The Organizer

I rely on coupons to get a lot of bargains and freebies as well as to get an occasional edge against the house at some of the casino games, so perhaps I should go into a little more detail about how I make it work. If you've been following my blog, you've seen that in the case of Vegas, coupons don't just save you money, they can make you money. Finding coupons in Vegas is sinfully easy. There are free magazines every week full of coupons for the casinos, restaurants and other attractions around town. You can find them at supermarkets like Smith's, some of the convenience stores and gas stations, at Tix for Tonite outlets around town, at the Concierge and Information desks of hotels. You can even find them in some of the free magazine racks around town, especially by the Riviera, although otherwise the racks are generally stuffed with advertising for, uh, personal services.

Years ago I developed a system for organizing my grocery shopping coupons, and once I began accumulating lots of Vegas coupons, I started managing them the same way. I have a coupon holder with tabbed dividers that I used to divide my coupons into categories; in my case, Gaming, Dining, Shows, Clubs, and Attractions, a catch-all category for all the museums, theme parks and rides, and other businesses that don't quite fit into the other four categories. I only had five categories to work with, since I got this coupon holder on the cheap at Dollar Tree. I order them first by expiration date, so the ones that are expiring soonest are up front, and I'll use a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe that expires in June before I use the one that expires in December. Then they're organized alphabetically by the name of the casino or restaurant or museum or what have you.

So if I'm looking for free play at The Gold Coast, I check Gaming; two-for-one entrees at The Cantina at Tuscany, I look under Dining; a free beer at the Riviera's Wicked Vicky Tavern, Clubs; and so on. I clipped all my coupons from the American Casino Guide and keep them in here, too, although you could just as easily lug the book around with you and rip coupons out as needed. Theirs are organized alphabetically by casino name, if that's more to your liking than breaking everything out into categories.