How much $$$ are you bringing?

I know I saw tid bits about this on another thread, but I was wondering how much you plan on bringing to CIV? Oh and give me your hotel and room numbers too! =) Kidding...

For CIII I brought a little over a grand and actually brought some back. I didn't buy too many exclusives but I didn't hold back with food etc.

Val... what's the general cost of things in LA? Is most fastfood the same nationwide? Here in Baltimore a value meal at McDonalds is about $4.00. What about LA? I know this is one extra day so that's going to affect the over all cost.

 

My husband and I are budgeting $1,000 for entertainment, food, gas, & SW goodies. If I include the hotel, airfare, car rental, and badges, the grand total is around $2,300-$2,500.

At CIII my husband and I spent less than $500 on food, gas, and SW goodies. Including hotel and badges, the trip cost a total of $1000.

 

The general cost of things is probably more than you're used to in your home city LOL.

Big Mac Combos are something like $5.50 out here. They do have their $1.00 menu. You can also buy Arch Cards in $5, $10, $25 and $50 denominations. Not a bad way to go.

The salads at Jack in the Box will cost you $4.99 each. A sausage croissant will cost you $2.37 including tax (can you tell I buy a lot of those? ) They also have prepaid Jack Cash, from $5 to $100.

Burger King has a value menu now that will get you a Whopper Jr. for $1.00.

Taco Bell = fast food Mexican food.

Cheapest place to eat -- stop in at any 7-11.

Sit-down restaurants; we have Denny's out here, but hard to get out of there without spending $10 per person.

Average price of a gallon of gas in Los Angeles is $3.32 as of today.

Things are more expensive, there's no getting around it. You wanna eat easy, though? Order these

 

I'll probably wind up brining between $1,000 and $2,000. I plan on eating breakfast at the Omni, lunch somewhere near the convention center and dinner where ever looks good. There's a nice Itialian place outside the Omni by a fountain.

Last time I brought like $400.00 and I wound up tapping mac a few times.

 

I plan on bringing plastic and sorting it out later. Am I spoiled that way? Perhaps.

At C3, I bought extra of several items for sale on Ebay to help fund the trip. It could be seen as scalping, but it could also be seen as helping out my fellow non-convention going fans with a minor markup for my expenses (travel, admission, etc.).

This could help with the sticker shock of C4.

 

I don't quite know how much I'm bringing yet. I might only buy the exclusive figure as my merchandise for the trip, unless something catches my eye.

My main concentration though is on the autographs as those are once in a life time.

Overall, I'll probably bring somewhere in the ballpark of $500-$1,000. I'm still doing the planning.

 

I'm supposed to get a nice bonus this year... and of course there is always the income tax return. =) Maybe for Christmas I'll ask for only money. How rude is that? Heh...

 

Heh, I know what you mean. I have a birthday coming up and I know I'll be getting some extra cash from that and with the raise I got in my job earlier this year, I'll have plenty of money to spend. I might even be asking for money as well come christmas, lol.

 

I'm bringing ONE MILLION DOLLARS MUHAHAHAHAHA!

Seriously, though I am not much of a collector and I already have SW stuff that I can't find places for. If I buy anything it will be mainly shirts and such. I have no set amount that I am bringing. I save half of my check every payday so it is going to be a matter of how much I decide to spend and I doubt it will be all that much more than any other vacation I have gone on. So I figuring it will be around $1,000 or so. I guess I'll see when I get there.

 

If I get to go (something doesn't go wrong to prevent me from going) the only obstacle I see is not having cash monies up front to share a hotel room with somebody. Otherwise, I will sort it out by credit card later.

Question to anyone that shared a room, Is it at all common to send the money ahead of time to the person making the arrangements for the room, or is this not done?

 

I'm doing a budget of 2500.00 for my husband and myself.

Estimates:
Plane - 600.00 (for two roundtrips from the east coast)
Hotels - Hopefully under 500 for the week, if we split with two people.
CIV Tickets - 230.00
Rental car- Only if we dont get a close hotel or one thats not near a metro About 150.00 for the week, split with two others.
Food - prolly around 400.00 because we plan to eat out...this is our major vacation...also we plan on spending quite a bit at the bar,
Goodies - Around 600.00....maybe. Not planning on buying any lightsabers...got enough of those... Prolly just a few choice autographs and collectibles.

I''ve vowed not to go over 2500.00...hopefully it will be less, because the new costumes we're making are going to cost a little. Bye bye tax returns.

 

I am planning on saving up lots of money, simply because we are going to make this a 10 day trip. We will be spending 5 days at the convention...at a hotel...and the rest of the time we are going to visit relatives. If we go to LA and do not visit the family we are as good as mud and off the Christmas card list.

For Airfare I plan on saving $450 for my family of four. The reason I am flying so cheap from Ohio to California is because I have a big secret.

***PRIVELEDGED INFORMATION...READ WITH DESIRE TO DO SO***

I have been saving up points on all my credit cards. What I do is this...I have a rewards program on three of my cards. One of my cards is a bank debit card with rewards. So what I do is charge all my bills to my debit card, then pay off the debt with the ol' paycheck. Then on the other two crdit cards is the BIGGIE... I have a balance that I continuely transfer every month. For example, Card 1 has a $4000.00 balance at 7.9% for balance transfers...Card 2 has no balance. I transfer my balance from card 1 to card 2 for a smaller rate and I get the 4000 points for transferring the balance. Then the next month comes and I transfer back the balance to card 1 and gain another 4000 points, before you know it I have free companion tickets and a whole lot more. I do this every month. Now I do know that this all takes time, but my 15 minutes on the phone every month saves me hundreds every year. Also, at Christmas time I exchange points for giftcards and....wammo...instint Christmas gifts.

I hope this helps everyone...for the Frugle person...like myself....hey I have to be with two kids and needing to pay for invitro for number 3.

So....

Airfare $450.00 for 4 from Ohio to LAX
Hotel $850.00 for 5 nights
Transfers from LAX to airport $0.00 family will get us
Meals $300.00
Action Figures and Goodies to buy $400.00

Total= $2000.00

I tried to purchase the Darth Vader action figures while I was at C3 to sell on ebay, to pay for our last trip, and unfortunatley I could not part with them. I purchased this whole box of the figures and I decided to keep them all. So, I will not be able to pay for this trip either through ebay. However, I am thinking of transferring those credit card balances so that I can get giftcards to pay for all my stuff.

It is well worth the money to go, I can say it is the first time I felt normal, all my life.

CAN'T WAIT TILL C4...IT WILL BE EXPLOSIVE.

 

I'll have plenty of money to spend, but I won't be wasting it on...well, crap.

If there is something nice, I will spend the cash, but money to spend on tat, you can forget it.

I'm there for the partying, mostly!

 

I hear ya....I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and all I asked for was cash. Now, some of my family members didn't go along with that but I still got like $300 which is not huge but it's huge enough for me. If I can get double that for Christmas, I'll be sound as a pound. Heck, I may even have a yard sale (I hate doing those) to bring in some cash. The last one I did made me close to $300 which, again, is not huge but it'll go a long way as far as my addiction (Star Wars and the convention) is concerned.

 

I'm wanting to bring $1000.00 just for the dealers room! There was so much stuff I wanted to buy at C3 and I went there on a shoe string. This time I want to be able to buy anything I want!

 

Grand total of $2,500-$3,000 hopefully. I'm gonna need it to pay for the room, airfare, and food to survive.

 

I planning on $2500 for everything (airfare, admission, hotel, food, digital camera, etc). Plus I plan on being out there a few days before so I can see some of the sites since it will be my first time out there.

I won't be getting extra figures to fund my trip, because when you look back at C3 towards the end and afterwards... you couldn't give them away! Sansweet made sure that there wouldn't be a repeat like the C2 figures and then they offered what was left on starwarsshop.com. I bet those people that paid a small fortune to get the C3 figure before the convention started felt as if they got bent over.

 

It'll be enough.

 

I ended up bringing home 5 and gave all but one away. My son even got one and he tore it open in seconds. Ha! What a joke that was. Those figures were going for $100 before the convention (pre-orders) then $50 to $75 during the convention in the vendor hall, then $10 a few days afterwards. I think you can still pick them up on Ebay.

 

I ended up bringing home 5 and gave all but one away. My son even got one and he tore it open in seconds. Ha! What a joke that was. Those figures were going for $100 before the convention (pre-orders) then $50 to $75 during the convention in the vendor hall, then $10 a few days afterwards. I think you can still pick them up on Ebay.[/quote]

I plan on bringing some extra money for the figures. I wound up, through luck and volunteering, getting a ton of figures at the convention. I only gave away one to a friend that due to an illness couldn't make the trip. I keep forgetting IO am going to need a new digital camera by then too. So, add in another 300 to 400 bucks for that.

 

I'll be lucky if my airfare is around $2000, add hotel room to that ($153/night) and food ($god only knows) then the goodies hmmmm hoping I can bring around $800 for that. I'd rather overbudget then end up seeing something I really want and not being able to get it.

 

I'm planning on about 4500 for our family. With airfare running us about 1500, hotel about 1200 and badges for 5 people that should leave us about 1300 or so for food and goodies. Hopefully that will be enough (my granddaughter is a BIG Star Wars fan). We only spent about 1500 total at CIII (badges, hotel, food and goodies) as we drove there and gas only cost us 40 for a round trip.

 

I'll use the Amex, and then pay it off later. I figure though that I'll bring close to a $1,000 in cash with me for partying.

 

I have been saving 100 a week since the anouncement was made and I had $2000 already in it for C4 after I went to C3 because I figured C4 was gonna happen. That will give me about 6800. Then you add the cool dividen the we Alaskans get and that will make my total around $7800.

Plane ticket= $700-800
Hotel= $1350
Food= $300
stuff= $1,500
Theme park fees= $250
Car rent= $400

And I know I am forgetting some things. See we plan to hit 6 flags, universal studios, a water park, C4, Disney land and Portland, before we go home.

 

Don't bet on Magic Mountain (6 Flags) being open by May of 2007. There are rumblings it's being sold. However, you could switch and go to San Diego -- Sea World, the Zoo, lots of SD SW fans, wonderful stuff .