Travel to New Orleans on a budget

I recently traveled to New Orleans and I did it on a budget.  Listed are ways that I saved.

1. I traveled to New Orleans on a bus.  No, not the greyhound but the MegaBus.com.  As millions of Americans know by now that www.MegaBus.com is really inexpensive way to travel.  So, from Macon Georgia to New Orleans (which is about 9 hours ride) it only cost me $10 round trip.  And because I bought two tickets, it only cost me $20 (a ticket for my daughter).  O fcourse, to get the discount price, you do have to book your trip days or even weeks ahead.  I booked mine about 3 weeks ahead.
2. I didn't want to have to spend money on hotel.  So I wanted to make sure that we arrived early and depart late in the evening.  We arrived in New Orleans at 6am and departed at 11:30 in the evening.  That gave us plenty of times to sight see, shop and eat our heart out.  But we did meet this lady, who is also spending a day in New Orleans, on a budget, like we are, and we decided to go split a bill on a hotel, to get fresh up and rest for a couple of hours.  and it turned out perfect.  I logged online on www.priceline.com and was able to get a room for $51 (regular $99) in the heart of New Orleans, ,right downtown, Royal Hotel on St. Charles.
3. Because I saved on transportation cost, I was able to splurge on our dining experience.  So we did spend money there and didn't slouch.  We had two breakfast and dinner.  I knew we were taking a 9 hour trip, so I bought snacks from Walmart (Trail Mix and Springles) to avoid making purchases on our break.  and we did took two 15 minute breaks in Alabama.
4. RESTROOMS - So as we were sight seeing, my daughter had to use the restroom.  But all businesses on Canal St, only offer restrooms to paid customers.  I had to buy a drink for $2 at Arby's so she could have the key to use their restroom.  Later on we found out that we could have just gone inside Sheraton Hotel on Canal St. to use theirs.  And they have Starbucks inside.  which would have solved the problem of our battery running out of juice.  So be sure to have a spare battery, or an instant cell phone charger device to charge your smart phone.  The restaurants didn't have any plugs either.  
5. Trolleys.  We also saved money on Trolleys by purchasing an all day pass for $3 and its valid till 4am.  Instead of paying $1.25 each way.  and believe me, we must have hopped on the Troley atleast 10 times.  

I didn't know anything about New Orleans, so I didn't have an itinerary for this trip.  The good thing is, the trip was only for one day.  and I am planning on returning and this time, I have experienced and knowledge on how to save more and spend less.