Another otr Question

I spend very little on the road. I have a fridge and a microwave.

 

I have a fridge, microwave and a single burner. I make most of my own food. Eating out everyday will kill you you financially, AND physically. It's not hard to live off $50 a week out here.

 

I only have a kettle. I eat about half of my meals making them myself. I mostly make soup and oat meal with the kettle. If I drank coffee I could do that too. I also have peanut butter and a loaf of bread, also a box of cereal. I just buy the milk daily. I don't have to eat like this but much of the time I only want a bowl of oat meal or a pb sandwich. Id like to get a fridge again, but the last one I had was poor quality and its hard to find a good quality one. So I roll like this, it works.

 

I have a fridge, microwave and a wife who is a master level coupon queen. She can put more food than I can eat for a month in the truck for 100 or less......a month, not week.....and not junk either the good, brand name microwave dinners and meals, bread, cheese, lunch meats, condiments the whole works and she sticks little surprises from home leftovers in the bag each week as well.

Before I had the truck with the fridge and didn't have a microwave I could easily spend as much in a week as she now does to stock me for a month and it wasn't nearly as good.

 

Bingo.

With that being said. You absolutely need to try to make as much of your own food as possible. I learned early on in life, not long after high school, what it felt like to spend $100 a week on food, and that was just for lunch. It will destroy your paycheck, quickly.

I'm typically out for 2 months at a time (I live in South Florida) so I will shop in bulk when possible. I definitely have a bit more flexibility since I'm not a company driver but if you're serious about taking care of your health and financially saving some money try to stock the truck before you head out or plan to stop along the way if possible. Stay off the fast food and you will save your paycheck and your health.

 

I hit a Walmart about once a week. Fresh fruits and veggies, lunch meats and dairy, cereals, etc. Much healthier and cheaper for you than the truckstop fast food. That gets old fast, anyways.
As a new driver, just be extremely careful going in and out of shopping centers. Lots of impatient four wheelers and tight spaces.

 

Do a couple years otr so you can explore the country and then stay close to home. You can eat cheap on the road if you want to. For example, at nite, i will put a can of stew or campbells chunky soup on the exhaust manifold/turbo. Takes about an hour to heat up and then i break out some crackers.

 

I guess I should start opening the can before I heat it up.