Housing is almost certainly the biggest bite out of your budget. If you had no rent or mortgage payments, what could that mean for your bottom line?

An apartment-house manager can negotiate free rent and a small or large salary, depending on the size of the complex. I do this. Sometimes I wish I didn't - when a tipsy tenant loses his keys at 2 a.m., for example, or when a washing machine leaks soapsuds all over the laundry-room floor.

Shelter can also be had in exchange for child or elder care, helping a disabled person live at home or even through an internship at an organic farm. But not everyone has the skills or the desire for long-term commitments that these gigs require.

Indeed, you might already have a job or might be a retiree who doesn't want one at all. For those folks, housesitting, caretaking and "workamping" offer shelter with minimal obligations - and perhaps a chance at a little adventure.

Some of these jobs are fairly prosaic: Watch my condo in Phoenix while I spend a month visiting my grandkids. But you also may luck into, say, a 51-week-a-year gig at a millionaire's ski chalet or Hawaiian estate. And as an RV-owning workamper, you can see as much or as little of the country as you like.

Mind you, these usually aren't completely free flops. You will likely do some sort of work: tending landscapes and walking dogs, serving as day host in a campground, selling Christmas trees or running carnival games at an amusement park.

But get rid of shelter costs, and you've just slain your biggest budget dragon.

That lived-in look

Freelance writer Tiffany Owens and her husband, an artist, haven't paid rent for almost three years. Their caretaking job on 150 acres in Maine even provides a salary and health insurance.

"Our spare time is devoted to creative projects," says Owens, 41. "This property is beautiful. It's something (we) could never afford. They're paying us to live here."

Some jobs require only that you be there. Catherine Reichling spent two and a half years on a 2-acre property about 20 miles outside Fort Worth, Texas. Temporary jobs brought in enough scratch to cover food and other expenses.

"I had complete and total freedom to do whatever I wanted," Reichling says.

She's spent most of the past 10 years housesitting, sometimes for friends and sometimes for people who advertise in The Caretaker Gazette. Reichling, 53, has lived in "some luxurious places," often with swimming pools. Mostly she's taken jobs that simply require a place "to look lived-in."

Not just a free ride

Without someone on site, properties are ripe for theft, vandalism or maintenance snafus. Some clients are ordinary homeowners, and some are wealthy folks who use a multimillion-dollar vacation home just a week or two a year.

Lately, Gazette Publisher Gary Dunn, himself a former caretaker, has been taking ads from real-estate investors whose properties proved unflippable, thanks to the economic downturn. "We get (investors) who say, 'I just spent $5,000 on repair after a break-in.'" Having a resident keeps a home from being stripped of its copper pipes or from being turned into a party house or a shelter for squatters.

Elke, a 63-year-old Florida resident who asked her last name not be used, is the groundskeeper on an 18-acre property in exchange for a two-bedroom cottage. She's also around to pick up the mail and feed the pets when the homeowners are away.

Elke was a real-estate agent when the Florida housing market and the economy tanked. She sold her town house and sought a caretaking job "because it takes care of such a huge chunk of monthly expenses."

The work takes about 15 hours a week and has produced an unexpected benefit: increased physical fitness. Elke has begun to manage a few vacation homes in the area; in time, these references plus her caretaking job could lead to positions elsewhere.

"I've seen ads (for jobs) in South America, in Europe, in Canada," she says.

'We're on wheels, and they roll'

Steve Anderson, who publishes the Workamper News, says only about 60% of workamper jobs are at campgrounds. State and national parks, hotels, Christmas tree lots and amusement parks are all sites for seasonal workers and their RVs. Some are straight trades for space rent, with the option for additional hourly work, usually at minimum wage. Other jobs pay fairly well; Anderson knows of people who work less than three months to earn a year's living expenses.

Jobs that are not at campgrounds may provide full hookups on the premises or negotiate discounts at nearby sites. Amazon.com set up a free RV site near its Coffeyville, Kan., distribution center to lure extra employees for the holiday rush. An Iowa amusement park called Adventureland pays bonuses to workers who stay for the entire season; this bonus brings the cost of five months of camping to just $112 for single RVers or $12 per couple.

Bob Duncan was laid off from a telecommunications position almost eight years ago. The job market in Ohio wasn't bristling with opportunities for a 58-year-old man accustomed to earning an excellent salary. Duncan bought an RV and headed west.

His first workamping job was at a private shooting range in California. He got all his utilities free plus a small salary that increased when he took over as manager. Duncan has had a number of other jobs, but he hit pay dirt at the Amazon site in Coffeyville, where he used his experience in network planning to bump himself up from packing presents. This fall he'll return for his third season as a data processing manager, which carries a decent (if temporary) salary.

Temporary is fine with most workampers, he says. "Sometimes you decide you don't want to be there anymore. We're on wheels, and they roll."

'Very mobile people'

For the past five years, Lee Bohlman and her husband have workamped at a fish hatchery, at an Oregon lighthouse and at county, state and national parks. They've also visited their kids in California and Wisconsin.

"We are really very mobile people," says Bohlman, 66. They sold their home four years ago and have never looked back: "No house, no mortgage, no pets, no worries."

Bohlman and others recommend against buying a brand-new RV because, like cars, they depreciate the instant you drive them away. Another common piece of advice was to buy a towable fifth-wheel trailer instead of a motor home, because it's easier to drive to the grocery store in a pickup than a land yacht.

"I get between 8 and 10 (miles per gallon) when we're towing," notes workamper Dan Miller. "But we only do it twice a year." He and his wife, both in their 50s, are currently parked at a Holiday Inn in Wyoming, where they get a free site plus an hourly wage for working the front desk.

Some people combine workamping with caretaking by parking RVs on the property of the homes they're tending. Coleen Sykora, who publishes a Web site called Workers on Wheels, has lived on an Alabama ranch, in a lakefront Minnesota cabin and in a beautiful city home in Anchorage, Alaska.

How to get these jobs

Anyone who's ever housesat knows that word of mouth is a good way to get a job over a holiday weekend or a month in the summer. Long-term positions tend to be advertised.

Christina Parrish, 21, answered a Craigslist ad about work on a 5-acre horse ranch in Oregon's Willamette Valley. For two days' worth of chores each week she scored a two-bedroom apartment plus the chance to ride for free. More importantly, it reduced her living expenses at a time when her hours had been cut at work.

A number of Web sites offer caretaking, housesitting and workamping jobs, but many are relatively new and, like any Internet site, may disappear without warning - along with your subscription fee. It's up to you to decide if that risk is worthwhile.

The Caretaker Gazette has been around for 27 years, Workamper News for 21 and Workers on Wheels for 15. The first two supplement their regular publications with daily or weekly job updates, and the third offers a free e-zine.

Those updates often feature last-minute jobs that are available because an employee was fired or quit without warning. Nancy Welch and her husband are currently at a lakefront home in Texas because the original caretakers didn't like the hot weather.

It worked out well because the Welches had just lost a five-week job due to a health emergency in the homeowner's family. "All of a sudden we had no place to live" - a potential problem for the professional housesitter. It's vital to scope out couches you can surf in between jobs or when jobs fall through.

Welch is 68, and her husband is nearly 78; they've been married five years. "Like many retirees, we cannot afford to retire," she says. But she finds moving from house to house "a fun way to live."

Tips from the pros

These jobs aren't for everyone. You have to be willing to take orders. If someone says, "Be here seven days a week for two months," then you do it. If your workamping job turns out to be the kettle-corn man in Iowa in high summer, then prepare to sweat - and smile.

A few other suggestions from the experts:

• A good word. Your rsum should list not only previous jobs and their references but also a few impeccable personal references. Note any special abilities, such as gardening or do-it-yourself skills.


• Homesickness happens. Be sure you can stand living away for weeks or months at a time.


• Get a written contract. Make sure it specifies your duties, pay (if any), share of utilities (if any) and how long the job will last.


• Have an exit strategy. Suppose the ad doesn't mention dogs, but you find four jittery Irish setters when you arrive? Better have the price of the gas or a plane ticket back home.


• Plan your finances. Set up online bill pay. See whether there's a branch of your bank in that region. Bring more cash or traveler's checks than you think you'll need.


• Togetherness is challenging. If you're with a spouse or partner, make time for personal hobbies and space (especially in a 250-square-foot trailer).


• Get a tuneup. Keep your car or the truck towing your RV in tiptop shape. Consider a roadside assistance package.


• Be prepared to lose a few things. You may leave behind a book or a hairbrush. Items with great sentimental value might be safer in storage.

Most importantly, you have to realize that this is not a lark; it's a commitment like any other job. You can't simply walk away because you're tired of cleaning parakeet cages. This not only puts the homeowners in a bind - it pretty much kills your chance at future gigs. References make or break a caregiver's career.

Save money today

Take me out: America's pastime can be had for free - the minor league version, anyway - according to Smart Spending blogger Joan Melcher. See "Free tickets to minor league baseball" to find out how to score gratis tickets to about 250 teams' games nationwide.

School's NOT out for summer: Online, anyway. A directory of Internet colleges and universities has created a long list of free summer courses. Of course, you won't get actual transferable college credit. But you will have the chance to learn about computer programming, the rise of Athens, soil mechanics, women in Islamic societies and a host of other topics. Maybe free online courses will just help you win at Trivial Pursuit. But there's also the chance that they will make you more employable, either through specific knowledge gained or because they improve your understanding of the world. See "Monster list of free online college courses."

Gas pains: Have you noticed that the price at the pump is going back up? In my neighborhood it jumped 16 cents a gallon in a week. A free online site will help you track mileage and improve driving techniques. See "How's your gas mileage? Find out at Fuelly."