it's waning (a bit). 

I've spent the last two months feeling very poor, saving up for the 4 day orgy of fun that is a Vegas trip. I have another month of poorness to come. To give you an idea, after saving $650 out of today's check and paying all my 1st month's check bills (most of my bills come due on the first paycheck of the month), I'm left with an even $100 dollars to get me through the next two weeks. That's all I'm allowed to spend for daily life over the next 14 days. That's a little over $7 a day. In San Francisco.

It's such a weird feeling knowing I have literal thousands of dollars sitting there not being able to be used, when I'm trying to figure out how to budget in enough funds for toilet paper for 2 weeks. Especially with the car expenses now (payment, gas, insurance, maintenance, registration), it's not going to be sustainable. I'm thinking my original plan for this year, three trips only, is going to have to be the model for coming years. Hell maybe it will only be two per year, I'll have to see how next year shakes out.

The March trip is fairly easy to handle, since I've got the influx of my tax refund to handle around half of the trip expenses. The Xmas trip is always going to happen, I just love it too much, I have the time off and usually that is helped also by some bonus cash from the job. It's the other two trips a year that is starting to become untenable. In the past when I didn't have the car it was easier to save because I really had no bills whatsoever aside from call phone and rent. Now with the monthly ~$300 in car expenses I'm having to start saving earlier for trips or cutting my spending money on save months down to nearly nothing to come up with the what I feel I need to cover a trip comfortably.

As it is on this coming trip I'll have less than the usual save. I'll be on a strict budget the first night (UPDATE, a little better now, came up with another $250 so I'm not completely broke), and will have just $800 per day allocated for the 4 full days, down from the usual $1K. With my diminished stomach for gambling that should cover it fine, but at the end of the day it's $800 less than I would usually bring on a trip. That makes me start having the little "take it easy" voice in my head while I'm in town, which I hate to hear. At the least it makes me slow down a bit on the front and tail ends of the trip so I'm not coming back penniless. I HATE doing Vegas on a budget.

I'm not necessarily regretting taking the quickie birthday trip, but in retrospect that hurt as well this year, as I was unable to pay down some of my CC debt (as was the plan) and it blew through almost an entire paycheck. I mean, ya gotta live, and I do, but you also have to be smart, which despite intentions I really haven't been this year.

A trip reduction next year may also be necessary now that I'm likely not going to have comp status at any resort, barring a hot gambling streak somewhere. That means paying for rooms, on top of all the other what I call "overhead" for the trip, i.e. travel costs. Thankfully the overhead for the next two trips will be minimal since I'm milking the last of the free CET rooms, and all but one of my flights is already booked using points. But all that likely dries up next year.

Look, I'm really not bitching. I know these are supreme first world problems and I know that if the true shit hit the fan (job loss or health problem), I could jettison all the Vegas stuff and be OK financially at least for a short time, but all this just means I'm going to have to be smarter in general about my trips. The March trip for sure, the Xmas trip for sure, and MAYBE a mid-year trip if I can swing it without making myself destitute for 3 months beforehand, like I did this time. 

The simple math of this is what's starting to bother me. I'm going literal months without having fun weekends, all to save up for 4-5 days in the desert. How does one keep doing that equation and not be thinking it's silly? What's starting to concern me as well is I'm starting to hold being constantly broke AGAINST Vegas. Every weekend I sit there on my ass eating Cheetos in my room grumbling every couple hours "I should be at Ha Ra right now, I should be at R Bar right now, I should be at Cat Club right now..." etc.

I live here, not in Vegas (though the way I act makes it seem reverse sometimes), and I'd like to have some sort of life here too.