Hey y'all, for those that don't know, I do deliveries, so I'm on my feet a lot, and I'm already wearing out my shoes, so it's time for new.

No real feet problems beyond the obvious sore feet from walking so much (over 8K steps a day according to my watch), so good padding or room for inserts is important. I'm thinking possibly some manner of boots maybe for durability and traction.

Being frugal, I'm looking for the best bargain, rather than the cheap stuff I've been getting. Cheap is easy to find, frugal not so much.

#shoes #shoesandboots #work #Walking

So I finally got around to filing my 2023 taxes last month. Yes, that's around 3 months late.

Good news, I only owed $598
Bad news, I owed $528 in fees and interest.

Yeah, let's not do that again. I've already paid them my first three quarterlies for this year, so I don't have to think about taxes until... I think early next year? I'll find out before it's due, but I'm setting aside about twice as much this year.

Posted this on my Mastodon already, but it's easier to write it over here, so here we go.

For those what don't know, I'm a gig worker, specifically I do deliveries, more specifically packages, preferably delivery routes.

For my purposes, I'm going to focus only on fuel economy, maintenance is important, but as my current vehicle is almost all dealer item for parts outside of bulbs, plugs and filters, I think anything would be an improvement. Right now I use a 2018 Subaru Crosstrek, which gets about 25MPG, and has about 55 cubic feet of cargo space. That cargo space is sometimes a problem, 75 or so would be better, but square would also help, the Cross has a sloping rear and the sides taper in a bit, so often I can't use all of the space it has. An example is that I didn't make good money yesterday as the whole zone wouldn't fit, so we had to cut out one of the sub-zones, which had a really negative impact on pay.

So, what are the candidates?
Ford Transit Connect, 123 cu ft, and roughly the same fuel economy. Obviously this opens up new gig options for me, but that doesn't really matter to me, I'm too old to be doing pallet loads and other big stuff frankly.

Chevy Bolt, Bolt, not Bolt EUV. About the same cargo space, but no fuel and significantly reduced maintenance, about $200 a month in savings just on fuel, but same cargo limitations.

Runners up are the Scion XB, 65cu ft of cargo space, around the same, maybe slightly better fuel economy. Mazda 5, not sure what the cargo space on that is, almost definitely better than what I have, especially if'n I remove both rows of seats. Mind you, the second row I'm not sure is designed to be removed, but like the others, I could make more room by removing it. Fuel economy I also am not sure about, but likely as good or better than what I'm getting.

So, what do y'all think I should get?
Do you have other suggestions?

#gig #work #gigwork #delivery #deliveries #courier #car #auto #shopping