Budget travelling or travelling on a shoestring if you like idioms...

The cost of travelling can be divided into four groups: transportation, accommodation, food and other expenses. I've been always able to cut the cost of my travels to minimum by paying nothing for accommodation and it is certainly possible to save on the other three as well.

Free accommodation?

While people usually try to save by going to cheaper hotel or hostel, it's possible to pay absolutely nothing. Today I received my new couchsurfing.org (CS) postcard. CS is one of the social network and its target audience are travellers. There's more than just CS in the same category, but I have been using CS the longest. The oldest is probably hospitalityclub.org and one of the newest ones is bewelcome.org.

 The postcard is just a proof that I live where I claim to live ;)

In all these networks you are able to find friends that will host you at their homes. By visiting meetings and being a good guest and host yourself, you become more trustworthy, increasing your chances of finding a host or friends.

Living a place instead of just visiting

People all around the world like to meet travellers and show them around (for many reasons... :)). I've seen the world from a different perspective. I like to travel to a destination and live there instead of being just a tourist. And the traveller social networks certainly enable me to do so. When I am lucky the locals invite me to their homes and their lives and that's more valuable to me than just sightseeing. They say that the best things in life are free. I don't agree, because nothing is really free. The saying should read: "The best things in life can't be bought." and I'd agree with that one. Travelling on tight budget gave me more than I could ever buy.