A reccie can be as chaep or expensive as you wish to make it!

To keep costs down when we were first looking at coming over, Hubby came out with his dad and I gave him a big list of things to look into whilest he was over. That gave us a chance to narrow down search areas and save for another trip that I could join him on (and for me to find the best flights with Virgin to get to where we wanted to go as I worked for them at the time)

Personally I would avoid staying in a downtown core as you are probably not going to want to live there anyway and it tends to be more expensive. Find the cheapest hotel you can and don't worry if you are based out of town. It gives you a chance to get a feel for the area you are more likely to look at living anyway. Get the smallest car you can manage with to avoid high fuel costs. Try to avoid peak travel periods (leave the kids behind?) and just keep costs down by eating out at cheaper places.

At the end of the day a reccie isn't that much different to a holiday cost wise it is just what you do with the time here that matters most. Minimise the sightseeing and concentrate on locating areas you might want to settle in, find a good realtor to take you to look at places and offer advise and try to get a feel for life in that place rather than what it feels like being on holiday.

HTH