Free Food Day!

This morning until 10:30am, you can get a free pastry at Starbucks with the purchase of a "handcrafted beverage". To clarify what that means, I checked with a friend who manages a store, and he confirmed that any drink where the barista touches the cup is a handcrafted beveage - so drip, iced coffee, lemonade, etc. are all fair game. As he said, "it's gonna be a madhouse."



And this afternoon, from 12-8pm, swing by a Ben & Jerry's store for free cone day.

Plus - if you're a Coastal Kitchen fan, check out the $50 for $25 deal over on LivingSocial today.

Live Aloha Volunteer Meeting

For the second year in a row, Dan & I are volunteering at the Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival at the Seattle Center. Last year was the first time for the event, and it drew huge crowds. This year, it's happening on Sunday, September 13th at the main center house - and it's gonna be even bigger. More workshops. More music. More food. More vendors. And hopefully even more people coming down to check it out.



Tonight was a meeting at the Kona Kitchen for volunteers, so we can make sure we know where to be and what to do. The restaurant provided a great spread of pupus to satisfy our appetites while we listened and talked - including Spam musubi, egg rolls, and mochiko chicken. Some folks also ordered some dinner, and the fried rice and huli huli chicken looked amazing. The organizers & volunteers are a great group of people, and we felt really welcomed. I'm really looking forward to the event.

Dan & I will be flying in that morning after a quick trip to Vegas to celebrate his sister's birthday, but plan to get to the festival fairly early so we can enjoy workshops and entertainment before our shift. We'll be helping at the lei making workshop from 2:30 to 4:30 - so come on down to the Seattle Center on Sunday, September 13th and make a dendrobium orchid lei with us!

Frugal Fridays: Catered Work Events

A viable strategy for free lunches around my work are catered meetings and events. If you can get yourself invited to a meeting or event that's catered you're golden, but even if you can't, being in the know about when they're happening can still score you a free lunch (or breakfast, or dinner) by taking advantage of leftovers.



Because the organizer knows I love Hawaiian music, I had the pleasure of being invited to a 'Fishbowl' event at my work this week, that was catered by L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Fishbowls are one of the many perks of working where I do. We bring in musicians and authors (primarily) for small meet & greet events where they may read from their latest book, play music from their latest album, answer questions, or sometime even cook. This week's fishbowl was Brother Noland - an awesome Jawaiian musician - who brought his whole band, set up all their gear, and played a set for us in a meeting room. And thanks to his label, Mountain Apple Records, we also received gift bags with two of his albums, some chocolate covered mac nuts, and other goodies, AND on top of all that, we got a delicious free lunch of kalua pig & cabbage, chicken katsu, steamed rice, mac salad, and even POG!



Given that it was one of the first really sunny days of the year, the lively, upbeat sounds of Brother Noland and the island food really transported me to another place... a place I'll be in just 3 short weeks!



I also had a surprise Frugal Friday, when my office mate returned from a meeting with a leftover box lunch. Every week, he's part of a cross-departmental strategy meeting that my team hosts during the lunch hour, and provides lunch for all the attendees (probably as a way to encourage participation). I'm not invited, but knowing that I'm always in search of a cheap lunch for this series, Jason grabbed a leftover box lunch and brought it to me.

The lunch was from Gourmando Catering, and featured a delicious roasted chicken Le Panier baguette sandwich, a mixed green salad with dried cherries and balsamic vinaigrette, and a mini chocolate cake.

Truth be told, the box lunch cost $11.45 - but since I didn't spend anything for it, I think it qualifies as a Frugal Friday lunch. When catered meetings at my work have leftovers, they usually go into our kitchenette area for anyone to enjoy... so the opportunity for a free lunch (or breakfast, or snack) pops up every once in awhile. We even have an email list at my work for people to send out notifications regarding free food which has included notifications about everything from sandwiches to muffins to beer.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)