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Home > Deep Frugal, part 2

Deep Frugal, part 2

June 27th, 2006 at 06:33 am

In other words, not really. I checked in, set the mini bar key on the TV where it did not move. Why bother looking if you don't want to spend?

The hotel room was lovely and comfortable and a veritable minifield of temptations that "we will just stick on your bill". A CD player/alarm had a small rack of wrapped CDs that if you unwrap, you bought. Webtv-esque Internet access at $10/hr. 2 Fiji water bottles for $4/each were sitting right beside the icebucket (Reader, after taking a stroll in 95F, I nearly fell for that one). First-run movies for 11$ - 14$. Strung from the door knob came more temptations - room service and massage service and laundry service and breakfast in bed, and even on my last day, an offer for the hotel to pack a lunch for the trip back.

Luckily, I'm a great sleeper and I stay put when I do so. I'm pretty sure I don't spend money when my eyes are closed. Unfortunately, I'm a great sleeper and I stay put when I do so, and I've been burned by setting hotel alarms. I sprung for the wake up call.

And so it was during most of frugal land last week. I had to make choices. I'm not even sure if there was a cost for the wake up call, but since I wanted to wake up, I paid the insurance. The continental breakfast coffee just wasn't waking me up one morning, so I sprung for Starbucks (3$/drip - yikes!) I came on this junket with two coworkers - we holed up one night to watch a movie, then split the payments for 5$ of fun.

But you all would have been proud of me. I looked at the fiji water, then got some ice and hit the tap water. Smile

4 Responses to “Deep Frugal, part 2”

  1. contrary1 Says:
    1151423435

    You did good!!!

    All the sneaky little "add ons", can you imagine the size of most peoples bills?? And, they probably charge the whole thing and don't even think about it.

  2. elgin526 Says:
    1151429410

    This sounds like a really nice hotel! I've stayed at Marriotts, Sheratons, and Hiltons and not had all that stuff to "tempt" me (I never am). I love upscale hotels, but they never get me on the little stuff!

  3. baselle Says:
    1151468621

    Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, across from Vanderbilt University. It holds the western end of the plaza - right next to the hotel was an office tower. According to that building's lobby directory, Al Gore's office was on the sixth floor.

  4. LuckyRobin Says:
    1151473985

    I hate hotel tap water. I always bring a pitcher with me and fill it up with ice and let it melt. I do this every night and in the morning I have filtered water from the ice melt and just put fresh ice in it to make it cold. After the maids clean the room, I refill the ice bucket and let it melt all day, too. If I fill it before they clean, they dump it. They never touch my pitcher though. We always have enough good water this way without the expense of buying bottled water.

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