How much do you spend

as for breakdown -- we always have something that is broken to some extent -- right now our ais gps is not working -- we pulled into the marina for winter and tied her up and went to shut down the insturments and found the chartplotter did not have a fix - no gps -
we get the signal from the ais and it showed no signal -- problem - no idea what it is yet but working on it -
so fixed is one thing that is a constant
we saw on one forum people asking what it cost with any boat cost - that to is is silly - you don't take care of the boat you don't have a boat after a bit --
good luck and glad this helped some
 
AndrewB said:
I would love to know what Tranona thinks is the irreducible minimum amount.
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Simple. Just enough to keep alive. So depends on the individual. Your minimum will likely be different from mine. Annie Hill used to be able to live on £1k a year but doubt many people would choose to live like that.
 
Tranona said:
Simple. Just enough to keep alive. So depends on the individual. Your minimum will likely be different from mine. Annie Hill used to be able to live on £1k a year but doubt many people would choose to live like that.
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This is were I think AH & I would differ. I reckon I could make a balance sheet showing £ 1000 per anum if I were to not include a vast amount of expenses. It is not realistic to suggest that folks could really live on that amount even sailing all year round, anchoring and not going into port. In fact one only has to look at the fees required for customs clearance in many places to see that it is not feasible.
 
Liz_I said:
This is were I think AH & I would differ. I reckon I could make a balance sheet showing £ 1000 per anum if I were to not include a vast amount of expenses. It is not realistic to suggest that folks could really live on that amount even sailing all year round, anchoring and not going into port. In fact one only has to look at the fees required for customs clearance in many places to see that it is not feasible.
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It was more than 30 years ago and they rarely went anywhere that charged berthing fees. Most of their time was actually spent at sea, where there is nothing to spend your money on. Vegetarian diet based on pulses and rice with flavourings, no booze, no ciggies. If you can cope with the monotonous diet it is still possible to live healthily on £30 per person per week for food. If travelling you have to learn to adjust your diet to what is available within your budget rather than adjust your expenditure to meet your "normal" diet.

It is instructive to do an analysis of your expenditure and determine what you could do without. Many of us are faced with a dramatic drop in income at some point in life and in my experience having been through it twice it is not difficult to cut expenditure without getting anal about it, but accept the loss of things that give pleasure - hopefully only a temporary loss of some things, but even a permanent readjustment is also possible.
 
Well....

I am heading off to find out the answer to the question. I have resisted looking at the detailed cruising cost breakdowns since I don't want to be put off. It is too late anyway!

My philosophy is ...
- Keep the boat simple and without expensive kit.
- Do as much maintenance as I can, myself, without paying for experts.
- Anchor out as much as possible.
- Get/ cook food as cheaply as I can
- Spend anything left over sparingly and wisely on the best luxuries in good company.

Hopefully, this philosophy will see me through. If not, hey, ho.
 
Te three most expenses in the summer months are marina fees , fuel , and going out for meals , our food cost stays almost the same where every we sail , let it be Greece or south of France , we eat well and heathy but we don't eat meat every day . For two we looking at around 100 Euros a week including our drinks , mostly wines and martini
Marinas , we don't use unless we really have to , people was jumping up and down the other year when we said we was going to sail the west coast of Italy , Sardinia and the south of France , we was told time and time again , that we was mad no where to anchor safe and marina where outrages hight , rubbish , we anchored other then two days when we wanted to visited Rome and the cost was 15 Euros a night .
Fuel , we all have to motor same time , some more then others , just have to pick your days unless your in an hurry to get some where .
Going out for meals . We go out maybe two or three times a month , it not because we tight it more that almost every time we go out we come back wishing we stayed on board , we end up paying for food that over price over cooked and it come with chips , not to say I don't like chips because it my favour food .
Living on board isn't cheep but it don't have to be an arm and a leg job , one thing for sure it 100% better then living in an house .
 
I read this type of thread and think I should be bankrupt by now.
I have a old 44 footer in good condition and can live comfortable on her for £10,000 pa in Greece. When in Aegina I frequent the same taverna in the back street, I can get a lunch + 1 beer, and an evening meal with as much red wine as I need for 15e per day. That leaves about £5000 pa to pay for other costs .

If you buy the food and cook it yourself, I think 2 persons could live nicely between 12000-15000euro pa. That`s why this new Tax will damage so many`s budgets

How my Greek friends can manage on 800e for a family of 4 and pay rent is the hard one to work out
 
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1bobt said:
I read this type of thread and think I should be bankrupt by now.
I have a old 44 footer in good condition and can live comfortable on her for £10,000 pa in Greece. When in Aegina I frequent the same taverna in the back street, I can get a lunch + 1 beer, and an evening meal with as much red wine as I need for 15e per day. That leaves about £5000 pa to pay for other costs .

If you buy the food and cook it yourself, I think 2 persons could live nicely between 12000-15000euro pa. That`s why this new Tax will damage so many`s budget.
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it really depends on what you do with your boat -- had we stayed in the san blas islands of panama and traveled back and forth to colombia we could have lived much cheaper -- really cheap in fact --
but we chose to cruise and see a lot of the rest of the carib and now the med -- first it takes a toll on the boat and repairs and upgrades are a must - at least in our humble opinion -
second - like the med there are times when you should not be sailing the carib and that is during hurricane season and if you want to keep your boat insurance you have to be out of the hurricane zone and in the eastern carib that means trinidad and while you can anchor out there the holding is lousy and if the winds swing the wrong direction you can count on a lousy anchorage and boats breaking free -
third why cruise if you do not see the countries you cruise to -- why go to portugal if you do not go to lisbon, porto ect -

in the end it is really what you are going to do that determines your cost -- but you can still do it reasonably
 
Chuck,

Your costs stats are very useful and I've been doing some analysis and have some questions:

1) I'm assuming this is all US$?
2) Your food and alcohol combined spend is about $500/month; is there any more background you can offer on this? Do you think you live well/okay/very carefully on this budget?
3) your berthing fees seem to be running at €4k pa, do you anchor out all summer? What is your boat LOA? Presumably you take a winter berth?

Your latest post above infers that you spend relatively without constraint and adequately to ensure a good level of enjoyment and comfort - would you say that is a fair synopsis of lifestyle?

If any of these questions are too personal to answer then of course you will ignore them - that's understood!

Thanks

Rob
 
Robih said:
Chuck,

Your costs stats are very useful and I've been doing some analysis and have some questions:

1) I'm assuming this is all US$?
2) Your food and alcohol combined spend is about $500/month; is there any more background you can offer on this? Do you think you live well/okay/very carefully on this budget?
3) your berthing fees seem to be running at €4k pa, do you anchor out all summer? What is your boat LOA? Presumably you take a winter berth?

Your latest post above infers that you spend relatively without constraint and adequately to ensure a good level of enjoyment and comfort - would you say that is a fair synopsis of lifestyle?

If any of these questions are too personal to answer then of course you will ignore them - that's understood!

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

Rob -- we are happy to share all

first -- the first couple of years were winter in the bahamas and summer up the east coast of the usa -- after 2010 we headed to mexico and worked our way down to colombia -- so all outside the usa after all the upgrades in 2010 -- then we crossed the caribbean to jamaica and worked our way down the island chain to trinidad where we hurricaned over - in the carib you sail winter and sit summers out of the hurricane zone - we were in a marina in trinidad in 20012 for the summer then in early 2013 we island hopped north (including a hual out and paint which we bought in trini) to antigua and sailed across the pond in may of 2013 - in june july we were in the azores then across to portugal for a few weeks and inland travel then to la lina in spain and again more inland travel in spain and then up to cartagena spain and across to the blaerica isla (no mainas) and on to sardinia (marina) and then down to tunisia for the winter --

2. we eat pretty well and try to drink local alcohol which is less expensive than import - in the western carib we drank a bit more beer and some rum and a lot of wine which we found not to expensive and in boxes but in eastern carib rum is everywhere and cheap so we consumed a bit of that - in tunisia we find wine good and inexpensive and alcohol incredibly expensive so no hard alcohol here,wine - but we eat really well and do not skimp - we brought an iberian ham down here with us and unfortunately just ran out - in fact at times we eat to well for our exercise and have had to back off lunches as we were putting on a few inches around the waist

3 SoulMates is 40' or 12.19m -- we are now in a winter berth in tunisia -- we take marina when we have to - otherwise we anchor out -- we are looking at sailing italy this summer and appears that we will anchor some and marina some -- we always put the boat in a marina when we are going inland - for example we are headed to rome this year and have already contacted a couple of marinas about cost for a few days - we think our costs may go up a bit in the med due to our inland travel and marina but not sure how much - we may travel a lot of europe next winter when we return to tunisia next winter so most of italy we do not see by boat will be done by road - however we anticipate a bit of travel in croatia and especially in albainia this summer - by the way our cost for next winters marina in port yasmine is 3.680 tunisian dinar -

4. there have been times when we say no to expenditures depending on what we have just done -- we turned down an outing last week with friends as we had just spent more than planned on a new carpet for the boat salon and we are headed back to the usa at the end of the month for a couple of weeks and wanted to save a few dollars -- but in general we have a great life style -- we have done 2 roads trips in tunisia and driven over 4,000km -

we probably do more out here than if we were in the usa living on dirt

hope this helps - anything else would be happy to help
 
>if you want to keep your boat insurance you have to be out of the hurricane zone and in the eastern carib that means trinidad

We spent a few years in Trini but then went to Curacao for hurricane season. Spanish Waters is well protected and there are lots of cruising boats there so a good social life and a morning radio net, much like Trini. There is a bar and restaurant there and it's where a free bus takes you to a supermarket. Bonaire is worth a visit on the way to Curacao very pretty place with lots of good restaurants. It Rains Fishes is one directly across from the dinghy dock.
 
Hi Chuck

If it any help , went you plain to visit Rome , just go up the canal by the side of the marina and under both bridge , you will find a few boat yards , last year it was 15 Euros a night , one thing to look out for is I think on a Tuesday the bridge don't open .
 
sailaboutvic said:
Hi Chuck

If it any help , went you plain to visit Rome , just go up the canal by the side of the marina and under both bridge , you will find a few boat yards , last year it was 15 Euros a night , one thing to look out for is I think on a Tuesday the bridge don't open .
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Sail -- thanks for the tip -- you are second brit that mentioned this to us -- so if 2 brits agree on it that says something --

thanks
 
We think we were a little naive when we left, certainly when it came to the finances. We had an income of x amount and that was all we had, we planned to make it work and we have. At that time I didn't know about this forum, had we been reading the sort of financial threads that are currently doing the rounds I don't think we would ever have left. That would have been a real shame as it is possible to life aboard and cruise and sight-see on a very small budget without having to live as a pauper.
 
A few years ago we met a couple who reckoned they lived on £100 per week. It seemed to me to be a dreadful existence, absolutely no luxuries, very basic food, anchoring in horrendous conditions at times in a small boat.
 
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