How To Save For Travel & Travel On A Budget

[intro music playing]

Meggan: I'm Meggan

Jenn: and I'm Jenn and you're listening to the Travel Mug Podcast.

Meggan: Every episode we talk about travel destinations, interesting trivia and even some travel fails.

Jenn: Let's dive into today's episode, don't forget your travel mug!

[intro music fades out]

Meggan: Hey everybody it's Meggan and Jenn we're back for episode two and we of course want to start by thanking everyone for their support, both you know following our Facebook page, downloading episode one and also subscribing of course to the podcast itself. We're super pumped and super thankful, so thank you again for showing up for episode two.

Now of course we realize that right now traveling might not be in the forefront of everyone's minds, but this also means it might be the perfect time to look forward to the future and really consider saving for travel, since right now we can't actually go anywhere, so why not start now.

Jenn: Yeah we also understand that traveling isn't something that people can easily afford especially in this uncertain time where people might have lost their jobs or been laid off and so we hope to provide some tips on stuff that you can do to save money even if you just wish to travel locally.

Meggan: Yeah and I know Jenn that your travel blog in particular has a really big focus on saving money for travel and also debt management and becoming debt free so really how did you sort of get your start with that theme what brought you to uh to that understanding and that point?

Jenn: Yeah so my blog is called Will Save For Travel so we definitely have a big focus on saving money and personal finance, and so I got started basically because we had about $26,500 in debt and it was really hindering our ability to travel, because we wanted to travel more but the debt repayment was just taking over our budget, so um I really got into paying off the debt so that we could travel more and it - we became debt free last July so almost...

Meggan: Congratulations!

Jenn: Thank you, very exciting and so yeah travel is definitely what we like to do with our money so that's why we started paying off our debt.

Meggan: Awesome and I think that really fits well into what we're going to talk about this week again saving money for travel.

Jenn: Yeah so my first tip for saving money for travel is to build it into your budget, so obviously being a personal finance blogger I'm a big fan of the budget, [laughing] and I know it's not everybody's favorite thing but trust me on this one, just build it into your budget even if it's a small amount to start I mean like $25 every two weeks or every payday or something like that, it really does add up over time especially if you have a really big trip that you want to take, you can definitely start saving for a couple of years and - and you'll definitely get there.

Meggan: Yeah and I think if anybody can relate by thinking if they have like a loonie or a toonie jar, for Canadians anyway, um that's you can just throw your change into a jar and you know six months later you look and you're like how did I get all this money and that's kind of the same idea here even if it is a small amount like you said $25 weekly or bi-weekly or whatever the case is and just don't pay attention to it for a minute and see how quickly it can sort of add up.

And I think you know in terms of um saving that money something that's really worked for us is automatic transfer to a savings account. So we actually opened a new account um specifically for this and then set up weekly, which works for us, auto transfers and again after a while you don't notice the money it becomes part of what your lifestyle is and those automatic transfers really do save you from thinking "hmm I can't really afford it this week, I don't think I'm gonna put it in there" so that automatic transfer has really helped us and we've probably been doing that since 2017 when we seriously can started to consider going to Iceland so to save for that, it's expensive we'll talk about that in a future episode, um but it really did help us prepare for that. Is that something that you do?

Jenn: We do yeah, we do automatic transfers, we do it every payday and it - I wanted to say that in the personal finance world we call this paying ourselves first.

Meggan: Oh I like it!

Jenn: I know so fancy! So it just means that uh you're actually paying yourself; so putting money in your savings account or to debt repayment as well uh something like that before you go and spend your money so that you hit your goals faster instead of trying to save what's left over at the end of the month because often times there's not as much left over as you thought.

Meggan: Been there done that, that's for sure!

Jenn: And definitely save even when you're not planning a trip, you know we don't really have anything planned right now but we're still adding to that account and it'll be ready whenever we're ready to book something hopefully well you know -

Meggan: Yeah you're exactly right, one hopes it's soon, and you're exactly right because there have been times and I'm sure people will understand this too where you're like "maybe I could use the money a little bit more right now, I'm not really planning for anything" but again just like the auto transfers keep it up if you can. Obviously if there's a big reason you can't, it's understandable, but even if you're not planning to go anywhere it'll be great even if you do something local.

Jenn: Yeah definitely I think it - like you said it's - it's making it part of your lifestyle so just leaving that automatic transfer just roll and roll and roll just make you travel part of your lifestyle.

[both laughing]

Meggan: Exactly definitely and I think another key point in that is keeping yourself accountable so you mentioned printable savings trackers now this is so not in my wheelhouse so I'm gonna hand that over to you, I do not have a printable savings tracker.

Jenn: I do! So we did a um a debt repayment tracker on our fridge when we were paying off debt and so it was like a thermometer that we colored in as we were paying off our debt and then after that while we were planning our next trip after we paid off debt which was to Disney we had a little paper on the fridge with Mickey Mouse heads in it and each Mickey Mouse head was worth like $100 or something and so every time money went into that account we just colored it in, so it was a nice visual on where we were at on our goals and it just kind of helps remind you that you're that you have a goal that you're saving for something.

You know it's like "oh I really want to buy this $100 or whatever whatever that doesn't mean that much to me" but that money could go into the savings account for a trip so you it's about priorities there.

Meggan: No I definitely think think so too and from the sounds of it you've made it A: fun Mickey Mouse heads and then

[both laughing]

it's also an activity and then secondly it's visual and I think we all go to the fridge you know how many multiple times a day so when you can it can stare you in the face and sort of say this is what you're doing this for it makes a bigger impact.

Jenn: Definitely.

Meggan: Yeah and I think also in that people might think "hmm" when I say this but another key is found money could go into the travel account so whether that's a tax return, whether it's a small bonus at work, whatever the case might be, if travel really matters to you and it's something again, that you can put that found money toward it is a great place to put it. It's additional - it could buy you during your trip wherever, it could buy you a meal, it could buy you a hotel night. Just something to keep in mind that again if you're able to, and you come across some money which I mean sounds amazing you can just put it into that travel account and again it's a little bonus you didn't expect.

Jenn: Yeah I mean it doesn't even have to be big it can be like birthday money, Christmas, like -

Meggan: Yeah

Jenn: that sort of thing. We tend to get like some gift cards or like travel related gift cards or um money for like Christmas or birthdays and so that usually goes into a travel account too.

Meggan: Yeah Definitely.

Jenn: If you know where you want to go do some research on the cost because that will help you uh know how much you need to save,

[laughing] which is very important

so research like, the - just the general um things to do in the destination where you want to go like that sort of thing if you need a car, well how much accommodations are, just you can get like a rough tally of how much you'll need to save and then I usually go ahead and look at when I want to take that trip and see how far away it is, and then divide that by the number of weeks or paydays and to see how much I need to save in that time.

Meggan: Yeah I think it's really key to sort of break it down through that research because even if you're going - let's say if you are making a big international trip like we recently had friends who went to Romania and their money has like zero to do with Canadian dollars so you know $500 of their money, what does that mean for me? Like and you can - really I mean the internet's there for these types of things to really do, you know "what does $500 whatever in this currency actually buy me?" and then it can really help you understand that in your own currency and say I need to save X amount to actually make this happen.

Um and you could even go online too and do a like a faux car rental and see what the prices could be. I just think it's going to be important to understand am I going to an expensive place, an inexpensive place, medium, whatever the case might be and you also may have to then adjust those, if possible, automatic transfers, you may have to adjust what that amount looks like. If it's too much for you, you might have to even put that trip off for a later time so that that research really is very key.

Jenn: Yeah I definitely don't advocate going into debt for travel.

Meggan: Never.

Jenn: Obviously being a personal finance blogger um it's you know, I know a lot of people put trips on their credit cards and...

Meggan: Hope for the best?

Jenn: Yeah basically don't have a plan on how to pay it off. Please, please for my personal finance heart,

[both laugh] have the money saved before you go on this trip because nobody wants to come home to a huge credit card bill with no idea how to pay it off.

So um we also wanted to talk about how to save money while you're away. After you've left and you're on your trip things that you can do while you're already there to stay within your budget.

Um things like overlooked expenses are huge money suck on travel budgets. Everybody thinks about the hotel, the car rental, the plane tickets, but there's so many little expenses that I, even as a person who travels a lot, forget. Things like airport parking!

Meggan:Yes!

Jenn: Get SO expensive um things like snacks during the day. Everybody thinks about the meals but most of us snack in between meals so...

Meggan: We do.

Jenn: Even those like five dollar expenses really add up. Cell phone plans if you want to use your cell phone while you're overseas or in a different country that can add up. Tips and like hotel resort fees are things that people don't always look into. And all those things especially when you add them all up together can be hundreds of dollars and it can just blow your budget. So look for those things, plan for those things as much as you can, I know that uh we've definitely made a lot of mistakes in those things but...

[both laughing]

Meggan: But so have we though. It makes a lot of sense because you're just sort of thinking: food, plane, uh car, and then we'll be there and it's fine. Hotels we need somewhere to sleep. We know that, but we often have gotten places, especially in Europe and there's like there is no on-site parking so we didn't plan... we planned to stay here for three days, but we didn't plan to pay three days of euro parking, and so it really is like you said a money suck or a budget suck because you were like “I was going to spend that money on this or a nice dinner out” or whatever the plan might be so it really is important to sort of think outside the four major categories and understand you know I need to have a little bit extra for things that do pop up.

Jenn: Definitely.

Meggan: And I think another thing too when you are thinking about the destination you want to go to and you're having to obviously book hotel stays maybe consider local hotels. I know when we went to Ireland last year there I don't think we stayed in one chain, I think we stayed in all sort of small locally owned hotels and we got some really great deals.

We all know of course too that there's Airbnb but you'd really do with that site have to watch out for high service or cleaning fees because you think “oh that's not much a night” but then you sort of get that final total before your book and you're like how did it become so expensive. So I think it's really key in that regard too and then you know sometimes you can contact places directly rather than using you know a third-party site and maybe they'll have a better deal, have you sort of had any experience with any of these saving you money?

Jenn: Yeah, um we tend to stay in local hotels. Airbnb can be hit or miss definitely with the fees, like you have to be really careful and definitely I've been leaning towards contacting the hotels directly now. I know I mentioned that before in the last episode, we have used sites um like Expedia and Hotels.com in the past but I am now more wary of using third-party sites so - and most hotels actually advertise right on their site that you can get a better deal through them.

Meggan: Right, use us!

Jenn: Yes [laughing] because they get more money from you because they don't have to pay for that exactly Expedia whatever.

The other thing you can do when you're planning is to research on whether or not you should drive or fly to that location, I mean it - it definitely depends on how much vacation time you have, where it is, obviously from Canada we can't drive to Iceland, it's just not an option. So um but if you're going somewhere that is - is within a drivable distance, it - just do the research to see if it's worth it. I know personally a lot of the times we fly because I'm self-employed and so taking more days off work to drive is actually not worth it.

Meggan: Right, right.

Jenn: Because the savings just doesn't even out on the other end with how much I lose by taking extra days off.

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: But it's just something to consider depending on your situation.

Meggan: And definitely and I think too and, car versus plane, could also be how much money do you have to spend. so I think that, you know, a car trip really is less expensive. If you're - you know have grander ideas of maybe going to Iceland or Ireland or wherever maybe this year though isn't the right time for you so keep saving in that regard and use some of the money in the meantime to just take a car trip, because it's definitely cheaper, and you know when the borders open up if you come from the U.S. to Canada we're often 25% off.

[laughing]

And even if we go from Canada to the U.S driving the gas is usually cheaper in the U.S. so we often times wait till we're across the border to refuel. So just some kind of things to keep in mind where you can get extra savings if that big trip isn't right for you this year.

Jenn: Yeah

Meggan: and I think too, like you know, we've covered this a little bit but I think if you are doing the research on somewhere you want to travel and it's just not right for you maybe sort of revert to alternate research and think hmm what could be more affordable... so is that local? Is that driving? Oftentimes big cities and popular tourist destinations definitely are more expensive because they know they can be. but I think it's really key to sort of try to think outside the box of something that's definitely within your budget and maybe again put that bigger trip off to another time.

Jenn: Definitely yeah. Uh so some tips like buying food from the grocery store and alcohol from the liquor store can definitely help with food expenses, especially in countries like Iceland was so so expensive.

Meggan: I hear you sister.

[both laughing]

Jenn: You know it was just shocking, um so always like buying food from a grocery store, and even look when you're looking at hotels look for a place with a kitchen. We've done that in a couple places in Europe and cooked our own food and that definitely helped save money while we were away too.

Meggan: 100%, Iceland the grocery store - literally like we may have come home from that trip in debt if we hadn't gone to the grocery store.

Jenn: Yeah

Meggan: I think in like 11 days we ate in restaurants five times and the rest of it was all grocery stores, mostly chips and sandwiches if I'm gonna be honest. And then last year in Killarney in Ireland we didn't eat out in that city once. We actually - there was a Tesco nearby we went and we had a kitchen in our place and we honestly cooked and as far as the liquor store, it's - it sounds you know like it might not be actually the case when you hear people say it, but the lower shelves really are cheaper so look down instead of eye level when you're looking for a bottle of wine and maybe it's not what you'd buy at home but maybe you have to make you know a difficult choice.

Jenn: Yes that is definitely a marketing trick that everything at eye level is more expensive so yeah even at the grocery store at home, look down, always there.

Meggan: Look tips for your everyday life!

Jenn: [laughing] Yeah not even just travel!

Meggan: um another big thing and I know again we're referencing Iceland but that's what comes to mind with this one.

Jenn: I know it was just so expensive there.

Meggan: I know yeah it is for sure and another thing that hearkens back to that trip too are the activities that you're gonna do. So of course there's maybe museums that you've waited a long time to go to. Let's say you're going to Salzburg, Austria, and Mozart is your thing. You know you want to go to the museum there, so there are those things you have to plan for but look for free activities / explore nature.

Iceland was just nature for us pretty much and thankfully because again, if we had to pay for those items we would have came home in debt, but we just got out into nature and I think that that really does make a big difference if you're into it. If - if you know seeing the landscape of a new country matters to you it's usually free.

Jenn: Definitely that um reminds me of our trip to Niagara falls last summer we stayed on the Canadian side and if you've ever been there it is commercialized, like it is flashing lights, wax museums, a thousand ways to spend money on crap that you don't need, and it's kind of ridiculous and we walked across the bridge to the American side which did cost two dollars but yeah...

Meggan: Look an unexpected expense!

Jenn: Oh my god! [laughing]

But we - it's a - it's a national park over there and so we walked over there and we spent an entire day wandering around the park and I don't think we spent any money except for maybe like lunch and crossing the border.

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: So it - there's definitely things that you can do that are free or cheap instead of spending a million dollars in a museum that you don't really care about and you're in it just to spend some time.

Meggan: Yeah, you're in it just to check in on Facebook to show that you did it.

Jenn: Yes doing it for the 'gram!

[both laughing]

Meggan: Exactly! What do you got up next?

Jenn: Yeah so um when you're planning a trip you might want to consider having a budget for each day, gives you a little bit of - but giving yourself a little bit of wiggle room, have you done this before Meggan?

Meggan: Um really budgeting each day we sort of have, so we do follow another travel vlogger and and he often at the end - at the end of his videos shows us sort of what he spent in a day and where he spent it and I just think if that is really important for you for that trip you know you scrape together but you don't have a ton of extra money really understanding you know again through that research what are things going to cost me in the run of a day. Like you said leaving that wiggle room for the unknown and I think at the end of each day I always usually, I don't know about you, carry a little notebook with me for like things I want to remember for blogs or whatever the case might be, is use that to track your spending while you're traveling just to ensure that you're at least roughly sticking to that budget.

If - if you have no money worries, live your life but...

[both laughing]

If if you do like most of us you need to have that budget just to sort of stay on track and of course online banking is there for you to check etc. but I'm sort of like the kind of person that likes to write stuff down.

Jenn: Yeah we've definitely struggled with this in the past, I'm thinking of our honeymoon five years ago we went to Europe and we had cash, like we - we didn't really use our credit cards that much so I found the cash a little bit easier to keep track of because you can just put like some in your wallet and then go with it throughout the day. And I'm thinking of trips where we've really overspent, is times that we haven't used cash and we've just swiped the credit card.

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: And then you're like "oh my god, like how much did we just spend?

Meggan: [laughing] How did that happen?

Jenn: [laughing] What just happened?"

So I think that um creating a budget for yourself or at least being aware of how much you're spending by writing it down is definitely helpful.

Meggan: And another key that you just mentioned that I never thought of actually is cash versus Visa, because on your Visa you can really get charged for conversion to your home currency, that you never um expected. So getting home and that sticker shock could be even more. And another tip I learned in regards to that is oftentimes it gives you the option of which currency to choose apparently the key is choosing the option of uh where you're at.

Jenn: Yeah the local currency where you’re at

Meggan: Local currency is definitely um the one to choose, so cash I know sort of seems outdated especially in the time of Covid.

Jenn: [laughing] Yeah.

Meggan: but I think it's something to consider to help yourself stay on track. Now now something else that we - we've sort of come across here that I've not done before is uh maybe checking Groupons for deals of where you're going, have you done that?

Jenn: Yeah I have! Um we did, yeah we did it in Miami about a year ago, year and a half ago now I guess, and it was actually something that I - I had never done until then but we were in a taxi - or we were in Uber and the we were asking the driver like "oh what should we do tonight? like what would be fun?" and he suggested a boat tour and he was like "do not go to the booth and book that boat tour. You go on your phone, you download Groupon and you buy it on Groupon, because there are always deals on Groupon and it's like 75% off on Groupon." so -

Meggan: Wow!

Jenn: Yeah we did it on that I think we paid like ten dollars a person or something for um uh houses of the rich and famous boat right in Miami and it it was really fun but I think that they were charging like $25-$35 a person at the - at the ticket booth so just little things like that it can definitely add up.

Meggan: Yeah and I think that goes along well too something that just reminded me of me uh was when we went to the... um Guinness storehouse in Ireland we actually right before we got there bought our tickets online from their website and actually saved money so even for attractions going to their websites it's again worth checking out.

Jenn: Definitely uh some places do um give you a better deal a couple dollars off or something just by buying them online instead of lining up that day to get them.

Meggan: Exactly and last but not least on our main tips is prioritize the things you really want to do and splurge on them, but again cut back on other things that are less important to you.

So one thing I kind of like to do and it doesn't always happen because life happens, is when we travel I like to do one like special meal out. Pick a place and be like this is where I want to sort of maybe dress a little bit differently, out of my sort of hiking shoes and actually go and have a nice dinner and that's one thing that we try to do that's a little bit of a splurge for us. So it's - if there is something that really matters to you think about it in advance and plan for it and then other stuff that's not as important skip it. If it doesn't matter it's just going to take money that you, you really didn't want to spend anyway!

Jenn: Yeah definitely so my whole thing, my whole blog is built around the premise of value-based spending, so spending money on things that are of value to you. Which is totally different person to person like -

Meggan: yes

Jenn: I get that there are people who love to spend money on magazines or clothes or shoes or whatever it is, that's not my thing and so it just boils down to you deciding what's really important to you to experience on this trip like why are you there what are the things that you really, really want to see and experience and then if other things are not as important to you don't do them. You know wax museums are not important to me like I do not care! I don't want to spend 40 dollars to go to Madame Tussauds like I just - that is of no interest to me.

Meggan: Yeah.

Jenn: but, doing more like unique experiences boat rides like that sort of thing I really like to do, so it's just - it's total personal preference.

Meggan: Yeah.

Jenn: But just like identify those things that - that are important to you and - and splurge on them. We are not saying don't spend any money because that is not what we're about here.

Meggan: No no we're just - we're just - like the value like you just said is super key and I have to say and Peter laughs at me every single time but I swear every cafe I pass like oh my gosh we should go have a coffee in there and like it's like I am obsessed with cafes the worldwide. So he always knows okay we're gonna have to go into this cafe or like he eventually has to say [laughing] we've had enough cafes for the day so yeah like whatever is fun for you and matters for you really try to make that a priority.

Jenn: Definitely so we thought that we could end the episode with some fun facts and trivia about us and our travel experience so Meggan I wanted to ask you what is the weirdest thing you've done to save money while you've been traveling?

Meggan: It took me a minute to think about this but then I thought well I don't know how weird it is but it definitely saved us money; we visited Ottawa in 2017 we've been to other country capitals and we felt really guilty for not having visited our own so we made it a priority in 2017 and thankfully we did because now parliamentary buildings are closed for renovations for like 10 years. So um we stayed at a hotel in Ottawa, one of the part of their buffet breakfast was pre-made breakfast sandwiches we knew we were going to stand at a long line to get into parliament so we're both like let's wrap some of these sandwiches up and shove them in my purse, my purse always becomes the catch-all [laughing]

and then we had them for later when we were like you know part way through the line, really hungry, we didn't have to like step out of line to go grab something to eat and it really just saved us until you know the next meal. And oftentimes when we travel we don't eat lunch we just sort of do breakfast and - and supper so it really just saved us from having to do that and it was free, or well we technically paid for it with the hotel.

Jenn: [laughing] Yeah. “Free”

Meggan: “free” [laughing] we were paying for it but that really sort of helped us and and again I don't know how weird it is but it saved us money.

Jenn: I've definitely done that too with um fruit like throw like -

Meggan: oh yeah

Jenn: usually have oranges, apples, bananas, kind of thing throw that in your bag you can eat that later but I will tell you we've done a couple of maybe odd things, so in 2013 we drove to Montreal and my husband was going through school like we were - we were not making a lot of money so, we drove to Montreal, we packed our home toaster in the car with us and we - [laughing]

Meggan: [laughing] Oh I love it.

Jenn: We had a cooler that plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car so it - it kept things cold the whole drive um and so we had butter in there I had brought English muffins and like other snacks. Plates from home, knives, like I packed my kitchen and drove it to Montreal -

Meggan: I love it, I love it.

Jenn: And so in the morning in the hotel we'd plug our toaster in and have our English muffins so we didn't pay for breakfast -

Meggan: I'm down with that.

Jenn: - That whole trip.

I mean the other weird thing we did is we went to Iceland on our honeymoon and I didn't realize that when you go to these hot springs most of the time if uh if you didn't bring your own towel they charge you to rent a towel, which seemed to be sooo ridiculous to me so we went in the bathroom and dried off with paper towels to avoid paying the towel rental fee. [ both laughing]

Meggan: A: I understand that but B: I'm sure it looked kind of funny.

Jenn: I'm- you know, yeah

Meggan: no whatevs,

[both laughing]

Jenn: [laughing] no judgment here like those are some good things that we have done to save money while we've been traveling.

Meggan: I am down for it, and if anybody ever uses these like tips for themselves do let us know.

Jenn: Oh my gosh please tell me the weirdest thing that you've done to save money while traveling on our Facebook or Instagram. Please I would love to hear it.

Meggan: I like I like hearing weird stories for sure, Now, I have one for you um so what's one thing while you've been traveling that you bought, maybe by accident or got into a situation where you felt like I have to buy this, I'm here, that was really sort of way outside your budget?

Jenn: Yeah so a couple of years ago I went to Vegas with my best friend and we flew like the early morning flight, I think I was up at like three in the morning we flew to Vegas we finally got there at like noon and we landed in the airport and we didn't have a plan for how we were gonna get from our - from the hotel to - or from the airport to our hotel, so we just felt like oh okay here are all the cabs like let's just get in one and so it was like not far from - if anybody's been to Vegas the airport to the strip is like so -

Meggan: It's so close!

Jenn: So close and so he drove us to our hotel and I think we paid - I want to say like $60 - $50-$60 for this cab ride that was probably like three kilometers like - four?

Meggan: [laughing] He saw you coming!

Jenn: Seriously they're like "tourists!" and so on the way back to the airport we um at the end of our trip we got an Uber for ten dollars and I was like oh my god I can't believe that we spent all of that money to get to our hotel when we could have paid ten dollars.

[laughing]

Meggan: Oh! Yeah and Vegas isn't, Vegas isn't cheap in general so that money would have came in handy!

Jenn: Yeah I could have gambled with it and maybe would have won more I mean who knows!

Meggan: Right, right everybody's got a dream!

I think for me, again, we definitely have to do an episode on Iceland because there's so much to unpack um but we went to one bar the whole time we were there and it was at the very end in Reykjavik, and we thought it was happy hour for cocktails and we were so fancy it was during World Cup, we're like let's get into the spirit and get a couple of martini so we got four espresso martinis which Peter has done many times since we've got home for a much cheaper price, because those four martinis in that bar in Reykjavik cost us $132 Canadian!

Jenn: That is crazy!

Meggan: [laughing]

Yeah it was happy hour but that was for beer, so we really should yeah we should have read the sign a little -

Jenn: Life lessons: ask questions! [laughing]

Meggan: Yes don't be scared

Jenn: Don't be scared to ask questions.

Meggan: Yeah we we walked back to the hotel or the apartment we were staying at we're both like "well nothing we can do about that now"!

[Laughing] there was that.

Jenn: There's that. Yeah we had a rule when we were in Iceland that if a restaurant had wine glasses already on the table when you were walking by the window it was too expensive for us.

Meggan: Ohhh... that's good.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: That's good…

Jenn: It was -

Meggan: well whenever we saw people having alcohol in Iceland we always thought wow they must be rich in restaurants.

Jenn: [laughing] Or they're like you and don't realize how much they're paying for those.

Meggan: [laughing] Sadly that might have been the case.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: Oh goodness, well thank you again um that's it for us I can't believe end of episode two um we just wanted to thank everybody again who subscribed and downloaded our first episode it means so much to us and again we're so excited to uh share travel with you all.

Jenn: Yeah I think we've been having a lot of great interactions um you can find us on Facebook and Instagram and we've definitely been having some fun conversations um we've met a couple of other podcasters on there and it's just been really fun to uh to become part of that community and so we'd love to interact with you.

You can show us some pictures of your of your thing that you spent too much money on maybe those chocolate martinis - espresso martinis and travel mugs we've been sharing... um I know I have a large, large mug collection so I've been sharing some pictures and I know Meggan shared a couple pictures of hers too and and you can even share other things that you collect on your travels it doesn't have to be a mug.

Meggan: No no not at all and really our travel blogs um as before are listed in the show notes if you want to find out sort of what each of us are up to individually with our travel plans, um or future travel plans and again thanks for the support and we'll see you again soon, bye!

Jenn: Bye!