Can you do it on £1k a month?

[charles_reed]

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!!

Just back from Lyon St Expurey where we had their Formule for €24 each and that was proper cooking, not that American fast-food muck.
I can think of several places in Argeles, Perpinya, Les Bacares, Sete, Marseille, Toulon, Iles de Hyeres, Ile de Lerin, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Genoa, where I could eat as well (nearly, because l'Atelier le 2 Rives is Michelin *).

I suspect your choice (and probably your accent) set you aside as the natural prey of the indigent restauranteur.
In Greece I can get a perfectly adequate 2 course meal for €8 (but not in holiday islands) to which I can add 1/4 wine for €1.20.

 

[rustybarge]

Just back from Lyon St Expurey where we had their Formule for €24 each and that was proper cooking, not that American fast-food muck.
I can think of several places in Argeles, Perpinya, Les Bacares, Sete, Marseille, Toulon, Iles de Hyeres, Ile de Lerin, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Genoa, where I could eat as well (nearly, because l'Atelier le 2 Rives is Michelin *).

I suspect your choice (and probably your accent) set you aside as the natural prey of the indigent restauranteur.
In Greece I can get a perfectly adequate 2 course meal for €8 (but not in holiday islands) to which I can add 1/4 wine for €1.20.

20 quid a head ain't exactly cheap for lunch.......!!!

 

[GrahamM376]

Not eat out in the S of France.for lunch yesterdy
Just had lunch, half an hour inland from the coast, 26 euros for two hamburgers, a coke and a glass of water!!

Nine of us went out for lunch yesterday in Faro. Mid priced local restaurant next to the theatre, not tourist dive. Usual bread/olives/pate starters, 5 x fish + 4 x steaks, salads, veg, pots & chips, 2 litres + of house wine, coffees etc. 99 euro. Plenty of cheaper places around.

 

[rustybarge]

Nine of us went out for lunch yesterday in Faro. Mid priced local restaurant next to the theatre, not tourist dive. Usual bread/olives/pate starters, 5 x fish + 4 x steaks, salads, veg, pots & chips, 2 litres + of house wine, coffees etc. 99 euro. Plenty of cheaper places around.

...that's France 6 or 7 years ago. The 'Menu' was available in nearly all small restaurants for less than 10 euros, now it's about e18.
The fish and chicken piri piri are delicious in Portugal, but I have to say that after a couple of weeks the cooking of absolutely everything on the barbie can get a bit monotonous.
...ooh, and not forgetting the delicious slow cooked lamb.

Are you based east or west of Faro?

 

[GrahamM376]

..

Are you based east or west of Faro?

Swing mooring in the pool just off Faro.

 

[temptress]

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.

NOPE - that was SWMBo in the local market on her own. i was messing around helping fit out a local 'double-ender' for the regatta next week

 

[AndrewB]

NOPE - that was SWMBo in the local market on her own. i was messing around helping fit out a local 'double-ender' for the regatta next week

The barrow-boys on the waterfront stalls in Bequia are notorious. Pity no-one warned you.

It might be worth saying that sometimes fresh fruit/vegetables one thinks of as common and cheap may not be so locally. They may be available only because tourists are looking for the familiar. SWMBO paid nearly £7 for a single lettuce in nearby Mustique. It pays to watch what locals are buying before plunging in, and following suit. (Apologies if this is stating the obvious).

 

[jonic]

I haven't read the rest of this thread, just the initial question.

But here's us doing it in Antigua on £600 a month

 

[NornaBiron]

I haven't read the rest of this thread, just the initial question.

But here's us doing it in Antigua on £600 a month

View attachment 41564

OMG we're gonna be rich!

 

[jonic]

OMG we're gonna be rich!

We had planned for a year and stayed for eight

SWIMBO wrote about how to do it and you can read a free sample chapter at www.sailawaybook.com

When the kids came along (two) the costs went up as we hired cars and used marinas more.

Still much cheaper and much more fun than running a life in the UK :encouragement:

I think you can spend as little or as much as you like.

If you anchor everywhere (easy in the Caribbean) and do all your own boat maintenance your costs are basically food, drink and spares.

 

[[2574]]

If you anchor everywhere (easy in the Caribbean) and do all your own boat maintenance your costs are basically food, drink and spares.

The hard bit is the change of mind set as far as I can see. It's throwing off all the land based security baggage such as qualifying for and maintaining one's career, pumping £k in to the pension, private health, everything insured to gold plate standard and everything that goes with it. I've been thirty years doing the aforementioned and it takes balls to chuck all that out. I always remember Stingo, a once frequent poster hereabouts, saying that the hardest bit is "the road out of town". How right he was/is.

rob

 

[chuckr]

The hard bit is the change of mind set as far as I can see. It's throwing off all the land based security baggage such as qualifying for and maintaining one's career, pumping £k in to the pension, private health, everything insured to gold plate standard and everything that goes with it. I've been thirty years doing the aforementioned and it takes balls to chuck all that out. I always remember Stingo, a once frequent poster hereabouts, saying that the hardest bit is "the road out of town". How right he was/is.

rob

we did it over 6 years ago when i reached age 62 -- had a 6 figure income in the usa and after a couple of divorces was beginning to salt more money away -- but for what?? later in life but what kind of life - i have a brother who is 4 years older than i am and a very good criminal defense lawyer and has not had a day off or taken a vacation for several years and refuses to slow down - his reason is "if i slow down i will die" - now he takes 13 different pills a day to keep his body running and still goes to work and for what --

i took a look at all the stuff i had and realized it is just stuff that some day my kids will throw away, give away or sell - so i did it for them and got rid of almost everything - have 4 boxes of stuff i wanted to keep at his house, (pictures, kids drawing and stuff from them when they were young, trophys i won in livestock competition, ect) we do not have a house - car or any dirt -- just a boat

since we have been out we have sailed the east coast of the usa a couple of times, all the way around the caribbean, across the atlantic and now in the med -- i do not take any medicine, have few worries, and the only stress is when i misread the weather and get the **** kicked out of us

as for money -- we live on our social security strictly and do not touch our savings -- savings hopefully for our grandchildrens education but it could be when we get off the boat someday

we have both watched people accumulate stuff right up to the time their Maker calls and never felt they had enough -- someplace you have to decide for yourself what is important
we valued our health and desire to see a different way of life and never in a thousand years thought it would end up this great and never dreamed of going beyond the bahamas and mexico -- guess we kinda of exceeded that --

your call on what is important -- we made our choice you make yours and good luck with it

 

[charles_reed]

we did it over 6 years ago when i reached age 62 -- had a 6 figure income in the usa and after a couple of divorces was beginning to salt more money away -- but for what?? later in life but what kind of life - i have a brother who is 4 years older than i am and a very good criminal defense lawyer and has not had a day off or taken a vacation for several years and refuses to slow down - his reason is "if i slow down i will die" - now he takes 13 different pills a day to keep his body running and still goes to work and for what --

i took a look at all the stuff i had and realized it is just stuff that some day my kids will throw away, give away or sell - so i did it for them and got rid of almost everything - have 4 boxes of stuff i wanted to keep at his house, (pictures, kids drawing and stuff from them when they were young, trophys i won in livestock competition, ect) we do not have a house - car or any dirt -- just a boat

since we have been out we have sailed the east coast of the usa a couple of times, all the way around the caribbean, across the atlantic and now in the med -- i do not take any medicine, have few worries, and the only stress is when i misread the weather and get the **** kicked out of us

as for money -- we live on our social security strictly and do not touch our savings -- savings hopefully for our grandchildrens education but it could be when we get off the boat someday

we have both watched people accumulate stuff right up to the time their Maker calls and never felt they had enough -- someplace you have to decide for yourself what is important
we valued our health and desire to see a different way of life and never in a thousand years thought it would end up this great and never dreamed of going beyond the bahamas and mexico -- guess we kinda of exceeded that --

your call on what is important -- we made our choice you make yours and good luck with it

To add to Chuck's comment - when on the boat my BP drops to that of a 35-year old, my consumption of pills drops by 66% and life's a lot brighter.
You might ask "Why only spend 6/12 on the boat?" - my response would be that my wife, who is terrified of the sea, expects it of me.

 

[Thedreamoneday]

we did it over 6 years ago when i reached age 62 -- had a 6 figure income in the usa and after a couple of divorces was beginning to salt more money away -- but for what?? later in life but what kind of life - i have a brother who is 4 years older than i am and a very good criminal defense lawyer and has not had a day off or taken a vacation for several years and refuses to slow down - his reason is "if i slow down i will die" - now he takes 13 different pills a day to keep his body running and still goes to work and for what --

i took a look at all the stuff i had and realized it is just stuff that some day my kids will throw away, give away or sell - so i did it for them and got rid of almost everything - have 4 boxes of stuff i wanted to keep at his house, (pictures, kids drawing and stuff from them when they were young, trophys i won in livestock competition, ect) we do not have a house - car or any dirt -- just a boat

since we have been out we have sailed the east coast of the usa a couple of times, all the way around the caribbean, across the atlantic and now in the med -- i do not take any medicine, have few worries, and the only stress is when i misread the weather and get the **** kicked out of us

as for money -- we live on our social security strictly and do not touch our savings -- savings hopefully for our grandchildrens education but it could be when we get off the boat someday

we have both watched people accumulate stuff right up to the time their Maker calls and never felt they had enough -- someplace you have to decide for yourself what is important
we valued our health and desire to see a different way of life and never in a thousand years thought it would end up this great and never dreamed of going beyond the bahamas and mexico -- guess we kinda of exceeded that --

your call on what is important -- we made our choice you make yours and good luck with it

Quality!

 

[wazza]

we did it over 6 years ago when i reached age 62 -- had a 6 figure income in the usa and after a couple of divorces was beginning to salt more money away -- but for what?? later in life but what kind of life - i have a brother who is 4 years older than i am and a very good criminal defense lawyer and has not had a day off or taken a vacation for several years and refuses to slow down - his reason is "if i slow down i will die" - now he takes 13 different pills a day to keep his body running and still goes to work and for what --

i took a look at all the stuff i had and realized it is just stuff that some day my kids will throw away, give away or sell - so i did it for them and got rid of almost everything - have 4 boxes of stuff i wanted to keep at his house, (pictures, kids drawing and stuff from them when they were young, trophys i won in livestock competition, ect) we do not have a house - car or any dirt -- just a boat

since we have been out we have sailed the east coast of the usa a couple of times, all the way around the caribbean, across the atlantic and now in the med -- i do not take any medicine, have few worries, and the only stress is when i misread the weather and get the **** kicked out of us

as for money -- we live on our social security strictly and do not touch our savings -- savings hopefully for our grandchildrens education but it could be when we get off the boat someday

we have both watched people accumulate stuff right up to the time their Maker calls and never felt they had enough -- someplace you have to decide for yourself what is important
we valued our health and desire to see a different way of life and never in a thousand years thought it would end up this great and never dreamed of going beyond the bahamas and mexico -- guess we kinda of exceeded that --

your call on what is important -- we made our choice you make yours and good luck with it

Too drawer.! Hats off to you, that's the way to do it..... Live life

 

[temptress]

Some can some can't - depends on you

 

[rustybarge]

Too drawer.! Hats off to you, that's the way to do it..... Live life

The grim reaper is a great leveler, how much time do you have left?
In the last year:
Bother law dead:58
Cousin committed suicide:56
My son's friend found dead:25
School friend dead:59

Me, I'm 57........makes you think!

 

[longjohnsilver]

Too drawer.! Hats off to you, that's the way to do it..... Live life

Absolutely.

How many of us, when asked what we want for Christmas, say there's nothing we really want/need. We ought to carry that through the whole year. We accumulate junk that we don't really need and mostly don't use.

 

[GrahamM376]

Absolutely.

How many of us, when asked what we want for Christmas, say there's nothing we really want/need. We ought to carry that through the whole year. We accumulate junk that we don't really need and mostly don't use.

Friends of ours got it right, she bought him a new anchor for Christmas, he bought her the chain.

 

[Slow_boat]

I hope you can do it on a grand a month; that's my pension!

House rental is far from certain.