Frugal Friday

It was in no way a frugal week, with a travel day, a holiday & prepping for a two day ski trip. But, we managed a few wins!

• Food vouchers for delayed flight - Politely asked the customer service representative at Alaska for options when our flight home on Tuesday was delayed. And, delayed again, and again. We ended up with $48 in food vouchers (we could only use $24, as we were in the process of spending the second voucher when they called our flight & we sprinted back to the gate). Sadly, all of the non fast food places were closed, so we had to go to a newstand that sold drinks & snacks. I'd given up on using the voucher there, but they said they would it accept it. Spent $24 on snacks. Nothing healthy, as I'm sure you can imagine. Instead, these will go into my pile of fun snacks for ski trips. 
• Price checking at a restaurant - We never take the kids to McDonalds, but stopped to use the bathroom on our drive from the Oregon coast to the airport. My older son hadn't felt well all day, and was finally hungry. He woke up from a long nap & was starving. He planned to order a 10 piece nugget for $5.95, and then we noticed that if you bought two items from the "2/$5" menu, it was actually cheaper than the 10 piece nugget. So, we ended up with a burger & a 10 piece nugget for $5. The pricing is crazy, but anyway. And, he must have been hungry, because he ate most of the nuggets (Nick helped with the rest) & the entire burger.
• Coupon code for delayed flight - When I was chatting with the Alaska representative about food vouchers, he also offered me a discount code. It's sometimes $25/pp for delays like this, but he said he'd "add a bit more". I have no idea what that means, but I guess I'll find out in a few days when I get the email. Also, had we not talked to the representative, we would have gotten no food voucher & no credit. 
• Packing dinner for the flight  - I packed dinner for all of us to eat at the airport, but we still ended up spending a bit. $5 on McDonalds, and then with the initial flight delay, we had a beer at the airport. We needed to drop off the car reasonably early (earlier than we needed to be at the airport) to avoid being charged for another day, so we dropped off & had extra time. Then, LOTS of extra time due to the flight delay. I'd describe this as a marginal win. M & I ate our sandwiches, everyone ate the snacks, & then we filled in with some airport purchases. It at least reduced the cost to have some food packed.
• Reducing food waste - we brought the leftover fruit & vegetables (plus a few open bags of chips) with us from the vacation house. We had to dump some dairy, but for the most part, managed to use or take everything else with us. We used the stray bananas, pineapple & apples for breakfast this morning, as our house here was empty. 
• Freebies & gift cards - I used Rite Aid bonus cash to pick up a few extra treats to put in my snack/travel/ski bag. We don't keep stuff like goldfish crackers, candy, chocolate pretzels, fruit snacks, etc around the house, but when they are really cheap, I buy a few & hide them until we need them for a trip or a special outing. I also remembered to use my store gift card for an avocado, so had no out of pocket expenses.
• Garden - shockingly, we still had a tomato & quite a few jalapenos still in the garden, despite the recent frost. I used a jalapeno in a recipe in place of chiles, and will make jalapeno hummus soon. Yum.

What about you? Tell us about your frugal week!