Yesterday, I had the day of and decided to take a perfect frugal drive.
A “frugal drive” is one that maximizes the return from the drive. To me, this basically means that instead of just a drive somewhere for just one thing, you maximize the number of things you accomplish on that one drive!
Case in point, the following are the objectives that I accomplished during my 1 driving trip yesterday:
- Got breakfast at McDonalds.
- Put air in my front tires for free at a local gas station that was close to McDonalds
- Went around the block to the local library to drop off 2 videos in the outside bin so that they wouldn’t be late.
- Drove a little further up the road and stopped to get my haircut.
- Went to Walmart to get my car oil changed
- During the wait, I went shopping at Walmart, so I accomplished grocery shopping for the family.
- While at Walmart, I also picked up a cheap Blue Ray player, since our DVD Player recently broke.
- Taco Bell messed up my wife’s order the previous day, after calling and identifying the error they made, the said to stop in and they would fix the order for free. So I did that and got some free food for lunch.
- Drove to the bank and withdrew some spending cash.
- Stopped at the gas station and filled up my tank.
How many tasks can you accomplish during 1 driving route? This might well be my record. Typically I usually only accomplish 2 or 3 things per drive (not counting the daily drive to work).
-MR
I love my errand-runs! I usually have one mega-run a week, that includes groceries, dry cleaners, banking, and more. I always feel like I have accomplished a lot on those days! My next run will be to the oil change and then get my tires rotated.
I don’t know if I have been as productive as the drive you listed in a long, long time!
@Everyday Tips
For me, it was a rare day, that had a lot of things that needed done occurring on the same day.
I only half planned it, the putting air in the tires and the haircut was impromptu.
typically if i’m not going from point A to point B i hit at least 2 or three spots.
one quick question- did you really eat McDonald’s for B-fast and T-Bell for lunch?
That might be more impressive than all the things you got done that day.
@James
Hmmm, I wrote that piece about Taco Bell poorly. What I should have said was “My wife got some free food for lunch” 🙂 I only ate at McDonalds. I’m a sucker for their Lattes (even though they can’t touch Starbucks)…
I eat McD’s for breakfast and Taco Bell for lunch at least once a month…is that weird? I love the Egg McMuffin and I love the 7-Layer Burrito…oh well, I’m used to being weird. 🙂
Anyway, that was an awesome account of frugal driving! The most I can remember from anytime recently is Sam’s Club followed by Kroger’s followed by quick library dropoff followed by quick post office drop off followed by picking up fast food for dinner and heading home.
It’s not as impressive for me to pull off everything since all of that stuff plus Walmart are within 4 miles of my house…we live in a Houston suburb…everything is close.
@Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
I’ve hit both before too, but where I work at, there isn’t a taco bell close by…
Egg McMuffins are my favorite too, but since Sausage McMuffins are on the dollar menu… I now go with the cheap substitute… I’ll have to try that 7-Layer Burrito (I’m tired of Mexican Pizza).
Hmmm, my route was a circle, I bet it was at least 15 to 20 miles in total!
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