How much a week do you spend on food?

I lived on 60 a week. Took my own water. Tea Bags/Instant coffee with sweetner. Then got hot water out of Truck Stops. Fruit Cups and Pop Tarts for breakfast. Pilot Points towards Subway. Chef Boyardee. You dont have to make living OTR expensive

 

What kind of life is eating on that little money? Believe me I have been there and done that when times are tough but if I am working my butt off I am going to eat good. If your driving job doesn't pay good enough to where you have to eat on less than $10 a day I would be looking for something different.

I am a pretty darn frugal person but I draw the line on some stuff. You don't want to go through life eating like a homeless person.

 

I found a dorm fridge at walmart with a separate compartment for the freezer. I just by frozen and microwave it. The freezer is big enough for a weeks worth of food. I've saved a stupid amount of money over the years by not being robbed by the high prices at the truckstop. Probably one of the financial habits that enabled me to pay cash for a truck that was over $100k....just sayin. I spend $70/wk on food, and bottled water.

 

Tonight, it was a burger with onion rings, 3 beers and a glass of Chardonnay for $23. Went to a seafood restaurant in Breaux Bridge yesterday. Was really looking forward to some Cajun seafood and it was bland. How can you be in Louisiana and have bland food?

Ohhhh, this is the thread where we talk about fasting and gaining enlightenment through hunger pangs and beancounting. Well, this morning, I bought a big bottle of water and some peanut butter crackers. Does that count? I don't like to eat heavy when I have to drive. But when my day is over, I am going to sit in a restaurant and eat with a fork.

 

Bean counting? Hey six can you tell us frugal folk what its like to pay a truck payment? Never had one wouldn't know. Oh well your at can you tell me what P.M.I. is, I never heard of it?

 

Beancounting. It is the science of saving money so that you can survive on less money. See, those LTL guys look at you guys and your wages and realize that they make 2X the money, home every night having dinner with mama at Red Lobster. So you guys say to them, "it's not what you earn, it's what you keep."

Really? Is that what wins the great debate? Local vs OTR. Sleeper vs home. $700/week vs $1500/week. Ramen noodles vs Red Lobster. Pocket pool vs making mama pull the bed sheets off with her toes. But you're going to keep more, correct?

Does something seem not right? I am puzzled by it. Why are you guys punishing yourselves for being OTR?

"We are frugal. We are saving money!"

Ramen noodles? Tofu? PB&J twice a day, 7 days a week? Ugh... I have to agree with @Bdog, on his homeless person comment. No wonder you guys don't enjoy life.

 

LTL guys make a lot less than me. I live a very frugal lifestyle, have for years now, but I make good money and save it. Eating cheap is just a small part it. At the rate I'm going I'll never know what a mortgage is, or a car payment, or debt of any type. I'll also never know what it like to work past 45, that's gotta be rough. But that doesn't mean I intend to live a cheap lifestyle in retirement. Its not the beans I count its the time. I don't want to work longer than I have to. Or have a 30yr mortgage and be in the ground 5yrs after its paid off having never enjoyed the financial freedom of not being a slave to debt until I die. I want the time to live my life for me while I'm still young enough to enjoy it. Its like Dave Ramsey says "if you live like no one else, then later you can live like no one else". The real difference between me and them is that I'm willing to sacrifice a little now for a lot more latter on and they aren't. Which is fine everybody's free to live life as they choose but when one rags on me for my choices its only fair that I dish some out as well. Which makes me wonder. Six why do people take out mortgages anyway why don't they just pay cash. What's the average house cost about $240, 000 I could pay that off in 3yrs so why do people take out a 30yr loan I don't get it?

 

Just wait. Someone will be here to out cheap you. He will even tell you about an app that locates the nearby soup kitchens.

 

You know everything you mentioned about the lifestyle you described above sounds like the average American lifestyle to me. However I also know that the average American has $185,000 in mortgage debt 15, 000 in credit card debt and $17, 000 in auto loan debt. All that sounds like a prison to me. They pay it off and then soon after they die. Its kinda they're a farm animal or farm crop that's being harvested for the lifetime of labor they provide, by those with more means than they. They get advertised to constantly in email, signs everywhere as they drive though their hometown, junk mail in the mailbox, ads the radio and tv all telling them what shiny gizmo they need to buy next. They rush off to work to go begin the never ending cycle of earn then immediately spend. They feel so compelled to earn then spend on a new gizmo they'll camp in line when the new iphone comes out or on blackfriday or even fight or trample each other. When another doesn't share their financial points of view they even apply social pressure like you and some others are doing here. Thing is I don't want a life ruled by debt I want better and I'm willing to pay the price.

 

All I need to so I am not scratching a hungry rear end