Washing my hair in an airport bathroom during a particularly long layover.
Doing our laundry by hand to save a bit of money.
You Know You're a Budget Traveler When...
- An included breakfast at your accommodations is the best news ever, because if you eat enough at breakfast then you can skip buying lunch and maybe even dinner!
- You refuse to pay for a hotel on long layovers. Stuck in Heathrow for 18 hours? Tough luck. As long as you can find a row of seats without arm rests you'll be okay. And if you can't find that even a patch of carpeted floor will do. You're a veteran of sleeping in public.
- You do your laundry by hand unless you're somewhere you can get it done for a couple of dollars or less.
- You will weave together a trip with three different airlines, five layovers, and 40 hours of travel time if it means getting the cheapest ticket.
- You've stayed at a hotel with a half star rating, and hostels make you happy.
- If you don't finish everything during your in flight meal, slipping it into your carry-on for later strikes you as a good idea. Who knows when you'll be stuck somewhere where everything costs a fortune and that bread roll will come in handy?
- The thought of paying for extra luggage or overweight items is abhorrent, and you avoid it at all costs.
- You rarely pay to do activities. You're all about the free attractions, even if it means visiting a museum about the history of hand fans that nearly puts you to sleep while standing.
- In order to save 50 dollars you've taken a long international flight with an airline that was so cramped that even you (at just over five feet) had your knees pressed into the seat in front of you.
- You take the soap and mini shampoo bottles from hotels because you can't bear to see anything useful go to waste.
- You don't mind walking places to save transportation costs, though you're a little bitter when you're told something is just around the corner and end up walking miles dragging your luggage, while cursing people's tendency to underestimate things.
- You travel places in their low seasons to save on accommodations. So you have to spend most of your time indoors watching torrential downpours? No worries. You've always liked reading anyways.
- In pricier countries you shop at grocery stores and prepare your own food instead of eating at restaurants. If you do eat out in these places you opt for lunch instead of dinner, which is almost always cheaper.
- You've never flown business class, much less first class!
- You know what couch surfing is.
Looking hideous 4 days into a trip in which we didn't want to pay to use a facility with a shower.
Sleeping on the floor in D.C. during a long layover on our way to Africa.
Dressed in cheap used clothing finds during a trip with a sudden change in weather. We weren't winning any beauty awards that's for sure, but we stayed on budget!