Ways you are cutting back to save $$$

[young250]

Hello All...

I thought it would be good to start a thread where everyone post the ways they are cutting back to save money.......

Not just business......but in every aspect of your life!

A few my husband and I are doing:

1. Carpooling......I am dropping him off at his truck every morning and then going to my job from there.
2. Cutting back on the truck washes..........Once every 2 weeks (if that)
3. Hubby is no longer driving the extra mile looking for his drop-off locations….he is parking the truck and calling the customer direct for directions!
4. Combining shopping/errands to one day a week (usually Saturdays)
5. Hubby is cutting back on the cigs...(1 pack=1 gal of fuel)
6.Using way MORE coupons...especially the grocers that double! Also on food when eating out


Any ideas would really help me!

 

[tec1959]

Young250 hello and welcome to EO,This is a great post and a start to some great Ideas out there that others are doing...Good Luck...

 

[ATeam]

We changed our driving habits to improve fuel economy. I wrote about it in Expedite NOW. See: How To Boost Your MPG For Free. (There is a typo in the story. Near the end, change "Iowa" to read "Ohio.")

 

[LDB]

Four letters, multiple vowels... close enough for government work and within public school acceptable range.

 

[cheri1122]

We've all read all the suggestions on saving fuel, a popular subject since the price just keeps rising, but here are some suggestions on saving $, while on the road.
1) Take advantage of all the freebies available: showers, coffee (with fuel at Petro), even ice, if you bring in your own cup, at most places. If you need to buy a cup of ice, Quicktrip is 16 cents, compared to 25-35 elsewhere. If you pay for your coffee, use your own mug.
2) Shop for as much as possible at the Dollar stores, (Family, General). Many items are equivalent in quality to those sold elsewhere, just lower in price.
3) Eat as much as you can stand from your own 'pantry', instead of buying either fast or prepared food. Not only does it save money, but you'll get exactly what you like, too. Yes, it's a PITA to keep restocking the perishables, but it's worth the time - and not too hard, if you park at WalMart sometimes anyway.
4) Keep an eye out for 'roadside' stands, with fresh produce - usually the best, and least expensive kind.
5) Buy as much in quantity as your budget & storage will permit.
6) Before spending the money for cleaning products, try the old standbys: vinegar for windows, baking soda for refrigerators, coolers, & microwaves, toothpaste for jewelry, etc. There are lots of books on the subject, if you need help with a cleaning task.
7) Look into the combination deals available, for phone, internet, cable, etc - there are some real savings to be found, by combining services.
9) Park in the shade, if you can - it makes it much cooler, and easier to keep it comfortable. Malls, and big box stores are alternatives to Walmart & truckstops.
10) Always be mindful of possible discounts & deals, whether available on the internet, or with a card, or belonging to AAA - checking for discounts is something we often don't think about, but should.
Happy saving!

 

[nightcreacher]

my partner tells me evrytime I eat a steak,I'm waisting 4 gallons of fuel,otherwise in our terms thats 4 more gallons i could buy,and 28 mor miles he would get paid for

 

[TeamCaffee]

Steve tell Art he needs to just eat free crackers and drink water and that would also help you out and he would not have to make so much.

 

[butterfly610]

Eating out of the truck is a big money saver. Also, not buying anything from the truck stop unless it's an emergency saves some. Since we have to have a phone out here we looked for the best deal among the carriers. Instead of paying higher prices for tons of minutes, we just got one of those where you pick people to call for free. Don't even come close to using the minutes now, and get the service cheaper. Internet for the laptop is only 20$ more since we have phone service, and we can use it anywhere. Sure beats truck stop internet prices if you use the internet often. I try not to fax anything from truck stops either, too expensive. Also, this probably isn't the time to go into debt buying things on credit. If you can't pay cash for it, you probably don't need it.

 

[TeamCaffee]

Cheri you really came up with a good list. We are eating more often in the truck and that really saves us a bundle. We are also more aware of out dead heading to go shopping, see things, dead head home, and also to dead head to a different express center. Our largest expense is our fuel and that as always our main focus to get better and better fuel mileage.

 

[greg334]

That is a good list Cheri but….

Parking in the shade is sometimes hard to do. I really get to people if I know I am sitting all day long, I will move my truck to take advantage of the natural sun blockers, 13 6 trailers. Right now sitting in the great city of Indianapolis I am facing east, away from the sun and last night I had a great corner spot with a great breeze but I had to go seek out oil and get a truck inspection so that spot was taken when I get back. Unlike most of you, I don’t mind the noise, I like a nice cool breeze at night and the best I can hope for is to be between two flat bed trucks.

As for saving money, I sit a lot. The cost of moving this thing is not as much as others, but I have had some great runs ($2 and $2.5 a mile and missed one today that approached $3) so I am patient in where I am sitting. I don’t mean I sit in the out in BFE but I move to a major city and wait.

The one thing I am doing is most of my PM myself, including oil changes. I have not finished with my oil filter drain tool which makes it easier to change the filter but I have got almost all the other stuff, including filters at a discount. Oil is the problem right now, I can’t find my oil Mobile One Turbo Diesel truck oil at a reasonable cost, under $25 a gallon (or really at all, every walmart I called and went to has zero on their shelves but show some in stock). I have found it for $45 a gallon if I buy 10 gallons at a time. Well anywho, I will be doing my overhead soon by myself, thanks for some hands on training from my Cummins dealer and I already know how to do most everything else on the truck including adjust my clutch so why not, it can save me a lot of money and I know it is being done right.

The other thing I do and I know a lot of truckers will not do it is this; I don’t tolerate standing in a truck stop and seeing employees get free food or drinks. I pay for that food they eat and the stuff they drink through the high prices I pay and I and a few others expect better return for the money we give them. Last night I treated myself to a nice meal. While I was waiting the manager walked passed five of us with a box full of frozen steaks and pulls his car up to the door and puts in another boxful of eggs. I don’t know what he was doing with the eggs but the steaks are the issue, there had to be $300 worth the steaks. If he would have gotten them properly, he should have walked out with them escorted by the other manager to show us he is buying them or they are in it together. It wasn’t like the boxes were empty, he had to really struggle to hold the steak box threw the door. Well one guy standing next to me asked the cashier who he was and then called Flying J HQ and told them about what just happened, he told the girl on the phone he wants to know if she can explain why is this happening.

 

[x06col]

Ahhh, but Greg, you are a short jont from my shade trees in the back lot. Shoulda let me know you needed shade. Nice here at the lake. Try it sometime.

 

[nightcreacher]

Greg, uncle sam will buy your parts,but wont pay you for labor,as far as food,I spend less everyday than i can write off,so i'm not going to cook,you have to clean up,lol.

 

[geo]

one thing i do is take my lunch everyday and water and drinks, that save's time and money eat on the go
miller mart in va , hampton roads area and richmond
has point's for filling up and buying in store and they can be use on fuel able to cut 2 to 10 dollars on a fill up once a week

also have sun screens to put in window to cut down on sun light and have a solar fan to put in side window works petty good

 

[greg334]

Ahhh, but Greg, you are a short jont from my shade trees in the back lot. Shoulda let me know you needed shade. Nice here at the lake. Try it sometime.

Why thanks for the invite. I may take you up on that soon.....

Steve,
I don't care how it is cut, it is still a savings. I have had some really bad experiences with 'mechanics' lately and with all my lear'n and work done on vehicles in the last 30 years, I can't take the stupidity of the parts changers (and the office people who didn't get past the sixth grade) and the added frustration of watching them anymore - I got to make sure the thing is done right the first time.

 

[Broompilot]

[Great Points:

Great Post also.....

Slow down, even further people all the way to 53 or 55. Your paid to drive take the time and MAX your MPG. I will go ahead and bragg, by doing this I am comming up with 9.0 sometimes as low as 7.6 vs the norm for the industry in a TT 6 maybee 6.5. (making deliveries on time)

On average I am saving over 25 gallons X 4.65 on a 650 mile run. Do that everyday for 6 days (what I do) and I have a daily savings of $116.25 using the 100 gallons vs 72 @ 9 now I do not get 9 everytime but you get the picture at least I save $50 on every trip. If I want to burn fuel I can improve my time and other costs by SPEEDING UP. I fugure my savings to be worth at least $400 a week, I average about 3,100 to 3,300 a week in miles.
6 days for 5 runs.

As for Trees WARNING. I have a friend who last year called an Exterminator out to the truck stop, FIRE ANTS are hard to sleep with. Still does not know how they got in, but he had to get out of the Truck in the Middle of the night and stay in the TV room till they fumigated his truck, he wanted to take no more chances after getting bit so many times.

I did this once myself and invited of all things TICKS they were all over the cieling of the cab in my KW killed them by burning them with a lighter,but boy scared the you know what out of me until I checked for any bites NONE. But still forget them bug infested trees.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

If you do eat at a TS or some other establishments don't forget your 10% seniors discount!! Most places it's 55.

 

[Streakn1]

We got rid of our custom reefer trailer and the high monthly payment and cost to maintain it and bought a less expensive stepdeck trailer with a lower monthly payment and less maint.

 

[CharlesD]

Your driving habits can save you a ton of fuel. Not only speed, but smooth acceleration and slowing down gradually instead of slamming on the brakes can save not only fuel but future maintenance costs. When I'm home I cook a bunch of food and pack it in sandwich bags. Then I microwave my meals when I'm on the road. When I run out of the food I packed, I hit a grocery and get more food and charcoal and go grill in a park. Once or twice a week I will splurge and eat out.

If I'm stuck somewhere for a weekend and the weather is so hot or cold I'll have to idle the whole time, I try to find an inexpensive room. A weekend idling, even in a Sprinter, will pay for a room, but if you're not idling, you're not subjecting the engine to extra wear.

 

[CantLogin]

Hi,

This is DannyD but I can't seem to login under that name.

As to the question at hand. I'm not sure how feasable this is, but have any of ya's considered having a moped on board to do some of the putzing around town type things? There's one for sale that gets 100MPG & costs about $1000 brand new.

What I'm personally doing is probably what a lot of ya's are, slowing down. Plus I'm combining trips where possible.

If you have a laptop & can get a high speed connection, ya can have phone service for a year w/ Magic Jack for $20. The connection is sometimes a bit shaky, but it can save oodles of minutes on your cell phone.

For home phone I use Vonage. The savings on that is huge & the reception is pretty good. I think, but am not 100% sure, that it would work w/ a laptop out on the road too. That's $25/month. It's a bit more cumbersome than Magic Jack to connect, & it costs a bit more, but the reception (at least at my house) is almost as good as a landline & even better than my cellphone.

I'm a lot more aware of coupons than I used to be. I'm not a pro at the coupon game yet, but I'm getting better.

Ironically, some of these things I probably should have done a long time ago. It just took this gas crunch to start making me wake up to ways of being more efficient w/ my money.

Take care & good luck,
Danny

 

[Dleprechaun]

I have not made it to the open road yet but saving money is something that should appeal to all of us.
young250 said that her hubby has cut back to 1 pack of smokes a day. Cutting back or quitting is always best, but if you must smoke, I suggest making your own.
I bought a top-o-matic cigarette maker for $40.00. Smoking generics, 2 cartons use to cost me about $30.00 Now 2 cartons cost me anywhere from $15.00 to $17.00 depending on where and what brand I buy. The savings would be much greater if you smoke a name brand.