How Stacy Travels Monthly, Saves $17K in one year, and Says Yes to Every Adventure

You deserve to take more than one vacation year. Welcome to Points to Paradise. The podcast where travel dreams meet real-life strategy. I'm Megan Lampard, your new travel points coach for women who are ready to stop waiting and start exploring because I believe dream vacations shouldn't just live on a vision board they should actually be lived. I went from barely affording one vacation a year to now traveling over six times a year with my family and saving over 20 thousand dollars a year doing it and I am here to share with you my hard-earned lessons simple strategies and powerful stories to help you unlock the freedom to travel way more and spend way less. This is more than just free flights and free hotels. It's about building a life full of freedom adventure and unforgettable memories with your family. So let's turn those travel dreams into booked vacations together. Let's go. Hi friends. Welcome back to Podcast. This is Megan here. Today we have a guest which we don't normally do but I'm super excited. She is a client of mine and I just kind of wanted to come on here and have her share her story. What she did she was a little bit hesitant to work with me in the beginning so I wanted to share some of that and she has been able to do some incredible things. She's already gone this year to Hawaii twice. She's planning a trip to Tokyo. She's planning a trip to Florida. All the things and she's just like me and every day average person and so I wanted to bring her on and hopefully inspire you guys a little bit and show you what's possible when you take a chance on yourself. So Stacy welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much Megan. I'm so happy to be here with you guys. Yeah so go ahead and just tell us a little bit about yourself who you are or where you live you know just the everyday stuff. Yeah well I'm Stacy. I'm I live in Tucson, Arizona and I am married and I have six kids and since the time I can remember actually like in kindergarten I remember a friend of mine telling me that she was moving to Colorado. I'm like Colorado like where's that and I just remember just having this desire to see the world even as a little kid but no plan in place. So it was like a dream with nothing put in motion and so I've always always wanted always wanted to do that. So I kind of got into just a little bit before it when I did cards it was like if I had like a certain thing that I was gonna do I take out a card do that thing and then never know what to do with it after that. So a friend of mine had kind of gotten me into it a little bit just surface level that there's a whole world out there for points and miles and credit cards you know using credit cards for that and yeah and then I I saw you on Jennifer Allwood's podcast actually she's a friend of mine and she's gone to Mexico City too and that's actually how we met on a mission strip. So I heard you on the podcast and I thought who's this Megan and I need to check this out. So the rest is history. Yes I forgot that you were friends with Jennifer. Did you travel when you were a kid like did your parents take you on trips? Yes we we lived in a very small town and we always did the one trip a year but my parents would do like really really cool stuff like driving all the way across the United States and going to California in an RV or something really crazy like that so yeah it was but you know it's one trip a year that you look forward to yeah and then that's it you know it was just just that one time but yes we we we got to see quite a quite a few things but only driving I never got on a plane until I was 18 or 19. That's awesome I love that that's how my husband was he did not fly until he was 18 and it was to go into the Marine Corps. Oh it's his first experience and now he has to do this all the time. Oh boy. So had you booked an actual trip on points before you came into the membership? I did. My mind had kind of gotten me just a little bit started and this is fun because my husband women out there if your husband is not on board just just do it and he'll he'll get there because my husband was like do not take a credit card out in my name like I don't want to do this don't do it so I said okay that's fine so I did a couple cards and banked the points and then I did a mystery trip with my husband he did not know where we're going until we got to the airport I told him what kind of clothes to pack like it would be warm but that's all he knew and I booked a beautiful hotel in Maui rented a convertible and booked the flights all with points and after that he was like this is so cool you take out as many cards as you want yeah this was awesome I mean basically we stayed in a hotel we never would have been able to afford yeah and then I got an upgrade which was way out of our range we never would have been able to stay at this nice little place so it was wonderful and that's in the rest of his history and then you know I started really wanting to get things started and that's when I found you okay yeah so I was gonna ask you so if you took that amazing trip and you're like okay I figured this out I did it why did you feel like you needed to come into the membership you know I the friend that was helping me was very good but I realized that there is a strategy and it's per person that my strategy might not be the same as my friends yeah you know maybe my other friend is doing something totally different and I realized that there was some sort of strategy and I figured paying for someone else's knowledge was probably gonna help me so I joined and I actually Megan I'm gonna say I joined it for I said I'm gonna get everything I can out of it out of one month and then I'm gonna probably cancel because I don't want to I did cancel yes and you even said I don't think this is for me I'm gonna cancel yes and then I started thinking I started calculating I was gonna do this and then Megan told me to do that and then it ended up being really amazing and then I had plans to do this with my cards and then you told me no I think you should do this and I thought I've literally saved thousands of dollars because of I was paying you to know because I don't want to do research I don't want I don't have time for it yes I don't know all it but and I'm a big fan of paying for knowledge I mean if someone else is doing it and I can copy it yeah saves you so much time yeah so I did cancel and I thought you know what I'm gonna reverse it and I'm gonna give myself a year which I I think I'm been with you about a year yeah it's almost been a year I was looking at it I think it's up in may yes and now it's just part of my traveling budget is being in your group because not only do I learn a lot from other people I mean your expertise is I've been able to take vacations I've never even dreamed of yeah or dropped a woman never never had a plan to do them so yeah I know I remember talking to my husband so I was like okay this girl came into my membership and she canceled within like three weeks and I was like okay whatever it's kind of weird and then I told if I said like a week later I was like and she just asked to sign up for a year I was like what's she doing that was it I'm like I need to commit to this for a year yeah because I had gotten so much out of it I thought don't bail out just I'm gonna give myself a year and then yeah last year you did yes and then last year I calculated I kept track of everything I literally did $17,000 in travel my gosh by your strategy and personally strategizing for my own plans yeah totally like this yeah like you said that little bit of investment saved you 10s of house and gosh and sometimes I don't think like that because I'm very frugal and I don't I think if I can do things on my own I don't want to pay for them but yeah the bottom line is I can't do them I know because I don't have I don't have time or I that's not what I'm interested in to go and research everything yeah but I know and I think the same thing too because we're very frugal like we don't go out to eat or anything unless we're on vacation and so when I say like oh we saved we saved 30,000 dollars last year on our travel but I'm like but honestly I did I really save 30 because I wouldn't stay at places like that if I was actually paying for it you know but right that's the freedom that it gets you to say like I took 30,000 dollars worth of travel last year never done that before exactly yeah you know we've never we would stay at a place like $100 a night we're talking about two two star one yes just wear day and free bread doesn't have bugs that's that was our criteria and now we're staying in these really great places where you're actually like seeing it. - I'm sure you. - Yes. - Yeah, it's amazing. Like you show up to the hotel and they like take your bags and they're like, "I know." - I'm gonna show you to your room. I'm like, "Okay, thank you." - So fun. Yes. It's been a great experience. And we've made so many great memories with our kids 'cause we've got all these kids and they've been able to experience it with us and it's really good. - I was gonna go right into my next question. So I know last year with all that money you saved, you traveled almost every single month. - Yes. - Something like that affect your relationship with your kids, your husband, your marriage, all those things. And I know your kids are a little older and they're out of the house and stuff. But how does that affect just your relationships? - Well, we have a blended family. My husband had two kids before we were married and then I had two and then we had two together. - How so? - We've always kind of used traveling and things to, you know, doing things together as kind of a way to bond. So it's been so fun. So in December, I switched my youngest daughter over to be my companion on Southwest Airlines, which by the way, I didn't know anything about. I didn't know that was a thing and I could actually do that. So we went to Hawaii and then when they knew you switched ever, I switched to my other daughter and then her and I went for her birthday to a different resort at Hawaii and just had them best time. And then I said, well, we got this beautiful room with two beds. I said, let's bring your friend. So her friend came along with us. - Oh, that's amazing. - And then my oldest daughter, who's 37, very pregnant and she said, I can't really travel. I don't have that much time, but she and I went to visit her older brother. And so she flew free with me and then I used points for my grandson to come. So it's become this whole family thing. - Yeah. - And then my other son is in medical school. He's, and so he was going on all of his interviews, a customer fortune to fly to all these places and interview. And one particular, one of his trips, he could not find a flight. He had to be there and it was like super expensive and he couldn't get there on time for the interview and he was scared he wasn't gonna make it to the interview. So he just called me randomly and said, Mom, I hate to ask you this, but is there any possibility you could help me book a flight with your, 'cause it was like an astronomical amount of money to us. - Yeah. - I think it was $600. And it was only there two days. So I was like, my gosh, yes. So I got to book him a flight that was decent. Didn't cost me anything. So it's become this whole thing with our family. - Yeah, you're able to give so much to your family because of it. - I know. - And see them more often. - I know. So I've been, my other son lives in San Antonio. Never been to San Antonio. Really cool place, by the way. And so we went there and did the whole river walk and my husband and I flew there. And then we got to go again to see my little grandkids there. And so, you know, just things that we wouldn't normally do 'cause it's so expensive. - Yes. - We just, we can do it now. So. - And Tokyo is to see your son too, right? - Yes. My son is a missionary there. - Okay. - So we went, actually we went a couple times. I took my daughter, her and I went. And she was graduating from high school. So that was her graduation. You know, and while we were there, she was like, "Mom, I'm so worried about money because it's, you know, I feel like you're spending money." And I go, "I'm not paying for tickets. I'm not paying for a place to stay." - Right. - So you don't have those things costing you. There's just so much more to go around. - Yes. Yeah. And it makes the trip so much better 'cause then you can splurge a little bit more on the dinner. - I know. - Do you like it? - It's a surgeon or there's just, it makes the trip so much better. - I agree. And, you know, one of the highlights this year, my house, and this goes back to, if you only can afford two trips a year, which is the norm for most people. Because it's, you know, by the time you pay for tickets and a hotel, who could afford doing that, you know, on a regular basis. So my husband loves archeology. And he's like, "I would really like to go on this archeological dig. There's a dry lake bed in the middle of Wyoming." Now, if we were picking two. - Oh, yeah. - I would not be on the list. - Never. But I said, "You know what? He goes to all my stuff. I'm gonna book this." So I, there's only one hotel in this little town. I used my points to book it. And then we flew there free on points. We just rented a car. That was one of the most enjoyable trips I ever took. - Oh, everybody, he was so excited. - And we happened to be going through the book of Genesis at our Bible study. So we brought all these fossils back. And it was really, really cool. - That's amazing. - So that is, you know, you get to do so many more things because it doesn't cost that much. - Yeah. And you get to go to, like you said, places that you would never think. I mean, this year we were planning out our travel and I told my husband I was like, "Okay, like where you got, where should we go this year?" And he was like, "I don't know, like what's some of the states "we haven't hit." He's like, "I really want to go to Tennessee and Georgia." And I was kind of like, "Yeah, are you sure?" Like, "Yeah." And I found some amazing resorts. And I was like, "Okay, we'll make it happen." So we're just hitting random states this year that we just haven't hit. And it seemed random to other people. But it's because of the points that we're able to do it. - I know. And then you're, it's gonna be so cool for your daughter 'cause my kids, they would go to school and say, "Some of these kids never even left the state." And they're like, "Eat grade." They're like, "Oh, we've been able to do all kinds of things." And now even more so because, you know, it's just not costing us. So. - Yeah. So I hear from people all the time that they say, like, "I'm just gonna wait till I retire. "I'm gonna wait till someday." Or, you know, points seem complicated or I don't really want to invest in that. Like, what would you say to that person? That truly deep down really does want to travel and that's important to them. But they keep calling themselves now. - Yeah, I have this really amazing story. I worked at the hospital for many years as a nurse and I saw a post, a friend of mine that I'd worked with for many years. I see her on there with the cake and balloons and everybody from our team is there, like, congratulating her after 25 years at the hospital. She was retiring. She had just made her last house payment. She had a list of everything she wanted to do. She was gonna start traveling. That was April 29th. June 1st was her obituary. - Oh my God. - I could not. She, as soon as she retired, went to the doctor, had stage four cancer and died four weeks later. That's when I said to myself, that was about a year and a half, maybe two years ago. And I said to myself, "I'm booking the trip "and I never stopped." 'Cause I told my husband, "We don't know what we're having." - How much time will it be? If we can do it now, we're young, we're healthy, I'm doing it. I'm not waiting around for some other time to do it. So I really encourage people, you can do this with points. And I think you should just enjoy every minute that you have. And the time isn't later, it's now. The time really is now to do it. - Life is so short and we, I said all the time, we do not know how much time we have here. And I would rather have this life full of memories and experiences that might, has been, can remember if I pass away or something like that, but those memories are irreplaceable. - Exactly, exactly, I agree. And yeah, and my kids will tell me, mom, I will always remember this trip. This was the most fun time I've ever had. It was really amazing. So, you know, when we're gone someday, they're gonna think of all the times that we got to do stuff together. - Yeah, and I say all the time, like, my little one's the world most. And I'm like, she's not gonna ever remember the presence I got of her Christmas or her birthday. Like, she's not gonna remember the stupid toy I bought. But she still talks about the sea turtles that she got to release on the beach when she was two in Mexico. And my kid, you still remember that, but she talks about all the time. And I'm like, she's gonna remember these things way, way longer than any toy. - Yes, exactly. We tell our kids that too, you know, it's the experiences we have together. That's what we're really, that's what we're gonna get. And so, that's funny because this year we told, I've got, I have my seventh grandchild being born in July. - Oh, we good. - So we decided my family lives in Wisconsin. And all the kids are very close with them. So I said, for Christmas this year, we're not getting you gifts. We're flying everybody to Wisconsin. And so I've been really working on my point so I can use a lot of points to get everybody. So it'll be about 15 of us going to the same thing for Christmas. - Wow. - That's amazing. - Yeah, so the sky's the limit, you know, you can plan these. - You need to get your kids opening up credit cards so that you don't have to pay for a lot of time. - I know a couple of them I don't trust. with credit cards. So I'm working on that part. But most of them, I got two of them that are they're working, you know, working the system. So nice. Good. Yeah. All right. Uh, lastly, I just want to ask because I ask all my, I guess this, I know you've been to a lot of places. But what is one or two trips that are like on your bucket list that you've always been wanting to go to that may take a few more points to travel to? Yeah. You know, here's the funny thing. I want to go to so many places and I realize that I can go to so many places that it's almost overwhelming to pick some. Yes, it is. It's like, I could do this. So it's not like out of my reach. I can dream and, you know, plan. I think one is Machu Picchu. That's one place that my husband and I, I'd like to go to Thailand. We went to the Philippines this past January, February. It was amazing. It looked amazing. The pictures you posted in the group was and my husband still, I told him, Hey, I want to go to Thailand and he goes, we can't afford that. I'm like afford that. He didn't get it that I had used points for everything. Everything. Oh wow. Yeah, he like missed that whole thing. I'm like, no, I didn't pay for any of it. I flew us to Tokyo. He used money to travel. Staying in a hotel in Tokyo, flew to the Philippines, stay down in Ireland. That was all points. He was just like, oh, I guess we can then. That's whatever you want. So Thailand, one of them, New Zealand, Australia, those are some places. And there's really some beautiful places in the US too. Nashville, one place I'd like to go. Yeah, the sky's the limit. I know. It is overwhelming to choose like when we were like, okay, where do we want to go this year? I was like, there's like so many places. I want to go that we have to like narrow it down. I know. Yeah, it's amazing. Well, thank you, Stacey, so much for being on the podcast. I hope everyone was so inspired by everything you do because you really just took the points and ran with the strategy that I gave you and you have implemented so quickly. So you never had it now. So after I've been with you for a year, it's, you know, I plan on doing some major major trips this year. So I'll give you, I'm sure it'll be closer to $20,000 that I yes. Yeah, so if you are craving to travel multiple times a year, if you're like, I want to be able to go anywhere anytime that I want, definitely come and join us inside of the Academy. You'll get free membership access as well where you can come ask questions for a couple of months. So the link is here in the show notes. Definitely join us because it's an amazing group of women traveling all the time. So thank you again, Stacey and I will catch you guys next week. Yes. Bye, Megan.