I find it funny how people who brag about spending $2/meal by cooking at home will often spend 1hr preparing their meal and washing up, yet they won't factor the cost of time in. They'll just say "well I enjoy cooking". B**ch please, what if I enjoy working my job more than sitting in a gross steamy kitchen?

Fwiw I spend $40/day on food. I eat bacon+egg rolls, Subway, Chinese food, roast meals, etc, none of which I cook myself. I don't cook at all. And my income isn't particularly high. But the way I see it is: if you're going to spend 2hrs/day cooking then you might as well spend $40/day on food and just ask your boss to keep you back 2hrs per day for extra pay, or stay at the casino for 2hrs longer each session.

$40 a day/$280 p/w seems like an excessive amount to be spending on food for only 1 person.

I'm a poker player, who lives on there own and I don't spend half that, yet I eat well.

when the phone is my oven and every time I pick it up to order it's like 35 bucks with tip, it's very easy to over spend on food.

Pro tip: spend an hour cooking, but cook for multiple meals.

When I lived by myself, I'd spend the better part of Sunday afternoon cooking. But it added up to about 4 hours per week and $150/month for 60 meals.

I didn't say I spend only $2/meal. Unfortunately, that's not possible if you are trying to eat clean, quality ingredients unlike the stuff Subway or 99% of the other non-organic fast food chains / restaurants use.

FWIW, I have no problem spending time in the kitchen instead of going to work and having to ask a boss for things. But that's just a personal preference. If you prefer spending your day at an office instead of watching Netflix on your couch, that's perfectly fine.

I'd say if you're going for the experience of playing at the Borgata, do it for that. However, I think you're estimate for a room for (1) night at a somewhat decent motel anywhere close to the casino for $60 on a weekend is unrealistic.

Yep, I don't go that far, but I do spend 1.5 hours Sunday cooking dinner, meal prep for 2 evening meals and breakfast + lunch for 4 office days.

Food for work saves time as well as money because I'm not going out to buy meals. Say 60 minutes / 8 meals = ~ 7 minutes per meal - I'd take longer than that to leave the office and buy food.

I can cook most of my meals in 10-15 minutes (if time was a factor there are many I could cook/prepare in less time). I have found that driving to a place to get food and coming back takes just as long if not longer on average, but I still do that a good percentage of the time too. I can cook a lot of meals quicker than it takes me to go to any type of fast food restaurant and back, especially if they have a line, and I have lots of choices within a mile of me.

To each their own though. Do what works best for you.

EDIT: Sorry this is a bit of derail that does not really help OP. When traveling, it depends a lot on if your room has any options if you can bring any meals with you or not, definitely sign up for the players club so you can get some of your meals comped.

Is this a serious question? Strictly dollars and sense- Can you find a part time job for $12 a hour that can give you 8 hours a day over 2 days? If so, no its a terrible idea. Do you think that the time and risk are worth the entertainment and experience and money? Do you want to build a bankroll and move up in stakes? Can you possibly move to a closer casino and reduce your monthly expenses or increase your income?

You are forgetting insurance. That's probably going to add another $10000 to the overall cost of driving a car for 100000 miles.

Insurance is owed regardless of how much you drive your car. He was only listing expenses which grow proportionally to how much the car is driven.

Then why do they ask you how many miles you drive to and from work, etc. in order to quote a rate?

6bet makes a good point about opportunity cost.

Insurance can and will depend on the miles driven per year. More miles you drive the more opportunity miles for claims thus insurance risk higher as will cost.

Miles driven will also impact final recovery value when the car is sold, even if it is a salvage sale for parts.

Saving money on food and eating ramen noodles is a great idea only if your long term goal is diabetes. I wonder how many “live pros” actually do that nonsense while buying all these stupid $100 jerseys, hats and what not. I bet every poker room has one dude who has a collection of $40 hats and he is proud of it, lol.

I often take a dorm room even in a cheap country (10 euros per night, free toilet paper) walk maybe 2 km to casino/poker club. I walk to the nearest shop to buy whatever food I want to eat.

as said^: "On that note, if your only reason for playing poker is financial gain, then I would say that it isn't worth it for you with those expenses right now. If your goal is to have some fun and possibly make a little money then yeah man go for it."


if you enjoy poker, it is worth it. AC can be very fun, too!!!

If OP does go to Borgata, he should concentrate on playing as many hours as possible per day during his first trip. Borgata is very generous at giving comp rooms to poker players who have a high hours/day play average, even based on a relatively small sample size, so this could potentially save a lot of money in the future.

So much this.

On a recent work trip, I was covering for a guy. I worked his territory two weeks.

My work is ticket-based. It was kind of slow while I was there.

I spent 70 hours playing 1/2 live.

Result: break even. I went up $1k, then right back down again.

I was getting expenses and room paid for. It worked out best for my company, because I used my comps to eat at the casino buffet, saving them a few meals worth. Quality buffet, too.

I enjoyed myself. Beat the hell out of sitting in a hotel room.

But my profit was zero.