It's Not A Bender, It's A Lifestyle.

Got the 401k loan in the bank today. Sucks that I had to use it, but TBH it's just sitting there anyway, the market's been getting killed lately it's not like I'm losing a lot of gained interest on $4K. Doesn't hurt the cushion too much either. Would I love to have had the discipline to do the save organically, sure, but honestly I just don't care that much about Vegas anymore to make the daily sacrifice. It's something I haven't talked about much here, since this a Vegas blog, after all. But I don't have the passion for the trips that I used to. I was obsessed with Vegas, for the better part of a decade. I was more than willing to make the life compromises needed to fund the trips, and more of them. Yes, I have more financial obligations now (the car, mainly), but I also used to give up weekends out, or skimping on food and basic spending, to make the save number. It's really the only time in my life that I have been able to save for a goal. I...

Pussied out and will be flying into AprilVegas. Decided to book a flight after all. I got good times and seats on United, just threw it on my 0% interest card with Chase so I can pay it off over time. $260, but again, pretty good seats and should be an elevated boarding group. I was looking forward to road tripping in the WRX on the in leg, but having to face that 10-hour return trip while recovering from 5 days of Vegas...nope. Not this time, maybe later this year. As this is, it gets me to town at a pretty much ideal check in time (no waiting around for a room) and gets me out without having to wake up very early on fly out day. Also don't have to wake up at the ass-crack on what would have been the drive in day. I will just have to park the car on the correct side of the street before I go and will not have to worry about a parking ticket or having to park at SFO. I will have to shell out for transportation to/from the airport but I'm used to that at this point. So, that wr...

A month and change to yet another Vegas. Things taking shape. The dates are locked in after having to rebook, and MGM Grand is the resort. Looking forward to it. Newly remodeled room with what should be a decent, north-facing strip view. Not a huge birthday suite like the Conrad a couple years ago, but it's fine, with wanting to keep expenses under control this time. I like the Grand and the location is fine for my purposes. I found out WWE is going on in town at T-Mobile that week, which is balls, but I'll just avoid it by heading north. No change on the flight rate sitch (too high), so it looks like I will be doing my first road trip since 2021. 1st time letting the WRX stretch its legs, and as long as my back doesn't bark too much in the cockpit it should be a good time. Plan to leave early in the morning and get there by check-in time, then should be able to head straight up to the room, maybe take a couple hour nap then gogogo for 4 and a half days. Money...money will ...

Final room booking booked.  I had a NYNY standard room booked for around $100 for my birthday week, but my March offer dropped with added Freeplay. Cancelled the NYNY booking, but rates went WAY up for that week, so now I'm going the week before my birthday and for double the room rate. FML. Not all bad though. I'll be in the newly renovated MGM Grand strip view room, so an upgrade from what I had booked. $85/$100 FP/RC. I still plan to drive in, so no disruption of travel plans. Just need to reset my FTO time which will be no issue. This also avoids a couple big conventions and the NFL draft which would have busied up the strip the following week, so it's cool. Should be a fun trip, starting to get a little jazzed for it. 

Got a "wrapped" type email from MGM Rewards detailing my points activity from last year. Pretty insightful stuff. In short, I'm not earning shit for points on gambling anymore. I earned 84K points and change last year. 75K is required for retaining Gold year to year, so unlike past years where I scraped by, this year I cleared it comfortably. A strong spend/play December trip made it a laugher. For the year, fully 62K points came from the points earning on the MGM Rewards Iconic card. Most of that is just daily non-Vegas spend: food, bars, deodorant, etc. I gained only 17k points all year from gambling. That amazes me. 95% of that on VP. I fed $53K into MGM VP machines last year and only got 17K measly tier points out of it? Another 3800 points came from onsite resort spend, and that's it, that's the whole 84K. Only a little over 20K points were actually earned in a Vegas resort, which is where you're supposed to earn most of your points. I play VP in Vegas...

  I spend too damn much money in normal life. It's affecting the Vegas save. I have no daily save discipline unless it's my 401k or if I'm JUST about to go on a trip. I can be a little disciplined right before a trip to put away a few extra hundy, but I need to extend that to the rest of my daily life.  The car is part of it. I spend $325/month on the lease payment, $150 on insurance, probably another $140 on gas. No more bridge tolls anymore, which helps, but that's $615 right off the top. My rent is still low...it's food and Saturdays that kill me. I routinely spend $40 a day on food, which is insane, and can easily spend $300 on a normal Saturday out in the City, x 4 times a month. The car is what it is. I need it for work and that's not going to change in the near future. The Saturdays...that's not going to change either. I NEED the release after a long work week, and I love it. What I CAN control is the daily food budget. In short, I must have a daily ...

  Getting a grand back from taxes this year. Made more money and went up in tax % but somehow a better refund than last year. Meh. That'll certainly help for Birthday Vegas, which, inevitably, for good or ill, is coming. It'll be a shorty, just flying on the Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, flying out on the following Monday. Max 5 full days on the ground. So if I can only put $4K together by then, that's fine. With the tax refund that gives me 6 checks to stack as much paper as possible by fly out. Currently have a soft rezzie for NYNY on that date which would cost me about $30 with 4 comped nights and no resort fee, but we'll see what the offers look like after February breaks. The NYNY package has $150 of RC/FP value which is less for my current offers, so I might just stick with it. Also have a $100 RC bump from retaining Gold, so at least a couple good meals to be subsidized. I do tend to go a little more baller on rooms for birthdays though, so we'll see. D...

Yeah, OK. That was by far not the best trip ever, but also not the worst. Highlights: Flights:  OK on the in, a little late to be flying in really, kinda wasted the day to not even be in the airport until like 8:30p. The flight left on time though and I got there with no issues. On the out, on the day after Xmas, there was a 1 hour delay due to weather in SF. Not much to do or say, just sat there at the gate and dealt with it. Resorts: Love love loved Fontainebleau. Beautiful room. Oblique strip view, everything new and clean and beautiful. Hoping to continue to get offers from there to stay, even if it's only a couple nights. Especially based on the MGM sitch detailed below. Mandalay Bay for the other 4 nights was...fine. Gotta say, MB is one of my fave resorts but it's time for a refresh. A lot of dinks and dents in furniture, stains, nothing is automated in the room, etc. It's just showing its age. It still works but it's not up at Aria or Bellagio standards anymore ...

It don't git much better'n this. My long, depressing nightmare of a job is over. Staying with the same company but moving to a new site with just a plethora of better attached to it. Just cancelled my Fastrack, for one thing. Fuck that bridge and everyone on it. The relief hasn't really set in but it will, and it may lift a low level depression I've had for the last year. Here's hoping. I also, as of a couple hours ago, have the next 12 days off from work. Don't have to really go back until 1/5. 7 of those days will be either traveling to or being in Vegas, so maybe not the most relaxing stretch, but I'm not complaining. It's been a rough stretch from August to here with not much time off, so I plan to enjoy the living fuck out of it. I earned it. Then, oh yeah, Vegas tomorrow. All the money is out of the bank, I'm already checked into Monday's room and I'm 80% packed and ready. The save worked out perfectly, I'm not fucking myself with a...

Counting down to XmasVegas 2025. All is well. The save will be fine, with the increase coming in the next check I will have the $1K per each 5 full days and a few hundy for the first, short night. Won't even get to the resort before 11p so I won't need much. Looking forward to a couple nights at Fontainebleau, it's a pretty glorious place.  Not much planned, which is fine. No shows and only a couple dinner rezzies, if I kill it on VP early in the trip I may pop into Absinthe or something but aside from that there's nothing I really am even interested in seeing. Food-wise I'll just have to get it where I find it for most meals. Just need to remember to do so, no repeat of last-trip drunk shenanigans.  No themed Vegas playlist again this year, don't even have one started ATM. Will work on it tonight, prob will just be a few holiday tunes mixed in with the stuff I like to hear in the room. upbeat and cool. This is also the last week countdown to my getting out of f...

T-minus 17 days to yet another Xmas in Vegas. This will be consecutive year #13. Crazy. Let's count up the savings on this round. -2 nights comped at Fontainebleau in a Mountain Best View King: $0. Would be $480 without my having lost played a few hundy on VP there. Saving of $480. -4 nights comped at Mandalay Bay in an Elite King: $0. $765 saved. My standard 4 nights comped offer and no resort fees due to MGM Gold. -$250 in Slot Dollars, plus $30 in Freeplay from the booking package. $280 in value. -$60 in existing resort credit left over from the prior trip, plus $50 from the booking package. $110 in value. Total haul: $1635. Not an all-timer but very respectable when you consider that my only overhead for the trip will be the fight, which is more than made up for by the RC/FP so it's a zero overhead trip. How many bitches can say that for a 6-night trip in non-standard rooms on the strip over a holiday. NOT TOO MANY BITCHES.

  Bonus fever! The FY 2025 numbers came through from my company; all the other employees covered for my ineptness and got me a 6.3% bonus. It works out to around $6100 gross, I'm estimating $4K net out of that after taxes, so along with the approx $2K I'll be able to scrimp from the remaining regular checks before go time, I have covered the save easily. This says nothing of the up to 2.7% individual bonus I could be in line for, which would be another $2500 gross, approx $1500 net. TLDR, I'm covered. This is a big improvement over last year, when I had to take a 401k loan to cover the trip FFS. I can pay down my CC normally this way pre-trip too, so I won't have to skip a card payment in Dec and dig any kind of resulting hole. I'll USE it of course while in Vegas to points max, but it should be no problem to get it paid off normally in Jan/Feb. So my 2000 hours of hard(ish) work over the past year has bought me: One Trip To Las Vegas. It's a pretty good trade, ...

T-minus 37 days, bitches. Plan. Night One, Saturday: Its a late flight in and assuming all goes well, I will arrive at Fontainebleau around 11p. Check in, dump the bag, basic unpacking and probably down to the casino floor by about 11:30p. It's the weekend before Xmas so things probably mellow, might try to grab a bite in the Tavern if they're still open for food, or just bars either there onsite at FB or across the street at Resorts World, probably. No reason to stray too far from the FB, as it's going to get late quickly. Drinking yes, plowed no, best course of action. Day Two, Sunday: First full day in town having awoken for the first time at FB. Sleeping in is fine, no Niners or Warriors games that day so no need to jump out of bed. Getting a baseline of sleep going would not be the worst plan, especially after the experience on the August trip. No plans this day in terms of food, can grab a lunch somewhere either onsite or if I end up cabbing somewhere, maybe White Wha...

  Redid the thing. I had 6 nights booked at MGM Grand in the new Exec King Suite for the Xmas trip. Nice, fine, but it was going to cost me $180. I don't like cost. So there I am, bullshitting my way through another hideous day at my hideous job, and what pops up in my email but an offer from the lovely Fontainebleau for 2 fully comped, no resort fee nights in an upgraded Bleau Mountain View King. Both nights of which worked on the days I was going to be in town. I love the 'Bleau, and have wanted to stay there since they opened. So, bing boom bang, booked. The Saturday and Sunday nights too, which I would have thought would have costed me, but NO. Then I rebooked with MGM, and snagged 4 fully comped nights at the also lovely Mandalay Bay, in the really nice Elite King suite, which for my (limited) money is one of the best junior suites on the strip. So now I have 6 fully comped nights in two gorgeous resorts over the holiday. Normally I would look down on resort swapping duri...

  Counting down, in the wasteland of trip tweener time. Cutting back to three trips a year really creates some Vegas time gaps. April to August, August to Xmas, Xmas to April, rinse, repeat. Honestly I could squeeze in another one every year if I didn't keep having wallet-busting summer trips. I haven't seen a hand pay since last Xmas. And now I'll be skrimping to get to the needed $5K save for this Xmas, after still having to dig out of the August trip. I'm not too worried, I'm more or less resigned to staying in this (shitty) job until the end of the year now, as if I leave it will be walking away from potentially $5K+ in bonuses, which I will need to finance the Xmas Vegas. As it is, I will probably only be able to squirrel away a couple grand in the November/December paychecks. Trip after trip, I always make it work somehow someway. The resort is locked at MGM Grand, as my Rewards offers have fallen off. Was 4/$50/$100 now 4/$30/$50. If I rebook I would lose $7...

The inevitable Xmas Vegas is set. Booked the flight and hotel tonight. Was waiting for a good flight deal and found one for a late flight in on Saturday night the 20th, will arrive at about 10:30p. Wasn't digging the early AF morning flights in, too much trouble waiting around to get into the room. This way I'll have the room ready at arrival, can just print a key and head up, and be settled in for a full 5 day trip. Then it's an out time on the fly out day of around 11a, home by a reasonable time and no waiting around in the room to head to the airport, which I hate. $154 all in for the flights, which is damn good for Xmas week. The room will be an Executive King Suite at the Grand. Newly remodeled, they look a lot brighter and airier that the rather dour old Exec suites. Comped for 4 of the 6 nights, all in after taxes and removed resort fees it's around $180. Adding the extra night means about $100 over the suite I had booked at MB, but it's still a hell of a dea...

Well then. That...could have been better. High and low lights: Flights: Fine. Got to SFO way too early for the in flight, had to wait an hour for TSA to even open, but both flights on time and no issues. Strip: After all the gloom and doom reports I expected to see myself, a couple locals, a busker and a ravenous coyote on the strip, in reality it was a normal, busy weekend. The Monday tailed off a bit on traffic but the media can basically go fuck itself. It's still Vegas. Room/Resort: Bellagio. Nuff said, really. Nice room, same as in April, a little lower floor but still had an oblique fountain view. Quiet, comfortable, well located. Resort boring and crowded as always. Gambling/Rewards: Ass. Lost $2400, all at MGM resorts. Out of a budget of $4K that's not horrible, I guess, but aside from a few 4OAKS I hit nothing all trip. Didn't gamble a penny outside of MGM, maybe I should have, but I stuck to the plan at least. Rewards went pretty well, racked up good bump from gam...

Bed in an hour, Vegas in the morning.  Just dropped a sleeping pill and going to try to get something like 7 hours, then up and out of here way the damn hell early. Boarding by 5a and in Vegas by 7:30a. All is ready. Good room, normal save, some snow, some shrooms, hopefully a little luck and maybe even a little grabass. But probably naw. Bellagio awaits and I'll see all 1.5 of you (per post!) when I get back, if I get back. Peace out bitches.

  I've squawked about it before, but this trip is...THE MGM TRIP. In past years, even when I've been able to scrape into MGM Gold during a year, I still spread a lot of other spend around the strip. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, the strip is a big, great place and I want to be able to enjoy as much of it as I can.  But with "spreading the love around", I also minimize the rewards earning potential. While on most trips the bulk of gambling spend is at MGM resorts (maybe 60 MGM, 40 elsewhere), I do and always have dabbled little bits here and there...a couple hundred at Caesars, a hundred at Venetian, $300 at Fontainebleau. That's getting me nowhere in their programs, and that's all spend that can get me even better rewards at MGM. With the new Iconic card being here, the reformed benefit package from Rewards itself, and just the landscape of Vegas I'm in now, it's time to really double down on the MGM ecosystem, once and for all. The benefits ...

T-minus 9 days to Vegas...plan post, IT'S THE LAW. Have some actual things to do on this trip, though it's mainly food-related. Which is a good thing, as food apparently soaks up alcohol. Or so I've been told. Friday: EARLY wake up call as I have a 5:45 in the motherfucking AM flight. The price I'm paying to have a $39 in flight. No Priority Pass lounges or terminal bars open that early, so I'll just drive in, park, get through security and hang out in the gate area I guess. Maybe get one of the myriad coffees I will need to get through the day. Then assuming all goes well with the flight, it's on the ground around 7:30a, to Bellagio by 8a, drop the bag and head off to find breakfast and a mimosa. Probably at an MGM spot to start the pointsmaxxing early. I will have checked in on the app, so hopefully can be in the room by around 10-11a, dump everything, freshen up, do a bump and head off to start drinking. I have the full first day's spend too so some MGM g...