How to Live Cheap as an Airline Pilot
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How to Live Cheap as an Airline Pilot
The pay where I work is going down at the same rate that inflation is going up. I have gone from being able to save money to breaking even and now what looks like having to borrow if I don't start making some changes.
Does anyone have some good ideas to stretch out cash or cut spending from things that might not be obvious?
Does anyone have some good ideas to stretch out cash or cut spending from things that might not be obvious?
Join Date: Jan 2006
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How long is a piece of string?
I understand your situation very well coz I've been living very tightly recently too. I don't know much about your situation (bank loans, family situation and more..). What I did was trying to minimize my expenses, I got a cheaper to run car, I sold my part in me and my brother's sailing boat, I moved to a cheaper accommodation at my base (I am commuting, so double rent). Those were some of the big things I could change. But on all smaller scale I just try to economize in general, plan my food n rarely throw things away, started biking to work, turn down heating when leaving the house for a longer time. And for the best part, have an understanding girlfriend
But it's a sad state of affairs when once salary cannot even keep up with inflation. Are you on a zero hour contract as well with no guarantee of work? Do you have social insurance and some form of state pension?
I understand your situation very well coz I've been living very tightly recently too. I don't know much about your situation (bank loans, family situation and more..). What I did was trying to minimize my expenses, I got a cheaper to run car, I sold my part in me and my brother's sailing boat, I moved to a cheaper accommodation at my base (I am commuting, so double rent). Those were some of the big things I could change. But on all smaller scale I just try to economize in general, plan my food n rarely throw things away, started biking to work, turn down heating when leaving the house for a longer time. And for the best part, have an understanding girlfriend
But it's a sad state of affairs when once salary cannot even keep up with inflation. Are you on a zero hour contract as well with no guarantee of work? Do you have social insurance and some form of state pension?
Go live in Thailand or similar and get a job that allows a commute. PNG and some other remote area contracts are good for this lifestyle. Often food and accommodation is covered by the employer when at work, the roster provides good time off and they pay well enough to save money.
If you live in a modern western country and your income is so low that you can't really afford to be there, why be there? Your lifestyle and health will suffer.
If you really must live where you are because of wife and kids and flying won't sustain it, time for a career change. Mining, oil, IT, law, accounting all pay better, I am told.
Maybe not as much fun as flying, but hey some can't have it all. Harsh, but that's life.
If you live in a modern western country and your income is so low that you can't really afford to be there, why be there? Your lifestyle and health will suffer.
If you really must live where you are because of wife and kids and flying won't sustain it, time for a career change. Mining, oil, IT, law, accounting all pay better, I am told.
Maybe not as much fun as flying, but hey some can't have it all. Harsh, but that's life.
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You change jobs because you obviously can't afford to do it! You owe it to your family, colleagues, passengers and everyone around you. I'm bloody sick of people asking how they can live with little or no wages. This should be job where you are properly paid and can afford to live and rest properly. If idiots decide to work for less than a living wage then they need their heads examining. Next you'll be asking where is the cheapest place is to fill up your plane because your airline doesn't put in enough fuel. Give me strength!
But the really horrible thing is that pilots who take jobs where the pay is so poor they can't afford to live properly are a safety menace. They endanger everybody around them. Also culpable are the airlines who pay so little. This smacks of another Colgan 3407 in the making. I'll probably get shouted at for saying this but maybe our only hope are compo lawyers. Hopefully, following the inevitable accident they will sue the sue the airline for paying too little, thus driving their employees into living in cardboard boxes and living on on noodles our or worse, not knowing how their employees live.
But the really horrible thing is that pilots who take jobs where the pay is so poor they can't afford to live properly are a safety menace. They endanger everybody around them. Also culpable are the airlines who pay so little. This smacks of another Colgan 3407 in the making. I'll probably get shouted at for saying this but maybe our only hope are compo lawyers. Hopefully, following the inevitable accident they will sue the sue the airline for paying too little, thus driving their employees into living in cardboard boxes and living on on noodles our or worse, not knowing how their employees live.
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'But the really horrible thing is that pilots who take jobs where the pay is so poor they can't afford to live properly are a safety menace. They endanger everybody around them. Also culpable are the airlines who pay so little. This smacks of another Colgan 3407 in the making. I'll probably get shouted at for saying this but maybe our only hope are compo lawyers. Hopefully, following the inevitable accident they will sue the sue the airline for paying too little, thus driving their employees into living in cardboard boxes and living on on noodles our or worse, not knowing how their employees live.'
I don't want to have to be reduced to living like this. At the rate things are going, it will be a matter of time. Some of my colleagues have come up with brilliant ideas to compensate such as:
Swap dead AA batteries with ones in hotel TV Remote.
Wash clothes in hotel sink.
Selling Duty Free Cigarettes and Booze
Hoard hotel towels to sell in boot sale
I guess I could stretch it out doing things like this, but there is only so much you can do. Commuting again from Thailand will be an option some day, but in the mean time, I have to stretch every dime.....
I don't want to have to be reduced to living like this. At the rate things are going, it will be a matter of time. Some of my colleagues have come up with brilliant ideas to compensate such as:
Swap dead AA batteries with ones in hotel TV Remote.
Wash clothes in hotel sink.
Selling Duty Free Cigarettes and Booze
Hoard hotel towels to sell in boot sale
I guess I could stretch it out doing things like this, but there is only so much you can do. Commuting again from Thailand will be an option some day, but in the mean time, I have to stretch every dime.....
Why not just turn to a life of crime? Even if you get caught, in jail you don't have to wash your jocks in the sink or nick batteries from TV remotes. A good western jail will even feed you well, so just be sure to do an armed bank robbery in a civilised country - or blow up parliament. Anything less won't get you to jail. Dealing drugs is not even a crime in some places, so that's out.
'struth.....if wherever you are is that dire, give it away! As the Man says, you are a menace to yourself, your family and your passengers.
If this airline you fly for can't pay you, do they let their passengers fly for free, too? Or do they buy their spare parts from the junkyard with money saved from not paying you?
'struth.....if wherever you are is that dire, give it away! As the Man says, you are a menace to yourself, your family and your passengers.
If this airline you fly for can't pay you, do they let their passengers fly for free, too? Or do they buy their spare parts from the junkyard with money saved from not paying you?
I know what you mean. My first airline job, we had a senior Captain who took a primus stove and cans of baked beans or soup on every trip. Rather than use some of our quite generous layover allowances for a good night out and a feed, he would retire to his hotel room for a cook fest. He never, ever bought a drink at the bar, yet he was not teetotal. He preferred to sip his duty-free all alone in his room.
Another airline, another senior Captain, on a very lucrative and tax free expat contract. This guy would rummage through the cabin after the day's flying to scavenge left-over sandwiches, which he took home and popped in the deep freeze. Every now and then, in a fit of generosity he would invite one or another of us over for afternoon tea. Of course, out came the thawed sandwiches. Never mind we had to eat these every day we went to work.
Sad, lonely and miserable people who don't realise that money was made round to go round.
Another airline, another senior Captain, on a very lucrative and tax free expat contract. This guy would rummage through the cabin after the day's flying to scavenge left-over sandwiches, which he took home and popped in the deep freeze. Every now and then, in a fit of generosity he would invite one or another of us over for afternoon tea. Of course, out came the thawed sandwiches. Never mind we had to eat these every day we went to work.
Sad, lonely and miserable people who don't realise that money was made round to go round.
Tip
Transitting countries where the rag trade is prevalent(ie Thailand),go buy football shirts or ladies summer frocks and fill your case with them then do a car boot sale .Have a look for example how much football shirts are in the UK and you can make a canny profit!!!
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Keeping it lite
Needed some "break away" copper wire the other day just before block-out, found a penny in my pocket and dropped it between the Capt. and F/O. Problem solved!
Best wishes...
Best wishes...
