One Car Living

I am really trying to figure this out and there are soo many half answered questions and threads about this at the wsop. Where would the best place be to stay? At a cheap hotel at 30-50 per night for 1 week or stay at a friends house hopefully for free but about 15 minutes by car? I would then have to rent a car so would it even be worth it? I plan on staying a week at a time for a few different times depending on how much time I can take off work. @280 bucks for a week that is about equal to 6*40 including fees and taxes. The final negative is that you wont be getting away from the casino but If i went for a month instead I would for sure find a place outside the city to stay so I can cook food.

On April 09 2012 12:47 basementkid wrote: I am really trying to figure this out and there are soo many half answered questions and threads about this at the wsop. Where would the best place be to stay? At a cheap hotel at 30-50 per night for 1 week or stay at a friends house hopefully for free but about 15 minutes by car? I would then have to rent a car so would it even be worth it? I plan on staying a week at a time for a few different times depending on how much time I can take off work. @280 bucks for a week that is about equal to 6*40 including fees and taxes. The final negative is that you wont be getting away from the casino but If i went for a month instead I would for sure find a place outside the city to stay so I can cook food.

If you go to Enterprise.com or some other rentacar site you can get a quote on how much it would be for X days. I would tack on 25% or something if you are under 25 as a safe estimate, although I could be off on how much more it costs when you are younger renting a car as I don't have much experience in that scenario. I have to think even using really conservative numbers that staying with a friend and renting a car would be cheaper. Staying at a hotel costs a lot more when you factor in Taxi rides to the Rio plus eating out every day.

Here's what I came up with.

Hotel Scenario: Average of $85 per day
$40 /day hotel cost
$30 /day food (pretty low, but assuming you do $10 breakfast, $15 dinner and granola bars for lunch or something)
$15 /day Taxis (long walk to Rio from the strip)

Rent a car Scenario: Average of $51 per day
$0 /day hotel
$10 /day food (definitely doable if you buy groceries/cook your meals and pack your lunch. This would be $300 /month for one person which is fairly high.)
$6 /day gas (Assuming $4 per gallon and a 30mpg rental car and 15 mile commute, you should be able to transport yourself for 1 gallon per day round trip, added 2 extra dollars in case fuel prices go up, or extra joyrides or w/e)
$35 /day rental car (estimated $250 per week rental cost, seems reasonable)

Renting and staying with a friend seems like the clear choice. It leaves you with 238 per week savings, which is a pretty big buffer should your rental costs be higher than expected or some other situation. You could even take your friend to a fancy meal on the strip once a week and still save money.

so you sold the GTR? Prob a very very smart financial decision though

Is THIS what having children does to you? DO NOT WANT

sold a car too few weeks ago, having 2 cars was pretty useless since I'm always home

hey whoosel, I'm graduating this year, writing my final exam on the 21st and am signed at a management consultancy in Toronto starting in August. I will be making a good living, but I want to start out my "adult" life on the right foot, and it looks like you've been thinking really hard about what you need an what you don't need.

Do you have any advice for someone starting out? Thanks man!

On April 09 2012 13:18 thewh00sel wrote: Show nested quote + On April 09 2012 12:47 basementkid wrote: I am really trying to figure this out and there are soo many half answered questions and threads about this at the wsop. Where would the best place be to stay? At a cheap hotel at 30-50 per night for 1 week or stay at a friends house hopefully for free but about 15 minutes by car? I would then have to rent a car so would it even be worth it? I plan on staying a week at a time for a few different times depending on how much time I can take off work. @280 bucks for a week that is about equal to 6*40 including fees and taxes. The final negative is that you wont be getting away from the casino but If i went for a month instead I would for sure find a place outside the city to stay so I can cook food. If you go to Enterprise.com or some other rentacar site you can get a quote on how much it would be for X days. I would tack on 25% or something if you are under 25 as a safe estimate, although I could be off on how much more it costs when you are younger renting a car as I don't have much experience in that scenario. I have to think even using really conservative numbers that staying with a friend and renting a car would be cheaper. Staying at a hotel costs a lot more when you factor in Taxi rides to the Rio plus eating out every day. Here's what I came up with. Hotel Scenario: Average of $85 per day $40 /day hotel cost $30 /day food (pretty low, but assuming you do $10 breakfast, $15 dinner and granola bars for lunch or something) $15 /day Taxis (long walk to Rio from the strip) Rent a car Scenario: Average of $51 per day $0 /day hotel $10 /day food (definitely doable if you buy groceries/cook your meals and pack your lunch. This would be $300 /month for one person which is fairly high.) $6 /day gas (Assuming $4 per gallon and a 30mpg rental car and 15 mile commute, you should be able to transport yourself for 1 gallon per day round trip, added 2 extra dollars in case fuel prices go up, or extra joyrides or w/e) $35 /day rental car (estimated $250 per week rental cost, seems reasonable) Renting and staying with a friend seems like the clear choice. It leaves you with 238 per week savings, which is a pretty big buffer should your rental costs be higher than expected or some other situation. You could even take your friend to a fancy meal on the strip once a week and still save money.

For sure. This definitely seems about right, and I will prob end up spending more on food but oh well. I just have to weight the advantage of staying closer to the venue and places to play cash games then staying farther away. Thanks for the breakdown :d

I suppose a taxi works out dearer?

Good to see how you budget stuff. I've never kept track of how i spend my money nor put any cap besides thinking twice before i buy anything over 1k+. Reading your blog makes me feel bit guilty and regretful of my past spending I'm guessing you haven't considered taking a cab because of excessive cost?

On April 10 2012 09:34 AndrewSong wrote: Good to see how you budget stuff. I've never kept track of how i spend my money nor put any cap besides thinking twice before i buy anything over 1k+. Reading your blog makes me feel bit guilty and regretful of my past spending I'm guessing you haven't considered taking a cab because of excessive cost?

Yeah well I used to think I was doing ok on spending but upon further review I would just spend my normal amount and make a few spazzy purchases each month and the totals really rack up over time. Especially with cars lol.

As far as taking a cab, it's not a bad idea, don't know why I didn't include it I should have. I think the cost would be around $30 each way but I'm not really sure, I haven't taken a cab to my house before except once from the airport and it was like $50 one way and I lived a little farther away than I do now. But at $60 a day (30 each way) the cost would be 360 for 6 days of cabbing, plus I have to ride in a cab with a bunch of $ on me which makes me nervous. So discounting the money saving of renting a car versus cabbing I think I would just rather drive myself and not have to rely on a driver picking me up in time to get to the casino before an MTT.

I find it hard to believe the pro's of having 1 car outweigh the cons of having 1 car in a family environment with 2 working parents. I mean yeah you're saving money, but you can always find some way to save money. The point is why bother if it places and unnecessary burden on you? You could cut your electricity bill in half by not using the A/C in the summer, sell both cars and just bike everywhere. Sell the bikes and just walk everywhere. Eat 2 meals per day instead of 3, etc etc.

I dont know what your debt to income ratio is, but trying to save $7k/year when you make 20k/month seems ridiculous.

On April 11 2012 14:55 NewbSaibot wrote: I find it hard to believe the pro's of having 1 car outweigh the cons of having 1 car in a family environment with 2 working parents. I mean yeah you're saving money, but you can always find some way to save money. The point is why bother if it places and unnecessary burden on you? You could cut your electricity bill in half by not using the A/C in the summer, sell both cars and just bike everywhere. Sell the bikes and just walk everywhere. Eat 2 meals per day instead of 3, etc etc. I dont know what your debt to income ratio is, but trying to save $7k/year when you make 20k/month seems ridiculous.

I think you're right to an extent on cutting costs, but in our specific situation I almost never have to be somewhere while my wife needs the car. I don't think it places a burden (apart from this one week in June that I was talking about) on us at all and I feel silly for not having ditched the car earlier. I wouldn't mind eventually getting two cars again, and like I said, one of my options is to buy a second car, but for now I am trying to cut expenses in several areas, and transportation costs are a big expense each month and we certainly don't need two expensive, non-practical cars.

I'm not just blindly cutting stuff either; like I was considering attempting to bike to work, but if my hourly is 80 and it takes me an extra 30min each way, I'm costing myself $80 per day or $1600 a month @ 5 days a week. The A/C thing I'm still thinking about. I think you can install a swamp-cooler which cuts energy costs significantly, but I haven't researched it much yet. Going to try insulating my house a little better and see if I can save on energy bills that way first.