I can't believe just how many people around me haven't learned the art of budget travel, despite my constant naggings. I don't wanna brag but my three weeks trip in Europe, including air tickets and accomdation, was cheaper than my friend's one week trip in Japan.

My friends always ask me, how do you travel so often? How did you get your plane tickets so cheap? How did you fly for free? How do you save money while travelling? Where's the best place to change money? How to redeem or earn miles?

Honestly, it's not that difficult. Maybe it requires one to two extra steps, but the savings are so worth it! I'm gonna share a few tips today because, why not? They are perfectly legal ways and it's always great to see my friends getting excited over redeeming miles or scoring cheaper tickets.

1) Redeem miles

I hold three credit cards from UOB, DBS and Amex. Due to privacy concerns, I'm not going to go into details on which one I own but you can easily do a Google search on which ones are the best for your income level. The trick though, is to watch out for promotions!

For example, Amex is holding a 4 miles per $1 spend at Scoot promotion — which rarely ever happens because you usually don't earn much from taking budget airlines. I love my Amex card because their promotions are easily accessible via their app.


Amex also has a referral program in which you and your friend can get 5000 miles each upon spending $50 in the first three months. Only $50 for 5000 miles?! That's dirt cheap. You can easily hit $50 doing grocery shopping! For your information, a one-way economy flight on Singapore Airlines to Malaysia, Indonesia or Brunei is only 7500 miles.

If you're thinking of signing up, you can use my referral link so we can both earn 5000 miles each ;)

• www.amex.sg/refer/yitsipSf9F?CPID=999999551

2) Cashback

While I'm not a fan of cashback credit cards, because I firmly believe in the miles game, I'm not about to miss out any sort of cashback I can get. Shopback is a platform I frequently use while booking my travel accommodations or tickets.

I got a whooping $25 back with my recent booking on Booking.com by using Shopback! The best part is that there's no catch. You login, choose the vendor you're interested in, book your items and you get your cashback. It's as simple as that so I was really surprised when some of my friends told me they hadn't heard of Shopback.

It's free to sign up so you might as well try it out yourself. If you sign up with my link, we can earn $5 each!

• https://www.shopback.sg/referred-signup-bonus?raf=cZgWdc

3) Join travel-centric Singapore Telegram channels

@sgAirfarePromos and @milelionroars are two Telegram channels that I never mute. I previously got my two way tickets to Taipei for only $180 on Jetstar! I get nothing out of sharing this — except more competition with me for cheaper air tickets but good things must share, right?

4) Exchange your money online

Forget The Arcade money changers because things are going online. YouTrip is a service that acts like a debit card: you top up some money inside your YouTrip account and change that to the currency of your choice. Their exchange rates are extremely favourable — comparable to what you see on Google. And the best part? There's no transaction fee.


I was initially skeptical of them, until I learned that YouTrip is collaboration between EZ-Link, Mastercard, You Tech.

If you're thinking of signing up, my referral link gives us both $10 in our e-wallet.

• https://youtrip.app.link/YI%20TSING82853

And there you have it! My tips and tricks on how I travel on a budget. Hope they help :) I'll update this post if I think of more tips along the way!