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How much should I save up for Pax East next year?
i Work 2-4 days a week and make $7.75 an hour. I am 21 and live with my dad for the time being. I never done anything like this before so I am wondering how much should I save for food, public transportation, stuff at Pax East, hotel, flight etc. For hotel i am looking for the cheapest because thats like the most expensive thing next to the flight. So how much should I save up for?
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I'm driving up from NY so I don't really know how the flying situation works out but I usually come in with about $700-800 and split a room with at least one friend. I've had hotels in Somerville that cost me $50-80 a night but are a bit more of a trip to get to the show and then this year I stayed at the airport for about $200 a night but split with 4 friends.
When I stayed in the cheaper hotels I had to leave the concerts a bit earlier so I can be sure to catch trains all the way back to my room since the T usually closes around midnight-1am. Last time I was in Boston I believe a 7-day unlimited use charlie card was only about $18 so it's worth it to buy one when you get into the city to get around fairly cheap.
Once I got my PAX badge covered I think I was setting aside about $25 a week all the way up to the event itself but you may want to do a bit more than that since you'll be flying.
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I believe staying with someone would greatly improve your savings, though I would suggest you be careful about who you choose to go with. If all else fails, there is usually a room sharing thread that gets up when the event gets closer, and obviously that does not come with any guarantees.
Transportation within Boston is also a big thing. If you go with OnPeak you you will want one of the hotels that has the shuttle service. If you book yourself, try to get something which is within easy reach of the public transportation system and compensate with either cabs or walking. This being said, I went that route on my second year and learned a couple of hard lessons in doing so. My experience was that due to being tired and many other factors, suggested walking distances do not hold true, and the costs of taking cabs almost ate up all the savings I made by taking things into my own hands. I also counted myself lucky because the weather permitted it. If it did not (if not for the rain, then for the possible snow falls), then I would most probably have been worse off. In the end I figured that I should just have picked something with OnPeak and profit from the shuttle service.
As for food budget, should you want to go the cheapest and still have some kind of variety, I cannot suggest GrubHub or Foodler enough. Especially if you are with a group of people. Bring snacks and a reusable water bottle. They deliver to your hotel room - at least it was the case with us.
As for my own comparisons...
My Westin Waterfront bill from Thursday to Sunday with Parking and premium internet was in the low 800$ (The Westin is probably the less cheap of all the OnPeak deals). As a couple we (as in my wife and I) spend about 100$ on food a day but we don't limit ourselves to junk foods and we like to have a drink here and there. Even if I stayed at the Westin I wanted to travel around the city a bit so I had some cab money on me which I used maybe twice a day, which totaled about 100$ total for the whole time I stayed.
Not counting the gas, the rest of the money is pretty much used for spending and purchases. How much you spend there is entirely up to you. As for myself, the prices for some of the things I see at PAX cannot be beat and they are so good that I often hold off buying anything here, which is why I go apegoose when I hit the exhibition floor. If you are from the states, this probably will not apply to you, and if you fly, you would not be able to bring too much stuff with you either... I think. Maybe you could ship some of the stuff back?
I usually get away with about $120 in walkabout money and that's including food and transportation. I walk everywhere simply because I enjoy walking so take that as you will. South Station isn't that far of a walk and has super cheap food. My group usually brings some groceries with us to make eating cheaper. I don't usually buy much partly because I walk a lot and partially because I'm in a similar financial situation as you. It's totally doable, especially if you start saving now. I even managed a Prime trip once but that was helped by crashing at a friend's house.
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Anyway, that's just my 2 pence for anyone interested. It's a little costly, but each year it has been totally worth it!
Personally speaking, for 2013 I got a flight from Texas to Boston for $180, stayed in a room split between 5 which ended up at $200ish for the entire weekend per person, and then had roughly $300 for spending/food money. It really depends on where you come from and how dedicated you stick to saving the money, but I was pretty shocked that I managed to go for around $700 - $800. I'd definitely recommend a budget of $1,000 as a base though, just because it's a much safer thing to shoot for if you can do so.
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1) Getting there and back. Depends on where you are in the country. Flying, taking the train, carpooling....no offense, but being that you're working part-time for low wages, your time is probably not worth as much as your money is. So if you can find people to carpool with, that's probably your cheapest option.
2) Staying there. A hotel that's right there is....if I remember correctly, about $150-170/night. You can always stay further away and use shuttles/cabs/mass transit to get to/from there, and/or split rooms with others to bring that cost down.
3) Eating there. Simply put, there's not a lot of good food options right there. Food in the convention center is generally bad and expensive. If you can at least bring food with you to eat breakfast before you go to the con, and then if possible, snacks/drinks to carry with you, to hold you through most of the day, and then get a few blocks away from the convention center to eat more. But just realize, it's a somewhat expensive city, you're not getting away with much less than $10 per meal, and that's if you're eating very little or doing VERY well on finding good cheap stuff.
4) Stuffs. You want stuffs. We all do. The more stuffs you want, the more you need.
Hope all that helps.
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This. I bought a sandwich, pepsi, and chips all three days and it was less than $10. Not the healthiest but about as good as the convention food is.
If you room with others its often a lot better, to save some money, thats what I usually do.
2. You don't necessarily need a hotel close to the convention center - there are good hotels throughout the city.
You can always walk your way to the financial district where you can find other restaurants. If you plan on doing this on a regular basis, get yourself a Charlie Card that will be good for a few days.
Check out Google Maps for the places around the BCEC and the Financial district that may be of interest to you.
Note, if anyone wants to talk about food, it may be better to wait until the Food thread comes up. I'm strictly speaking about how to save money here
I drove from toronto: not an option for you, but i shared the ride with 2 others and gas cost was fairly cheap that way. I'm gonna target this as a general post from my experience in case anyone else wants more data.
hotel room share, I think for the 3 nights was 220 at seaport and roomed with someone off the board here via the thread and had no issues. I came in a day early due to driving and picked up a hotel on the outskirts for the night before pax at 80 dollars (which then got split 3 ways), it was one of those travelocity blind deals but it was a really nice resort style hotel.
parking (since i drove) 112 iirc parking at the seaport...there is likely cheaper, but i parked the first day in the underground and had easy access to my car, its a bit more secure than a surface lot and i'm used to parking in the city being an arm and a leg anyway.
food: I brought snacks with me and it lasted through the weekend+waterbottle, I reckon i probably spent 20-40/day on food and never really had a problem with being hungry, eating at bcec, dinner out as noted, splitting pizza with my sisters friends, Food is really a Ymmv, if you eat only at bcec, expect 30/day. its easy to go more expensive (some of the nicer restaurants/drinks) or cheaper (as other people have posted).
Merch: I did pinny arcade, so to get everything initially was 90 bucks, plus some thinkgeek con exclusives, its another ymmv, if you're broke you can hold off, if you're like me, its an easy 150-200 bucks. Some of the stuff like discounted 4th ed books i picked up on sunday afternoon I don't count because i would have gotten them somewhere else anyway for more :P
Trying to think, didn't spend on much else. Save the passes themselves at 105 (3 days bought separate). I figure next year with my wife coming with, we're probably at close to 1000 bucks unless she backs out and 750 if i'm by myself.
Or just get a better paying job, unless you're in college too where that isn't all that easy. Or find friends looking for help with their jobs and get cash on the side, a full day of work under the table goes a long way as well.
But like others have said, eating cheap is very easy. You could buy a cheap stryofoam cooler and keep hotel ice in it and buy sandwich meats or something and just get a loaf of bread, it'll get you by, drink water, etc.
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Or if someone else is coming with you, split a hotel room with them.
If you are coming on your own, and don't want to rely on the hotel share thread, you could consider a Hostel.
It's pretty much the cheapest option that does not force you to rely on someone else for your accomodations.
The recently constructed Boston Hostelling International is very close to the convention center.
I stayed there in a private 3 person room with 2 of my friends for PAX East 2013.
http://bostonhostel.org/
It's just a 25 min walk to the convention center, so you don't have to pay for public transportation, since I do believe the Silver Line 1 from the Airport to the BCEC is free, at least during PAX 2013 it was. The Hostel is just inside of Chinatown.
http://goo.gl/maps/zgO1O
Depending on your comfort level, you could stay in a 8, or 4 person shared room.
8 Person rooms are $50/night, 4 person rooms are $60/night.
So if you only stay Friday night and Saturday night, leaving Sunday, it's only about $100 at it's cheapest. Or if you stay Thu-Mon, about $200, maybe less with a membership coupon.
I believe there is a locker to lockup your stuff, just remember to bring a lock with you.
If you are not a member, they charge you $3/day additional, but if you sign up for a 1 year membership, I think they give you a coupon to stay 1 free night, so it may be in your interest to pay for the yearly membership when you get there. At least that's what they gave me at the New York Hosteling International.
The place is brand new, built about 2-3 years ago. Very clean, offers free Wifi & free Breakfast, the two things I always look for in a Hotel/Hostel.
Breakfast was bagels, toast, peanut butter, butter, jelly, yogurt, milk, chocolate milk, cereal, muffins, and possibly a few other things I'm forgetting. Possibly waffles & syrup.
The muffins came individually wrapped... so if you were so inclined, one or two to go make a cheap snack/lunch.
Or if you have quart baggies, Peanut butter sandwich/bagels to go.
If you want to spend some money on food, the Hostel is surrounded by restaurants & fast food places, so you can grab something to go for lunch, or stop at one of the places for a quick dinner on your way back from PAX each night.
If you have any questions just call them up, they're more then happy to answer questions.
Hostelling International USA – Boston
19 Stuart Street
Boston MA 02116 USA
Phone: 617-536-9455
Toll Free: 888-464-4872
3 day pass - 80?
train ticket to and from boston- 50
gas to were train is- 50
taxi to hotel from trian- 15
hotel from thursday night through sunday night- 200-250 hope to have atleast 4 people in the room and may just scrap the sunday thing and stay at my dads that night
suviners- I am not big into table games and stuff like that so it will mostly be tshirts and stuff like that so 100-150
so that is between 495-595
so that pretty much leaves food/drinks and transpation
for transpataion I hope to get in one of the two hotels pretty close so I would only have to use taxi's once in a while since they have the shuttle feature so lets so 75 for taxi's
so that makes 570-670
food i will say 15 a meal so asuming i come in thursday night and stay till monday morning thats 12 meals which is 180 I will knock that down to 150 asuming that I will not spend 15 every meal but would rather over bring then under.
so that now brings me to 720-820
I plan on going to some of the concerts and parties and having some drinks there and asuming at bars drinks will be fairly expensive i would say
30-40 a day for drinks which equals we will say 150 for drinks which brings me asuming I spend the max for the other stuff to 970.
I will prob 800-900 with me just to play it safe which would total to around 1,000-1,100 when all is said and done. As far as how to save just put a lil money aside each week. If you even just do 20.00 a week between now and then thats 620.00 saved if you do 25.00 a week then thats 775. You may be able to do more but this just shows how quick money can add up. Also take into the fact that tax returns are right around that time so maybe you can get some money from that. That is how I am doing it well that and my b-day is 2 weeks after that so early b-day presents.
Stay in a hotel with others. Bring an airmattress and fill that room up. If you manage to stay 6 to a room (the cheapest deals PAX gets tend to be $250 a night), that's $125 each.
Watch your transportation costs judiciously. Carpool to PAX. Or take a bus. The train is another option and might be reasonable. Flying could work if you can get a great deal. Chances are you will be paying about $100 - $200 for transportation if you can carpool (you will need to help on paying to store the vehicle at the hotel and that's $40 a night).
PAX can be done for $300 if you are incredibly budget minded and are willing to economize EVERYWHERE possible. Unless you live in Boston, I cannot imagine managing this trip on under $300. If you want to have fun, make it $500. If you want your accommodations and travel to be better than camping, make it $1000.
I can't complain about the location, but now that my first PAX is behind me, I realize now how much I probably missed by not being in a hotel with other attendees. The importance and utility of the shuttles are also more apparent now, and I am definitely leaning towards staying somewhere with a concentration of other PAXers in order to hopefully enjoy kindred company. This will undoubtedly cost more, but I think it'd be money well spent.
To save money, I'd recommend finding a place to stay on Roomorama.com or Airbnb. Or, you could wait till the hotel roomshare thread goes up and find a room that way. Food can also be done on the cheap, especially if you pack some high protein snacks along with you (I prefer PRO Bars). As for transportation, if you do find a room to share in one of the partner hotels, you could spend nothing extra on transportation by taking advantage of the shuttle service. Boston public transportation is also remarkably cheap. In fact, I would highly recommend using public transportation to get to and from the airport.
Beyond this, you will probably learn alot about how you'd prefer to travel after attending PAX East. If anything, I'd say save more than you think you'll probably need to spend. If you decide $600 will do it, save closer to $800. In the end the worst that can happen is you spend less than you saved for, in which case, you will have more flexibility, and maybe you can go home with some extra cash.
Plan well, and have fun. I live a slightly more meager lifestyle for 7 months so that I can have a chance to live very well for the 5 days I'm in Boston.
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PAX East '13 I believe I spent ~$1,100.
$500 for hotel (split with another person) [W Boston]
$250 for round trip flight [Jet Blue - Fort Lauderdale Airport <-> Boston Logan Airport]
$400 (~$100 per day budget for breakfast, lunch, dinner, merchandise and misc. expenses)
Various general tips that I'm sure already got covered.
-Book your flight not later than two months from departure date.
-Do not be shy to room share! You save money and get to meet other pax-goers. Win-Win. A thread usually pops up close to pax time. Keep an eye on the forums.
-If you interested in going to the various parties going on check the forums close to pax time. Some parties are free (just need to RSVP) and is obviously a good way to meet pax peoples.
-If you can, pack a lunch in your backpack in the morning. (sandwich, water, fruits, veggies, etc.) So around lunch time you can sit down and enjoy your a nice prepared lunch without paying ridiculous BCEC prices.
How much you spend depends on many factors. I get away with under $500, but I have generous friends who manage to get me good deals on hotels. This can have other costs. For 2013, I stayed at a local friend's place, which is cheap (free), but he lives outside Boston which means you either get up earlier or miss out on stuff. Take this into consideration when looking at cost cutting measures. Money isn't the only cost.
We bought 2 board games, scarves, and pins this past year, but no other shopping. Overall, calculating for splitting the hotel room (HUGE HELP), I spent $467 before travel expenses (in my case, gas money). I tend to scrimp where it doesn't matter as much to me, so I can spend comfortably on everything else.
1. Don't eat at the BCEC, the prices are x3 the normal price.
2. Stay at a hotel further away from the event, but not to far if you plan on walking to / from everyday.
3. Stay in your daily spending allowance. Other than the hotel and gas I spent maybe 2-300 dollars at the event and that was due to me and the wife getting stuff for us and hobbies + our kiddies. With the hotel we spent less than 850 total.
I just booked a round trip flight for $150 I expected my hotel to cost about $750 assuming I don't split it and I I could easily spend another 500-600 on swag food drinks etc...
The best thing to do is split hotel costs with a friend or two, that can significantly save you some money.
Also bare in mind the badges are paid in advance so that is something that you can spread out as well
Last year, I spent $365 on a flight from Ohio, compared to 2010 when it was about $330. I always fly in on thursday, and leave monday. If you want to conserve cash you could catch a flight in early friday morning and leave sunday after the show and cut your lodging cost in half...but if your flight is delayed on friday, you could end up missing out on part of the show. This happened to our friend in 2010, and is definitely a risk coming from Ohio - if you are one of the first flights out in the morning and we still have wintery weather, there will be a line for de-icing the planes that could delay things. At least this year around it's in early april, but the weather here can still be a crapshoot.
Since the show wraps up around 6-7 on sunday, you could catch an evening flight out, but if it leaves too early, you'd miss out on the final round of the omegathon, which goes back to the 'maximize pax vs. minimize cost' decision....or, you could skip the omegathon and hang around the expo floor, trying to collect as much loot as possible as booths unload the stuff they don't want to have to ship back.
My share of the hotel was about $285 for four nights (thurs - mon), we stayed at the Renaissance which was maybe a ~10 minute walk from the convention center. We pay the quad occupancy rate and don't overload the hotel room.
For food, as others have said, the BCEC food is expensive. Pack breakfast bars, pop-tarts, whatever to eat in the morning for breakfast. I'd recommend not skipping some sort of breakfast, as you'll want the energy. As for lunch and dinner, it comes down to time vs cost - can grab food at the BCEC and pay a premium, or have to spend time leaving the convention center in search of cheaper eats, and thus losing out on time spent at PAX. If you came in friday and left sunday, that's still only ~$60 for food, which isn't too bad.
Merch is totally up to you, but I know I'll want some shirts, and I usually pick up a new card game, dice game or board game, along with various other merch. Save as much as possible for this
Best of luck to ya.
This is advice I needed.
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This is too true. I hung out around the expo floor on Sunday afternoon and loaded up on lanyards and skin key code cards from the Riot booth.
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2 years of going to Pax East and the thought never crossed my mind.
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As I stated above, my plane + hotel cost $650. I'd probably say my food costs are around $200, as we usually eat out at restaurants for dinner, and I buy breakfast and lunch. We also went to Harpoon a few times for drinks and pretzels (BEST PRETZELS EVER), as well as the whiskey priest, add on another $50 (which could easily be waaay more if you like to drink). Probably dropped close to $100 at the PA merch booth. That's $1k right there. I don't think I hit 1.5k this year, but I'd guess I spent another 200 or more on merch from other booths - tshirts, board games, dice, etc etc.
If you were coming in on Thursday and leaving monday, there's lots of activities happening both pre and post-pax that can cost money. There's also touristy things you can do in Boston, since you're in town (Duck Tour!). It's really not that hard to imagine spending 1.5k if you aren't watching your wallet the whole trip. By no means do you HAVE to spend that much, but it's not that farfetched.