Summer is really a great time to have fun. In fact, it’s a perfect time for travelling and going on a vacation. But with money still being tight in many places, financing your trip might become quite challenging. Worry not though, for we listed down some ways on how you could save extra bucks and still go on your well-deserved vacation.

Book Free or Cheap Flights

Travelling requires a good amount of money, but with enough researching, booking a flight won’t have that much of an effect on your savings. If you’re resourceful and disciplined enough, then you’ll be able to find discounts and deals that could help you travel even if you’re not earning a good amount of cash yet.

Travel Off-Season

Ever tried visiting a particular place during its peak season? Sure, it was fun but the congestion is just unbearable. Aside from large groups of people touring the place, businesses also tend to jack up the prices of their products during peak seasons. So if you want to avoid overspending for your travel, schedule your trip when it isn’t peak season – you’ll also be able to spare yourself from the headache.

Plan Before Leaving the House

Spontaneity might be great when you’re going on a road trip, but it won’t be that good of an idea if it’ll only cause you to end up driving in circles in Singapore. To keep that from happening, ensure that you check out all the spots you want to see first before you start exploring your chosen destination. This won’t only keep you from wasting too much time, it’ll also reduce your gas expenses.

Opt for Dorm-Style Accommodations

Unless you’re planning to have an amazing hotel staycation, you’d likely spend most of your time touring your destination. What you really need is just a place to get some good shut-eye, and most of the time, you’d feel so beat that you’ll just past out instantly. For that reason, you don’t need to sleep somewhere fancy when you’re travelling. Dorm-style hostels are a perfect choice if you plan to spend more on meaningful experiences and not on hotel accommodations.

Stop Being a Picky Eater

You won’t be able to imagine just how much money you’ll save by filling your tummy with local street food. If you really want to dine like a queen, however, the trick is to splurge only on one meal. Research about one restaurant that’s worth splurging on, then eat to your heart’s content.

Going on a vacation while saving money is possible if you just use your resources right, and meticulously plan out your trip. Simply putting the aforementioned tips to work will help you do just that, so all that’s left for you to do is enjoy your much deserved break.

The rise of online shops has made the lives of more Singaporeans easy and more convenient. If we do not want to go out and deal with the long queue at the counter area, online shopping is definitely for us. No matter the benefit of online shops, there is always peril looming around.

According to some research, online shoppers have higher tendency to spend at least 40% more than their offline counterparts. Knowing this, we should avoid online shopping no matter how pleasing it looks like. Another peril is the probability if buyer’s remorse is higher with online shoppers. Why? In online shopping, we merely see the products and trust in the picture. If we receive it and it is not quite we expected, the remorse is higher compared to a purchase that we touched with our own hands.

Now that we know the perils, we have to shop smart so we do not have regrets at the end of the day and waste our precious money. Here are some tips on staying smart when it comes to online shopping:

• Search for better deals: More than stores in the mall, we have aplenty of choices when we consider online shops. This should give us a leeway to decide which store or deal is better. The only thing that we should do is allot time and make a research. If we think products are cheap in a specific store, we have to look for another one and maybe prices there are cheaper.

• Limit our purchases: Limiting our purchases is not as tedious as counting the calories we intake. Limiting purchases is easy if we set an amount and stick to it. The important thing here to note is sticking to our plan. We should limit purchases say $200 a month?
• Review our cart: Before ticking the “checkout” button, we have to be sure of our purchases. We should not waste money. When making the order, no one should rush us because once we “checkout” we cannot take it back.
• Read the return policy: Many Singaporeans ignore the return policy because it is lengthy but when we make a mistake, no matter the length, we will read the whole article but then it is too late since we cannot take back our money.
• Memorize our sizes: To avoid returning a product and wasting money, we have to memorize our sizes and do not rely on our instincts.

Whether we consider online shopping or not, we have to manage our expenses and avoid splurging if we do not want to go broke soon.

We work hard to ensure that we will have a financially secure future not only for us but also for our children. Unfortunately, ensuring a financially secure future is very challenging and it cannot be perfected right away. No matter how difficult it is, it is still possible. We only need discipline and our greatest resolve to make things happen.

If at this moment we acknowledge that we need to improve our finances and eventually walk our way to a financially secure future, we are one step closer to our goal. It starts from there but we still need to know few things to be successful and live comfortably here in Singapore in the future. Here are some secrets that should be revealed so we can all live in financial independence:

• Assess our monthly expenses: Before saving, we need to ascertain our monthly expenses first. We have to know how much of our monthly income go to our expenses. This simple act can give us a picture of things that are necessary and are not. We can be successfully in this step by categorizing our “wants” and “needs”. Remember that “needs” are things that we cannot live without and “wants” are things that we can do without for a long time.
• Think ahead: To avoid another financial pitfall, we should think ahead and prepare for it. Example, we can get a health insurance. It eases us to think that whatever the future holds, we are ready for it.
• The percentage: Whenever we receive our monthly salary, we have to determine the percentage of our savings whether it is 10%, 20% or 50%. We have to decide a sensible amount for no matter how small it is, it can make a difference. If we do not want to save it in a bank, we can consider other investments.

• Be out of debts: Credit cards are popular here in Singapore. There is nothing wrong with that but we have to determine when it is too much. We should be out of debts if we want to live comfortably and avoid the anxieties of creditors and collectors knocking on our doors.
• The “spend less” routine: If there is a less expensive alternative, we should consider it by all means.
• Track it: There is nothing wrong with bringing a journal and listing all the expenses for the day this way we will know where our money went. It will also ease us.

Knowing how to spend and save successfully is the trick to financial independence. Hopefully we will now know what to undertake.