In this episode, Tiffany Grant shares her 2024 travel tips. After returning from her vacation and celebrating her birthday, Tiffany dives into how she manages to travel on a budget without compromising her financial goals.

From budgeting and finding affordable accommodations to tips on booking flights, exploring local activities, and managing currency exchange, Tiffany's travel wisdom will inspire you to plan your next adventure without breaking the bank.

So, tighten those purse strings and prepare for some invaluable travel advice from Tiffany.

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Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com

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Timestamps

[00:00] Budgeting is vital for celebrating life milestones.

[05:14] Flexibly plan trips using calendar and Google flights.

[06:28] Options for flights from North Carolina airports.

[11:06] Avoid tourist hot spots, cook at home.

[13:02] Benefits of immersing in a new culture.

Key Takeaways

• Budgeting for Travel: Plan ahead, set limits, allocate funds.
• Affordable Accommodations: Airbnb, local connections, cost-sharing with others.
• Smart Flight Booking: Flexibility, layovers, airline points, multiple airports.
• Cost-Effective Activities: Local experiences, street vendors, homemade meals.
• Currency Considerations: Exchange rates, using local currency, staying informed.
• Immersive Travel: Engaging with locals, cultural experiences, avoiding tourist hotspots.
• International Travel on a Budget: Stretching funds, value for money, exploring abroad.

Additional Links & Resources

• Google Flights
• YNAB
• Ask Tiffany Your Money Question
• Making Travel a Financial Priority with Danielle Desir
• 2020 Travel Tips | Ep. 27
• The Grown-Up Gap Year With Stephanie Perry | Ep. 20
• Buy or Transfer United MileagePlus Miles
• Buy, Give & Transfer Hilton Honors Points - Hilton Honors
• Buy, Gift & Transfer Southwest Airlines Points
• Buy or Gift World of Hyatt Points
• Buy or Gift Marriott Bonvoy Points

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your

money nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse

strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast. Hey,

hey, and welcome to another episode of Tiffany's take, where I answer

your money questions right here on the podcast. So if you want your question

answered, go to

comaxtiffany, and I'll be more than happy to answer

for you. So for today's episode, first of all, I

apologize for not getting a Tuesday episode out to you all.

I was actually on vacation. I just got back this

week, and I had a ball. My

birthday was also Friday, March 15, so happy

birthday to me. But that's why I've

been a little ghost. So I apologize, because I know you all be waiting for

your episodes, but that is one reason why I wanted

to do this episode today, which I talk about

travel tips. So sometimes people are like, dang, tiffany.

Like, you just be traveling and got all this going on, and

nobody will hear about it until I come back. I do that purposefully

because I don't want people to be like, oh, she know, whatever.

I'd rather wait till I come back to do all the posting. And so usually

when I come back, they're like, dang, I didn't even know you were gone. And

I like it like that. But I also travel on a

budget, and I have found a way where I

can enjoy travel and do as much traveling

as I want, and it doesn't get me off track from my financial

goals. So let's just hop right into some things that I

do. So, first and foremost, I budget. And I know y'all are probably like,

tiffany, why do you always talk about budgeting? Because it has such

a huge part in my life. So for this trip, I

went to Jamaica, and I thought about this back in

January. So one big milestone that happened for

me, my divorce was finalized on January eigth. So

after how many years? From December

2021 to January eigth of 2024, I was

going through the divorce process. It's a very long and arduous

process, but nevertheless, it was finalized this year. And so

I was like, oh, I really want to do something to kind of celebrate that.

But then also, I'm like, I haven't been able to travel since I just had

the baby and everything. And so I was like, I

really want to do something for these occasions.

So I decided that I wanted to go to Jamaica. Now, when I

decided that, I said, okay, Tiffany, how much would you need

to make this trip a reality. And so being that I've been to Jamaica

before, I knew that I could get away with

probably about 1000 to 1500 and make it do.

Now you might be thinking, well, Tiffany, I've been to Jamaica and it cost

me way more than that. One of my travel tips is

I love being with the locals. Okay? So I'm

not a resort person. I prefer to be in an

Airbnb or even sometimes in a

hotel that's not resort based. And that's one of the ways that I save

money. So for this trip, I was able to find an

Airbnb. I have a connection down there. Shout out to

Cody. If you ever go to Negril, let me know. I'll

give you his information, because he can tell you where to go, what to

do, how to do things. And so he found me some accommodations

where we only paid $1,000 for eleven

days. Okay, so that's about $100 a night. You might be thinking, well, Tiffany,

that's about how much it costs here in the US. That's what I'm saying.

Instead of thinking domestic travel, start thinking of international

travel. And so that was a good deal. Then what

happened was it was a few of us going. So that's another travel

tip. If you are planning to go somewhere, see if there's

other people that want to go with you. When I came up with this idea,

I was like, oh, I want to go in March during spring break when I'm

taking a break from classes. So I reached out to my aunt and a few

other people. I'm like, hey, do you all want to go at this time? They

decided that they did, and so we were able to split those

accommodations three or four ways. And so if you're

still with me doing the math, if you take $1,000 and you're dividing it

by four, we only paid 250 apiece for eleven days

in an Airbnb. So that's why I say it's very

beneficial to look at Airbnbs. Verbos.

Get in contact with someone locally. If you know someone locally that can help

you get some deals. So once that happened,

I said, okay, accommodations are covered. I still have quite

a bit in my budget, so now I can figure out what the

plane tickets and everything else looks like. So I started looking

on Google flights. So that's how I usually book most of my

flights. And I'll go into some more tips, but I start there. Okay,

so I go to Google flights. If you never used it, it's where

you can search most of the airlines. Southwest is not on there,

but you can search most of the airlines. They have price

graphs. You can see a calendar

and it tells you how much the flights will be on certain days and things

like that. And so that's how I plan my trips, too. So I'm kind of

flexible with the dates for the most part, and I look at the calendar to

see what's the most affordable time to go. And so once I did that,

I started on Google flights, searched up the dates that I was looking

for. It was a favorable price, round trip.

So another strategy that I use with Google flights too,

is sometimes it might be more beneficial to book one way

trips versus round trip trips. So that's what happened this time. I looked

up the round trip price. I was like, okay, wrote it down. Then I also

did one way trips. So one way going from the US to

Jamaica and then Jamaica back to the US, and it was

about $50 cheaper to do the one way

trips. And so that's how I booked my flight as well this time.

So keep that in mind as you're looking at your flight. See if

it's better to do round trip or one way, because sometimes it

just depends on where you're going, when you're going, and the location.

So keep that in mind then. Also, another thing I did on Google

flights was I always pick

multiple from airports. So I live here in North

Carolina. The closest airport to me is GSO, which is Greensboro

High Point Triad area airport. But I also put in Rdu, which is

Riley. And I also put in CLT, which is Charlote,

because I don't mind taking the trip down there to fly

out if it's going to be significantly cheaper. And I say significantly

cheaper because you also have to keep in mind, if you

drive out of your city, you may have to pay to park your

car and things like that. And I know just from experience

that Raleigh and Charlote is more expensive than parking it at

Greensboro. And so you also have to take that into consideration as well.

So if it's significantly cheaper, I will take the drive in order

to get a better flight at a better price. But with this particular

vacation, I actually found a really good Greensboro flight. Now, I

did have layovers, which is another tip.

I don't mind layovers. I know there's some people that's like, oh, I just

want to go nonstop straight through, whatever the case may be. Yeah,

that's cool. But if I'm going to spend a significant amount of money doing

nonstop versus a layover. I'll choose the layover

because I don't mind that. One thing that you can also

work in if you're doing a trip is that

you can pick a layover that may be overnight if you want to explore whatever

city you're in or what have you, and then you can get two trips in

one. So keep that in mind as well. Sometimes layovers

are a good thing. So one more thing about flights that I

also do is usually I fly with Delta,

American or United wherever I go. And so

I have points built up with all three of them. So

with this trip, I looked know after I did my search on Google

flights, I found who was the least expensive. I also

checked my points and seeing if it was better to get it with points or

get it with money. It depends on a

lot of different factors, but check that out as well because sometimes

it might be cheaper to just buy the points and do it with points

versus doing it with cash. So I've

actually gotten free flights. Like for instance, when I went to Fincon last

year, that was free just because I had enough points saved up.

So don't forget about your points. I used to be in a bad habit of

forgetting about my points, whether it's flights or hotels and

stuff. Make sure you check on your points and see if you have enough

to get whatever it is that you're trying to do. So

make sure you add that to your accommodations and

flight research. So we've talked about

accommodations, we've talked about flying.

Let's talk about activities. So like I said, my budget was

about 1500 or so, and I know that I'm staying for like

1011 days. So I was like, okay, I already

knocked out the flight. I knocked out the accommodations. I

still have about $1,000 left. So then I divided that out by

the amount of days that I was going to be there, and I came up

with about $100 or so that I could spend a day. Now, some days

I didn't spend $100. Cool. That rolled over to the next day, and

then that helped me with other things. So, like, for instance, when I went

parasailing and I went to the blue hole, which is

like really nice mineral water, oh my gosh, you

all got to go. But doing all those activities,

some of them were a little more expensive, some of them were less

expensive. So that's why I said it's good to have a

number in mind. And that way you can have fun on

your vacation without thinking about, oh my gosh, bills. When I get

back. So that's why

I'm telling you, budgeting is your best friend. So

anyway, I stay away for the most part. I stay away from

tourist hotspots because they're usually more expensive.

They know people want to go, and so they charge you out the

wazoo. So for me, I like doing what the

locals do as well. And so a lot of my

spending or going out and doing activities was at

like, local rivers or local falls or going

out, enjoying the local nightlife, that type of

thing. And so that helped me save money as well. Now, don't

get me wrong, I love a good tourist hotspot, too. Like, for instance, in

the know, got to go to Rick's cafe. I did actually

jump off the cliff this time. I was

scared as heck the first time, but I did do it this time. And

also they just have a really good fun atmosphere. So I

don't mind some tourist hot spots, but

for the most part, I kind of stay away from those. Also, another

thing to think about. So going back to the accommodations, let's talk about

eating, right? So since we had an Airbnb, we

had a kitchen, and if we have a kitchen, we can cook some food

at home, just like we do at the house. So that

also saves us money, too, because we wasn't eating out all the time. We wasn't

on a resort or in a hotel where we had to eat their

food, which is usually overpriced. We stayed at

Airbnb, so we had a kitchen available to us. So we went grocery

shopping a few times. And y'all, let me tell you

another thing is you may can get locals to cook for you.

So in our situation, we have friends down there,

but also you can hire locals to cook for you as

well. And so we had some people

cook for us, and the food was amazing. We cooked

ourselves. The food was amazing. I did not have a bad meal while I was

down there, y'all. And don't get me wrong, I did eat out

occasionally. And when we did eat out, we just went to

the local vendors we pulled know in Jamaica,

they usually have vendors with their carts and stuff out. And

so we just pull up, you might be in the car and be like, oh,

pull over, let's get some jerk chicken or pull over, let's know that type of

thing. And the food is so amazing. So that's why I'm like,

kind of think outside of the resort, living

outside of just going to restaurants, the

street vendors were amazing. The food was amazing, and it also

helps the local community. So just think about that as you're traveling

as well. And it was cheaper. I can't tell you

all how many coconuts I had. I love coconut water, and

getting it fresh was amazing. They had fruit vendors, just all

types of vendors. So it's just really awesome

when you kind of immerse yourself in whatever culture you're

going to. So another thing is currency. So if

you're traveling internationally. So one piece of

research I did before I left was looking at, if I change

my money here, would it be more beneficial than changing it

there? Now, luckily, like I said, I know people down there and so they were

like, oh, we can get better rates down here. So that's what I did.

But do not just go with your

home currency. So, speaking specifically about

Jamaica, depending on where you're

going, so what store you're at, what vendor

you're using, whatever, they all have different rates for how they change over

us money. And so it's good to have both

currencies on hand because then you can ask them, okay, how much would

this be in us? How much would this be in Jamaican? And you can make

that choice, right? So that's what I highly recommend.

Just keep both on you. Because in some instances,

it was better to use the US money and in some, it was better to

use jamaican money. And so just keep that in mind if you're traveling

internationally, try to have both on hand just to see what would

be more favorable for you. Now, like I said, it's

always great to have a guide if you are going

on an international trip or knowing someone there, because they

can give you the hookup as well and let you know what's what. And

so, like I said at the beginning, if you are thinking about going

to Jamaica at all, anywhere in Jamaica, really let

me know because I can get you in contact with some of my people

down there. I had a ball. I truly

enjoyed all the sun, the beach,

the water. Just everything was a vibe. And I cannot wait

to go back. So thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast. Hopefully these

travel tips will help you as you're thinking about your next

vacation. When I was having this discussion with my friend last

night, she was like, what? So you mean to tell me that's all you

spent? I was down there for quite some

time, almost two weeks, you all. And I stayed

within my budget. So really start thinking about

what type of travel you can do with the budget that you

have. Not saying that there's anything wrong with domestic, I love

domestic travel. I've been to so many states,

I think I was at like 30 something or 40. So

I've done a lot of domestic travel. So don't get me wrong, love that too.

But also think with the budget that you have, what type of

international travel you can do as well. I love

traveling internationally. It's an amazing experience

and it allows you to see stuff outside the US. How are other people

doing things? And honestly, I'm like, I

really just want to move. I saw a

post on social media and it was like the new american dream

is to leave America and I feel that wholeheartedly.

So anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. Hopefully these

tips do help you with your future travels. But thank you so much

for listening to this episode of my 2024 travel

tips and hopefully I'll see you out there somewhere

traveling as well. Now, like I said, if you

want your question answered on the podcast, go to ww dot

moneytalkwitht.com xtiffany and I'll be more

than happy to answer for you. If you enjoyed this episode,

please don't forget to like subscribe, share, leave a

rating, and a review. All of these things really help the podcast

grow and other people like you can find us and get these gems

as well. So I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your

week. And happy birthday pisces.

We the best. Bye. Thank

you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast

this week. You can check TiFf out every Thursday for a new Money

talk podcast, but if you just can't wait until next week, you can

listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

follow TIFF on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is

always sufficient.