The last time we paid rent was September 2010 for the house we lived at in Roseville California. Since then our accommodations haven’t cost us anything. Instead we’ve stayed a night or several with family, friends, Couch Surfers or have had house sitting jobs. Two nights someone did put us up in a hotel since they’d arranged a couple of business meetings for us.
For the first time in seven months we’re paying for a place to stay. We decided to spend six weeks in Wisconsin to be able to visit Joel’s mom and help her out. However the building she lives in only allows visitors for up to two weeks. That meant finding another place to stay for four weeks.
We tried to find Couch Surfers in the area to see if there might be someone we could stay with for a bit – nothing. We tried to find a house sitting job nearby – nothing. We asked friends and family in the area if they knew of anyone who might be willing to put us up at a low cost or in exchange for services we could provide. We checked everywhere for a place we could possibly rent for just one month.