I Can't Believe My Home Exchange Is Over

It's March 25th and I can't believe how fast 3 weeks has gone by since I've been here in Ponte Vedra Beach. I have had the time of my life in Florida on what was my 8th home exchange.

With every home exchange that I have had the opportunity to do, I always come home both sad and happy. Sad that it has to come to an end and happy that I was able to have the chance to visit such an amazing place.

Home exchanging has given me the ability to travel to Australia, Mexico, England, Denmark, France, Washington and twice to Florida. All in just less than 3 years!

So you're asking, "How in the world do you afford to go to all these places"? Here's the glory of this, when you do a home exchange, your only expense is your airfare in most cases. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about by sharing with you what I spent to be on vacation in Ponte Vedra Beach Florida for 3 weeks.

I'll start with the airfare. I paid $10 for my round trip airfare from Las Vegas to Jacksonville. In addition to that I had to pay $15 for my checked bag each way. Total: $40.00! This isn't always the case, I just so happened to have had enough frequent flyer miles with Delta. But you can get airfare for around $250 if you watch for specials. Next, how much did I pay for accommodations for 3 weeks? That would be a big fat ZERO! Because we exchanged homes there are no costs for hotels. Which by the way can average about $100 or more per day. Now how did I get around for 3 weeks? Did I rent a car? That would be NO! When you do a home exchange you can also exchange vehicles if both parties are in agreement. So that would be another big fat ZERO for a rental car. Okay have you added that up? Shouldn't be too hard since all I've paid for is getting here. That's right, $40.00.

Now what did I spend on entertainment and food? Well if you have been following this blog you have a pretty good idea already. So I'm going to do something kind of fun here and I will do this from now on at the end of all my stories about my home exchanges.

Airfare......................$ 40.00
Accommodations........$ 0
Rental Car................$ 0
Fuel for Car..............$125.00
Entertainment.........$ 81.00
Dining Out................$180.00
Dining In...................$275.00

Memories...........Priceless!

I am home now, but not for to long. I'm headed "Down Under". I will be flying out on April 23 to the Gold Coast of Australia for 3 weeks on another home exchange. I'm sure I will have some great stories for you!

Remember, you can see all of pictures at "Where's Debbie"