Happy Saturday

I'm so grateful to be home this Saturday, and have a week before I have my final planned business trip this quarter. I'm going to London in a week. I had to front load all of my work travel so I could take my sabbatical. I'm so over traveling right now, but again, focusing on the positives.

I've been journaling a bit here & there, and trying to remind myself to be grateful for the good things, vs getting hung up on how long my plane was delayed for in LA, or the night I couldn't sleep because the rooftop bar at the hotel spilled into the hallway, keeping me up forever. . . It's good to have those positive reminders, because traveling for work is filled with opportunities to be frustrated.

Here's what we have on the agenda today:

• Working out! I've been feeling low energy, and I know some of it is due to exhaustion/lack of sleep, but I also haven't been working up a sweat, which helps my energy level so much.
• Menu planning. I'm struggling with this, as M is on a special diet for medical reasons right now. I already have one picky eater, and then I'm not supposed to eat dairy. When you put all of the rules together, it becomes exhausting. I also want to mainly eat from our freezer, so that's yet another lens on the puzzle.
• Shopping. Once we have our list together, I need to go to Costco & the produce stand.
• Cleaning. I'll try & do 1/2 the house today, and 1/2 tomorrow.
• Planning. I need to sort out our plan for next week, including work conflicts, child care, etc. 
• Organizing. I also would like to continue working on my photo project, so would like to devote an hour or so to that today. 
• Reading or journaling. I'd love to carve out 30-45 minutes.
• Connecting. M & I need to align on a strategy on a kid topic, so we need to find a quiet pocket of time to get that done.

Here's what I'm thinking about for the menu this week:

Menu plan:

Friday - homemade pepperoni pizza
Saturday - hot dogs & crescent rolls
Sunday - Tacos
Monday - Leftover hot dogs
Tuesday - spaghetti & meatballs
Wednesday - leftover tacos
Thursday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
Friday - risotto with turkey That was my original plan, but I remembered that I leave on Saturday, M never eats leftovers, and his diet won't allow him to eat this anyway. So, Friday will be a bit of a grab bag, so I don't leave leftovers in the fridge. Otherwise, they will inevitably need to be tossed.

What about you? What's on your menu this week? Any new recipes to try?

Frugal Friday

I've been traveling again for work, but a few frugal things that happened before I left, mostly focused on our ill fated ski trip last weekend:

• We waited to buy ski tickets on Saturday night, when we got to the hotel. Although the forecast looked great when we left our house earlier in the day, by Saturday evening, it looked like there might be rain. Although buying online saves 10% (about $40), not buying at all ended up saving us a huge amount.
• We brought dinner for Saturday night, breakfast & lunch for Sunday morning & snacks!
• We discussed stopping for dinner on Sunday, but instead made it home in time to have dinner. 
• I spent $0 out of pocket on my work trip.

In frugal fails, I came home late last night, and noticed that much of the food I'd left for M & the kids hadn't been eaten. . . which means that it needs to go to the garbage. I'm pretty sad about that. However, I was already grouchy with M this morning over something else, so I think I'll let this one slide. Sometimes you have to choose your moments. When I'm tired & feeling overwhelmed. . . well, it's not the best time to have a thoughtful conversation with my spouse. 

In fun news, I was able to connect with a cousin I haven't seen in 20 years while I was in LA for work. It was so great to catch up! We had a lovely dinner & chatted about family. It made at least one of the evenings feel a little bit more like my "real life" vs yet another trip where I pause my "real life" to work. 

What about you? Any frugal wins for the week?

A bonus day for getting things done

While we didn't get to ski yesterday, we were out of the house most of Saturday & Sunday, so I need to get a bunch of stuff done today (bonus day!) before I leave for Los Angeles tomorrow. I'm attending a work training, but I also hope to meet up with my cousin who lives nearby. I think it's been 15+ years since I've seen her, so that would be a fun treat.

Here's what's on my to do list for today:

• Produce stand
• Buy almond milk. My coffee is sad without it!
• Pack for LA
• Check in for flight
• Two workouts
• Laundry
• Clean the house (bathrooms, vacuum, kitchen)
• Update our budget
• Recap plans for the kids for the week

Also, a quick check in on how I did with my travel & goals to stay on track:

• Work on either journaling or creative writing for at least 2 hours (1 hour/flight?) - I did about an hour of journaling, total. 
• Work on photobooks for minimum of 1 hour. Sometimes I'm awake & insanely jet lagged/tried, so maybe if I wake up early but am in no shape to really accomplish something, I can at least start deleting pictures. - I deleted well over 500 photos, which was a great way to burn time without needing to really "think". My brain isn't at its best at 2:00 am, while I'm trying to stay awake to get adjusted to the new time zone. 
• Work out every day of my trip. I really need to stay on top of my running. - Yes!
• Meditate 2x. - I didn't do this. 
• Continue fasting in the morning. - Yes! It worked well for the trip & I didn't miss the breakfasts.  
• Avoid dairy - this was pretty easy to do, as most Asian food avoids dairy anyway. 
• Keep my calories + fruit & vegetables in check - I did "okay" on this one. I didn't always get enough fruit & veggies, and I had a couple of days where my calories were high, but overall, I did reasonably well staying on track. 

For my LA trip, my goals will be a bit different, as I won't be dealing with time zones, and I'm still trying to get adjusted with lingering jet lag. Here are my goals:

• Work out each day
• Get 8 hours of sleep/day
• Journal for 15 minutes/day
• Meditate 1x
• No dairy, continue fasting
• Calories below 1500/day
• Delete another 200 photos

That's it for me! I'm hoping today is a productive & relaxing day. What about you? Is today a bonus day off for you? How do you plan to spend it?

The best laid plans, part 2

I flew in Friday afternoon from Tokyo, and was pretty jet lagged, as you'd expect. After sleeping for 13 hours (!), on Friday night, I woke up & was ready to go on Saturday. We ran a few errands, and found a last minute booking for a hotel in Lake Tahoe for the long holiday weekend. We packed up food & our ski gear, & hit the road.

The condo unit we booked was tiny, but right on the lake & lovely. We made pizza, fed everyone dinner last night, sat by the firepit with a glass of wine, & then went to sleep. I was awake until midnight or so, trying to get my body to adjust to the correct time zone.

When we woke up today, the weather forecast called for rain at all of the local ski resorts. We had of course checked the forecast before we booked a hotel yesterday, and it was supposed to be cold & snowy. How quickly things can change!

We woke up reasonably early this morning, made breakfast, packed up & hit the road to go to Heavenly, which was showing the best possible forecast. We arrived at Heavenly just in time to find that the resort was closed for 30 minutes due to a lightning storm. It was also raining. . . We left to go get hot chocolate, and ended up at Harrah's hotel/casino. I took the kids to the arcade for a bit, where we discovered that the lifts would be closed for at least another 90 minutes. At that point, we knew we were scrapping skiing, as it's expensive & we wanted to be on the road reasonably early to out run the snow storm that was expected in the late afternoon. M played a half hour or so of craps while I was with the kids, and ended up winning enough to pay for just over the hotel cost. The kids had an amazing time at the arcade, and we hit the road back home around lunch time.

It was nothing like the trip we'd hoped for/expected, but I felt lucky that we all handled the change in plans well & rebounded. Also, the kids were amazing both ways (the drive is four hours). We came home in time to make dinner, and appreciate the fact that everyone in our house is flexible (or, easily bribed by arcades?) & had some laughs over wine/whiskey (me + M) while the kids showered & we unpacked.

Apparently, skiing in the bay area is unpredictable. We'd love to make it a regular thing, but our luck so far hasn't been great. We did make a few frugal choices, so more on that tomorrow! I need to get some sleep & catch up on life before heading to LA on Tuesday. . .

Frugal Friday

I was traveling Sunday-Friday, so spent zero out of pocket. M did take the kids to dinner (we had a gift card), but accidentally grabbed one that was supposed to be tossed & had a $0 balance. It was also an expensive grocery week because M is having a terrible allergic reaction (it's been going on for months) & his doctor has recommended a very specialized diet that required a large investment in groceries just for him this week.

Here are a few frugal things that we did over the past week!

• Used a gift card to buy flowers for a friend. Her father passed away. I also made pumpkin bread & found a card in my stash. It felt good to be able to quickly pull that together & not be out much money, but still let her know I was thinking of her. 
• Used Rite Aid credit to pick up a few essentials (toilet bowl cleaner, etc) & also found really cute gift card holders for Christmas, at 75% off. Picked up enough for next Christmas
• Turned tomatoes (froze before we headed out of town) into tomato sauce for the freezer
• M solved two home issues that turned out to be related. (Our pool was leaking water through the pump filter, which caused a short in an electrical unit.) This was going to be several thousand dollars for the pool issue alone, so I'm grateful I have a handy husband. I'm incredibly grateful that we discovered the issue, because the short could have started a fire. 
• I made cranberry muffins for the kids to have as snacks, and used cream in place of some of the milk. It made them incredible (of course!), but I also used cream that was about to expire & go to waste. 
• M used a coupon & a $10 reward for the dinner out with the kids.

I'm insanely jet lagged & hope to stock up on sleep over the weekend. That's how that works, right? ;-) What about you? Any frugal wins this week?

Can I wisely use flight & work travel time

I usually totally veg out on a long work flight. I find it hard to focus. I also tend to go wildly off track on my eating & fitness on work trips, & allow myself indulgences that I wouldn't under normal circumstances. I think because I'm trying to "reward" myself for surviving the trip? Anyway, it's not useful, & leads to more work when I"m home, so I'm going to take a slightly different approach to my work trip this go round. I need to stay on track with my goals.

• Work on either journaling or creative writing for at least 2 hours (1 hour/flight?)
• Work on photobooks for minimum of 1 hour. Sometimes I'm awake & insanely jet lagged/tried, so maybe if I wake up early but am in no shape to really accomplish something, I can at least start deleting pictures.
• Work out every day of my trip. I really need to stay on top of my running.
• Meditate 2x.
• Continue fasting in the morning. 
• Avoid dairy
• Keep my calories + fruit & vegetables in check

Before my flight leaves today, I want to go for a run. Other than that, all I have to do is finish the last minute packing, & I'm otherwise pretty much set. 

Here's what I accomplished from the list yesterday.

1. Make muffins for M (we're out)
2. Vacuum
3. Clean the kitchen (a deeper clean than I do after I make dinner each day)
4. Clean the bathrooms
5. Figure out why our shower fixtures (the silver parts) have rusted? Clean as needed - I've figured it out, but ran out of time to deal with. 
6. Laundry
7. Finalize schedule for everyone & review with the kids, so they know what's happening each day (where to go, how to get to school, rides to soccer games, etc)
8. Finish packing for Tokyo
9. Menu plan for the week
10. Shopping list
11. Costco
12. Produce stand
13. Go for a run - my stomach wasn't feeling great, so I walked instead.
14. Strength training workout - skipped altogether. 
15. Defrost the ice tray in the freezer. The ice froze over & is now in a giant block. 
16. Bake bacon & package for meals
17. Wash sheets
18. Make beds
19. Take Christmas lights down
20. Make a list of thank you notes for the boys to write, & ensure it gets done

Altogether, I think I did well with my projects for yesterday. Fingers crossed I can do a better job of staying focused on this work trip. What about you? Were you productive yesterday?

Getting things done before I leave

I head to Tokyo tomorrow, am home Friday afternoon (jet lagged, for sure) & then leave for LA on Tuesday. I never plan back to back work trips, but the Tokyo trip is coordinated with 8 other people flying in from remote offices, all with their own country holidays to juggle. And, the LA trip is a training event for a leadership development class I've been in for a year. The date was not movable. So, two weeks of back to back travel. I have a lot to get done today before I leave, in order to set things up well for M & the kids.

Work travel is so much additional effort for me, M & there's an enormous amount of juggling with the kids. Thank goodness I have a nice group of friends who can help get the kids home from activities, because M's work schedule in the afternoons is significantly less flexible than mine.

Luckily, we have no commitments today, so I can get things done!

Here's what's on the list:

1. Make muffins for M (we're out)
2. Vacuum
3. Clean the kitchen (a deeper clean than I do after I make dinner each day)
4. Clean the bathrooms
5. Figure out why our shower fixtures (the silver parts) have rusted? Clean as needed
6. Laundry
7. Finalize schedule for everyone & review with the kids, so they know what's happening each day (where to go, how to get to school, rides to soccer games, etc)
8. Finish packing for Tokyo
9. Menu plan for the week
10. Shopping list
11. Costco
12. Produce stand
13. Go for a run
14. Strength training workout
15. Defrost the ice tray in the freezer. The ice froze over & is now in a giant block. 
16. Bake bacon & package for meals
17. Wash sheets
18. Make beds
19. Take Christmas lights down
20. Make a list of thank you notes for the boys to write, & ensure it gets done

Freezer progress:

• Pumpkin puree -  I used to make a pumpkin, banana, chocolate chip bread. I gave one as a gift, and kept one for us
• 3 frozen bananas - used in the bread mentioned above
• cranberries - hoping to use today in muffins
• 6 old Popsicles - discovered, half melted at the bottom of the freezer. tossed. 

Menu plan for the week:

• Friday - homemade pizza
• Saturday - tacos 
• Sunday - leftover pizza
• Monday - spaghetti & meatballs
• Tuesday - the boys will likely eat out (with a gift card) 
• Wednesday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
• Thursday - cheeseburgers
• Friday - maybe homemade pizza again, as I'll just be coming home from Tokyo

That's it for me. What's on your to do list this weekend? And, any freezer items you are trying to use up?

Frugal Friday

This week's theme feels like it's "eating all of the leftovers". SO many leftovers! Here are a few frugal things we did this week:

• Line dried our clothes. This is something we do regularly, for 90% of our clothing. We don't line dry our towels, as they get crunchy. We do this inside, year round.
• Drove the electric car to work, & charged it for free
• I met a friend for lunch, and we met at work (free lunch)
• I started to read a book I received with a half marathon registration. It's one of my goals for January to read a couple of non-fiction books, so this is a good/free start
• I booked flights for my parents to watch the kids over spring break. It's less expensive than a camp for two kids, and everyone prefers this. We'll give my parents money to spend on entertaining the kids, and it's a win/win. 
• I used a discount code (which we received when I spoke to Alaska about our flight delay) & a credit I had on Alaska, spending zero out of pocket for my parents flights.
• As noted above, all of the leftovers. M brought home a huge piece of salmon on Thursday, so while he, Sam & I ate it one night, I'm not a huge salmon fan. So, M has had it for four nights now. Sam has had his leftover General Tso's chicken, & I've made do with a variety of things: peanut butter & jelly (using up bread we bought for skiing sandwiches), etc.
• I sold a $50 jacket I've worn twice on my local Facebook swap. It was at our vacation house, and it's been on my list of things to bring home & sell for over a year. Finally remember to do it! 
• I'm also meeting a buyer for Nick's BMX bike today, which, when sold, will earn $200. Nick owes me most of that, and then the rest will go into his college account.

What about you? Any frugal wins for the week?

My sabbatical date is set

I'm so excited! I spoke to my manager yesterday, and she agreed to my dates. I'm planning on taking from ~May 15th to just after Labor Day off. (I'll adjust my exact end date when M & I finalize if we will take 1 or 2 days off to have a long weekend in April.)

My sabbatical requires me to use all existing vacation before beginning, so I'll use about three weeks of vacation, and then have a 90 day (unpaid) sabbatical. Although it's, unpaid, it's very much worth it to me. Here's why I'm excited about the timing:

• From a work perspective, I will have the opportunity to train a new hire (a people manager on my team) to get up to speed. This means, everything should go more smoothly when I'm out.
• I'll have time off from work with the kids (over the summer) & without the kids (last couple of weeks of May + the first week of June). Then the kids & I will have the summer together, & I'll have a few weeks to recover once they go back to school. 
• I've never had a summer offer before! I started working when I was 15, so it's been. . . 28 years of working summers. What an exciting feeling! 
• We won't have to pay for summer child care. We do have the kids registered for a sleepaway camp, and will keep that. Otherwise, we may do a few half day soccer camps here & there, if they are inexpensive. We will save the rest of the summer camp budget we had set for 2019.

So, what am I going to do with all of my time? I haven't completely finalized my plans, but here are some things I'm thinking about:

May:

• My sister & BFF are coming to visit (and, we're running another half marathon) in May, right after my sabbatical starts. Perfect timing!
• I'd like to use the next few weeks to get things done around the house. I'm thinking of the following:
• A lot of deep cleaning. So. much. deep.cleaning. All of the things I never get to.
• Organize all of our photos. Both digital & print. I'd like to scan all of the print photos, and make photo books from everything.
• Do some journaling/writing.
• Declutter our house
• Relax!! 

June:

• After the kids are out of school, I'll fly with them to my parents house for a mountain biking event. I'll attend, & then may go to  our vacation house while my parents have "Nana & Papa Camp" with the kids. It is, by far, my kids favorite summer camp. :-) 
• While the kids are at "Nana & Papa Camp", I'm hoping to spend some time at our vacation house. Maybe a girls trip with my sister & BFF, if it works for their schedules.
• I also would like to spend time at the vacation house decluttering & deep cleaning, because it needs it. We may need to arrange for a few appliance repairs or other house work there, and we are never at the house long enough to accomplish this.

July:

• We will have a Fourth of July party/vacation at the house with family. Kite flying on the beach!
• We'll head home after the 4th
• The kids will go to sleepaway camp for 10 days, while M & I hopefully go somewhere for a long weekend

August:

• We'll take it easy the first two weeks of August, getting the kids ready for back to school
• The kids will go back mid-month & sports practice & schedules will begin again
• Sam & I are signed up to do the relay at the end of the month, so we'll head to Portland for that

September:

• I'll head back to work, if there are part time opportunities. Given how close it is to the end of the year, I may go back full time to earn my January bonus. Decisions, decisions. Then I can make a final plan in January. 

My overall goals of the sabbatical are to: recharge, relax, think about my long term future/career, get healthier (drop some weight), enjoy my time & flexibility, & spend as much time as possible with family & friends. 

How would you spend ~15ish weeks off, if you had the chance?

Menu Plan Tuesday

I'm a little late with my menu plan for the week, but better late than never. M brought home an unexpected salmon on Thursday, so the menu plan has changed a bit.

• Friday - we had chili, cheese bread & salad at the condo we rented while skiing. We brought the food from home. 
• Saturday - we had plans to be home for dinner, but ended up eating while stranded in a snowstorm. So, unplanned dinner out.
• Sunday - Sam cooked for us & we had California rolls, Asian chicken salad, General Tso's chicken, rice & tiramisu
• Monday - leftover salmon & rice
• Tuesday - Leftover General Tso's chicken
• Wednesday - chicken fiesta skillet (I made this, then froze it after M brought home the salmon)
• Thursday - spaghetti & meatballs, or chili

I also want to get back to the freezer challenge I was working through before the holidays. Here's what's on my freezer challenge list for the week:

• 1 bag of rotisserie chicken
• A huge bag of tomatoes (I froze before we headed out of town, so they wouldn't go to waste)
• Frozen bananas

I'm hoping to make tomato sauce (which will then go back into the freezer) out of the romas, and then use the bananas to make muffins. Which, will also go back into the freezer. But, at least they will be in a form to be totally ready to eat? ;-) 

What about you? What's on the menu this week? Any new recipes you're trying out? Are you working on a freezer challenge?

Weekly spending roundup (12/31-1/6/19)

This was a very unusual spending week for us. We had a holiday (New Year's Eve), a travel day (New Year's Day), a two day ski trip - where we got stuck in a snowstorm, and Sam made a four course meal for his final cooking class project for school. Some of the ingredients were . . . hard to find & not cheap! We came up with a few substitutions, but the menu was reasonably fixed, so our options were limited. We normally only go to 2-3 stores, one time a week. So, this week represented an anomaly for us. I'm going to have to work really hard on our grocery bill for the rest of the month!

The menu:
-Appetizer - California rolls
-Salad - Thai Chicken Salad
-Main course - General Tso's Chicken w/rice
-Dessert - Tiramisu (I'm not sure how this made it's way into such an Asian menu, but they were allowed to select a dessert from a list)

• Monday - 12/31 - No spend day! We made dinner at home, & found a bottle of champagne in the pantry. It was perfect!
• Tuesday - 1/1
• $5 at McDonald's for a 10 piece nugget & a burger. I did attempt to make food for our travel day, but Sam couldn't resist McDonald's when we stopped in for a bathroom break
• $53.40 - at a restaurant at the airport for a salad, two beers & an order of fries. Our flight was delayed. . . best laid plans & all of that.
• $24 of over priced snacks (will be turned into lunch snacks) - free, on a travel voucher
• $493.37 - car rental for 11 days on our vacation
• Wednesday - 1/2
• $1.50 for 1 avocado for guacamole at the grocery store (on a gift card)
• $1.48 for 2 discounted Christmas treats (Lifesavers & Hershey's Kisses) for the kids for skiing, at Rite Aid - (used Bonus Cash)
• $14.92 at the produce stand. This included $9.99 for a 2lb container of tahini, for making hummus. That is the cheapest I've found tahini, so I was thrilled. Also included 2 bunches of radishes, a head of cauliflower, cilantro, & mini cucumber
• $10.36 at Trader Joes. I bought a jarred bruschetta to try on crostini (trying to follow my no dairy plans & come up with alternatives to our standard meals/appetizers), mini ravioli for the kids to try, gnocchi, and. . . a box of mini dark chocolate mint cookies. Oops.
• $146.87 at Costco for a full stock up on everything. Plus, M bought a splurge cut of sockeye salmon for $30, that definitely wasn't on the menu or shopping list. He loves salmon & it's healthy, but . . . pricey! 
• Thursday - 1/3
• $25.71 at the grocery store, to pick up supplies for chili, & a few sandwich ingredients for tomorrow. Pepperoni was on sale, so I also bought two packages. We use the pepperoni to make pizza. (on a gift card)
• $6.09 - at the produce stand for a few items for the meal + green peppers for the dinner I'm making.
• $11.27 at Trader Joes. We bought coffee to take to the condo tomorrow (we don't have ground coffee & don't have a grinder). We also needed coconut milk & rice vinegar for the recipe. We were out of rice vinegar, but do use it at the house, so at least that item is just not for this meal!
• $25.12 BACK at the grocery store ($22.33 paid, the rest on the last of the gift card). My son finally had his shopping list ready, and we both realized he needed to purchase everything today (we'll be out of town Friday/Saturday), so he can cook all day on Sunday. We bought curry paste, whipping cream, chicken thighs, pickled ginger, sushi rice, & other random ingredients I can't remember. There will definitely be a need to use these items other in other recipes, so expect them to surface in a pantry challenge soon enough.
• $15.79 - hand warmers for skiing
• Friday - 1/4
• $1.81 at Burger King, for a coffee for M at a bathroom stop on the road to Lake Tahoe
• $430.99 - lift tickets x4 + a few hot meal items to go with our sandwiches
• Saturday - 1/5
• $498.76 - lift tickets x4 + two hot chocolates
• $136.58 - unexpected dinner out, after freeway closure & snowstorm
• Sunday - 1/6
• $67.30 - soccer hoodies for the kids, as part of their school team uniforms
• $11.98 - pool chemicals
• $19.47 - a few more groceries at Costco

I was really impressed with the food Sam made. The tiramisu, in particular, was incredible. So, at least we have leftovers that will make their way into the rest of the week's menu. 

Total spent for the week = $1996. Shivers. That's a lot. What about you? Do you track your weekly spending? How did you do? Any unexpected expenses this week?

The best laid plans

Alternative title - the time we got stuck in a huge snowstorm & they closed the freeway. . .

We had a fabulous time skiing on Friday (we got up at 5:00 am, and headed to Tahoe). We skied for most of the day, and then headed to the condo unit we had rented. We were pleasantly surprised. There was plenty of space, and while everything was quite dated, style-wise, it had everything we needed.

We made chili, cheese bread, & salad from things we brought from home. The kids & I got in the hot tub. M started to not feel well (cough, cold, fever, etc), so he stayed behind. We all went to bed early, with plans to ski on Saturday.

We woke up a bit late on Saturday (M is usually the "alarm" for our group), but overslept as he wasn't feeling well. We checked the forecast, and it appeared that snow would start around 3-4, so our plan was to get to the ski area, ski until 1:30 or so, load up & head out to avoid the snow. . . . ah, yes. So foolish.

The ski area was extremely crowded. We struggled to get everyone dressed, dropped off, tickets sorted, etc. The road leading to the ski area was super crowded. We were off to a late start. We skied for a bit, but it was pretty clear that M wasn't feeling well at all. It also got pretty windy & icy. I'm an okay skier in the best of conditions, and don't love skiing in the wind & ice. I grabbed a hot chocolate with Nick, and we sat by the fire while we waited for M & Sam to finish a run. Except, they got separated. There was confusion about where to meet. At this point, it started to lightly snow. It took another 30 minutes for us to find Sam, and then we had to wait in line for a gondola back to the car, schlep a ton of ski gear to the parking lot, undress the kids, load the skis & the gear. We were out of the resort by 2:00 pm. At this point, there's some snow on the ground, but all is well. Until we get on the freeway, and see that it's completely stopped. I don't know how many accidents were ahead of us, but we were trapped on the freeway not moving, while snow poured down. For the first time in my life, I got to pee on the side of the road with the kids. It was quite an adventure. ;-)

I was so grateful that I'd made sandwiches, and we could all eat those in the car. Of course, Sam ate mine (and his), so I made do with a few leftover snacks. The kids were exceptionally well behaved, but being trapped in the car wasn't much fun.

As the snow accumulated, and no cars could progress, it made a bad situation worse. Many cars were without chains (or 4 wheel drive) & started to get suck. They eventually closed the freeway. So, by 6, we were back to where we started (managed to get off the freeway) & we had dinner in Truckee. We had an unexpectedly expensive dinner (all of the closer/fast food restaurants were packed with other travelers) & then decided to check out the pass freeway again. It was open!

We made it home after eleven. At that point, M was incredibly sick. I can't drive in snow, so it was him or no one driving. It was very close to having to spend the night in Truckee, and all of the lower end hotels were full. We could only find one room, a few miles away, for close to $500. So, the expensive dinner was less of an issue than staying in a hotel.

Lessons? We did well having lots of blankets, snacks, water, & food in the car. We also had plenty of gas. We need a second phone charger, as mine died, and we struggled to get it recharged. Next time we will also allow even more time for car loading & kid corralling. I'd asked M if we should just head home when we woke up on Saturday morning, but he didn't want to disappoint the kids. Obviously, we would have missed all of the drama if we'd headed out in the morning.

Anyway, we are all back, safe & sound. M is crashed out & feeling terrible. I'm helping Sam prep his four course meal for his cooking class. (By that, I mean, answering questions about where baking utensils are, and ensuring kitchen safety. . . he's doing all of the actual cooking). I'll take Nick to indoor soccer soon, and I need to get in a workout today, even though I'm totally not feeling it!

What about you? Have you ever been stuck in a snow storm? 

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!