We're celebrating Thrifty Traveler's 10th birthday today: It's somehow already been 10 years to the day since I hit publish on the very first post on this site. And over the course of the last decade, this site has grown from a passion project – a side hustle from my old day job – to a full-time team of nearly 30 and counting, dedicated to helping hundreds of thousands of travelers see the world for less.

But it's time I made a confession.

This website is not the original Thrifty Traveler. And I am not the original Thrifty Traveler.

Before there was thriftytraveler.com or our Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal service, there was the Thrifty Traveler newsletter. It started way back in the early '90s, reaching 52,000 mailboxes (and, eventually, email inboxes).

And long before I ever thought to call myself “Mr. TT,” there was Mary VanMeer. Mary was the original Thrifty Traveler.

 
Mary

 

Let me explain.

I spent years building up expertise about the ins and outs of airfare, points, miles, and hotels while traveling across the U.S. as a bank examiner for the federal government. Then I spent months resisting the constant prodding from friends and family to put my knowledge to use. Once I finally decided to move ahead with a site, it took several months more of wracking my brain for the right name.

After weeding out some embarrassing candidates – Rewards Wiseguy and Miles Maximizer were both in the running … – I finally landed on Thrifty Traveler. Thriftytraveler.com would be the perfect hub to share what I knew, I thought. 

It was taken.

The original ThriftyTraveler.com was somewhat out of date and very out of style, more fit for 1999 than 2015. But it was exactly what I had envisioned – promising to be “the only travel-planning site you will ever need!”

 

thriftytravelportal.com

 

The contact page led me to Mary VanMeer.

Mary and I traded emails over the course of the next year, and she was hesitant about the prospect of handing over the reins of ThriftyTraveler.com. Not because she was out for a big payday in exchange for the domain name, but because she spent decades pouring her heart and soul into her printed travel newsletter and website.

She told me the story of when, in 1993, she decided – much like I did – to put her life of travel to use and launched a printed travel newsletter. She relayed with pride when she got a shoutout in Newsday for the help she was giving aspiring travelers. She recounted her trips to New Orleans, Florida, New York City, and across the world.

She had built something, and she was understandably nervous to let it go. Finally, she sent me an email I'll never forget.

“You can see why I'm very much attached to the thriftytraveler.com name. But maybe it's time to let someone else nurture it,” Mary wrote. “Let me put it this way: I certainly have no intentions of ‘putting it on the market'; but if YOU want it, I'm open to that.”

With Mary's blessing, I officially launched the new Thrifty Traveler on April 29, 2015. A decade later, you can see bits and pieces of Mary everywhere, thanks to the advice she'd occasionally send me while following along even after handing off the reins.

She insisted that I keep the website simple, and not distract would-be travelers from the help they needed with flashy graphics. She warned me that Thrifty Car Rental would probably come after me to complain about the name. She was right … but they backed off.

Mary urged me to put up a photo of my wife and myself on the site to make a personal connection with readers – “People connect better with faces ;),” she needled me. That was the seed behind our ongoing efforts to showcase the real, awesome humans on our team, from our new podcast to our burgeoning YouTube channel.

As the site started to snowball, Mary and I would chat every so often. She was tenacious but funny, and kind yet helpful. And without fail, she would end every email with congratulations: “I'm really proud of what you've done. Awesome.”

Then a few more months passed. I sent Mary another email with a few questions – one of many I'd sent her over the last few years. This time I didn't get a response.

 

Mary

 

Mary VanMeer passed away on Oct. 14, 2016. She was 68.

In the years since, I made Thrifty Traveler my full-time job and launched a flight deal subscription service, brought dozens of like-minded travelers into the fold, published thousands of stories, expanded into social media, and even started a podcast. The Thrifty Traveler of 2025 looks a lot different than it did in 2015, let alone 1993.

But our mission – Mary's mission – remains unchanged: To help everyone travel more for less. 

A while after she passed, one of Mary's friends sent me one of the original Thrifty Traveler newsletters. It's framed in our office. 

 

framed thrifty traveler newsletter

 

And it's clear to me now that in all our back and forth about the website name, Mary wanted the assurance that the next ThriftyTraveler.com would live up to what she had painstakingly built over the prior two decades.

I hope we made you proud, Mary.