Cover charges -- Friday night

Cover charges really eat into your bar budget. When we went out on Friday, both Café 210 and Bar Bleu charged us to get in ($2 and $3, respectively). This doesn't sound like much, but if you are drinking on a budget you need to distribute this cover charge over the drinks you purchased. Thus, if you just buy a $5 pitcher, it really cost you $7 with the cover charge.

The best solution is to avoid cover charges, which is often impossible on the weekend with the notable exceptions of Indigo from 9-10 and the front patio of Café 210. Alternatively, don't bar hop. If you buy all your drinks at one bar instead of over a lot of bars, you can distribute the cover charge over a larger number of drinks. (Or more directly, you just pay fewer cover fees.)

Saloon -- Saturday night

The Saloon seems to have some of the highest cover charges in State College. In addition, its Monkey Boy drinks, though highly rated, are also some of the most expensive in town.

Thus, basically the only way to do the Saloon on a budget is to get there early. From a cover charge point of view, you need to get there early to get your money's worth in terms of time spent there. From the drink perspective, you save a full $6 by getting the Monkey Boy pitchers during happy hour. At $12 full price, they really aren't possible to purchase economically unless you split the cost.

Mad Mex -- Friday Night

Some beers are $3.50. Margaritas are $7 for large, but you can get a small one for $5. Or split a large one since it appeared to be more than double the small size.

Still looking for prices cheaper than $3.50 on Friday.

Pluses for Mad Mex are no line (while Indigo was out the door) and tasty, free refills chips and salsa for under $3 if you get a table -- but you'll have tip the server, of course. Then again, if you are already a generous bar tipper, this isn't a huge cost trade off.