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

Just a few weeks now until the Turkey trip. Time to tally up the savings on this one. -6 nights at Mandalay Bay - $387, would be $847 with no Mlife status, savings of $460. -$130 in Mlife Ex Comps. -$50 in RC and $50 in FP at Mandalay Bay - $100 value. -2 Restaurant.com certs for $25 at MB eateries, $50 value. And...that's it. Not much to speak of this trip. though the rooms are a solid discount. Total of $740 saved if I end up using everything. Not the best haul ever by any means but respectable. With the flight, total trip overhead still just a little over $600 all in for 6 nights, not bad. I'll end up getting a couple free meals out of the Ex Comps and RC, including the splurge Turkey night meal at Stripsteak, and if I use the R.com certs for Hussong's and Slice I won't end up spending too much money on food. 3 weeks and counting...

Closing in on trip #5 of the year. Less than a month now. No changes to the itinerary. Mandalay for the room at a great rate (less than $400 all in for 6 nights) and United for the flights. All told overhead less than $700, which isn't an all time great but for a holiday weekend trip it's not bad. Even with paying down the Mlife CC should have $9K in the bank pre-trip, so something like $4K left in when I'm back, and hopefully a little more if I don't shit the bed on gambling. Not going to plan much on the trip, have a couple dinner reservations, one for Turkey night at Stripsteak in the MB complex and one at a new place at Cosmo that looks good. The dinner at Cosmo is right next to Opium theater, so I may see that again last minute if it feels right that night. Other than that the trip is open. I'm sure I will be making the V/P runs many times to see the guys in the Collective, and I should have plenty of time to hit many of the other normal haunts. Last year the t...

Will have some gambling freedom come the last two trips of the year. I've locked in Mlife Gold for next year, and have zero chance of getting to Platinum, so I can spread the gaming spend around a bit if I choose to for Turkey and Xmas. I do get Ex Comps built up when I gamble at Mlife resorts, so the bulk of the play will probably still be there, but I don't need to be rigid about it like I was earlier in the year.  Identity would be the logical choice, but it's been announced that Cosmo's resort operations will be run by MGM starting early next year, so there's really no point in trying to pick up any more points there. I imagine it'll just revert to Mlife once that happens. I can't sniff any comped nights there anyway unless I spend a ton in Nov and Dec and if I did they might go away after the acquisition.  Wynn Rewards is something I'd like to get deeper into but I just don't make it up there enough to make it worth the effort. I also have zilch...

I'm spending too damn much money. Since I came back from the quickie September trip I haven't really saved a dime more than what was in the bank when it was over. Still sitting on $7K in there but the plan after Sept was to build up the cushion again to be in a great place for the nearly back-to-back Turkey and Xmas trips. They are both 6-night trips, meaning at least $5K needed on both trips, and, well, you can do the math. I have just 3 checks between now and lift off for Turkey, so I need to put the brakes on the spending. No more watches. No more buying of party favors. No more spur of the moment Tame Impala shows. No more fucking GrubHub every night to the tune of $25. I've got to tighten up. The LAST thing I want to do is to have to go back to the days of enforced save amounts every check. That means weeks with no Saturday going out, it means living on canned soup for days on end, it means...going back to 2016 pre-Vegas trip me. A sparse time. It's something I can...

I'm trying to start living again. For most of my adult life I've been pretty insular. I don't do much, unless it's part of the routine, or unless I'm in Vegas (or have no choice due to quarantine). During the week, I go to work, then go home, rinse, repeat. On weekends I go out to mostly the same places on Saturday, then hibernate on Sunday. In the past I've called it "the rut". It's safe, and fine, and boring. I don't HATE it, it's just not really living. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get out in the world. In the last few weeks I've gotten out of the comfort zone and have gone to a Tame Impala show at Chase Center (great), a Friday Cocteau Fest event at Cat Club and a Tuesday Giants game. In the past I would have made excuses in my head that these things are too expensive or too crowded or too, whatever. I'm done making those excuses. I'm going to start taking advantage of what the City offers on a weekly basis. I...

2 months from Turkey Vegas. After not much hype for the last couple trips, for this one I am pining. Great resort, 6 nights, should have plenty of dosh and it'll be a solid 3 month gap between trips so I can properly hype up. I've settled into the job now and am no longer sort of engulfed by it, it's still hectic but I have carved out a niche and some boundaries which is good. My mind can wander to more important things now, like Vegas. I'll be a bit of a free agent on the trip too. I have Mlife Gold locked up for next year and have none chance to get to Platinum...ever, so I can play the field a bit more this trip. Being that I'm staying at MB I'll likely still do most coin-in there and at other MGM spots but I can try to lean into Grazie a bit and maybe see if I can snag some rooms for next year there. I've more or less given up on Cosmo, just too damn expensive for low roller like me. Wynncore also probably out of my league. No interest in CET, so that ju...

Back a week now from the Labor Day trip. Highlights (and lowlights) below. Flights: Frontier. In was great, got to airport in plenty of time, had a couple beers with a drinking buddy from R bar, then flight on time and no issues. Actually got in 20 mins early or so. Flight out was a bit of a shit show. Got loaded onto the plane on time fine, but then sat around on tarmac for an hour with various issues then had to de-plane and go to another gate to board a different plane. Altogether a couple hours late getting in, making it a really long and depressing fly out day. Had a weird pseudo-panic attack on the tarmac coming back too, for a few seconds felt claustrophobic and panicky. Was in the window seat on a full plane, dunno what it was about. It passed in about 15 seconds and I was OK the rest of the way but may need to not sit on the window anymore. Room: This was the true, real downer of the trip. The Mirage standard rooms are ghastly now. Completely run down, beat up, and awful. Was ...