Most Embarrassing Value Oriented (Cheap) Things You've Seen

Last trip I saw a couple sitting at a small fountain in the walkway between Paris and Bally's. They were scooping the change out of the fountain. My husband and I got a good laugh out of that one. We stopped to have a drink at one of the casino bars at Paris. A wedding party came into the bar - sat their butts down at about 5 of the tables -- it was BYOB for them - they brought a 12 pack of bud with them and ordered nothing from the bar. The Clalmpetts do Las Vegas.

I waited tables while going through Nursing School -- I cannot stand cheap a$$es -- have no use for them. Probably why I get my feathers ruffled easy when tipping threads are started.

 

A couple of pretty old ones, all from the 90s when I was much younger (well under 18)

1. My dad use owned his own business and one of his most valued employees, the one person he was able to count on during the busy months to always work and get the job done right was invited to go to Vegas along with us. We were driving out as usual and the employee and his wife had never been outside the state of Ohio. My dad told him how cheap Vegas was with the .99 steak/eggs and such. Well We make it between St. Louis and OKC and the topic of money comes up and the guy tells me dad he brought plenty of money, $40 for he and his wife for two weeks. My dad was not to happy but at this point it was to late to turn around. Made it to Vegas and my dad had to front him for him and his wife's room and food. Guy was broke by the time we arrived and was walking around picking up coins off the ground to find enough money to gamble.

2. My dad had a part-time job delivering pizza since he got bored sitting at home during his slow season. It was thanksgiving of I want to say 1994 my dad invited his boss from the pizza shop to come with us. The guy had plenty of money but once we got to Vegas he was no where to be found. About 3am the second morning he came pounding on the door at our hotel, he broke out, lost everything he had brought, maxed out his credit cards and drained most of the money from the pizza shop that was not tied to his payroll and needed a place to stay and help. He slept on the floor of our hotel for the next two weeks and my dad had to feed him the whole time. He did pay my dad back once we got back hope but it was pretty pathetic.

 

How did he explain this to his CPA? Just wondering how he took the money out of the business and drained it all. I am in the same kind of multiple businesses and need to hold invoices etc to show proof of spending in the businesses for a few years. My CPA would have a hissy fit.

Edit: My apologies, I read it like he was the owner and not a mngr.

 

Said individual shall be absent from the Trip Report of "Gaggles Annual 35th Bday's. And I would like to add that, as of this writing, we are adding a stag party to the annual May trip this year. If we can make it half as fun as Macker's stag last year we will be doing well!

 

Back around '03, a neighbor buddy and my best buddy all made the trek. Neighbor and I flew from Chicago and we met my other bud at MGM, where we were staying. We got in on a Sat and for some reason, the rates were ridiculous, so we made a conscious decision to just stay up all night, avoiding the room rate (I swear I remember it being $300+ for the Sat night and then very reasonable thereafter, and most decent hotels were this rate...so we just said "F" it and went this route...). So we get there around 8pm and drop our bags with the bellman. Buddy and I go play BJ while neighbor hits craps table. Literally an hour later, neighbor finds us and he's dead broke. No money....didn't transfer money or whatever that he'd have access to his accounts until Monday when the bank opened, so there we are, 1 hour into our 4 day trip, and neighbor is flat-ass broke. And we have no room until Noon-ish the next day.

We both chip in a bit so neighbor can at least hang with us. The night gets extremely long very quickly. I remember sitting in the old Keno lounge at MGM, practically falling asleep, being bugged by security that we couldn't sit there / fall asleep there. Around 5:30am, we decide to walk to Monte Carlo, so we walk over the bridge and start to head down toward MC and there are 3 prostitutes sitting on a flower bed wall with their pimp really close by. They're egging us on for a date and we politely turn them down, then they started yelling stuff about us being gay since we didn't want them....us agreeing 'yep, we're gay' so as to not have a conflict...just the cream on top of a brutal freaking night.

Finally around 10am, we begged the front desk folks to just give us a key so we could crash at the pool...we passed out, fully clothed....just pathetic. Ended up giving neighbor well over $700 bucks which I never saw again... and of course, never made another trip with him. Good times...

 

We stayed at the Signature one year that only has valet parking. My hubs refused to park there and have to tip the valet so he parked at the MGM Grand and we lugged our luggage that awful long walk through the parking garage, MGM and that long walk to the Signature. Yes we had to wait to someone was coming through the doors from the Signature so we could walk through. Wow just to save a few dollars.

 

It could this guy doesn't eat beef.
If it was me, I would refuse to go with "friends" to a steakhouse.

 

"friends", um Gaggles was the man at his wedding and he was asked to emcee mine, so yes "friends". Seriously though, I have watched this person devour a 14 oz prime rib from Dupars and a rib eye from MESA Grill (both on comp vouchers). I should also add I've seen him eat many a McDouble off the dollar menu many a time.

So I say to you....

 

Been there done that. Ain't worth it to save money and forego a hotel room. Not at all. But, at least it was a challenge and much more memorable not having a room than having one.
I can sleep in a car relatively easy, just like a baby after Super Bowl 2001 in Tampa Bay, but I did not figure on how bright of a city Las Vegas is. Ended up driving all the way to the Railroad Pass Casino parking lot to finally get some shut-eye.

 

Nah I gave him half my steak I couldn't finish

 

forgot about that and he still went to McDonalds

 

Didn't happen in vegas but remember a guy sitting at the bar(2 for 1 all the time), he saw the couple next to him had left and didn't eat all their food, so he asked the bartender to pass it down, even asked for the fork they left behind.

Another time 2 guys were at magic mountain in cal. they were in some kind of cafeteria type place and they found out that crackers(saltines) were free(for soup or whatever), they took a pile of crackers and a whole bunch of ketchup packets and were eating them instead of paying for any food - I think the checkout girl was amused and thought they must be real poor or something( It cost around $20 to get into the park by the way.)

Another time when I was young a few of us went on a road trip(all camping) out west and one guy bought a can of beef broth - he thought it had beef in it - opened the can and the lid fell to the bottom , he scooped it out and said all he got was brown water. Some of us were eating steak and potatoes and he pretended to be fine with his warmed up beef broth. He lost a lot of weight that trip.

Same people on another road trip a different year - we borrowed one guys parents station wagon for the trip, drove it maybe 5000 miles in 12 days, gas was cheap back then and about 90 miles from home we were running on fumes - gathered up all the change we had and put in like $1.43 in gas - made it home and dropped the car off - he said his mother ran out of gas a 1/2 mile from home the next day.

 

This p*sses me off as well! So-called penny slots that cost the better part of a dollar to play!

 

No clue. The guy owned the pizza shop but had a huge gambling problem. It eventually cost him the business though.

 

My first trip to Vegas was NYE 2001. Six months later I was back in Vegas for a conference my wife was attending. Since the NYE consisted of a group of 20 people and lots of golf, I didn't have chance to explore. This trip I walked everywhere and checked out everything I could. One of the things that fascinated me was the Boardwalk Casino. It was extremely creepy from the outside and I remember the funny write up Cheapo Vegas did about how scary the place was. After walking through the clown's mouth, I saw $3 blackjack. It seemed like a good idea. I could play some cheap blackjack will I could have a couple of drinks. I was dying of thirst. In the hour of two I was there, I witnessed the following:

1. A man trying to buy in with change. I think he put about $6 of quarters and dimes on the table. No surprise that this was not allowed.

2. A man would but in $3 at a time. I can still hear the rip of the velcro wallet. Eventually, he was up about $20 or so and he told the wife/girlfriend that this would cover the cost of the Boardwalk buffet for dinner and breakfast.

3. I was the only person who tipped the cocktail waitress during my time at the table; it was full and everyone was drinking. She made several trips and think I tipped about $15 for a couple waters and the soda about the size of the big gulp.

4. I walked away even. I bought in for $100 and won $2.50. I left the $2.50 for the poor dealer. Two people asked me at the table why I would do such a thing.

Nothing like good old fun at the Boardwalk.

 

Great post, parallax.

When folks have hit the grind-joint stage the last thing they are thinking about is common courtesy or fun or the entertainment value of it, they truly are grinding and sweating it out over small sums of money they likely should not be putting at risk for possible "rewards" of middling value.

 

I don't see A problem with that.....Many years ago at Barbary Coast I would bring a small cooler with Ice Cold Beer inside because the Barbary Coast served beer in a 8 ounce glass filled to about 6 ounces and with the slow waitress service they had, there was no way you ever could get served fast enough to catch a buzz, and to tip a dollar while waiting a half an hour for the next warm 6 ounce glass of nasty brand of beer I didn't like was frankly a ripoff.
Even today if I start geting served under poured greyhounds I will be more than happy to bring my own Luksusowa vodka and just order a glass a grapefruit Juice and a glass of ice.

 

The 4 people next to me at the Cromwell playing 1 cent per spin on a penny slot (1 sitting and playing, the other 3 watching)..
They would then order 4 drinks from the server.
When she brought the drinks back each time, no tip.

 

Makes me think of Kasey Musgraves' debut album title, Same Trailer Different Park.

 

2 years ago we gave 2 - 2 nights free vouchers to some friends so they could come to Vegas with us. This couple have a lot more money than we do and they don't gamble but they love Vegas. I realized how cheap they are when we were supposed to meet them at the lounge in Paris. They weren't there when we got there so I texted them to see when they would arrive. They had already been by the place and saw that it was a 2 drink minimum so decided they didn't want to go. When we did meet up with them they were sharing a bottle of water.