Crackhead resurrection

I'd say that it has. 300 ish miles to 3/4 of a tank. About right from what I can recall from readings.

 

You're doing better than me, but I guess it's to be expected since yours is commuting/hwy miles?

I'm averaging about 250-270 between fill-ups (avg ~13mpg) but most of it is forced city driving.

I've always been skeptical of my mpg and if there's something I could be doing to eek out another 1-2mpg.

 

thats about what I get in mine

 

Now if you wanna live in the camper, don’t get a Scamp or Casita. Too small for full time duties. Get something with a slide out. Really changes the feel of the space by adding, space. I am not an extra large fella and my time spent in the Scamp was like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians.

 

Half of my commute is on the interstate now, so yes. Cruise is very fire and forget until I get to a hill and it drops a gear, and hauls ass to make up a lost speed point of two. Lol

Perfect. So I'm on par with "normal" trucks. Lol

Yeah, being a 6'2 fella. I need to do a little bit of reading. Not entirely sure how permanent it will truly be as I do get 10 days a year for personal use, and one floating holiday at my discretion to use. So I can see the road tripping being possible with it. Just not entirely sure what I need.

I would love to go to a dealership and just be allowed to poke around if I knew I wouldn't get hounded by the vultures trying to make a sale.

 

My parents just got rid of their pull-behind pop-up about 2 years ago. If I'd have known you'd be looking, they would've cut you a killer deal. I think they paid around $5k for it, offloaded it for less than half that in pristine shape with some solid upgrades. They only went the pop-up route b/c it was equipped with a full-length bed, had a shower, cooking area and all the necessary hookups for utilities to make weeks-long living a breeze.

 

My grandma had a scamp. You could move it around by hand. The people that had it before had wallpapered the innards with chrome bubblewrap, so we called it her space egg.

 

TT pricing at the moment is apparently just as crazy as vehicle pricing.

As an interim solution, look at travel rewards credit cards. A bunch have a modest annual fee (under $100) but offer you great return on that whether through points or statement credits. Put everything on it, gas, groceries, parts, etc. and pay it off every month. Then you can use the points for "free" hotel rooms, and even if you have to pay for a room you'll get a point multiplier for the purchase. Something like https://creditcards.chase.com/rewards-credit-cards/sapphire/preferred would be a good starting point.

THIS ONLY APPLIES IF YOU PAY IT OFF EVERY MONTH, don't carry a balance on it. It'll also help build your credit score a little.


Did I remember to mention pay it off every month?

 

This topic popped up in (I think) the Lunch Table thread. It's essentially what I'm doing, but with the "Marriot Bonvoy" AmEx. we stayed at a ritzy place in Miami for several days week-before-last for $27.50/night (fees), normal rate would've been around $300/night.

Actually, going this route is worthwhile, I would look for a card that's (A) zero APR as long as you pay the full balance at end of month, (B) either offers up fuel perks or cash-back, even if it means shopping with them, (C) offers points multipliers for shopping on specific things.

Given the miles you're running now daily, if there's a Costco anywhere along your trek, you could kill two birds with one stone: Get their card, get perks, access to inexpensive fuel, I think they give you free membership with the credit card, and buying bulk groceries cheap so no more wallyworld trips for grocery, and arguably better food. Not sure abut cashback or other rewards.

I can ping one of the dudes I work with who tracks the card thing more closely if it's interesting. Dude is a coupon-cutter type that walks out of stores with $200 in groceries for $35, he's always on top of the latest and greatest.

 

Guy I work with said, "Have him check out the Citi Custom Cash Card, 5% cash back on up to $500 spent (reduces to 1% after $500 spent) in their highest eligible spending category each month, earn $200 in cash back after spending $750 on purchases in the first 3 months, no annual fee."

The 'in the 1st three months' part sort of concerns me, wondering what happens after that. You'd need to check.

He also said, "If he's is considering a Costco membership, go with the Costco Anywhere Visa® card by Citi, it's the best option ight now. 4% cash back on eligible gas, 3% on restaurant & travel, 2% at Costco, should easily pay for the membership itself"

 

I recall that conversation now. We do the same with Bonvoy and Delta. Wife and I are traveling to Jackson, WY and the hotel was stupid expensive like $1000/night, paid for all with points.

 

Step mom worked for a company that helped people rebuild their credit. She claimed it actually helps your score to roll a small balance over. I refuse to pay interest so I pay mine off every month.

My credit dropped a lot last year after buying our house in April and it still hasn't recovered all the way. It doesn't make sense. Nothing else has changed.

 

There should be some indication about why your credit score is where it is in your credit report, especially with drops, pretty weird if not the case.

There was a lot of hubbub about mortgage finder services when we refi'd to a 15y fixed while seizing the big rate drop in Jan/Feb '00. I'd heard a similar complaint a few years prior (I think that one was Lending Tree related) and how fishing for loans through them could result in dozens of credit checks that was dropping some people's credit by as much as 150 points.

 

It really doesn't help to leave a small balance. The payment history is a lot of it, as well as the debt to income ratio, and the percentage of unsecured debt you're using.

For an example I've got nearly 100k in available credit across a few cards, and maybe $1-3k/month before they're paid off so most months I'm under 5% credit utilization. Where if you had one card with a $5k limit but spend the same $1-3k/month you'd end up with anywhere from 20-50% utlilization. Even though it's the same amount of actual cash it looks worse percentage wise.

It can also swing pretty wildly in some situations, mine has been anywhere from 775 to 820 in the last year and the only thing we really did was ask for a mortgage preapproval, some request just seem to drop it pretty quick.

Also I'm pretty sure they just make it up sometimes

 

Liar’s Poker and The Big Short. The smart people are busy screwing over some schmuck for big $. The dumb ones work at Moody’s and Equifax. Scary that the dumb ones control the rules and the smart ones are trying to take advantage of said rules. Still, credit is damn near free flowing to anyone with halfway decent history. Rates are crazy low compared to what the boomers had to pay.

 

The rates are lower, but the prices are orders of magnitude higher.
The banks are still raking it in and we're still hemorrhaging cash.

 

... giving many of us hemorrhoids.

 

Mine was 805-815 for years and is now at 780. I got it back up to 796 in December and then it went back down. Doesn't make any sense. I do the same thing every month. Pay my mortgate on time and pay off my credit card. Bastards!

 

I mean ... anything over 750 and you're virtually guaranteed to get credit if you need it. I'm usually up closer to 815-820, but at our last re-fi, I was barely above 800 which I found odd. The report back then cited my drop as "too many lines of revolving credit". I remember looking into why, and it picked up a JC Penney card I had when I was 17 (1st card I used to build up credit with) and the loan I took out to have my ICL surgery 15 years ago as "active credit lines". I haven't used the former since 1998, and the latter since 6mos after I had surgery.

I'm not someone to bounce through cards either. I'm a pretty loyal MF and keep things pretty exclusively on 1 card. I rarely close accounts either, because I heard they'll ding you on that also. I agree: It's a f'n mess, seems arbitrary as hell, and makes zero sense.

Edit: Just a note, either USAA or AmEx let me do a free credit report through their website as a member benefit. I was surprised by this, but even more surprised to learn you can pretty much get a report from any number of places online these days. Card services are great, they have resources (and your personal info to do it) readily on-hand.

 

AMEX for sure does it. Mostly because I get an email from them every 3 months or so.

 

@Tundra2 RV show, they happen. Just look for one near you. And there is ALWAYS a coupon available for RV shows.

 

Anybody around San Antonio that is willing to freight ship stuff for me? Need to get a tundra express going!!!

(NO SHIPPING) Driver Front Door Electric Windows With Side Moulding Fits 00-06 T | eBay

See if you can haggle for the other door too. @bmf4069 @Sirfive @MrDirtjumper... somebody else I'm forgetting...

 

Why is everything so god damned far away? >:[

Shit in Texas, Vermont, Washington state, New York state... One thing in TN. A few things in Illinois. Good day trip type-a thing... tolerable.

 

How would it work? You’d buy it and give me an address to pick it up, then i’d ship it to you? Or bring it to ironman?

 

I love you dude but non-Texans seriously underestimate how big Texas is.

I’m what I would consider “relatively close” to San Antonio and I’m still 3 1/2 hours from there. And that’s me getting to run 80 on I-10 once I get past Junction.

Edit: I honestly forgot that I’m making a trip to Brenham next weekend. Trouble is, once I got it back to Angelo, I don’t know of anyone that would actually ship it.

 

Theres a website where you can find a trucker going from here to there. Or close enough. My neighbor (back when i lived in pasadena) had a 4wheeler shipped from somewhere in the NE to a warehouse parking lot in houston. We had to meet the trucker at like 2am and he was toting an international scout and a beat up dozer blade.

i dont remember the website or id have linked it.

 

I forgot to mention to you Noah, another white AC parts truck popped up in my local CL in the last 48hrs.

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/pts/d/lithonia-2000-to-2006-toyota-tundra-for/7449314079.html

Granted, it's still an hour out for me to get there, but maybe it's interesting.

 

There was one of those shitty reality tv shows about this too if I remember correctly.

 

Felt that way, but like 1400 miles for $150. (Pre 2014)

and the guy was super cool, had road stories and a half hour to burn.

 

I'll call Roy, or Ken on my way to work after I take some pictures of what I want them to take pictures of.

I'd be happy to scoot down there, and take the doors off myself if I can confirm they aren't broken already like mine.