Living within a budget within a truck

Not going to get into specifics on this thread but with the lemon they assigned me it was impossible to meet my income goals. I was in the shop every week. Guys from my orientation with the same dispatcher as me were getting over 3000 miles a week. Luck or bad luck of the draw. I just needed to go home and do a 3.4 month reset.

 

Not sure what happened to the rest of my post but was saying the account I opened refunds your ATM fees.

Within the account I split the monies into four different groups.
1) Home expenses.
2) Savings for future expenses like Christmas, car purchase/repairs, vacation, etc.
3) Living expenses for me on the road.
4) extra/leftover

I started with $1000 in the account after purchasing a new phone, clothes, and some other gadgets. Left with $620.:

Home ex./savings/Liv. Ex/extra
312.00...../158.00./150.00/ 00.00

I am going to record from Thurs. to Wed. so the first week was abbreviated with a travel day and one day of orientation. I bought a meal on the drive out and we had to buy our own meal on the first night of orientation. Of course, no income yet. So I was down to $130 in my livi.g expense account. The only change.

 

I tried to keep an approximate amount on what it cost for the company to put me through orientation:
Rental car/gas, 3 nights in hotel, seven meals came to about $400. Plus they paid for the physical, a ride to the clinic (3 times for me). And then their is the labor involved to process new drivers. I came into contact with about a dozen people that had specific jobs to process and train us during orientation. What do you think.....they got well over a grand into each recruit.

 

Week Twocatching up from earlier) First full week but still have to get through orientation. Evidently policy has changed in the company since I made my decision from talking to the recruiter. I found out I will be doing more time with a trainer but will be paid more cpm than I had planned when I am done with the trainer. So for the first 4 or 5 paycheck I will be well below my income goals but at least have a better shot at getting out of the hole. They told me my trainer had lots of experience and was really laid back. Both were true. I really like the guy.

Now my plan changes from living within the budget to also needing to be frugal til the real income starts coming in. My budget for this week is $130.00. I incurred a $25.00 expense to get my cpap chip read for my physical and the rest spent was for 15 meals... both in the truck and eating out. A big bite of that was a couple meals eating out at orientation as I am not one to turn down food and fellowship with like minded individuals. Had a good time those two nights and kind of eased the tension with the whole orientation situation. Finally got to walmart with the trainer on the 5th day of the week and spent $22.94 of the $23.00 I had left in the living expense budget. He uses a toaster oven. So I feasted on brats for a couple meals. I guess that meant I spent over $80 on eating out. Very easy to get that area out of control if you dont watch it. It was more than I should have spent but by being aware of my budget I think it saved me in the long run. Income deposited in my account was only for two days of orientation...$117.00

So this is where I was at going into week 3:

Out> $130 (orientation expense, eating out, walmart)
In> $117.00
All my home expenses are due the last week of the month....so plenty of time to save up.

Home Ex./ Savings /Liv. Ex / extra
$312.00.../ $158.00 / $117.00/ 00.00

Going backwards
But I do have some good food supplies stocked up for next week and my trainer lets me use my rewards card once in awhile when we fuel up, so that will help.

I was able to drive just under 1900 miles in six days myself and the truck was paid for over 2700 miles for the trainer. He said he was happy with that and its a good sign. That kind of mileage would get me caught up to my income goals quickly if I could do that on my own.

 

Been thinking about ways to bring in some other income while doing OTR. Seems like impossible but came up with a couple of ideas. Not sure I want to sell stuff on the side at the truckstop. A suggestion was to trade stocks...I might as well just go to the casino. Somebody else said they grew a crop on part of their property with the help of their family. I just need the property and family. What I am considering doing is reselling a clunker or other equipment. A friend said I could put it out forsale on his property and do the horse trading while I am gone. For a small fee, of course. This should work out since I need a vehicle when I am home. I will know exactly what I have in it and if it sells it sell. If it doesnt it doesnt. Of course then I'll have the expense of insurance and stuff.

 

Exactly, am seeing a lot of that myself. You sound like you are well on your way to mastering the personal finance side of trucking.