travel - Surviving and Thriving

Another TSA-friendly toiletries bag up for grabs.

March 1, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Had enough of winter? Maybe it’s time to go somewhere — and this week’s giveaway is a great travel companion.

The prize is another bag of travel-sized toiletries because (a) spring break is almost here and (b) it’s always a popular giveaway. Maybe that’s because you, like me, resent the hell out of paying $1.44 an ounce for toothpaste.

“Sized right for flight,” my left hind foot: It’s another way to gouge the consumer because manufacturers know how many of us want to go carry-on only.

What’s in the bag? So glad you asked.

Busting cheap airfare myths.

January 29, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Planning to hit the beaches on spring break or take your kids to a theme park during school vacation? Better buy those tickets soon. A new study from CheapAir.com indicates that the lowest prices can be found about seven weeks out.

The study also addresses questions like “When’s the best time to buy a ticket for Thanksgiving?” and “Is Tuesday night really the best time of the week to buy a ticket?”

The answer to the second question, by the way, is “no.”

Some things are worth the cost.

January 4, 2013January 4, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Apparently I was out of my mind when I booked my recent trip to the East Coast. My return schedule last Friday was Philly-Chicago and then Chicago-Anchorage. The option of flying directly to Anchorage vs. a stopover in Seattle or Salt Lake City felt like a grand piece of luck.

And it would have been, if the flight had left on the same day. However, it left at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.

I wanted to do a series of forehead-plants into the drywall. Instead I sighed, shrugged and started looking for a semi-affordable hotel near O’Hare.

The old me would have done those forehead-plants.

The Molly Pitcher workout.

December 21, 2012December 20, 2012 by Donna Freedman

When I was in elementary school we heard the story of a brave Revolutionary War-era woman who carried water to the troops during the Battle of Monmouth. “Molly, Molly, bring us your pitcher,” the men would call on that hot July day. That’s how she became known as “Molly Pitcher,” we were told.

Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley did follow her husband, a barber who enlisted in the Revolutionary Army, and apparently helped him load cannons. But “Molly Pitcher” seems to have been just a generic nickname for women who carried water to the colonial troops.

The truth is so limiting. I like the legend better, especially after what happened to me yesterday.

Flying south, then east.

December 18, 2012December 15, 2012 by Donna Freedman

I’m writing this from Seattle Tacoma International Airport, after a super-fast flight from Anchorage: 2 hours, 54 minutes — the wind was certainly beneath our wings on this trip.

I leave here at 11:45 p.m. and journey on to Dallas/Fort Worth, and from thence to Philadelphia, landing at 10:30 a.m. Sunday unless the Anti-Destination League hears that I’m out loose.

I’m spending part of that day with an old friend and then trying to write the MSN Money Frugal Nation post for Tuesday. That’s because on Monday I’m taking the Megasbus to New York City, where I’ll meet with a couple of editor types, have dinner with a blogger friend and get in line for the “Book of Mormon” ticket lottery.

Getting a ticket would be a Christmas miracle. I am not holding my breath.

Tweets from Talkeetna: The sequel.

May 14, 2013December 3, 2012 by Donna Freedman

The 2012 Talkeetna Bachelor Auction was the most profitable ever, and possibly the most raucous: a four-hour howlfest that had at least one woman literally swinging from the rafters.

I am not making that up. This was a late-30s/early-40s woman sitting in my row in the upper level of the Sheldon Community Arts Hangar. Several times she got so carried away that she grabbed hold of an overhead beam and swung from it.

When I say “carried away,” I mean “under the influence of alcohol.” But she was not alone. Let’s just say that a whole lot of red Solo cups got filled up — and emptied — that night.

Ice road U-Haulers.

October 1, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Thursday afternoon the temperature was in the mid-70s as my helpers and I rushed to pack my worldly goods into the 14-foot U-Haul parked outside my Seattle apartment building. A few days later? Driving through snow on the frost-heaved Al-Can.

Things may alter.

Fortunately, that was snow that had already fallen. Driving on frost heaves in blizzard conditions would have been a lot more unpleasant than bouncing over those same white-covered bumps. I’ll take slippery over zero-visibility any day.

Everything is elegiac.

September 19, 2012 by Donna Freedman

1918 Republic Trucks Moving Van © by aldenjewell

Yesterday I did my last real shopping trip at the nearby ethnic market: milk, yogurt starter, carrots, eggs, bananas, garlic, onion, a couple of oranges and some extra 99-cent spices to take up to Alaska. For example, I rarely see celery seed in most grocery stores — and when I do, it’s a teeny-tiny bottle for $5 or $6.

Rolling the shopping cart over there to stock up has become a pleasant little ritual for me. I’m really going to miss that store, especially as regards cheap produce. Fruits and vegetables are never cheap in Alaska.

Lately everything I do have been imbued with a ridiculous poignancy:

How I’ll use the GoBankingRates.com prize.

September 9, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Thanks to all of you who voted for me in the recent PF Olympics competition. With your help I came in second and received $250 worth of American Express gift cards.

These will help defray the costs of my upcoming move to Alaska.