10 Frugal Things About Las Vegas

Yesterday I pointed out how many of the popular Vegas things are actually pretty expensive for tourists.  But for locals, the people who live here, Las Vegas can be a pretty frugal place!

1. Free over the air TV.  As soon as we moved here we bought over-the-air antennas for our TVs and found that we got more than 50 stations free which meant we didn't have cable TV for years.  We recently got basic cable as part of our internet package because it was cheaper to have the TV/internet package than just internet by itself for some reason.  We still have four of our TVs on antennas because we didn't want to pay for cable boxes for TVs we don't use very often.
2. Vegas is also a great place for military and vets.  We get a good discount on our car registration, we get free buffets every Memorial Day and Veteran's Day, and there are lots of other military/vets discounts on all kinds of things from attractions to special events.
3. The library system here is AMAZING.  I've downloaded thousands of free library books to my Kindle, we have borrowed all kinds of movies, and they have all kinds of special events at the library from live bands and dance ensembles to author meet and greets and other community events.
4. There is a lot of entertainment here that can be off-the-chart expensive, but there are also a lot of wonderful free and inexpensive things to do here as well (here is a list of 100 of these things).
5. Food can be really inexpensive here as well.  Whether it is the late night specials at the casinos (like the $4.99 steak and egg breakfast at Southpoint), free comped meals if you gamble here (hubby earns $1-$2 per hour in comps from playing poker), or the myriad of cheap grocery stores (99 cent store, Mexican and Asian stores, highly discounted loss leaders at regular grocery stores), you can eat in Vegas really well and really cheaply.
6. Taxes and utilities seem very inexpensive here compared to other places we have lived.  Property taxes are low and have an annual cap to keep them from increasing as steeply as housing costs do.  And for some reason our water bill here in the middle of the desert is about $24 per month while in Seattle where there is water everywhere, our water bill usually ran about $45 a month?!  Other utilities seem less expensive as well.
7. Speaking of utilities, many of our utility companies offer freebies and rebates for customers (examples here, here, and here).
8. What ever your interests are, it's a good bet there is a club, group, or organization that can (inexpensively) meet your needs in Las Vegas.  There are free guided hikes at Red Rock Canyon, one of the best (free!) genealogy libraries in the country is here, this place is a photographer's dream, and there are so many opportunities to volunteer at events then get free passes to enjoy the rest of the event (like volunteer one day at the Electric Daisy Carnival then get free passes to the rest of the event (a $200 value).
9. Even though some of the venues and experiences may seem kind of expensive for tourists, just by showing your locals ID, residents can get all kinds of locals discounts on shows, events, and other things in Vegas.
10. We have the best Goodwills in the country.  There are a lot of Goodwill stores all over the valley, everyday they have some sort of discount (including $1 day when everything is a dollar!), and because people come here from everywhere and are pretty transient, they tend to donate all kinds of great things (hubby got a brand new Fly Emirates shirt which we found at an airport store for $90 yet he paid $4 for it at the Goodwill!).