Can you do it on £1k a month?

NornaBiron said:
+1 We've been doing it on less than £1k per month for the last 6 years. Rationing within the budget is key, that doesn't mean that we go without, just that we realise that this is a way of life, not a holiday.
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Where have you been cruising, and where have you wintered each year? We are planning to liveaboard next April so are following this thread with interest. Anything you can share with us at this stage is really helpful and much appreciated.
 
madian2 said:
Where have you been cruising, and where have you wintered each year? We are planning to liveaboard next April so are following this thread with interest. Anything you can share with us at this stage is really helpful and much appreciated.
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We've spent the last 5 years in Greece, wintering in Crete (anchored in the lagoon at Spinalonga) for the last 4 years. We never go to marinas and very rarely tie up to a wall. We like life at anchor and have a good dinghy and outboard to get us ashore in all weathers that we would leave the boat in. We are heading to Turkey this year and are planning to winter in the Red Sea. We've got used to living on our budget in Greece so new ground will test our finances.
 
NornaBiron said:
We've spent the last 5 years in Greece, wintering in Crete (anchored in the lagoon at Spinalonga) for the last 4 years. We never go to marinas and very rarely tie up to a wall. We like life at anchor and have a good dinghy and outboard to get us ashore in all weathers that we would leave the boat in. We are heading to Turkey this year and are planning to winter in the Red Sea. We've got used to living on our budget in Greece so new ground will test our finances.
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Good luck with your next leg - I've found cost-of-living in Greece is one of the few countries in the EC where it's gone down.
Once lost the drive coming out of Dia and had to beat past Spinalonga Island in a NW 4 (too light for meltemi) which took me the best part of an hour and parked in 35N16.71' 25E44.35 for 4 days while I drilled thro' a 75mm malleable coupling and 25mm of 316 to put an 8mm bolt through. Used to go over to the bar in Elounda to recharge the drill batteries. It's certainly good holding and not too deep (but windy).
 
All_at_Sea said:
Can you do it on £1k a month?

No. Why struggle, you need to enjoy it more, save up for longer then go.
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Or save up a bit longer and die in the mean time... Go now, you will be able to afford it IF YOU want to.
Life is all about compromising, yes of course you'd live a 'better' life if you had more money to spend, but that's the same if you were living ashore.
There are people doing it on that money and even a lot less but equally there are people doing it on a lot more. So simply put, the choice really is yours. But it CAN be done.!
 
We are coming up to our 11th year living aboard Fuga. We certainly found, particularly early on, that we were spending more on the boat than we had anticipated, despite a fairly heavy fit-out. We have also tried to keep her up to date, and last year new sails and furling gear. Along the way a calorifier, solar panels, new seat covers, replacement saloon windows, super (vacuflush) loo, standing rigging, propeller, radar and chart plotter, re-epoxy and rudder bearing, are the major items that come to mind. None cheap!

But that said, we reckon on average to have spent around £20K a year. That includes marinas over winter when on board, or on 4 occasions, storage ashore and flights to New Zealand (and living there, albeit in a caravan). Lagos (Portugal) marina is not cheap (3.5K euros for the winter): others more reasonable. So if you net off the maintenance and such like, £12K per year looks easily possible.

Go for it, with your eyes wide open!
 
The most interesting sailor I met used to live on a budget of 50 € / month.

A son of very well doing people, rebel, left school at 21 as an engineer. Hippy, called himself an anarchist. Married young, build with his own hands a small house out of material from the land he bought in rural France. Used a horse for transport. Got into village politics by putting his pig as a candidate for the town elections.
Pig had quit a lot of votes.
He did not fit very well into society, divorced, left everything, bought the hull of a yacht and set of.
Eventually stayed in Turkey. Lived there a simple life. Did only what he wanted, had for some time two women on his yacht, getting older decided celibacy was more his thing.
For 30 years he sailed, read, fished, read, played guitar, read, and was a very happy man.
Was proud to be totally self sufficient, an expert in repairing and building boaty stuff, a walking encyclopedia, made lots of money on dark businesses and schemes.
Healthy, only eating what he fished of hunted. Living his dream.

Three years ago his old “Maman “ died, leaving him a huge inheritance.
He still lives on board in Turkey, but his Joie de vivre is gone. He now spends his time worrying about the estate in Le Havre and the tenants and the taxes....

Life is not about money.
 
NornaBiron said:
Why do people assume that those that are living on a restricted budget are struggling and aren't enjoying their life to the full - it's not all about the money.
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If I strip out my overwinter marina costs and flights I'm managing, and without stinting, on about £480/month, that includes normal servicing and repairs (but not things like a replacement mainsail). Whilst that is for 1 person, boat costs would be the same for 2.
The point is that it requires a different approach to life, one in which you appreciate being time rich but cash strapped.
The big variable is major things that fail on a boat - replacement sails, new engine, new mast, all of which I've had in the last 14 years away from UK.
But propshaft clamp drive, new cutless bearings, new waterpump (both raw and fresh), alternators, batteries have all been accomodated (and I eat out about x2/week).
So I know it can be done! Quite comfortably!! But few marinas, and all DIY.
 
charles_reed said:
If I strip out my overwinter marina costs and flights I'm managing, and without stinting, on about £480/month, that includes normal servicing and repairs (but not things like a replacement mainsail). Whilst that is for 1 person, boat costs would be the same for 2.
The point is that it requires a different approach to life, one in which you appreciate being time rich but cash strapped.
The big variable is major things that fail on a boat - replacement sails, new engine, new mast, all of which I've had in the last 14 years away from UK.
But propshaft clamp drive, new cutless bearings, new waterpump (both raw and fresh), alternators, batteries have all been accomodated (and I eat out about x2/week).
So I know it can be done! Quite comfortably!! But few marinas, and all DIY.
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What areas have you been going out of interest?
 
charles_reed said:
If I strip out my overwinter marina costs and flights I'm managing, and without stinting, on about £480/month, that includes normal servicing and repairs (but not things like a replacement mainsail). Whilst that is for 1 person, boat costs would be the same for 2.
The point is that it requires a different approach to life, one in which you appreciate being time rich but cash strapped.
The big variable is major things that fail on a boat - replacement sails, new engine, new mast, all of which I've had in the last 14 years away from UK.
But propshaft clamp drive, new cutless bearings, new waterpump (both raw and fresh), alternators, batteries have all been accomodated (and I eat out about x2/week).
So I know it can be done! Quite comfortably!! But few marinas, and all DIY.
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It's so nice to see someone else who agrees that it is possible to have a great life without having to have pots of money.
 
NornaBiron said:
It's so nice to see someone else who agrees that it is possible to have a great life without having to have pots of money.
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yep, I suppose it's like everything in life. You spend what can afford to. There are some people in the uk who can't contemplate how normal people can exist on a family income of under £30k, but there are plenty of families doing it.
 
rustybarge said:
Not eat out in the S of France.
Just had lunch, half an hour inland from the coast, 26 euros for two hamburgers, a coke and a glass of water!!
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So don't go to the South of France.

Interestingly we just went vegetable shopping to day here (Bequia - windward Islands)

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif]Shopping in the Caribbean, even with just local produce, is expensive here. [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif]$75EC ie £17 bought the following in the local market: [/FONT]

1 bag of lettuce (containing 1 large and 3 spindly ones freshly cut this morning),
2 small bags of spinach (again freshly picked),
1 lb of toms,
6 bananas,
1 small papaya,
2 local lemon-oranges (colour of lemon but shaped and smell like orange with greeny flesh),
2 hefty courgettes (or perhaps they are baby marrows)
and 2 weedy aubergines
 
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temptress said:
So don't go to the South of France.

Interestingly we just went vegetable shopping to day here (Bequia - windward Islands)

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif]Shopping in the Caribbean, even with just local produce, is expensive here. [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif]$75EC ie £17 bought the following in the local market: [/FONT]

1 bag of lettuce (containing 1 large and 3 spindly ones freshly cut this morning),
2 small bags of spinach (again freshly picked),
1 lb of toms,
6 bananas,
1 small papaya,
2 local lemon-oranges (colour of lemon but shaped and smell like orange with greeny flesh),
2 hefty courgettes (or perhaps they are baby marrows)
and 2 weedy aubergines
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Sounds like you got nobbled by the Rastafari salesmen. Our technique for dealing with them was for SWMBO to go alone and deal with the market ladies, then we could buy our fruit and veg at reasonable cost without any hassle from the men.
 
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temptress said:
So don't go to the South of France.

Interestingly we just went vegetable shopping to day here (Bequia - windward Islands)

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif]Shopping in the Caribbean, even with just local produce, is expensive here. [/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif]$75EC ie £17 bought the following in the local market: [/FONT]

1 bag of lettuce (containing 1 large and 3 spindly ones freshly cut this morning),
2 small bags of spinach (again freshly picked),
1 lb of toms,
6 bananas,
1 small papaya,
2 local lemon-oranges (colour of lemon but shaped and smell like orange with greeny flesh),
2 hefty courgettes (or perhaps they are baby marrows)
and 2 weedy aubergines
Click to expand...

"Ingredients" looks interesting.

Now can we have "The Method" please?:)
 
jamiepyoung said:
What areas have you been going out of interest?
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Like the others I've been in the Eastern Med for the last four years, but prior to that I was on the French Atlantic coast, all round Spain (N coast just great, Med coast s?*!), France Med (surprisingly cheap if you know where to go); part Italy (S of Tiber, N of Tiber is banker-bonkers land) Sardegne, Sicilia, Corse the Adriatic (even the Croatian carnet wasn't too bad) and Greece.
Met hundreds of amusing people living on a pittance (usually French, Scandanavians or German, but few Brits).
The angstful posts one sees about can you do it on £/$? are all on Anglo-Saxon sites!!
 
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