Living within a budget within a truck

I had three experienced drivers give me some advice I took to heart.
1) Have as little contact with people behind desks, as possible.
2) Remember that 99.9% of the people you meet on the road you will never see again. Doesnt mean you can treat people negatively but you could wear a pink cowboy outfit and it wouldnt really matter. Dont sweat the small stuff.
3) Follow the money. A lot of problems anywhere can be traced to money problems. Take care of your money and it will take care of you. Thats what I was trying to do with this thread.

 

Been out here again and I wish I could say all is going according to plan, but its trucking.

A little background....I changed careers after my company was hit hard by the housing bust. I would like to say I did a lot of research on it and didnt just jump into it on a prayer and a whim but to be honest it was somewhere in between. I picked my truck driving school based on a good recommendation of an aquaintenance. Put half of the tuition down and planned on putting the other half on my credit card as close tothe end of class as possible with the idea to pay that off with new truck job. I flunked the test the first time and the retest took thirty days to retake and pass. I ended up selling my vehicle to make ends meets because I had quit my job to get into trucking and I wouldnt need the car since I would be driving otr.

So two months and eleven days after starting truck driving school I was hired. I drove almost four months which included orientation and training. For that time my gross income was a little under $9000. Not acceptable, so with that explanation to my manager I was told they were sorry it didnt work out but I could come back anytime I wanted and headed home. At home I worked 2 partime jobs and sold off some more assets. Ended up getting myself out of the financial pinch I was in and contemplated my options.

 

One thing I noticed was when I had a great week driving.....meaning no breakdown and dispatch gave me some productive loads......the money wasnt too bad. So armed with that info I decided to give it a go again. I started putting some money away so I would have more of a cushion when I went out again, in case I needed it. Whats wrong with this picture? I am saving up an emergency fund to start a job. It kind of puts trucking in the same category as an unexpected illness or other personal financial affecting tragedy. Haha

 

Time to get this thread caught up. I decided to make my truck driving funds separate from the rest of our household funds so I could make sure it was worth it. To me it was just easier to make it a separate entity. I used a debit card account that re