Living On The Road ..,.,.,..

Did it years ago..
Lived like nobody else wanted to, now I live like nobody else can

 

Well, I own my own home but I do not request any home time. I was surprised to find out how many times I pass my house on a lot of assignments so I get to stop by to check my mail, mow the grass, and run around town a bit before heading out again.
It really doesn't matter if you already own a home or not, because if I put the money in my savings instead of paying down my mortgage, it would still be the same thing as having it paid for in the future.

With the money I am making from going nonstop I hope to pay off my house in two years. Another thing trucking has helped me do is stop spending unnecessarily. I am sure I would have went to the mall and bought a lot of summer clothes, went to the movies to see Avengers in 3D, went to Home Depot to buy new plants, took a good looking gold digger out on the town, etc. I didn't do any of these things and saved all of that money instead since I started trucking. The only thing I spend a lot on is food and supplies from Walmart.

Anyone can get a house who has good credit these days. With interest rates at record lows your mortgage will be nothing.

 

Someone's been tuning into Dave Ramsey lol

 

I took a couple years to pay off what I owed when I became a trucker, then started socking away as much as I legally could into retirement. I used some of the money I made to play with- you gotta have some fun- and the rest is floating around either in my savings account or my Scottrade account. Get rid of the house and the car, and bills go down dramatically.

I can cover expenses with $400 a month. My wireless bill is less than $100 for talk, text, and data. The rest is for groceries and other "consumables." Road expenses are not high if you use some common sense. Most of your showers will be free (you get one free shower when you fuel as long as you get at least 50 gallons). Learn to cook in the truck, invest in a fridge, and shop at grocery stores as much as possible.

The notion that it costs more to live on the road than at home is BS. I spend much much less now on a monthly basis than I did when I had an apartment and a vehicle. Much less. But you need to cut the strings and go all in. Get rid of the dead weight. All of it. If it doesnt fit in the truck, you don't need it.

Also, I recommend splitting your direct deposit. Put a large portion of your paycheck directly into savings (I do 60%) and live only on the remainder that gets put into your checking account. I highly recommend putting a large portion into a 401k as well. At least go for 20%. This guarantees you will save your money, since you are saving automatically.

 

good advice 1nonly. I'm close to being in the black on my car (that I've driven two times in the last six months) and when that happens its getting sold.

 

hubby and i are living in the truck for the purpose of saving money. we pay a nominal amout to his sister as a rent type thing. this way we have a place to call home if we want to go there. every few months i get off the truck and stay home for the month. then we pay half the rent and utilities. this keeps our expenses to a bear minimum. we have stashed alot in the bank in the last 6 month doing this.
if you talk to some of the couples that sre out there, you will find that alot of them are doing this very same thing. some are trying to save to buy homes, some do it to save for retirement, and some just so they can be together.
hubby and i both cook on the truck. when im out there i do most of it. we seldom sit in any kind of restaurant to eat as it is over priced and over sized portions. when we do go in, we usually get one meal and an extra salad bar. or if a fast food we get one meal and an extra sandwich. this cuts out over spending and over eating. we were at a t/a and the waitress told us that the baked penne pasta dinner was a one pound portion! thats alot of pasta for one person! and thats an all you can eat dinner,,,, wow!
we make a menu for our shopping adventures so we dont get anymore than we have storage space for. the menu is very adjustable because we dont always have time to stop for our dinner break. instead of getting a roll of hamburger, i get patties. i can fix it as hamburgers or i can use it as a meatloaf or in a soup. i just break up the patties. hubby does this also when im not with him.
it has cost us a bit of $$$$$ to get all the things we have on the truck to cook with, but we did it a piece at a time, and as we have a place to leave it we dont take it all out at the same time. the big plus on all our appliances is that they are tax deductable. this year we spent the money to get a new inverter and the correct cables to go with it. a chunk of money, but it will come back in the taxes next year.
some drivers say that fixing their own meals is a waste of time and wont do it. thats fine, we say to each his own. but when you have a family at home needing that check you send every week, this is a great way to save alot of $$$$. if you spend an average of $30 a day for food, thats $210 a week. it can be cut down to $75 or less and you can still eat very well.
we still keep a car at home. its paid for and im not letting it go til its completely dead. we just keep the bare minimum insurance on it.
so, yes it can be done and there are alot of people doing the very same thing.

 

This thread almost gave me an orgasm.