Travel is getting costlier, and Trae Bodge, shopping expert, brand strategist, and lifestyle journalist, has some tips for vacationing on a budget.  

<div class="block">Travel is getting costlier, and Trae Bodge, shopping expert, brand strategist, and lifestyle journalist, has some tips for vacationing on a budget.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div class="block">Here are four ideas for making your trip more affordable:</div><div class="list"><ol><li>Save a little extra for your travel expenses this year. That could mean eating out less for a few months. It could also mean putting some extra cash in a jar each day.&nbsp;</li><li>Make sure to check coupon sites. Bodge recommends installing a browser extension such as PayPal Honey, which aggregates and automatically applies discounts.&nbsp;</li><li>Consider planning a trip offseason, or even in the middle of the week versus the weekend.&nbsp;</li><li>Consider taking a road trip rather than booking a flight. It might not be as glamorous, but at least you get to make stops along the way, Bodge added. </li></ol></div>

Wake Up With Cheddar

Shopping Expert Trae Bodge Gives Her Tips on Traveling Cheaper

And good morning, everyone. Welcome back to Cheddar News. I've been Machado in New York City. Three years since the pandemic started people now just itching to get out and travel. But those 2020 deals still nowhere to be found. So you'll help us out this morning. As always is our friend Trey Bosch, smart shopping expert over at true trade dot com with tons of tips to help you plan that dream vacation on a budget trade. Good to see you. So 90% of us want to travel this year. So how do you sort of approach that on a budget? Yeah, I mean the flights are crazy. We were just talking about this. Thankfully, there's a recent paypal survey that found that 42% of people are willing to make some changes in their lifestyle to save up for trips, for example, eating in versus eating out. And this is a really good tactic because this is something my husband and I did a few years ago, we saved all the money for making coffee, tea and lunch is at home, put it in a jar and we found a trip to Honduras and went scuba diving on that money alone. So, wow, this is totally doable. Adds up. I mean, you never realize how, you know, coffee, how much I would add up to a trip to Honduras. Exactly. And another interesting stat from the pole is that 33% of people are willing to try coupon sites. You guys know that I love this. And so what I recommend for this is installing a browser extension like paypal honey, which does the work for you in the background. It will help you save not only on your travel booking but also on Your essentials. And what's interesting is certain travel essentials are more expensive right now. Like backpacks are up 7%, swimsuits are up 12%. So using that browser extension will help you save on everything that you need. And we know domestic flight prices have hit an all time high just to travel within the country. Just for some numbers here, prices overall were up 35% in 2022 compared to 2021. How do we get those good deals for transportation within the country? Right. So the prices are so expensive here and then also internationally if you are open to traveling within the country, what I would say is this be open to a road trip because sometimes you can do better on that road trip. My family and I did this last year we wanted to fly. But then I realized I couldn't afford this at all. And so we did a road trip down to the low country. We had an amazing time going through the Car Carolinas and got to stop along the way, which you can't necessarily do when you're flying somewhere. So just be open to that road trip and you will save significantly if you drive, especially given the fact that gas prices are still fairly low right now. Is there still an offseason for popular destinations? Great question. So right now we're going into spring break. So this is not the offseason, right? So the flights are going to be really expensive right now. If you have a little bit of flexibility, that's good. And what I would do is use a tool like Hopper or Google flights. And it's so interesting, you can actually see how the prices change from week to week or even day to day. If you can book in the center of the week versus on the weekend, you will do really well. So try to fly in the offseason, not around spring break or the holidays where the prices are going to be really hot. You've actually said something very interesting. It's all about how you buy your ticket. What does that mean? Yeah. So how you pay for your trip is really important. So for me, I used to have a United Chase card where I would get my points. But during the pandemic, I realize I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to cancel this card. So, but that doesn't mean that your regular credit card doesn't offer you some benefits. So take a look at your credit card, what it offers if you can get a cash back or points towards flights and if you find that your credit card isn't working for you, You might want to switch. So for example, there's a great card called the bread cash back American express. It gives you 2% cash back on literally everything. So travel groceries, gas, everything and its fee free. So that's what I mean by making sure your credit card is working for you so you can earn those points, especially on a trip. 2% is better than Trey. Thank you so much for joining us. We got to end it there. The smart shopping expert more wake up next guys.