It’s been a while since it’s been PODCAST … DAY! Our show was on a layoff for Easter, so I decided to wait till I had the gang all captive gathered again in the van before moving onto our next podcast.

Our jumps lately have been pretty short, but in honor of them being all around the tristate area, I decided it was time to check out Shannon from Financially Blonde’s podcast Martinis and Your Money: Living a Better Life One Cocktail at a Time.

Like I try to do with most of our podcasts, I started us out with her first episode: My First Podcast. You should consider skipping this podcast. It reminded me a little of Book 6 in the Harry Potter series, it tied up some loose ends and furthered the plot, but was definitely the driest.

I’d actually recommend you check out Shannon’s blog instead. She’s an excellent writer and covers everything she spoke about in her first episode. To be fair, you should absolutely know who you’re about to take money advice from, it was just lacking the energy that was so prevalent in the other podcasts we listened to. I suspect it’s because she’s such a people person.

That being said, Shannon is actually a terrific interviewer and since her episodes all feature someone she is interviewing, the podcast as a whole is actually really enjoyable. Several of the van-ites commented that she really comes to life when interacting with someone else.

We moved on from the first podcast to Investing Mistakes. We already ascertained that the van really enjoys Joe from Stacking Benjamins and he was Shannon’s guest on this podcast. They discussed their shared history working in finance and the crazy decisions they’ve seen other people make.

I found that podcast really interesting. I forgot to mention that each interviewee picks a drink for them to share while doing the interview and Joe’s beverage of choice happened to be a Moscow Mule, one of my favorite cocktails because I love both vodka and ginger beer. So – score one for Investing Mistakes right off the bat.

I also like hearing about people doing stupider things than I’m doing. Schadenfreude and all that.

The group was considerably more won over to Martinis and Your Money after that podcast. We sealed the deal with the next selection – bearing in mind that the majority of us in the van are freelancers, constantly looking for the next gig.

We rounded out the trip with No Work, No Problem, in which Shannon interviews Tonya from Budget and the Beach about what it’s like to go through a dry spell as a freelancers. Tonya is a brilliant videographer who makes her own hilarious money related YouTube videos called BATB TV.

I loved Tonya’s explanation of savings buckets and how she has such a solid setup, that she may start to feel panicky when bucket 1 is depleting, but she’s still really far from homeless when that happens.

I also love her bootstrapping attitude. What happens if bucket 1 gets too low? You hustle your butt off. She’s awesome.

Um, I also love the Ultimate Dog Tease video. If you don’t know what that is, clearly you should Google it. And then check out Martinis and Your Money!

This is a podcast that will make regularly reappearances in the van.