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The secret? Be an opportunistic traveler.
Can you drink rum at a dollar per bottle, instead of your favorite beer? Can you eat chicken instead of steak? How about visiting the free sights first, and dancing in the street festival instead of the disco?
Inexpensive travel can be accomplished in two basic ways. First, get the best deals on the specific things you want. This approach is very limited though. For example, find the lowest price on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, and you'll save money, but still have a very expensive room. Trying to get exactly what you want - or think you want - is an expensive proposition, in travel and in life.
The other approach to cheap travel is to be an opportunist. This may be difficult for some, and entirely unacceptable to others. Nonetheless, the travelers who get to travel the most, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists.
When I first went to Ecuador, I went because it was cheap. If it wasn't, I would have had a great time anyhow - somewhere else. A month cost $1045, including airfare, a $130 fee for a guide to take me to the top of glacier-covered Mount Chimborazo, and everything else (This was in 2001).
I never felt deprived or bored. I had a great time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing
As an opportunistic traveler you'll have more fun, and almost everything you want - eventually. Just stop trying to get exactly what you want exactly when you want it. If the guide for Chimborazo hadn't dropped his price from $200 to $130, I would have spent $2 for a bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another great Andean mountain. It would have left me with enough money for several other minor adventures. That's the advantage of this method of cheap travel.
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