One summer, when my travel budget was really tight, I took my mother with me on my work-related road trips. Not because she was great company, but because with her in tow I could get a senior discount on motel rooms.

As you can imagine, there were some serious downsides to that scheme, but at the time it seemed to make sense.

I’ve wised up over the years and found other ways to cut travel costs.   And so have the folks who were kind enough to share their “tightwad travel tips” for my Well-Mannered Traveler column this week on MSNBC.com.

One frequent traveler says she picks up magazines other air passengers have left behind.   Another says she gets cheap hotel rooms by asking for the “flagpole room.”

Read the full column – “Money-saving tips for travel tightwads” -complete with this cool illustration- on MSNBC.com and send me your tips so I can put them in a future column.

(Column illustration by MSNBC.com’s Duane Hoffman. THANKS!)

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