Today, my husband and I will attend a sister city delegation reception at Monroe City Hall, and welcome a Japanese high school student into our home for 10 days.

Does this sound like a unusual activity for a family on a budget? Look at it this way: it’s an example of figuring out how to do something you’d like to do — without spending more money than necessary.

Besides, it’s an international twist on that “stay-cation” trend where people are seeking out entertainment close to home rather than travel during their vacation time.

Here’s the background: Monroe has had a sister city student exchange with a city in Japan since 1992. The sponsoring organization is the Monroe International Friendship Association. We got involved as a host family in 2001, and my daughter went to Japan through this program in 2006.

When my husband found out his factory’s summer layoff would be longer than we expected, we realized his time off overlapped with sister city season in Monroe. To take advantage of his time off, we signed up to be a host family for this summer.

With this program, students visit host cities for 3 weeks, with each student splitting that time between two host families. The sister city club arranges for day trips, social gatherings and formal appearances for the students, while the host families transport students to carpool sites and events while adding in their own family activities.

My husband and I knew we could manage our house guest expenses with research and planning. Here are some of the details we worked out:

When and where to spend money

• The Japanese host families are extremely generous with gifts to our Michigan students, so we should certainly reciprocate. We looked for UNIQUE gifts that would not be terribly expensive. Our daughter is in Texas right now, and she sent up some seashells and a little building replica from the Houston area to give to our student on her behalf. “Mom and Dad”’s gift to the student is a Monroe High School T-shirt made-to-order at Cook’s Sportland. And for her family, I purchased patriotic-themed fabric placemats on sale earlier this month at Elder-Beerman.
• Our family outing at the Monroe County Fair will piggyback on the day that I’m assigned to work at The Monroe Evening News booth. When I get off duty, my husband and the Japanese student will meet up with me. Then we will eat dinner on the midway and look at the exhibits. But we’ll park in the free parking area. And since I will have already entered the fair on a vendor’s pass, my admission is free.
• We’re hosting a family picnic with possibly 20 people attending, and will spend the money to get a party sub. My husband and I usually host a summer family party at our home each year with hot dogs and hamburgers, so we really aren’t spending more money than we normally would to be sociable with the relatives.

Using resources we already have

• There’s no need for us to purchase Japanese language books and dictionaries, because we already have them on hand from our previous experience with the program
• There’s also no need to purchase chopsticks, Asian-style serving dishes or cooking utensils, because, well, we have those too! (It’s customary in this program for students to prepare some Japanese food for their the host families.)

Conserving gas

• We’ll carpool with another host family to a Toledo Mud Hens baseball game, but eat at the ball park. The concession menu features Ohio regional foods such as Toft’s ice cream and Root’s chicken that we can introduce to the Japanese students as a cultural experience. So, in this case, concession food is money well spent.
• We also have a family day trip scheduled for Toledo when we’ll go to Westfield Shoppingtown Franklin Park Mall, tour the University of Toledo, stop by a candy store and possibly tour Wildwood Park. Even with lunch at the mall’s food court, this will not be an expensive day out and will keep us busy.

Planning out the schedule

• To help the host families plan their outings, I went to the Michigan Welcome Center on I-75 and The Monroe Evening News downtown office to pick up tourism brochures, maps, and event schedules in the Monroe, Ann Arbor and Detroit area. I handed those out to the other host families at our orientation meeting. I also sent discount card information from the Toledo tourism bureau to the other host families; and made a list of links to the MonroeTalks calendar and other community calendars in the Monroe area.
• After we had our final calendar of social events and activities, I started planning breakfast and dinner menus according to where they would best fit. For example, the day we’ll be in Toledo is the day I’ll have a Crock-Pot chicken dinner cooking. And the “hot breakfast” days will be the mornings when I’m home, rather than the mornings when I need to go to work. (My husband’s idea of breakfast is a bowl of cold cereal with milk or Pop-Tarts.)