Road Dust
Takes a little sunshine
I'm not a driver's wife, but I know some of you are. Some of you have held that title for years while may more of you are just learning how to cope with the unique struggles of being married to someone who is almost never home.
Does anyone have any helpful tips or useful advice to offer other trucker wives?
Here is something I took from Truckers Wifes Magazine:
Money Saving Tips for the Trucker Spouse
by Randi Schneider
Let’s face it, our country is in a recession and money is tight all around. Being the wife of a trucker, a profession that is always in demand, this is still a great concern. But not to worry, there are always some ways to save money and hopefully I can give a little insight. While our husbands, or wives, are on the road making money for us at home, the least we can do is try to pinch pennies on the home front.
Tip 1: Clip coupons: I remember being young and watching my grandmother clip coupons before doing her grocery shopping. Every week the newspaper would come out with coupons to clip or there would be envelopes in the mailbox full of coupons for my grandmother to go through. But nowadays there are so many other resources to gather coupons. Every Sunday, our local newspaper has ads enclosed. Among these adds are two different enclosures that include coupons for many different items and there are also leaflets for coupons from Proctor and Gamble. These can be incredibly helpful and many of them don’t expire for three to six months. Also, now you can go online and join different coupon agencies that allow you to print up to three coupons for each item they have featured. Sometimes if you read the coupon very closely you will notice they say ‘one coupon per item’ which, as it states, can only be used on one item only. If it does not say that, then you may be able to use one to three coupons for one individual item in order to get the most discounts. Check your clearance shelves in your stores as well, if the items are on clearance, you can still use the coupon in most instances. Go onto Google and enter ‘Printable Coupons’ in the search engine, you would be surprised to see how many websites offer coupons to print.
Tip 2: Clearance Shelves: I am a thrifty shopper. I can usually find a deal everywhere I shop. I enjoy looking on the clearance racks for clothing for my children and for household items and pretty much anything else. The best clearance racks I have found are at Target and Shopko. Target puts everything on their clearance racks when a product changes their packaging or they have multiple packs (buy one get one free packaging) and the promotion is over, they will slap a red price sticker on it indicating the clearance price. I have managed to buy my children approximately four hundred dollars’ worth of clothes for one hundred dollars. Another wonderful place to shop for clothes on the clearance rack is Old Navy. During the fall and beginning of winter their coats will be priced anywhere from thirty dollars to sixty dollars. But, if you go in around February you can buy your coat for next year for anywhere from five dollars to twenty. This is how I keep my children warm in the winter!
Tip 3: Check Your Household Bills: Do you find that your car insurance is costing you an arm and a leg? Do you cry when you write a check for your utilities? Check those bills! Some companies make mistakes when they are writing up your bills. Did you know that during the winter months the meter reader for the power company do not like the leave their warm vehicles to read your meter very often. Sometimes they will just read your meter reading from the year prior and figure you are still using that much electricity? When you receive your bill look for the reader verification on your bill in case you dispute your bill. Go outside and look at your meter and then mark it appropriately on your bill. Send this in to your power company and ask them to make adjustments to your next bill. Also, during the summer months you can ask your power company if they offer an estimated package. This is when they take the last three months of your power bill, estimate your usage and charge you that for the next three months. Not to worry, if you use less power during those three months the power company will make adjustments to your NEXT three months.
Do you feel like you might be paying too much in car insurance??? Does your trucker have their car with full coverage without paying a lease on that vehicle? If so, you might consider dropping your trucker’s full coverage down to liability only. There is really no need to pay so much money on car insurance when the car is parked for more than half the month, unless of course you drive or share the car. If you have your own vehicle, you will want to keep your insurance as full coverage. But why pay full coverage if your trucker’s vehicle is parked for most of the month?
Do you find that your cell phone rates are costing you an arm and a leg? Maybe it is time to seriously re-evaluate your cell phone plan. My trucker and I were noticing that our monthly bills were running us about three hundred dollars a month because we had the unlimited talk, data and text. When we upgraded our phones we decided that it was time to check out the other plans that our cell phone company offered. We were able to change our plan to unlimited text and data with a shared plan of eighteen-hundred minutes, mobile to any mobile is free. The only time we use our minutes is when we call a landline, which is mainly when we talk to businesses. This cut our bill in half; we only pay one-hundred thirty dollars a month for cell service now. Also, check with your cell phone agency and ask if they offer a rebate or discount percentage for the company your trucker drives for, the bank you use or your employer. Our cell phone agency offers a fifteen percent discount because we bank at a credit union.
I know that it is hard to live paycheck to paycheck, but hopefully with these idea’s you may be able to start putting money away into a saving account. Make sure that you have an emergency funds savings. One of the best ways to do this is if you put the money away in a high interest Money Market account. It is nice when the money you have stored away for emergency can gain money as well.
Guys, you can contribute too. Is there a particular way your wife/SO has learned to deal with a particular problem while you are away, or is there advice you can offer from your point of view that would be beneficial to the both of you?
Does anyone have any helpful tips or useful advice to offer other trucker wives?
Here is something I took from Truckers Wifes Magazine:
Money Saving Tips for the Trucker Spouse
by Randi Schneider
Let’s face it, our country is in a recession and money is tight all around. Being the wife of a trucker, a profession that is always in demand, this is still a great concern. But not to worry, there are always some ways to save money and hopefully I can give a little insight. While our husbands, or wives, are on the road making money for us at home, the least we can do is try to pinch pennies on the home front.
Tip 1: Clip coupons: I remember being young and watching my grandmother clip coupons before doing her grocery shopping. Every week the newspaper would come out with coupons to clip or there would be envelopes in the mailbox full of coupons for my grandmother to go through. But nowadays there are so many other resources to gather coupons. Every Sunday, our local newspaper has ads enclosed. Among these adds are two different enclosures that include coupons for many different items and there are also leaflets for coupons from Proctor and Gamble. These can be incredibly helpful and many of them don’t expire for three to six months. Also, now you can go online and join different coupon agencies that allow you to print up to three coupons for each item they have featured. Sometimes if you read the coupon very closely you will notice they say ‘one coupon per item’ which, as it states, can only be used on one item only. If it does not say that, then you may be able to use one to three coupons for one individual item in order to get the most discounts. Check your clearance shelves in your stores as well, if the items are on clearance, you can still use the coupon in most instances. Go onto Google and enter ‘Printable Coupons’ in the search engine, you would be surprised to see how many websites offer coupons to print.
Tip 2: Clearance Shelves: I am a thrifty shopper. I can usually find a deal everywhere I shop. I enjoy looking on the clearance racks for clothing for my children and for household items and pretty much anything else. The best clearance racks I have found are at Target and Shopko. Target puts everything on their clearance racks when a product changes their packaging or they have multiple packs (buy one get one free packaging) and the promotion is over, they will slap a red price sticker on it indicating the clearance price. I have managed to buy my children approximately four hundred dollars’ worth of clothes for one hundred dollars. Another wonderful place to shop for clothes on the clearance rack is Old Navy. During the fall and beginning of winter their coats will be priced anywhere from thirty dollars to sixty dollars. But, if you go in around February you can buy your coat for next year for anywhere from five dollars to twenty. This is how I keep my children warm in the winter!
Tip 3: Check Your Household Bills: Do you find that your car insurance is costing you an arm and a leg? Do you cry when you write a check for your utilities? Check those bills! Some companies make mistakes when they are writing up your bills. Did you know that during the winter months the meter reader for the power company do not like the leave their warm vehicles to read your meter very often. Sometimes they will just read your meter reading from the year prior and figure you are still using that much electricity? When you receive your bill look for the reader verification on your bill in case you dispute your bill. Go outside and look at your meter and then mark it appropriately on your bill. Send this in to your power company and ask them to make adjustments to your next bill. Also, during the summer months you can ask your power company if they offer an estimated package. This is when they take the last three months of your power bill, estimate your usage and charge you that for the next three months. Not to worry, if you use less power during those three months the power company will make adjustments to your NEXT three months.
Do you feel like you might be paying too much in car insurance??? Does your trucker have their car with full coverage without paying a lease on that vehicle? If so, you might consider dropping your trucker’s full coverage down to liability only. There is really no need to pay so much money on car insurance when the car is parked for more than half the month, unless of course you drive or share the car. If you have your own vehicle, you will want to keep your insurance as full coverage. But why pay full coverage if your trucker’s vehicle is parked for most of the month?
Do you find that your cell phone rates are costing you an arm and a leg? Maybe it is time to seriously re-evaluate your cell phone plan. My trucker and I were noticing that our monthly bills were running us about three hundred dollars a month because we had the unlimited talk, data and text. When we upgraded our phones we decided that it was time to check out the other plans that our cell phone company offered. We were able to change our plan to unlimited text and data with a shared plan of eighteen-hundred minutes, mobile to any mobile is free. The only time we use our minutes is when we call a landline, which is mainly when we talk to businesses. This cut our bill in half; we only pay one-hundred thirty dollars a month for cell service now. Also, check with your cell phone agency and ask if they offer a rebate or discount percentage for the company your trucker drives for, the bank you use or your employer. Our cell phone agency offers a fifteen percent discount because we bank at a credit union.
I know that it is hard to live paycheck to paycheck, but hopefully with these idea’s you may be able to start putting money away into a saving account. Make sure that you have an emergency funds savings. One of the best ways to do this is if you put the money away in a high interest Money Market account. It is nice when the money you have stored away for emergency can gain money as well.
Guys, you can contribute too. Is there a particular way your wife/SO has learned to deal with a particular problem while you are away, or is there advice you can offer from your point of view that would be beneficial to the both of you?
