This was almost me, at Super Bowl 52. At kickoff, it hit me: this will either be the best money I ever spent, or the worst. As a life-long Eagles fan, it worked out. But, I was still able to keep to my frugal ways in the overall cost. I started putting things in place the day after the NFC Championship Game, all contingent on being able to score tickets at a certain budget (I had already found out I didn't get picked in the Season Ticket lottery for face value tickets.)
- Found one-way BWI (90 minute drive from home) to Chicago Saturday morning Super Bowl weekend: $44 (non-refundable)
- One-way Chicago to BWI Monday night after the Super Bowl: $46 (non-refundable)
- Car rental for Sat - Mon for 6 hour drive (each way) to Minneapolis: $55 for my half (refundable)
- Had plans to crash at an old internet friend's house just outside the city Saturday night in exchange for treating them to a nice dinner: $150 for my half
- Booked a hotel just across the Wisconsin state line for Sunday night using hotel points (~$125 value) that was on the way back to Chicago
- Figured about $250 for gas and tolls ($125 my half)
So we were set-up to have the trip cost me $545 plus daily food/incidentals. Budget I had in mind was $3,000 total, so hope was that we could find tickets for $2,500 (for cheapest tickets, that was still 3x face.) If we couldn't pull it off, I was out $90 on the plane tickets. Constantly tracked prices for almost 2 weeks. Right up until the Friday night before our flight was leaving the next morning. But prices didn't get quite that low so it was either call it off, go forward and take our chances prices would fall closer to the game, or be willing to go over budget. Went with increasing the budget $500, pulled off decent seats, and had the best sports experience of my life.