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ADVENTURE

How to not ‘rely so heavily on govt support’ while still living your best life

by Tracy J. Chu

So we’re all getting some cash payouts from the government but somehow after Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s speech about it, you’re feeling bad about it.

During his big budget announcements yesterday, he mentioned that the government was committed to helping the people and that they “provided comprehensive support last year” and are doing so again this year. But he also made us all feel like leaches by adding that he hopes “all Singaporeans understand that it is not fiscally sustainable to rely so heavily on Government support year after year to cope with inflation.”

He then urged everyone to “press on” with restructuring, transformation, productivity and upgrading skills at every opportunity. Oof, so many big words.

You have pride, you have feelings and you long to be a better person someday. Somebody who doesn’t have to depend on the government, despite crazy increases in inflation and cost of living.

Well, that day is today. But don’t worry, we’ve got some advice on how to downsize your expenses, but not at the cost of making you look like a cheapskate.

Fo example, you probably work in the city center where you’re eating more-than-S$10 lunch set at nice restaurants every day. Why does it have to be so extreme? If you still want to look high SES (that’s “socio-economic status”) and like someone who has their shit together – without spending much, we have all the tips.

Starter pack

Consider becoming self-reliant an adventure. And, as with any adventure, you need some basic essentials. We recommend getting a lunchbox and a reusable coffee cup or tumbler. Make sure that these are airtight, spill-proof, heat-retaining and all that jazz because it will save you from future disappointment. You might have to lay out some cash for this but there are plenty

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TRAVELLING

Cutting Back on Spending Due to Inflation? How To Save on Dining Out, Travel and Groceries

by Tracy J. Chu
SDI Productions / Getty Images

SDI Productions / Getty Images

Inflation has hammered our wallets over the past year, as a poll by GOBankingRates that launched in April 2022 shows. The poll, which garnered over 20,000 responses, found that Americans have made cutbacks on the following categories: dining out (39%), travel (16%), groceries (13%), gas (7%) and other (4%). Twenty percent of respondents said they haven’t cut back on any expenses.

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Though inflation has cooled a bit in recent months, it hasn’t died down completely. And, with a recession on the horizon, many consumers are still in a pinch to trim costs. How can one cut back on categories where savings are top of mind, including dining out, travel and groceries? Let’s see what the experts recommend.

How To Save on Dining Out

The poll found that 39% of consumers made cutbacks on dining out amid inflation. Here are some evergreen ways to save on this expense.

Do a Little Research Online

Restaurants often run specials — that amount to savings — that you can find out about if you subscribe to their newsletters and/or follow them on social media.

“Always check online for any deals, vouchers, and offers your chosen restaurant may currently be running,” said Yasmin Purnell, a personal finance expert and the founder of The Wallet Moth. Often, a simple check can secure you an offer for a free dessert, or a discounted three-course meal.”

Sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are also solid discounts destinations.

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Use the Right Credit Card

Some credit cards are better for

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TRAVELLING

How To Use Travel Credit Cards To Travel More Cheaply In 2023

by Tracy J. Chu

Travel credit cards are one of the best ways to save money on travel, but they can also be daunting. There are so many choices. Benefits run the gamut and reward options are nearly limitless. While you’ll have to do some prioritizing to find the right travel credit card for your individual desires, once you do, you’ll be able to travel more cheaply in 2023.

Here’s how travel credit cards can help you travel at a lower cost.

Travel Cards May Include Credits Toward Travel

Premium travel cards might make it extremely easy to subtract costs from your bottom line. Many of them offer statement credits to essentially rebate travel purchases made with your card. Use them before they expire to save hundreds of dollars.

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Some travel credits are exceptionally easy to use. For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® provides up to $300 in statement credits toward travel each cardmember year. To receive your statement credits, all you need to do is make a qualifying purchase—which includes nearly all flights, hotels, car rentals and a wide assortment of other travel purchases—and pay with your card.

Other cards may require more specific purchases to receive a statement credit. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card also provides up to $300 in statement credits toward travel annually, but only when booking your reservations through the Capital One travel portal. The Platinum Card® from American Express is even more specific: it includes $200 each calendar year toward prepaid hotel bookings specifically made through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection and paid for with your Platinum card, among other credits. (Terms apply, see rates & fees)

Despite the hoops required, these travel credits can help you travel more cheaply in

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TRAVELLING

How to Prepare for Travel Chaos Over the Holidays

by Tracy J. Chu

After two years of stop-and-start COVID-19 restrictions, Americans are ready to re-embrace holiday travel this year. If you’re hitting the road, expect company—lots of it. According to a recent survey from travel booking app Hopper, almost 60% of people plan to travel over Thanksgiving, the winter holidays or both.

“We have a lot of demand and fewer seats to book,” says Hayley Berg, Hopper’s lead economist.

The surge comes as travel and tourism companies are paying more for labor and other major costs like jet fuel—and passing those price hikes along to customers. Airfares have climbed by nearly 43% on a year-over-year basis, according to the October Consumer Price Index. Hotel rates were up by nearly 6.5% for the year, and experts predict this will rise further around the holidays. Hopper found that Thanksgiving hotel rates are an average of 13% higher than last year, while Christmas rates are up by 32%.

Higher prices are probably here to stay for the foreseeable future. Multiple airline industry executives have cited strong demand on recent earnings calls, and travelers seem willing to pay up: A survey by travel-planning site The Vacationer found that 16% of respondents are planning to spend more than $1,000 on Thanksgiving travel, and about 20% are planning to spend more than $1,000 taking trips over the winter holidays.

If you’re planning a get-together or getaway this holiday season, here’s what this means for you.

Fewer flights and pricier tickets

Airlines have pared back their schedules, especially to smaller destinations. This means residents of many smaller cities who used to be able to fly direct will now have to travel to a larger hub airport, says Kathleen Bangs, spokeswoman at flight-tracking company FlightAware. “The issue is it’s much, much harder for the regionals to find pilots,” she

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TOUR

Best Online Travel Sites 2022 Top 12 Reviews

by Tracy J. Chu

The greatest online travel sites are fantastic because they’re a breeze to use and will help you plan your upcoming trip around the world. Travel agencies take care of travel arrangements such as airfare, lodging, transportation, and activities in one convenient location.

Thankfully, there are many excellent travel sites to choose from when planning your next vacation to various destinations. However, this can make it difficult to zero in on the best rates and features offered by these sites.

Many of these sites offer comparable services, but what sets them apart is how they deliver those services.

When trying to unwind on vacation, the last thing you need is to deal with a stressful website. In light of this, we have evaluated the top sites in terms of cost and functionality, emphasizing the sites’ user-friendliness and transparency.

We double-checked to guarantee that no hidden fees would be applied to your bill. Also, we considered rewards programs, which can help you save money in the short term and over the long run if you use certain websites frequently.

Booking.com– Best for ease of use

CheapOAir.com – Best for a flexible payment plan

Kiwi– Best for innovative designs, plans, and features

OneTravel.com– Best for travel guide

Expedia.com– Best for reward programs

Kayak.com– Best for aggregated results

HotWire.com– Best for vacation rentals

Agoda – Best for offering apartments and private rentals

Travelocity– Best for cheap prices

Freedom– Best for last-minute hotel deals

SkyScanner– Best for planning budget-friendly expenses

Google Flights: Best for speed

What Are the Different Types of Travel Sites?

Discount Travel Sites:

After making flight arrangements, your destination’s sleeping arrangements are among the first things on your mind. You can save time and money by choosing a discount travel site. Some

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TRAVELLING

Take a Vacation Without Splurging

by Tracy J. Chu

Sponsored content. Us Weekly receives compensation for this article as well as for purchases made when you click on a link and buy something below.

If you’re interested in traveling but your current budget is constraining you somewhat, you’re probably wondering if traveling with little money is possible. How do you reduce flight costs? How about lowering the cost of your accommodations or living quarters? And food can be so expensive in new places, so how do you decrease the amount of cash you spend on that?

I have a few suggestions if you’re struggling, as well as a couple of words of advice from some industry experts who know a little bit about travel from their own experiences. If you think we might be able to offer some assistance, feel free to continue reading. We’re about to explain everything you might want to know about traveling on a budget.

Travel Out of Season

According to Vincent R. Chan, the Chief Financial Officer of Christina, traveling out of season may be one of the best ways to save a little bit of cash. “Instead of waiting for the peak of the travel season,” starts Vincent R. Chan, “try setting up your travel plans during the less pricey times of the year. It may be less beautiful or sunny, but it’s also less busy and hot.” Although your pictures and views may be slightly less than perfect, traveling on a budget still allows you to see far more than not traveling at all.

Mark Twain also encourages us all to travel more when he says, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” This strongly implies that you should remove every possible barrier in your way when

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VACATION

How to save money on your next short vacation

by Tracy J. Chu

With airline staffing shortages, gas prices through the roof and inflation making everything more expensive, many families are turning to staycations and cheap weekend getaways close to home as an alternative to visiting the most popular family vacations spots in the country. 

Shorter stays and no flights mean you can skip the most painful costs (and hassles) associated with family travel while still creating great memories. Here are 10 easy ways to save on cheap family vacations close to home. 

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1. Make your own weekend

While local weekend getaways are less expensive than big family travel adventures, weekends are still peak travel time. But if you can make your own “weekend” by traveling midweek, you’ll save money and find wider availability wherever you’re headed because hotels typically have lower occupancy on these days. 

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Even if you can’t find time for a Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday getaway, look for an opportunity to overlap your stay a day before (Thursday) or a day after (Monday) most other people travel. You’ll get a lot more bang for your vacation buck. 

2. Travel just after peak season

Shoulder season is that best-of-both-worlds time when the tourists have all gone home but the weather’s still nice – think New England lake towns after Labor Day but before foliage season, for example. Instead of traveling during the peak summer vacation months of May, June and July, plan your family’s weekend getaway for September. You’ll spend a lot less while still enjoying all the perks of high-season travel. 

FAMILY FUN: 11

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VACATION

Five ways to save money on your next family road trip

by Tracy J. Chu

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – As the end of summer vacation nears, some families are making an effort to plan one last summertime road trip before the new school year begins.

But for the many households who are trying to stick to a budget, a road trip may seem like a costly venture.

Fortunately, there are ways to save money while taking to the open road for a family adventure.

Five suggestions are listed below.

#1 Instead of stopping at restaurants, bring a cooler full of foods and snacks

You’ll be surprised how much you save if you swap restaurant stops for snacking on sandwiches, wraps, salads, and other food items that you made at home. Additionally, when you arrive at your destination you can continue to save on food by stopping by a local grocery store and buying breakfast cereal and sandwich fixings.

#2 Plan your route, and fuel stops

Instead of winging it when it comes to stopping for gas, plan out your entire route and include fuel stops at locations with inexpensive gasoline. You may want to use a gas app like GasBuddy to find the cheapest gas along your route. Or if you’re a Costco member, map out Costco locations with gas stations along your route as they typically have the cheapest prices for gas.

In addition to this, by planning your route ahead of time you can map out the quickest, and most fuel-efficient way to reach your destination, which is a great way to save a few bucks.

#3 Before taking to the road, get a tune-up

It’s likely to be far more expensive, not to mention dangerous, to have your car breakdown while you’re on a lonely road far from home than to pay for a tune-up before your road trip.

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HOTEL

How to save money on travel? Five tips for cheaper flights and hotels

by Tracy J. Chu

1. Finding cheaper flights

Those who are strategic about saving spend 23% less on flights than those who aren’t, according to a survey of budget travelers by the booking site VacationRenter. 

Top strategies include booking with a budget carrier (52%), sticking to one carry-on bag (48%), using credit card points or rewards (39%) and tracking ticket prices (28%), it said.

One in three respondents said they use apps to save money on flights. One such app, Skyscanner, lets users set price alerts, search flexible flight dates and nearby airports, and mix and match airlines to find the best rates, according to its website.

Fewer are willing to sacrifice comfort and convenience by booking “red-eye” flights (25%) or choosing an airport that is farther away (16%).

Price alerts on apps like Skyscanner check fares so travelers don’t have to, notifying them when fares go up or down.

The Good Brigade | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Having flexible travel dates is one of the top ways to score a flight deal, according to the travel app Hopper, which said departing on a Wednesday instead of a Friday saves around $35 on average.

The same tactic works for hotel stays, says Hopper. Checking into a hotel for a two-night stay on a Thursday, rather than a Friday or Saturday, can shave an average of $60 off the bill, it said.

Another tactic is to watch for new routes or new airline services that enter local airports. When an airline adds a new route, competition among carriers can cause airfares to fall, according to Hopper. Airlines often launch promotions to get the word out too, it said.

That’s what happened when Frontier Airlines started services from Chicago Midway International Airport this summer, said Hayley Berg, Hopper’s lead economist. 

“Airfare from Chicago to Tampa

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