I saw “The Book of Mormon” from a front-row seat on Broadway for $32. No, a number is not missing from either the beginning or the end of that figure.
My name finally got drawn in the daily ticket lottery. I’ve entered the drawing every day during every trip to New York for the past few years, never dreaming that I’d actually have a shot.
The guy sitting behind me said he’d paid $500 for his seat. That’s my rent, dude. No way am I paying that much for a show, no matter how acclaimed. I still can’t believe I paid so little, but the accompanying photo proves that I did indeed shell out just $32 for seat A-105. The Lottery Dude also handed each winner a cool “I won ‘The Book of Mormon’ lottery!” badge as a souvenir.
But that was just one way I saved money on this trip.
The biggest frugal hack was airfare. It’s rarely cheap to fly anywhere from Alaska, but a friend’s husband works for an airline and he gave me a couple of “buddy passes.” Each was good for a one-way standby ticket at 90 percent off published prices.
That’s how I came to fly from Anchorage to Philadelphia for just under $200, an unheard-of price that was greatly appreciated.
Without it I probably wouldn’t have been able to make the journey. I’d already taken five trips (including three conferences) since early spring and it was time to stop spending. While the conference will be claimed as business expenses, I stayed a few extra days to sightsee after two of them — which isn’t a legitimate business expense.
From place to place, on a shoestring
The buddy passes had to be used by Dec. 31. When my sister told me she’d be in South Jersey briefly in October, I figured I could combine a visit with her and other relatives with a side trip to Manhattan for some face time with a couple of editors and other business acquaintances.
Thus I flew to Philadelphia and took New Jersey Transit down to Cumberland County for family time. Usually my dad has some kind of painful chore waiting for me, but not this time.
Frugal hack: Propose a visit to family and you’ll probably be offered a place to stay. They might even feed you.
After four days I took NJT back up to Philadelphia, where I’d booked a room at the Apple Hostel so I could take the Megabus to New York first thing in the morning. The hostel is in the historical area, off 2nd and Market, so there were plenty of free things to see. Tired afterward, I did the food-as-fuel thing and used a discounted gift card to get dinner at Subway.
Frugal hack: Hostels are much cheaper than hotels. The Megabus is much cheaper ($9 round-trip this time; I’ve done it for less) than the train.
Stretching the food budget
I’d booked three nights at the HI New York hostel, a short walk from Broadway and 103rd, spending just under $171 total – probably less than a single night at a downtown hotel, and I got a nice breakfast of a fresh bagel, fruit and beverage. The neighborhood has inexpensive restaurants and a couple of nice markets (Gristede’s, Garden of Eden) with good ingredients and high-end precooked foods.
Frugal hack: Hostels have kitchens. Use them.
On this particular trip I wasn’t responsible for too much of my own food. Thanks to those business meetings I got treated to snacks and several meals. I’d packed breakfast and lunch for the plane from Anchorage, and for the trip home I purchased a hoagie and an apple from the Reading Terminal Market. The night of “The Book of Mormon” I was too excited to concentrate on food so I used another discounted gift card to buy a burger at McDonald’s.
Yes, I did get some regional treats both in Philly and New York: bagels, pastrami, chicken soup, Italian hoagies, freshly baked soft pretzels. But sometimes you can just get a Happy Meal and call it good.
Frugal hack: Buy some discounted gift cards. Seriously.
A few more cheapisms
Rather than rent a car in South Jersey, Philadelphia or New York, I used public transit and gratefully accepted rides from family members. Bonus: Lots of exercise walking in Philly and New York (although one of my New York days included a spectacular fall).
My suitcase, a very nice rolling carry-on from Delsey, was bought with Amazon gift cards from the Swagbucks rewards program.
The New York hostel is about seven blocks from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which requests a $10 donation for tours. But morning prayer service is free. Guess which one I chose? (But yes, I did drop some money in the donation box.)
The lock that I used on the hostel lockers? Bought it at a dollar store about eight years ago.
The book I kept in my coat pocket for the plane ride and any down time was “The Once and Future King,” a classic that I found in the mixed-paper bin at the recycling center. Dumpster wading strikes again!
I collected My Coke Rewards points at both hostels (where they also have recycling bins).
At some point I lost my comb (actually a pick) and stopped in at Walgreens to buy a new one with my discounted gift card. The cheapest one was $4.19 plus tax. To quote Lana from the animated series “Archer”: Nooooope. Instead, I hiked a few blocks back to an independent dollar store and paid a little over a buck for a new pick. The end of it is a clenched fist, a design that reminded me of the 1960s.
Incidentally, “The Book of Mormon” was about what you’d expect from the team that gave us “South Park”: Sometimes scabrous, often hilarious and occasionally wince-inducing.
You know that point in a “South Park” episode when you say, “All right, all right, I get it! You’ve made your point! Stop!” You’ll see a lot of that in BofM. Don’t go in thinking it’s a religious musical.
Readers: How do you save money on travel?
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Mostly we combine business with pleasure– my airfare and most of the hotel will be paid for, then we can pay for the rest of the family to go. Whenever a conference is in an interesting place, I’ll ask DH if he’d like to take some vacation and the family. It’s more expensive than it was when the kids were younger than 2, but they’re more likely to remember the trips now that they’re old enough to require their own plane seat.
My dad likes that hostel too.
I’m all about combining business with pleasure! That was the whole point of the NYC trip: Face time is much better than pitching ideas through e-mail. I also got to spend time chatting about The Industry with some other people I really like. And, yeah, New York bagels.
The latest wrinkle is that my daughter — for those of you who don’t know, she blogs at I Pick Up Pennies — has begun attending the Financial Blogger Conference. We wear ourselves out running from 7 a.m. until the wee hours, then stick around for a few days to recuperate and to visit.
Donna you are truly inspirational. To do all this on the cheap…too cool. Truly you are living a rich life …at a discounted price. This adventure makes my two large jars of roofing nails for 10 cents each at the local church bazaar this weekend a bit uneventful…..
That is a killer deal! I’m impressed.
While I was still managing the apartment building I attended a church bazaar and saw a table with a bunch of hardware and home-improvement items. Among them: half a dozen thermostats for a dollar each. I bought all of them and presented them (plus an invoice for $6) to the building’s owner. He was delighted, since he was normally paying something like $30 a pop when an apartment needed a new thermostat.
Other than the “free” box at yard sales, my favorite discount buy was an old game similar to Boggle: cubes with letters that you toss onto a table and then use to make words while an egg timer runs down. It cost me one cent at a charity thrift shop. How could I not??? I’ve used it with my nephews and I tell them, “Worth every penny I paid.”
It sounds like you had a wonderful time (with the exception of the fall… ouch!) Congratulations on winning the ticket lottery… We got to see that show as a wedding gift a couple of years ago, and it was a lot of fun! Your ideas are helpful and very timely for us.
We’ve got a trip to Los Angeles coming up, and we booked inexpensive hotel rooms with kitchenettes. We’re renting a car through priceline, and we got our tickets using airline miles (we charge everything on our card to get miles, and pay it off in full every Friday, because that works better for us than waiting for the statement). Because we’re from L.A., we know lots of inexpensive delicious places to eat, and we’re looking forward to catching up with friends over happy hours and breakfasts, rather than more expensive dinners.
We’ll definitely pack snacks for the plane, and may take the city bus or car2go to the airport.
And for the expenses we can’t avaoid, we started saving four months in advance, a little each paycheck, so by the time the trip comes, the money will be ready and waiting for us… whatever we don’t spend will be used as seed money for the wedding in Mexico we’re attending next summer, and will begin saving for as soon as we return from Los Angeles!
I love the idea of paying every Friday.
Here’s how my sister does it: When she uses the card she immediately writes a make-believe check for that amount (enters it in the check register but doesn’t write the check). Thus when the bill arrives she’s already got the money set aside; deducting it from the running total keeps her and her husband focused on how much money they can afford to spend until then.
Just FYI: Priceline can be accessed through cash-back sites like Mr. Rebates and Extrabux for rebates of three to four percent. Hotels, rental cars and companies like Hotwire and Expedia can be, too. If anyone isn’t familiar with cash-back, read all about them (and maybe join using my referral) under the “Social Commerce Links” section:
http://donnafreedman.com/online-deals/
We haven’t done much travel for a while, but we did a lot of driving when the kids were younger, particularly between NC and Michigan. One of our favorite tricks was to pack cheese, cold cuts, and fruit in a cooler and bring bread and snacks in a separate bag. I’ve eaten many a picnic lunch at a roadside rest area, and at least some of them had playgrounds where the kids could stretch their legs.
It’s not true of fast food, but many sit-down places are a lot cheaper for breakfast or lunch than for dinner.
I guess my other tip for driving trips would be to know your route. Gas prices vary widely from state to state, and gas, snacks, and other amenities are going to be a lot pricier along the turnpike than off it. Ha! And if you’re traveling with kids, a hotel with a pool can be worth paying a little bit extra. Lets them work off the energy they’ve been storing up sitting in the car all day!
Agreed on the cooler lunches and the hotels with pools. These days, gasoline apps are a big help in finding the best fuel price.
I hated and despised the Book of Mormon! So many times I just wanted to walk out. The only thing that kept me there was that I had to do a review. As with most of NYC hype, many people are to afraid to voice their truth about the musical for fear of appearing unenlightened:IT SUCKED! Thankfully I didn’t pay full price for my ticket nor did I win a lottery, as most people don’t either. The Book Of Mormon is on tour. Go to their website to see if you can find a local town near you showing the trash. I got tix at the Providence Performing Art Center (PPAC) for only $35. That and a low cost luxury hotel room (hostels in NYC are notorious for bed bugs, I am really surprised you stayed in those hovels) plus dinner out are all LESS than ONE NYC Broadway ticket. And you’ll have a better time. Other Broadway shows I’ll be seeing are Jersey Boys, Wicked, Kinky Boots and Beautiful (all Tony award winners without that NYC price tag)
Anyone who sees BOM and laughs at any of the ‘jokes’ IMHO is someone to be shunned. RUN AWAY!
If you want to save money when you visit NYC, mu advice is to go to Brooklyn or any of the outer boroughs and take the subway or bus in to Manhattan. You’ll save oodles of dollars AND vacation with a bit more luxury/class PLUS eat well balanced meals at better priced restaurants.
As a former native New Yorker, NYC is only for tourists. Get in, look/see, then get out. Quickly.
I’ve never even seen a spider, let alone a bedbug, in the HI Hostel. It’s incredibly clean. Luxury hotels get bedbugs, too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/bedbugs-found-at-ritz-carlton-hotel_n_1233907.html
I read your reaction to the show on your personal website and disagreed with you then, as I am disagreeing with you now. The authors weren’t laughing at topics like HIV and female circumcision — they were using them to highlight the absurdity of a bunch of middle-class missionaries coming to their country uninvited to mansplain why things weren’t really all that bad.
(The fact that the worst things they could think of in their own lives were things like “the plane was crowded and the bus was late” is an indicator of how out of touch they were.)
Clearly “The Book of Mormon” is not for everyone, but it is not trash.
Though I haven’t seen The Book of Mormon, I have to agree the Mormon missionaries are generally clueless about the cultures that they visit. As someone who lived in the Dominican Republic for many years, I could not help but smile at the absurdity of pairs of fresh-faced Mormon missionaries (usually 18-20 years old) with name tags that said “Elder.” At age 70 I am an elder—certainly not them. I loved your frugal hacks on travel, Donna, and cannot understand why Cindi found it necessary to talk down to you—but that is just my take as an “elder.”
My favorite frugal tactic is the grocery store. If I have a microwave and frig. I make french toast in the microwave that comes out pretty tasty. PBJs for lunch or snack. Cereal and milk for a quick breakfast or evening snack. Bottled water to carry around siteseeing. I pack my own tea bags, sweetners, plasticware and ziplocs. Unused Cheerios make a great snack on the plane ride home. Credit card points are used to defray the cost of something either airfare, meals, or hotel. No hostels my husband would not agree. I also pay the credit card is paid each weekly, so no interest.
Yep. That’s why hostel kitchens are so interesting — someone’s always cooking something. Bonus: People leave unused portions on cupboard and fridge shelves marked “free.”
Some brilliant ideas Donna!!! I regularly travel to warmer parts of Europe as it is cold here in Ireland much of the year. I too stay in hostels(In Ireland the hostels are excellent) but if possible I like to rent/ exchange a room in an apartment or house.I like a certain amount of privacy. I have a friend in Madrid and we regularly exchange our homes. I always ask friends/ friends of friends and very often someone knows someone with a spare room grateful for some extra cash. People in Europe will also let one have a room in return for a few hours of English classes. I did this last summer and had a lovely vacation in Northern Spain in return.
With regard to flights, At least twice a week I check all of the airlines for bargains and dates that fit in with my vacations. I often book many months in advance. I regularly travel mid week. I use local bus transport which is generally very cheap in Europe and a wonderfully authentic way of seeing a country and a chance to mix with the locals.