Recently I flew to Anchorage, Alaska for a 10-week housesitting gig/visit. I generally go with just a carry-on bag, but my new neck-supporting pillow takes up a big chunk of that bag. I couldn’t stuff much Stuff into the small space where the pillow wasn’t.
A real frugalist just hates to pay checked-bag fees. Were this to have been a short trip I’d have simply used a rolled-up towel under my neck. But 10 weeks is a little long to subject my creaky neck to a tube o’terrycloth. Into the bag went the pillow and into another bag went a bunch of my stuff.
Plus some birthday presents, and some mayonnaise.
If it cost me $15 each way to check the bag, that bag darned well better pull its own weight. So to speak.
Full-scale frugality
It’s hard to pack lightly for a trip up here. I wanted layers in case I go hiking, an extra pair of slacks, and some shorts and flip-flops because I’m just optimistic enough to think it will get hot. (“Hot” in Anchorage means anything past 70 degrees.)
Even so, I considered cramming just a few basics into the carry-on and buying a new pillow here. Ditched that idea, for two reasons:
- The famous “Alaska gouge” – everything has to be flown or barged up – would ensure that even a cheap neck pillow wouldn’t be cheap.
- Toiletries larger than 3 ounces are prohibited from carry-on bags, so for such a long trip I’d need to buy new ones. That wouldn’t be cheap either.
All right, then: If I were going to pay an extra $30 round-trip, then I was going to get as close to the 50-pound suitcase limit as possible. Hence the gifts, a gallon-sized Ziploc bag full of toiletries, and some food from my pantry.
Kris from the Cheap Healthy Good blog is probably striking my name from her Christmas-card list right about now. One of her goals is to “eradicate mayonnaise from the face of the Earth.” Myself, I love the stuff. To paraphrase an old Russian saying: “If we must die, let us do it with mayo.”
It’s in the bag
I figure to eat as many of my meals at home as I can, to keep this trip fairly frugal. That means grocery-shopping (see “Alaska gouge,” above). I already had four jars of mayonnaise stashed in my pantry, so why not bring one?
I also put in a jar of jam made with free wild blackberries and a number of items obtained cheaply or free with double coupons: five pouches of tuna (to go with the mayonnaise), shelf-stable summer sausage (a good light lunch served with crackers, cheese and fruit), several good-sized dark chocolate bars (my friend and I will pick off little pieces while we watch the Discovery Channel and “Torchwood”), three boxes of granola bars and some dried plums (prunes apparently got a better agent).
For my great-nephews: Half a dozen packs of sugarless gum, also free with double coupons, and several boxes of “fruit snacks,” which are fruit the way that Cheez Whiz is cheese. But the boys love them, and yesterday I took over two pounds of red grapes to help atone for the lack of nutritive value in the little Spider-Man-shaped fruit composites.
Toiletries: Shampoo and conditioner; a mild facial cleanser and a moisturizer with sunscreen (doctor’s orders, because I have had skin cancer); deodorant; toothpaste and dental floss; extra toothbrush; sunscreen.
Gifts: Two birthday and one Christmas, for the kids (and for extra frugal credit, wrapped in the Sunday funnies); a couple of Spider-Man digital watches from the dollar store; a book for my friend/hostess; a children’s activities book for my niece, who’s a teacher as well as a mom.
Weird, yes, but a cost-effective kind of weird
I’m sure the TSA agents were scratching their heads over the X-ray of my bag – which, incidentally, weighed 43.7 pounds.
And I’m sure that some of you think that I need to get a life. Allow me to point out that the extra suitcase more than paid for itself. To wit:
The mayonnaise would have cost $5.49 up here. I paid about $1.25 thanks to a coupon/rebate combo. Savings: $4.24
Store-brand blackberry jam, $3.89. Homemade jam, approximately 62 cents. Savings: $3.27
The two kinds of sausage would have cost $12.68. I paid $2.49 because of double coupons. Savings: $10.19
The dried plums were $5.99. I paid $3. Savings: $2.99
Five pouches of tuna were $1.59 each. I got them for free with double coupons. Savings: $7.95
Granola bars run $3.79 a box. I paid a dime per box – yes, a dime – because of a double coupon/rebate deal. Savings: $11.07
We’re already well up past $30 and I haven’t counted the cost savings for the toiletries, or the postage I would have paid to send those gifts by mail.
Filling the cupboard
My hostess, bless her heart, did not actually guffaw when I started putting things away. She did make a gentle observation: “I have mayonnaise and I have jelly.”
But I don’t want to eat up her stuff. She’s incredibly generous to let me stay here for another six weeks after I’m done house-sitting for her. In fact, Linda has hosted me regularly since I left Alaska in 2001.
She won’t take any money for expenses; in fact, she once tried to pay me back when I brought home some ice cream to share. (Heck, she wanted to pay me for house-sitting!) I have to wrestle her for the check when we go out to Harley’s Old Thyme Café. The only way I can give a hostess gift is to leave it in the room when I depart or mail it to her afterwards. (And even then she fusses, “You didn’t have to do that!”)
Of course, I know how she feels. I want my visitors to help themselves to whatever I have. But I’m a better host than guest; I want to provide my own food.
Besides, she doesn’t have mayo. She has Miracle Whip. If Kris has a grudge against emulsions, she ought to start with that one.
Perfectly planned to beat the airplane man at his game. Well played!
And don’t you want to wring a host or hostess’ neck and say, “Didn’t your parents teach you how to be gracious and accept a gift.”
Hope you have a Miracle Whip-free blast!
I’m a mayo kind of girl too and living in the UK now, whenever I go back to see family (twice a year) I always bring a bag with at least twelve jars of my favorite peanut butter, protein bars ( 90 to 120 ) and soaps, shampoos, and OTC meds I might not be able to find here. There are a few other things like corn meal and grits that I can’t get in the UK and Wheat Thins make the list too. Although the cost of protein bars would make you cringe at about a dollar a bar, they cost more here and are not as healthy or to my taste.
Due to my frequent flyer status, I get to bring two checked bags for free that can weigh up to 70 pounds each. It used to be three bags until recently and I took advantage of this to move a fair amount of my clothing over before shipping the last of my household goods last summer.
I may not be as frugal as you are, but I get where you’re coming from completely.
You’ll be happy to know there will be a new series of Torchwood, then…
And…if you find an incredible deal or two, you will have an extra suitcase to bring stuff back with you? (Although it sounds like there’s not too many great deals in Alaska from what you have said here.)
Anyway, I agree that it made $en$e to bring all that stuff to fill up your extra bag. You got some bang for your buck there for sure!
Enjoy your visit!
Oh my, Harley’s… Enjoy it for me & hug my Mom if you see her during your visit!
I agree on the mayo by the way… I love it & it can’t be just any mayo, it has to be Best Foods. =)
I forgot to mention that my brother-in-law is Leon Unruh and he said some really nice things about you when I asked him if he knew you.
@Elizabeth Harper: Thanks for your comments — and thank Leon, too. He may be lying, however… 😉
@Leah: That’s the kind of mayo I brought with me. It and the Miracle Whip are having a stare-down in Linda’s fridge.
Agreed on all points, especially the Miracle Whip point. (and especially the awesomeness of Kris!)
Heh–in SoCal anything under 70 degrees is considered “freezing.”
When I was taking a plane home from California we loaded a suitcase with 49.5 lbs of books (we used a very accurate scale) – the guy at the
check in counter seemed mildly annoyed that we came so close to the weight limit without going over. I had planned and packed the suitcases very carefully to bring home all of my loot without paying extra. Doesn’t EVERYBODY bring along some food?
@CarolG: I thought everyone traveled with snacks, at least. Maybe not.
And I just realized I forgot at least one food item: A 12-ounce can of peanuts that I bought for 99 cents on sale with coupons. If I remember, I’ll check the price in the local grocery. I bet it’s considerably more than that.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
That is so the way to travel!! — but i beg to differ — clearly, Hain’s Safflower is the only thing tuna likes. Or eggs or potatoes or various hot dips with artichokes . . .
I like mayo too. 🙂 Just now I needed the right T word and I changed screens and I saw Thriving in your title. It worked perfect. Thank you. (It wasn’t for writing. It was just for my own personal notes.)
Great post!
Well, if your host has a Miracle Whip home you had no choice. There’s a big difference. I have a jar in my fridge now from when my mother visited a couple of weeks ago and it’ll sit there until I finally toss it.
We take some food items with us when we vacation in Hawaii for the same reason.
Hmmmm, trying to picture the Mary Poppins’ size inventory of stuff that emerged from your bag.
Could you have mailed the lighter items for a low enough cost to tempt you to lighten your airplane load?
@Ami: Once the pillow was in the carry-on, there wasn’t much room left for the extra pair of pants, sweatshirt, underwear, etc.
And again, I’d have had to buy more toiletries once I arrived because 3 oz. of toothpaste, shampoo, etc. would not have been enough for a 10-week visit.
All those things are pricey here, as is food. The gifts that I’d have needed to mail plus food plus toiletries definitely made it worth the cost.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
“doctor’s orders, because I have had skin cancer”-Are you going to be alright? You can’t drop a bomb on me like that and then not elaborate!
And I think that you don’t need to worry about “getting a life” you have one with a lot more money in it than the complainers!
@SonyaAnn: It was a basal cell carcinoma, the “ordinary” kind, back in 2003. Thus so far it has not appeared anywhere else. But my mom had a lot of skin cancers and my brother has had some pretty deep ones, so the doctor has decreed sunscreen and, when possible, avoiding the sun altogether.
Did I mention that I live in Seattle?
Thanks for your concern.
This might be a silly question..does all that food you pack arrive at your destination intact?
@Pamela: Everything was fine. I’d protected the jam and mayo with bubble wrap and plastic bags. The rest of the items were cushioned by layers of clothing.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
Just found you today. Definitely will subscribe! Thank you. 🙂