Love don't cost a thing my beige ass

One moment, I was signing up for eHarmony, the next moment I'm four months into a relationship with a guy in Ohio (I'm in Illinois). We've visited with each other four times already (I just got back on Sunday from spending a week with him over the holiday) and talk on the phone/email daily. There's a lot of information online about keeping long distance love alive, but not much for getting to that point. I mean, we're still in that shiny, brand new stage. You know, where we'd rather explode than pass gas in front of each other. We both signed up for eHarmony looking for a long-term relationship and opened ourselves to the possibilities wherever they might be. Right now, Dude is pretty awesome and we really like each other. It's still early, but I see a lot of potential for a long-term commitment. However, it's going to take time, visits, and money to make that happen.

We're already good about using emails and unlimited minutes on our phones to talk, the money comes from traveling to see each other. When he visits, he drives over and stays at a hotel (I don't live alone), and has to board his dog (to the tune of about $100). For a weekend, it's about $400 for a hotel in my area. He drives a hybrid car, so gas costs are not as costly for him, but still... When I flew over to see him in April (I don't own a car) it was a last-minute fare of $171 for the weekend. Since he lives in a fairly remote area, normal fares even with 14- or 30-day advance is between $500 and $600! Fortunately, it appears that there's a last-minute fare to his neck-of-the-woods on a regular basis, so that seems like the better way to go. But still, $171 is still nothing to sneeze at. For my last visit to see him over the holiday, that ticket was $335...on sale. To Ohio. The bloody HELL?!? :::sigh:::

When we do get together, we manage to keep costs manageable. I think I mentioned before that we stick to soups and sandwiches for meals, long walks, watching movies and cooking at home (when I'm at his place). We're both mindful of our pennies, and if things continue to go as well as they have been, we're going to have to figure out a way to make this work for us fiscally. That might mean me getting cozy with Megabus. At the risk of sounding really uppity, I shudder at the thought of being on a bus for 5+ hours. I hate being in a car for more than 2, and the characters that tend to me on a bus...meh. But I can't possibly ignore the ever increasing cost of flying. Again, meh.