What started out as a crazy idea that popped into our heads one day, finally lay at our feet. We had heard of people going overseas and getting odd jobs to pay their way through countries, or even free accommodation in exchange for a few hours of labour (usually manual or language tutoring), but neither of us can seem to remember quite how we came across house-sitting. This offered free accommodation in exchange for the care of one or more pets. We knew that if we wanted to travel it had to be budget-friendly, as we are saving for a house back in NZ (those Auckland house prices – amiright?!), so we wanted whatever we did to not affect our savings. After long discussions, research and calculations, we came to the conclusion that house-sitting could not only let us continue putting money aside into our savings, but it could potentially, *hopefully* allow us to actually put in more than we can normally save at home! We weighed up the cost of flights + food + activities + accommodation for any side trips we may want to do between house-sits + storage for our belongings at home vs. our rent in Auckland + our usual weekly expenses. With Matt free-lancing, he wasn’t tied down with work, and, having a design-based job myself, we made the decision that he would train me up and I could help him out with the basics. It was all kind of ideal.

We’ve had a lot of people ask us about how house-sitting works, so if you’re interested, here’s what you need to know:

• there are many different websites you can sign up to and apply for house-sits. Most of them have a fee to join, but for free accommodation, it can be well worth it. Some of the sites we came across are: Trusted Housesitters (NZD$130 p/yr, but we found a discount voucher online), Nomador (3 applications free, then/or approx NZD$40 per quarter), Mind My House (NZD$20), Housesit Match (approx NZD$112), etc.
• we didn’t sign up to all of the sites we came across, but the one we’ve had the most success with, by far, is Trusted Housesitters.
• some of the sites are more specialised or commonly used in one particular area. For example, Trusted Housesitters seems to have a lot of choice for France and the UK, Nomador seems to have more USA and Australia, etc.
• when setting up your profile for house owners to view, make sure that you include details about yourself and interests, relevant history (specifically pet or plant care), and if you can get references this will also help your case.
• while this is a great way to save money and travel at the same time, please don’t forget that you still have responsibilities and that these people are putting their trust in you to look after their pets. Often their pets are like family members, so duties can’t be shirked.

I hope this quick intro on our 6 month house-sitting stint has been helpful or inspired you to think about doing something similar. It really is a great way to see the world in a cost-effective way, plus you get to meet lots of great people, make new friends and even have some nice little interactions as passers-by want to pat the cute dog you’re walking.

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