Truck Insurance and Eating Out

Renewing Our Truck Insurance

Today my husband renewed our truck insurance.  It is our second vehicle and because we are not sure if we can for sure go down to one vehicle we have decided to keep the insurance on it for at least for the summer.  Also, we have a wood stove and will need it to get our winter's wood supply.   This is the first conversation to have, do you actually need your second vehicle?  Yes, you can save all the money in the world on the insurance but if you don't need the insurance then it is not money saved.  For example, can you put temporary insurance on it when you need it or just insure it for part of the year or borrow a friends vehicle when you need the second vehicle?  In our case, we have decided, because our situation is not stable right now and we have the money saved up, to put insurance on it for the full year.  This, then, is how we saved money on the insurance. 

The first thing that my husband did is that he did not put the ability to drive back and forth to work on it.  This saved us about $100 and will work well for us. 

Another thing that we have with our truck insurance is that we have no comprehensive insurance on it.   Before you freak out, we still have the items required by law on the truck.  However, we do not have the optional item, which is that if we get in an accident caused by us, we will not get any money to help repair/replace the truck.   This could be a great money saving option that saves you a significant portion (up to 1/3,  possibly more) on your insurance if you chose to go this way and works the best with older vehicles.  Our truck is a 2000 and because if we were to get in an accident it would basically be worth almost nothing so it is worth it for us to take the risk to not put comprehensive insurance on it.

One thing that my husband learned while talking to the insurance agent is that if we decide to cancel our truck insurance part way through the year and put fire insurance on it instead, it will cost the same amount as just cancelling the truck insurance outright. Sounds like more value for our money to me.

Eating Out

One thing that my husband and I have found is that since I have been a housewife is that we eat out way less.  Due to me being home, I am able to think and plan out our meals, especially dinners.  I also see this as part of my job of me being a housewife. 

This isn't to write that we never want to eat out...  So, how do we save money when we do?

The first line of defense is to have your husband on the same page as you.  My husband and I generally don't like to eat fast food, we agree that it's expensive to eat out.  Also, we live in a small town so there are only so many places to eat out and even less that are decent “pub-style”, aka, “I don't feel like cooking” food.  So, once he is on the same page, if he doesn't feel like eating/want to eat out even though you don't want to cook, he may cook.  Bonus, at least in our house where my husband rarely cooks dinner.  He may also come up with an idea of something for dinner which often solves the not wanting to cook feeling.

 

The second thing that I do is keep some quick, easy, cheater foods in the freezer for those nights.  These could be things like microwave dinners, “throw-in-a-pot” prepackaged meals, boxed prepared sides (ex. Pasta salad, frozen heat and serve vegetables, etc.), hotdogs, preflavoured meat, etc...   These foods help me to a least make dinner quick.  Also, because we don't often eat this kind of food it is a treat and that is often one of the reasons I want to eat out.

Now, if that fails, the third thing that we sometimes do is go to the grocery store and find some food that's easy to eat and prepare (see above food, or a whole precooked chicken meal, or ...).  Again, this can be like a treat and is even more like eating out as you are even leaving the house and buying something.  This can be a more expensive option than fast food but is healthier and is still cheaper than eating out.

Another thing that good friends of ours and I do often, is that we phone the other person and see what's for dinner there and combine dinners where we both make part of the dinner....  We also eat at each others house quite often and sometimes those days fall on days when one of us doesn't feel like cooking.

If all else fails, eat out and try to make it a special occasion rather than a “quick, we need a dinner” type meal out.  It will be more enjoyable and you might think twice next time before you eat out.  As in, go out less but go all out when you go out.