Him [36M] and I [25F] 'NEED" to meet in person. - We both would appreciate your advice.

Hello fellow Redditor's, I need some advice and maybe some generous helpful information.

My boyfriend 36 lives in Iowa and I 25(F) live in Ohio and are planning to meet finally! We met online in 2009; more then ever we have that 'must be with him/her feeling' now in 2012.

We met through a mutural friend that had us both in Ventrillo. (I hated talking, but I did enjoy listening to everyone else and so I joined.) We played World Of Warcraft at the time and we were opposite factions. One day when I was feeling more comfortable on Vent I talked a bit and had a feeling I was being stalked afterwards. Well I was right, and now he is my boyfriend! (Crazy right?) He made a horde toon and we talked in whispers from our love to the game to past relationships and we hit it off pretty well! After awhile of talking in game, we ended up adding one another on MSN messenger so we could talk outside of game. Well we got to the point of "hey add me on facebook!" where we both enjoyed a game called Farkle. We made a silly bet on who ever could get the highest score would have to call the other. (Mind you I am dreadfully shy with talking with my voice.) Well turns out he won.. (Or did we both win?)

We've had our ups and downs, and we feel meeting would put us both as ease in lives. (The next chapter if you will.) Knowing a lot about each others lives, I could not have him to come see me right away. I wanted more then ever to know he was stable, and able to love me. He was still very much in love with his ex fiance, whom tragically passed away. Our relationship grew stronger knowing I was there for him emotionally, and he knew I greatly understood.

I would go see him, but I feel that I might have an axiety attack on the way there. I am very easily put into an anxiety attack with being around people I don't know, as well as unfamiliar places. I freeze in place, I can't breathe and I will not speak to anyone and that can cause me to be lost and scared. Morally my mother whom, yes I still live with insists it is the guy's responsibility first to come meet me. I agree with her, in the terms of it's dangerous to go alone!

Neither of us own cars. I am unable to physically start one with out having some kind of anxiety/panic attack. I refuse to drive because I don't want to endanger others. My boyfriend currently has no car either. After finally getting over the death of his fiance, he moved on and moved from California to Iowa with family to start his life over. He's been working at McDonalds since Christmas 2011, but he is unable to save much because he has bills, and is paying all of his mother's bills, whom is unable to work.

With in our limitations we've had some complications with expenses on what to do to meet. We set a future date to meet and we are discussing options as days go by. He has been trying to save every penny just to come see me. The bills have been less strenuous, but they still are hard when working at McDonalds just to come see me. The date we kind of plan to meet is around September 20th - 30th for my birthday. We have looked at costs of planes and we bout gave up there, then I found that taking a train would be extreamly cheap for a round trip. Around 50 dollars for the train. Perfect so far... However my mother will not let him stay here in the house till she meets him/gets to know him. We have looked at hotel/motel/inn's and we hit a small road block. Not enough to stop us, but were looking for advice. Every hotel is average 70-140 dollars a night and at most we would love to spend 10 days together, atleast 7... if costs add up to quickly. (More days would be amazing, but you can only push things to a certain limit.) Each hotel option is greatly close to my house and would be perfect, except for the extended stay costs. He tells me he would be happy eating Ramen noodles long as he could be with me during this time.

What should we do to comfortably be able to meet with out worry of making him completely 100% broke. I do not work due to my anxiety and him and I need to meet. We've talked hours upon meeting, but maybe we are over looking 'obvious' options to get him here cheaper? Help Reddit what would be the cheapest options available to us just so we can meet a week in our lives and decide to finally be together. I know the next trip he would make here, we would be in my house.. But not till after the first meeting. Which would make it so much easier and cheaper.

TL:DR: We met online, we finally want to meet in person but expenses are making it seem harder then it should. Seeking advice of fellow Redditor's for cheaper ideas to make this happen.