Travel Tales with The Happy Hour Crew

Happy Hour is the last Friday of the month on the show, where some fantastic friends join me for cheap drinks and casual money conversations. This time, we have a special guest joining us: Debbie, a loyal podcast listener, and new Certified Financial Trainer. 

Since I dedicated the month of June to travel on this podcast, you guessed it, we're talking about all things travel during this Happy Hour! We'll share some of our frugal hacks, biggest wins, and epic fails with you. Cheers to a fun chat with friends and discovering the highs and lows of exploring the world!

Debbie has been a long-time personal finance nerd. When she discovered podcasts, she sought out personal finance shows. That's how she found Martinis and Your Money back when it first started. She recently completed the CFT program and works part-time at The Financial Gym as a Certified Trainer.  

What are we drinking?

Melannie - Phony Negroni
Alicia - Fire Islander
Debbie - Mango Margarita Cut Water
Shannon - Gin and Tonic 

Round Table Questions

What are your favorite money-saving travel hacks?  

  • How you travel depends on where you are in life and your lifestyle. Frugal tips may work at some times but maybe not at others. 

  • Everyone in the group mentioned credit card rewards. Credit card hacking is a popular method because you can dabble in it or spend a lot of time working the system. 

  • House and pet sitting is a great way to stay in a city for free or even get paid to be there.  

  • Look up free and frugal activities in the area you'll be staying. Groupon can have good deals depending on what you're looking to do. 

  • Access to a kitchen where you're staying will help reduce food costs. 

  • Take advantage of last-minute deals. Google Flight is an excellent tool for this. Google Flight Alerts is a feature that allows you to receive notifications about changes in flight prices and availability. 

What is the cheapest trip you've ever taken?

  • Shannon and Will had a weekend in the waterpark when he was very young. She used Groupon to book the tickets and points for the hotel, and they drove in the car. Once they arrived, they had dinner at Cracker Barrel. Will loved every minute, even though it felt like a low point for Shannon at the time. 

  • Alicia is heavily involved with the PTA at her kid's school, and they hosted a charity fundraising event. She bought a $10 raffle ticket and won a three-night stay in the Bahamas. The trip cost her $15 out of pocket in total. 

  • When Melanie was paying off debt, she needed a break and decided to travel to Spain. She booked a cheap flight, stayed in hostels with friends, and ate cheap food. 

  • Debbie took a trip to Thailand. The plane tickets were pricey, but everything was very cheap once they arrived. 

Hostels. Would you stay in one? And if you have, what's the worst experience you had?  

  • Melanie and Debbie have both stayed in hostels and had mixed experiences. They are shared spaces and can be fun. Debbie would stay in a hostel again if she was strapped for cash because she used to love it. 

  • Melanie stayed in a co-ed space where a tall man broke their bunk bed very late at night. Debbie stayed at a hostel in New York that didn't have lockers and slept with her backpack in bed with her. 

  • Shannon and Alicia have not and would never stay in a hostel. 

What is the most expensive trip you've ever taken? 

  • Shannon and Bill took a skiing trip and stayed at The Ritz Carlton. The room was around $900 per night, plus the airfare, rental car, ski clothes, and food & drink tabs. 

  • Alicia's most expensive trip was her 15-day honeymoon, where they splurged and did everything, first class. 

  • Debbie took a family trip to Maui for a week. They got all the flights through points but ate out for almost every meal, which adds up quickly.  

  • Melanie took an international trip to Spain with her mom at the beginning of 2020 and then to Budapest and Prague solo. There were many frugal failures over and over, leading to Melanie spending more money in the long run. 

What is your travel nightmare story? 

  • When Will was very young, they had a scheduled flight that was pushed to a later time, and he did not nap. They ended up in the back of the plane, and there was no place to change his diaper. The flight attendants were flat-out rude, and there was a lot of crying. 

  • Debbie booked a very frugal flight, but the times they had to travel to and from the airport to catch the flights were dreadful and not worth the savings. 

  • When one of Alicia's kids was ten months old, they took a short flight rather than a thirteen-hour car ride, and he had an asthma attack on the plane. 

  • Melanie and her partner took a trip to Peru to meet his family. He got sick, and they weren't able to explore together. A few days later, Melanie also got sick and tested positive for Covid. They went to the clinic to get official tests and had to rearrange the rest of the trip and plans home because they had to quarantine. Thankfully, Melanie was reimbursed for part of the costs through her travel insurance. 

What is your dream travel destination, if money weren’t an object? 

  • Melanie & Alicia would go to Paris 

  • Shannon would go to New Zealand or Japan

  • Debbie wants to travel to all continents on one trip or stay oceanside in Bora Bora

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is the importance of incorporating travel and experiences into your life. You don’t need a lot of money to explore and travel gives you the opportunity to expand in so many different ways. It’s a goal worth planning for.   

Connect with the Happy Hour Ladies 

Melanie Lockert - https://melanielockert.com/
Alicia Lazarto - Chief Operations Officer
Debbie Lu  - Level 2 Certified Financial Trainer
Shannon McLay - Host, CEO, & Founder 

If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or if you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, I encourage you to email me at Shannon@fingyms.com, or join the private Martinis and Your Money Face, and let me know what you want to hear.

A recent Financial Health Network study revealed that only 31% of Americans were financially healthy. Only 23% of women and only 15% of black people were. Financial health is a crisis in the US but it doesn’t need to stay that way. At the Financial Gym, we’ve spent the last 10 years working one-on-one with our members to help them achieve their financial health goals.

With a 90% success rate and with memberships starting as low as $35 a month, Financial Gym is not only the inflation-proof source for financial wellness for anyone but also a trusted and capable partner for your financial wellness journey. Head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com and schedule a warm up call today. As a reminder, our warm up call team is staffed with amazing and current Financial Gym clients that can answer any of your questions about our program without any pressure to join. The call is free, so you have nothing to lose. 

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