Couchsurfing

Saving potential: ~ $50-500 per day of traveling  (depending on your travel budget)

Time investment: sometimes it takes a little bit of planning  to find a suitable host

Useful for: travellers, people who want to learn and build their social skills (everyone!)

Couchsurfing will restore your faith in humanity.

It's an extensive internet community of people offering to host travelers at their home, be it modest and authentic or extravagant and metropolitan. You can meet many kind people of all ages who share their living spaces, experiences, food and everything else about their culture. There are no costs, it's about making gifts and receiving gifts.

The way it works is you create a profile and introduce yourself with some words and pictures, and BAM, you're all set to look for hosts across the globe or in your home town to get out of your bubble. You can also just look for other travelers to meet up with and explore together or ask for someone to show you around and give you valuable information. There's plenty of meetups in bars where you encounter interesting new people from around the world mixed with your home town dwellers, each offering their perspectives, knowledge and human decency.

The typical duration for a stay is 1-3 days, initially. While that does not sound like a lot, often times when you get along well with the host you can ask to stay longer. I had a great experience in Kenya where I got to stay in a very safe and well equipped place for one month.

Of course the benefit of this becomes possible through a tit-for-tat behavior. People can tell whether you're a leech or rather a valuable member of the community. Not surprising, you become a valuable member by offering the same services that you yourself like to use: Show some lost travelers the way, bring them to a friend's party, or let them crash on your couch. All of this earns you references on your profile, which in turn allows people to more easily trust you and offer their company and space.

That's also why there hardly ever are truly bad experiences made by travelers: A profile built over time with the testimonies of members of a well-spirited, open minded community and your own common sense provide a strong safety net. Cultural differences might challenge you a little here and there, but this is your opportunity to learn to be smooth and culturally literate.

If you feel uncomfortable at first, stick to hosts that have lots of references and/or travel with a friend/group of friends (anything is possible on couchsurfing).

What I really, really want to make clear is that you can grow infinitely and become a worldly, sociable and charming person by doing couch surfing. It's a payback that surpasses the saved hotel costs by a long shot. If that's your motivation to get into it, that's fair, but you'll quickly get addicted to this intensely rewarding experience for all the right reasons.

Go out and enjoy yourself with friends you've never met!

-Jimmy