Weekly Spending

Yes, from what I understand of it. You just need to have a box at your house hooked up to a cable or sat box that no one changes the channel on and you can connect to it from your laptop from anywhere theres cell service with an aircard.

 

That's pretty slick.

 

I like the looks of the slingbox, but you have to have a broadband internet connection. We're not sure about paying for the aircard just yet.

There is an alternative. (if you don't have an aircard) We have dishnetwork and they offer the pocketdish. One is a 30 gigabite model. You can use it to watch 30 hours (more with other models) of programming; record your favorite shows, movies and sports from your TV, satellite receiver, cable box or VCR.

It also can store up to 300,000 photos and you view them on the LCD screen or a connected TV.

You can store your entire digital music library! Carry up to 15,000 MP3, WMA or WAV music files with you.

I know there are other alternatives, and wouldn't mind hearing about them here. We are in the process of finding something suitable to meet his/our needs.

FOOD - He bought the heatable lunchbox. It reminded me of my grandpa's lunchbox. Saw it here truckertradingpost.thetruckersreport.com on sale.
(lots of 12 volt accessories there)
The only thing he tried cooking in it so far, is top raman. He said it was mushy. It won't boil quickly. Although it did a great job reheating my coffee. I am pretty sure it isn't spillproof though.

Heating up cans of chili, soup or if you have a lot of time on your hands (well at least cooking time, cause it would be like a crockpot) and want a decent homemade stew you could put together a small one.

I did use it for a foot stool for a time too. I'm short and when the sun came in, I'd put my seat up a ways and put my feet up too.

He has a cooler that has an inverter. He broke the part that plugs into the cigarette lighter hole (the whatchamacallit) and had to buy another, then that one fell apart -it seemed to heat up too much, and he found one that he was able to wire in. Luckily those things can be fixed/replaced. It kept food cool enough to keep sandwich meat, cheese, drinks, etc.. in it.The only thing I didn't like about it was the fan blows out warm air. It was hot enough in that truck without it!

He/We ate one meal (usually) at a sit down place daily. It is splurging to us, but worth it, and we don't overspend anywhere else. Well, except the he started smoking again...Anybody know where to buy the cheap patches? He's says he's going to quit again.
Well, Good Luck!

 

I am a master with the lunchbox oven. The secret is, have plenty of time. I would normally stop 2 hours out of my destination. Throw in a roast, and then run on down the road. I think I wrote something around here about it.

Listen, this is a seasonal business, just like construction. Some weeks may be better than others. A few weeks ago I took more days off than what I should have, didn't get much of a paycheck last friday. Hardly even missed getting one. If you are doing really well, its very easy to spend alot of money. I had to put the brakes on things when I figured up that we were spending about $500 a week and not even noticing.

 

How you park your truck at Wal-Mart? Where you park? Near the truck's unload zone?

 

Well you don't have to drive your truck to Wal Mart...you can go there before you even head out on the road.
But, if you do take the truck to Wal Mart...the truckers usually park at the far end of the parking lot. Some Wal Marts don't let truckers park there overnight...but I think all of them will let them park if they need to do some shopping for a while.

 

But If I have to stay on the road for 6 days o more I've to do a huge shop in WM or any other supermarket. I think there in not enough place in the sleeper and in the mini-refrigerator for fresh food. So, going to supermarket in truck two times per week is a real posibility...

 

Wow, you do some serious eating if you can get 7 days of food in the truck at a time. Here a simple list 1 dozen apples, 1 dozen oranges, 2 loaves whole wheat bread, crackers, 2 lb turkey lunchmeat, 1/2 gallon milk in cooler, couple boxes cereal. 2 cases water that's more then enough food for a week.

 

Beginners like me should be careful in Wal-Mart parking lots. I've (almost) gotten into more trouble in them! They're full of little concrete islands. And of course while you're gone some cars may come and park in ways that make it even harder to get out.
One in IL was posted that trucks weren't allowed but there were at least 8 of us in it! I assume that they could give you more trouble if you messed something up because it was posted...
Once in awhile there's a truck stop next to a Wal-Mart and you can hike over. There's even a dirt path between the two someplace in Georgia.

 

Wouldn't you get tired of eating nothing but sandwiches and cerel every day. I have to have a variety of foods over the course of a week. I ate a lot of hot dogs and spagetti O's when I was a kid and I can barely stand the smell of them anymore.