[svandamme]

Any good friends at work or in the area, that are of similar age?
chances are they have kids already out the house, and plenty of spare rooms.

If you have a couple of them, you could do some kind of rotation.
Arrive on monday, sleep at Friend 1 on monday, drive home on tuesday
Work a day from home on wednesday,
drive to work on thursday, sleep at friend 2 on thursday, RTB on friday.

I mean, if your employer is flexible and you have a bunch of friends, it could even be fun visiting them all
Go out , buy em dinner , it's more fun spending money on food with friends than paying gas or hotel to sit alone..