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As you probably remember from your late teens and early twenties, hostels are the best place to meet young singles with a yen for traveling and -- if my own experience is any indication -- a seriousness when it comes to partying. Hostels on a Saturday or Sunday morning are quieter than a church in the middle of the night.

An unusual place to recommend for family travel? Probably, but there are several characteristics that make hostelers kindred spirits to budget-conscious families who are looking for a great travel experience that doesn't involve crippling credit card debt.

Traditionally, Memorial Day is the official kickoff of summer, more revered in some circles than Christmas. As a young professional on the East Coast, I learned that there was absolutely no work done during Memorial or Labor Day weekends; these were sacrosanct, meant for mysterious managing director rituals involving expensive sunny vacation homes and actual time spent within 100 yards of their wife and children.

Memorial Day was also the one holiday when my friends -- young investment bankers and attorneys and consultants -- could schedule a party utterly without fear it would be pre-empted for a client crisis or sleepless weekend preparing for a merger. And so, we went all out: weekends in Charleston or the Hamptons, catered barbecues, road trips to New Orleans for jazz or Montreal for sightseeing or Chicago for baseball.

But times and careers have changed, and frugality is the new buzzword in my circles today. Memorial Day may be the kickoff of summer, but it's also a great time to cut costs and save money for whatever will be the expenses of summer -- camp for kids, family trips, in-season fruit for canning, the inevitable splurges on sunny-weather house projects and garden investments.

You can still celebrate and enjoy, though, without spending more than the $20 you have in your wallet. Here are four common Memorial Day celebrations that cost big -- and how to do it the WalletPop way.

The first thing I learned as a young investment banker who often stayed in pricey hotels in big cities -- but didn't have the budget that most guests at that hotel did -- was to figure out how a short walk could save me big. Why buy a candy bar or bottle of water for $4 or $5 from the minibar when I could walk to a nearby 24-hour drug store and save 80%?

I would smile with delight at my smarts, even if I could expense the water and candy, proof that Brooks Brothers pinstripes do not rule out frugality. Today, even the most well-heeled guests at spendy hotels are avoiding hotel surcharges, thanks to what Glenn Haussman of HotelInteractive.com calls a "device fixation."

Admit it: A staycation is just not going to cut it this year.

After three years of pinching pennies, if you're getting frustrated staying home instead of hitting the road, you're not alone: Almost half of all consumers surveyed for a recently released report from Deloitte said they plan to take a trip this summer even with gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon.

"Although industry data show overall levels of leisure travel are still below levels seen prior to the recession, our latest survey indicates that in 2011, consumers are more willing to spend on summer trips than last year," Adam Weissenberg, Deloitte's vice chairman, said in a statement. "However, with spiking gas prices, airfare costs and hotel rates, as well as ongoing financial concerns, summer vacationers may tweak their travel plans."

And trim costs where they can. Weissenberg pointed out consumers surveyed said they would be staying closer to home or cutting back on food and activity expenses during their vacations.

If you plan on hitting the road this summer, here are a few tips that can help you save money and, in some cases, your sanity, too:

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Q: In September of 2010 I booked a trip to San Francisco and paid for the plane ticket and rental car together through lastminutetravel.com. The trip was great but now the car rental company, Fox Rent A Car, is refusing to refund what they told me was a $150 deposit back to my card!

Airlines make a lot of their money by selling pricey first-class seats to wealthy travelers. They might need to rethink this strategy, though, in light of a new survey that shows big-ticket travelers are turned off by the quality of the service they receive.

According to research by travel-focused market research firm PhoCusWright, a quarter of all fliers feel negatively about the air travel experience, while rich travelers are twice as likely to feel negatively about the service they receive.

This disconnect between the airlines and their luggage-toting cash cows is nothing new, according to airline industry consultant Bob Mann, but it's gotten worse in recent years.

TripAdvisor's website has been hacked and an unknown number of member emails have been stolen, according to Steve Kaufer, CEO of the the popular travel information and review site.

"This past weekend we discovered that an unauthorized third party had stolen part of TripAdvisor's member email list," Kaufer said in an email to TripAdvisor members. "We've confirmed the source of the vulnerability and shut it down. We're taking this incident very seriously and are actively pursuing the matter with law enforcement."