Frugal Friday

 This is a recap from a pre-Greece week + the past week. 

Saving on things we buy

• Uploaded two Costco receipts to Fetch & iBotta, as the latter had a $.05 on any grocery receipt cash back. 

Earning money

• I'd fully maxed out my 401k by my last paycheck, so it was bigger than normal, which was a nice treat. 
• Both boys are continuing to work a lot, trying to earn some cash ahead of school going back. 
• Received $250 deposit back from Nick's dorm room, which is a testament to how much time & effort I spent helping him + his roommate clean & pack back in May. 
• Also received my annual bonus + a retroactive raise from April. 

Avoiding spending

• Oh my, we spent plenty, that's for sure. Greece was not a cheap trip (see trip recap for details!)

Eating what we have

• A few weeks ago I'd been home for just a day (LA work trip) & hadn't reconciled myself to grocery shopping yet, so we had a (mostly) freezer dinner. All of our dinners are served with salad, but the shrimp & fried rice were both from Trader Joes & stashed in the freezer.
• Used up a small ziplock of strawberries, and the very end of frozen berries to make a smoothie for Nick. I added an incredibly ripe banana, some yogurt, protein powder & a splash of oat milk. He's been working outside in the 90 degree weather, mountain biking, so he appreciated the cool treat when he got home.
• I also made Nick a quick dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, made on leftover hamburger buns & sliced cheese I found lingering in the fridge. He was between a gym workout & a pickleball match, so he appreciated the quick & scrappy meal. 
• Made the boys various breakfast items before work. 
• Nick's friend is staying with us for a few days, and oh my goodness that guy can eat. He's 6'4" and a college athlete, and eats more than double my guys combined. I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen, making sure there are easy meals prepped for them, as they are out & about. We have no leftovers in the fridge this week, that is for sure! :-) 
• Nick & friend weren't supposed to be home for dinner, but came back early from the beach, so I whipped up a large spaghetti & meatball dinner, using fridge & freezer staples. Added in a loaf of bread, and they were good to go.
• I also prepped a large lunch for everyone (6 chicken patty sandwiches on ciabatta buns - both from the freezer), chips leftover from a previous teen party, a big bowl of fruit + veggies. All was eaten minus one chicken patty sandwich, which served as Nick's lunch the following day for his job. 
• I went to make lunch on Wednesday, and noticed it was slim pickings for protein to go on my salad (see above with all of my hungry diners), so I opted for the freezer/pantry salad. Salad base + olives & garbanzo beans (pantry) + edamame (freezer). Delicious & easy. Edamame & garbanzo beans both have a good amount of protein. 

For others

• Provided some career guidance to an acquaintance who was laid off, referred them to roles, and made some introductions that I hope will be helpful. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Greece, a very non-frugal trip

I'm trying to create more trip recap reports, and it's important to me to show the splurge ones as much as the frugal ones. The frugal trips enable me to spend more flexibly on the splurge trips. We went to Santorini, Naxos & Paros.

Some things to note:

• The trip was a shared 50th birthday celebration for myself + my BFF, with my sister
• I paid for my sister's travel expenses, so my cost is for two people
• We originally had a fantastic deal on flights, using British Airways miles, but they changed the flights & they no longer worked for our group, which was frustrating. We then had to buy revised flights & they cost quite a bit more than they did when we originally priced them. The original flight cost was around $1800 total, so seeing the end number really hurt. 
• This trip had A LOT of logistics. M & I have agreed that Greece, while incredible, is challenging to get to from our location & we don't love a trip where we have to move around a lot. Hence how this made it to the girls trip list. 
• My BFF had a very limited set of dates available, so we had minimal flex on timing to save on cost. She's a school principal & can't adjust vacation days. We ended up needing to adjust our flights & shave a day off the last stop (Paros), as my sister found out that her SIL was getting married the day after we returned. 
• If you've ever traveled with 3-4 people in Europe (and, many places in Asia), you know that finding a room that can comfortably fit that many people is a challenge. There is either an option for a suite, or two rooms, and this is expensive regardless. 
• We were shocked by how expensive transit was, and should have done more research. We booked a hotel on the quieter part of Santorini, and they offered a shuttle service, but it didn't run during the majority of the day. Uber was more expensive than the hotel transit (they arrange for a driver to come & get you). We would still not decide to rental a car, as none of us would have been remotely comfortable driving, but the transit was the biggest area I hadn't budgeted enough for. 

Hotels - $1094.73 (remaining costs covered through Chase rewards)

• We split this up by having me book & pay for two of the hotels (Santorini & Paros), & my BFF paid for the other hotel. 
• $637.09 - food & transit booked with Santorini hotel. I didn't bring home a receipt to break out the transactions that were a few meals eaten at the hotel vs lots of transit around the island.
• $457.64 - food & transit booked with Paros hotel. Same as above, I didn't bring home a receipt to break out the transactions that were a few meals eaten at the hotel vs lots of transit around the island.

Transit - $270.96

• We had two ferry rides, to get between the islands. For two, the ferry costs were $260.72
• We also rode the ferry from Paros to Antiparos, which was a whopping $10.24 (three round trip tickets)
• See above, as the majority of this is captured under Lodging

Food - $190.75

• While we mostly ate at lounges for our airport transit days, I bought drinks for the flight from Munich to SFO (from a vending machines) to carry on the flight ($6.27) & coffee for all of us at the Frankfurt airport, ahead of our flight to Athens ($23.78)
• Dinner in Naxos- $134.44
• Gelato in Paros, x2 - $14.3+11.96
• The majority of the rest of my food was covered by my sister when we ate out, and we had few meals at the hotels (covered under Lodging, as I didn't get the receipt to split out transit costs & food). 

Activities - $243.60

• We booked a cooking class - cost for two was $243.60 
• We also did a distillery/winery tour at a Citron family owned business, which was super interesting. My sister paid for my ticket. 

Flights - $10,613.44

• I flew my sister to/from Portland, so we could be on the same flights from SFO & reduce logistics. I normally do a really good job optimizing, but we had fixed timing & airport/airline requirements that complicated things. This flight was insanely priced at $665.23. 
• We also paid for flights to/from Athens to islands, & my cost was for two of those tickets. - $623.55
• Moving on to the big ticket items - two round trip flights from SFO to Athens. The flight class varied a bit - we were in Premium Plus from SFO to Frankfurt, regular economy (I think?) from Frankfurt to Athens, business from Athens to Munich and business from Munich to SFO.  - $9324.66

Travel insurance - $96

• At my previous employer, health insurance was international, which means I didn't need to buy a policy when I traveled. My current company policy only provides coverage for international work travel. I did not need travel coverage for delayed flights & the like, as that's covered by my travel credit card. I used Allianz insurance - $96

Other - $630.97

• Gifts from M + the boys, two pair of hand made sandals, some stunning pottery from a local vendor in Paros & a necklace for my mom 

Total spent = $12,917.65 for two people (or $6,458 & change per person). All in all, no regrets on the spending except for the flights, which as noted above, was originally supposed to be largely covered by British Airways miles. Hopefully we will get a chance to use them soon. 

Naxos to Paros and home again

I  left off with our last day in Naxos, so I'll pick up with our ferry adventure from Naxos to Paros.

Wednesday 6/24 - Naxos -> Paros

• Grabbed breakfast & coffee near the hotel
• Made our way to the ferry port in Naxos Town
• Because we knew what to expect, this ferry adventure was a bit easier. Both ferries we took were delayed, but I got the sense that's kind of the norm. We met a couple in line behind us from Oregon, and gave them a lot of tips on how to navigate the ferry process. The ferry we boarded was quite large (1,300 people), but the number of folks boarding in Naxos was much smaller than Santorini. There was still a ton of chaos with the boarding process, and baggage, so that was an adventure. We had great seats, however, that put us right near the exit ramp & made grabbing our bags during the chaos much easier. Oh, and no one checks your ferry tickets until the boat is well underway. On our ferry from Santorini to Naxos, we stopped at Ios, well known for a younger party crowd, & picked up a few hundred folks. Maybe 15 minutes after we were underway, they were going around scanning tickets, and a large group of folks from the island were on the wrong ferry. No idea what happened from there, as they gathered them all together & went to find a supervisor. This is one of the challenges when you have a chaotic boarding process, and don't scan tickets upon entry. Just no way to know. ;-) 
• We got picked up at the Paros terminal by our hotel & made our way to our final destination. And, it was so incredible. We were originally supposed to have one more night at this hotel, but needed to shave one night off so my sister could attend a wedding for her partner's sister back in Portland. I'm so bummed it was a night in Paros that got removed, because this was my favorite island by far & we had an amazing time, but didn't get to see everything. 
• Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we sat by the pool & enjoyed our welcome cocktail, and shared a lunch. The weather on Paros & Naxos was much warmer than Santorini (just down to a weird mix of weather patterns, I don't think that's typical), so we were able to get in the pool & enjoy that as well. 

• Checked in, enjoyed a snack from the hotel & got ready for dinner.
• We went to Naoussa, which is a town that is exactly how I envisioned Greece would be. Gorgeous cobblestone streets, cats everywhere, and amazing views everywhere you look. We had our best meal of the trip that night at Mare Nostrum, where we had a sesame/honey/feta dish that I will attempt to find again, a shrimp pasta dish & of course, Greek salad. We took lots of photos & did a bit of shopping, wrapping up the evening with gelato before we got the shuttle back to the hotel.

Thursday 6/25 - Paros

• Got up & had breakfast & coffee at the hotel. Breakfast was good, but couldn't beat the breakfast options at the Santorini hotel. Quite a step up from the Naxos hotel, however.
• Took the ferry to the very nearby island of Antiparos. This ferry ride was one of my favorite parts. It costs about 1.50 Euros each person, per trip & you just walk on. It's a gorgeous 10 minute ferry ride to Antiparos, which was my favorite part of the trip. (Views from the ferry, below).
• Antiparos was gorgeous, tiny, and we spent some time talking to a local pottery shop owner. He & his wife have been making pottery for 40 years and have incredible pieces. I'm not one for a lot of souvenirs, but these were so lovely and worth bringing home, so we could remember a bit of Greece. We had lunch at a lovely restaurant & finished off the trip with a gelato, running to catch a ferry that was about to take off.
• We came back & hung out by the pool, where I finished the last of my books (that includes all of my Kindle library books, 2 paper books I picked up from the hotel's "free" counter, and a book from my friend). I ended up buying a very expensive book at the Munich airport, to see me through the rest of my trip. My Kindle is extremely finicky to connect with wifi outside of my house, so getting new library books wasn't an option. I tried, and failed, repeatedly. Met a really nice woman at the pool & gave her some tips on Santorini, where she was headed next.
• Had dinner in Parikia, and celebrated our last night on the island. 
• Packed up & had an early night, as we had to be up at 5 for our flight. 

Friday 6/26 - Paros -> SFO

• Got up at 5 to finish packing & get ready for our 5:45 car service to the airport. Checked out of the hotel.
• Got to the very small & jam packed airport (one gate, one terminal) for our 7:00 am flight, which was delayed. Flight itself was uneventful & short.
• Got to Athens, picked up our bags & dropped them off at the respective luggage counters. We then had to say goodbye to my friend, as her flight left from a different terminal, and coming with us would require her to deal with security/etc twice.
• Hung out at the lounge in Athens, as we budgeted quite a bit of time for security and the like. Flight from Athens to Munich was around 3 hours, and went smoothly. We were fed a nice lunch.
• Got to Munich, bought a book, cleared a very long immigration line. We were eventually pulled out to use the automatic machines, which got things moving quickly. Went through another security check at our gate.
• Flight from Munich to SFO was 11 hours, and we were in Lufthansa business class, which was really nice. I'd heard it wasn't comparable to United or British Airways, so I had low expectations, but it was actually really great. Service, food, space, etc. My sister had never flown business, and was completely thrilled with the space. Dozed, read my book, watched two movies, ate some dinner.
• Landed on time at 7 pm in SFO, breezed through immigration with Global Entry, but then waited an hour for my bag. Sad goodbye to my sister, as she was carrying on to Portland. M picked me up, I came home & immediately fell asleep!

Friday was a super long travel day, but the trip was so much fun. Lots of adventure, lots of memory making, lots of chats you don't get if you don't see your friends often. Gorgeous scenery, incredible meals, and met some really lovely people. Travel logistics aside, you can't ask for much more than that!