Top tips - saving money?

[GHA]

Care you share your top tips for making those boat bucks go further when full time cruising?

Zoomed out, imho, the absolutely number one money saving technique can be summed up in one word..
ANCHOR.
Always anchor. Then just go ashore with enough in your pocket to get what you need. And maybe a beer

Lidl is good for stocking up on some stuff, local markets of course for fresh.

So how do you lot make the meagre funds last longer?

 

[syneraida]

My top tip is do everything yourself

If you don't know how, learn. Try asking around, most people are happy to share the knowledge they have, or if you have a useful skill try swapping it, do a days labor in return for someone else's labor.

If your time is cheap then there's no cheaper way of getting things done IMHO

 

[capnsensible]

Catch fish.

 

[NornaBiron]

Learn to cook.

It's always nice to eat out (and we still do a few times a month) but if you want to make the money go further then learning to cook well is a no-brainer.

The more you learn, the more restaurants and tavernas disappoint, the more you save.

 

[Carmel2]

Discourage visitors at all costs.

 

[GHA]

Catch fish.

Not for while
But add a pressure cooker and some kilner jars and your nice big tuna/dorado can be savoured again months later

 

[rivonia]

Make lots of sailing friends. Some of them will have useful skills IE Mechanic,Fiberglass specialist ect. Invite people to your boat and say Bring a Bottle, feed them lots of crisps and have a home made simple Pizza to share.

 

[Yngmar]

+1 to doing everything yourself. Bring spare parts so you don't have to buy them or have them shipped at extortionate rates plus import duty (depending where you are). Even if you don't need them, someone else may be happy to hand you a note when they do.

Buy stuff that is easy to store and lasts long in bulk when you can. Use a pump thermos to save gas/electricity. Offer your skills to others in need. Even if money doesn't change hands, a dinner invitation and new acquaintances are good too.

Don't do the annual haulout foolishness. You can dive to scrub, you can dry out against a wall, get yacht legs or hire a diver to scrub and swap anodes, all for much less than the ridiculous lift and yard fees. Safe that money for when there's a reason to do it.

Oh, and last and possibly most valuable: Keep an eye on the boat and fix small issues before they turn into big, expensive ones. Treat your gear well and maintain it and it'll last longer.

 

[BobnLesley]

Not for while
But add a pressure cooker and some kilner jars and your nice big tuna/dorado can be savoured again months later

If you're after saving money, then don't buy the kilner jars; we've just eaten a curry made with pork canned in Cuba Feb 2015 and it, like all our others had preserved perfectly in a decent screw-topped jam/honey jar.

 

[lindsay]

Some excellent replies. As recommended, do as much as you can yourself. In particular, if you do not know already, before leaving, take a course or bribe or seduce someone if necessary, on how to maintain YOUR OWN ENGINE, not engines in general. Learn how to get to those areas of difficult access. How to deal with corroded bolts and screws etc. Practice how to remove and check and replace, all that "stuff*, manifold, cooler, thermostat, cylinder head, primary water filter, water pump, exhaust system etc

Its all very well to say you can ask others help as you go along, but this is frequently difficult if not impossible unless you are a DIY guru who is also multilingual.

Enjoy the life! I have been doing so in non UK waters for 20 years and my only regret is not having really got to know my trusty Volvo from the start

 

[NickRobinson]

Pressure cooker..
Lidadl App on phone..
Own a short boat...
Read this forum... (shameless sycophancy-)
Park it in the North (currently £2.66/day for secure serviced marina pontoon)..
Using said short boat lots reduces cost per day wonderfully..

 

[Trident]

Always DIY and never make a "good enough" fix - always make it perfect.
Always anchor, always sail and only go when the wind is in your favour. We only motored last year if the weather changed making and anchorage unsafe and we couldn't sail where we needed to go for safety. Despite the reputation of the Med for too little wind we still got by over 8 months on a total of €103 of diesel and we saw everywhere we wanted to. Never make plans to meet people on short notice that then force you to burn diesel getting there.
If you can fit domestic gas cylinders on board do so - for example a 13Kg cylinder is €12 in Spain right now and lasts us 6 months with 2 on board cooking most meals every day. A camping gas cylinder that lasts maybe a month costs €22.
If you can afford to kit out well before leaving have lots of solar panels so you never need to charge by engine or shore power.
We also use an electric outboard that we recharge from solar so don't waste money on petrol and maintenance.
We average around £450 a month for two, eating well and including having plenty of 3G internet use and full boat insurance (excluding refit and repair costs over winter which if based on essential would be low so far but in truth have been large because we decided to build new bulkheads to split cabins and have all new leather furniture made and so - but thats entirely discretionary and based on owning a 40 year old catamaran that we wanted to bring right up to date)

 

[KellysEye]

>My top tip is do everything yourself If you don't know how, learn. Try asking around, most people are happy to share the knowledge they have, or if you have a useful skill try swapping it, do a days labor in return for someone else's labor.If your time is cheap then there's no cheaper way of getting things done IMHO

Agree, you have to carry two spares of everything that will break, the tools fix things and exploded diagrams. We got lots of mechicanal help plus a VHF problem, I helped fix people's computers.

 

[westernman]

Care you share your top tips for making those boat bucks go further when full time cruising?

Zoomed out, imho, the absolutely number one money saving technique can be summed up in one word..
ANCHOR.
Always anchor. Then just go ashore with enough in your pocket to get what you need. And maybe a beer

Lidl is good for stocking up on some stuff, local markets of course for fresh.

So how do you lot make the meagre funds last longer?

Don't buy a boat. Just crew on other peoples.

If you are good and don't snore you will keep getting invited back. Much cheaper.

 

[GHA]

Don't buy a boat. Just crew on other peoples.

If you are good and don't snore you will keep getting invited back. Much cheaper.

Where would you live though?


A other more general though occurred as well, big hops!
Instead of trying to see everywhere and everything, if somewhere is nice then stay a while. Then a big hop non stop and hole up again for a while instead of day sailing port to port. It's all nice anyway

 

[Steve Clayton]

If in a marina and you pay for water then use another berths water - fill up in the dark when no one else is around

 

[westernman]

Where would you live though?

Sleeping bag under a bridge - warmer and dryer

 

[tcm]

Care you share your top tips for making those boat bucks go further when full time cruising?

Zoomed out, imho, the absolutely number one money saving technique can be summed up in one word..
ANCHOR.
Always anchor. Then just go ashore with enough in your pocket to get what you need. And maybe a beer

Lidl is good for stocking up on some stuff, local markets of course for fresh.

So how do you lot make the meagre funds last longer?

Hm, anchoring can be expensive as extended anchoring wears out the anchor and chain galavanising, so perhaps lay a mooring or snorkel around and find an old disused unmarked one, or perhaps a sunken wreck and tie on to it.

Otherwise avoid going anywhere, and avoid wearing clothes as much as possible. The cheapest food includes baked beans cos you can eat them cold and don't need any gas, whereas catching fish need expensive fishing gear. Use beach showers at night, and/or break into "secure" marina showers by patting your pockets with exasperated look, rolling eyes etc just as someone else uses the gate. Easily the best way of saving money is don't take any if at all possible or sail offshore, but obviously nice and slowly hence hardly wearing the sails.

 

[GHA]

Very helpful, good of you take the time to join in with the spirit of things

 

[rogerthebodger]

If you wan't to save money don't buy a boat, but we will all ignore that one.