Help me survive another year OTR

Be very wise how you spend your money, you’ll make it. Your focus is employment , you don’t depend on your wife covering everything , that’s t your job. Find a local job you’ll do fine, good luck.

 

sent a PM

 

I was taking a stab at DHT as that was the only place you had mentioned working for in your limited posting volume.

 

Very good thinking, you’re on the right track. You’ll make it buddy , just keep your motivation. Don’t stop. When we married our Brides, we made a commitment for life , to take care of them, and not let anyone get in our way.

 

Don’t sweat the temporary role reversal.

I got laid off when our kids were little and my new job was saving money.
I did all the grocery shopping and cooking , and taking care of the kids and I actually enjoyed it.
We ate a lot of rice and baloney but I fixed breakfast lunch and dinner every day so there were zero dollars spent
At a Starbucks or Burger King etc.
We cancelled the Cable TV and trimmed the spending every where we could and I sold both of my motorcycles.

You might want to consider to sell the race car though.
If money gets tight, the toys will be hard to justify.
And the money might be better prioritized as a down payment on a house if y’all don’t already own one and are currently renting .

and geeze 4200 miles a week is hard on anyone.

I thought my buddy runs pretty hard and he did 2200 miles last week. But he’s home every weekend. Usually leave Sunday evening and gets back Thursday afternoon. He does oversize so with the lower speeds , curfews and not allowed to run after dark, he’s kind of limited on racking up miles .

he gets a percentage of the gross but averages 85-90 cents a mile .

with the miles you’re running you should be socking away some good money .

once your wife graduates and starts as an RN , you can join the trophy husband club. My wife earned nearly double what I made last year. That’s what happens when you marry a chick that’s smarter than the average bear.

 

Always hard to deal with OTR when you get into it with a family and spouse involved beforehand. Then there's those of us whose social skills never developed, got into driving, and now we're just too weird to start any sort of relationships with anyone.

It's bad that one's going through this sort of thing. But at the same time, for those of us that never had anyone else in our lives, the empathy test is harder to pass than the MCAT.

 

I'm in a very similar spot as the original poster.
Done it 7 years and now with a soon to be 3 year old it's rough leaving. But on the flip side not much in good jobs where I live either .

Just try to plan the best you can, have a backup plan or you'll end up back in the truck. Maybe find a way to take some online classes on the road. I remember a poster here at one point in time who got a online degree while otr.

I wonder how some of the drivers manage doing this for 30 years. My dad and father in law both drove all their lives pretty much. I just ain't built for it I guess lol.