Kindness of Strangers

One of my favorite episodes of The King of Queens involves Doug and Carrie agreeing to attend a seminar on purchasing a timeshare in exchange for a free weekend at a swanky New England bed and breakfast. Doug’s afraid to say “no.” Carrie’s a big meanie. Hilarity ensues. The underlying message of this episode seems to be this: how far are you willing to go to save a buck?

As it turns out, this theme is not only the makings of good situation-comedy, but a recurrent theme in round-the-world travel.  In recommending cost-saving tips for dining out, my Rough Guide’s First-Time Around the World states that, “Pizza gathering is not officially recommended, but it works. Travelers have been known to hang out in franchise pizza joints, order a small salad, then grab the untouched slices from other tables when groups get up to leave” (p. 94). It also warns me against becoming infected with budgetitis, whose symptoms include “walking an extra twenty minutes to find a bread shop whose loaves are three cents cheaper; full-blown arguments with taxi drivers over the equivalent of 25 cents; and skipping a meal because the local supermarket prices seem a little high” (p. 87).

Somehow, I don’t see myself falling prey to any of these scenarios. When faced with the question, “How far are you willing to go to save a buck?” my answer is typically a resounding, “Not very far.” However, since we’ve embarked on this planning process, I have noticed that I’ve developed an affinity for entering sweepstakes, large and small. In addition to entering to win lottery tickets and selling old stuff on Craig’s List, I’ve observed that my ears perk up when I hear about contests which seem to meet my specific travel needs.

For example, as I was driving home from work last week, I heard on the radio that KB Homes is hosting a contest where one can win a year of free mortgage payments. This immediately piqued my interest because we’ve been searching for someone to rent our home. If I won the contest, all of my worries would vanish!  As I listened further, I learned that all I needed to do was drop by any KB Homes location to pick up an entry ballot. This sounded suspiciously like Doug and Carrie’s situation all over again. I knew what would happen: I would be sucked into an hour and a half sales presentation on the joys of living in a KB community. Normally, this thought alone would be enough to drive the idea from my mind. Instead, I immediately went to the KB Homes website to locate the community nearest my house.

Today I spent 20 minutes filling out a Lonely Planet survey, which will make me eligible to win $2,000 from STA Travel. As a bonus for filling out the survey, they awarded me with a coupon to save 30% off my next purchase of a Lonely Planet guidebook. Normally I would have sniffed at that. But I’m pretty sure I whispered, “Sweet!” to myself.