I've been looking into attending RTX 2013, but I live quite long distance away (upper Midwest), so I was wondering if some people who live outside of driving distance of Austin could tell me how much it cost them to get to Austin, find lodging, and attend the event. The ticket is only $50, but it seems like flight costs alone could make up almost ten times that in expenses without a decent deal.

I'm a college student who works part-time, so while I have more than enough to get by, I still have expenses to take care of, so I don't want to end up blowing the entire grand or so I've saved up this school year so far, as much as I would love to attend, so I was hoping to get a few users to share their total cost with me.