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Old 01-05-2010, 13:00   #31
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Oh, and lest anyone think I am a sanctimonious tea-totaling prude, I too imbibe and have a well stocked bar on my boat (granted - minis filling up the spice rack, but we call it a bar - with tongue in cheek as well). Don't care for beer and rarely take the hard stuff, but there have been many a glass of wine and my famous pina coladas consumed aboard - just all in moderation and never underway.
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Old 01-05-2010, 14:54   #32
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mintyspilot that IS impressive! We try to avoid the convenience foods, but clearly you're operating on a whole different plane!


We eat better now, but when the **** hit the fan there was no option.

The point is there are a lot of simple options. For instance, "poor quality" meat such as braising beef or brisket is cheap compared to (say) rump, sirloin or silverside. It is gauged as "poor" or "low" quality because it is relatively tough. But if you slow cook it for two hours it becomes tender. After three hours it becomes so tender it practically dissolves on the tongue.

Tonight I am turning 1.6kg of mince beef into 16 portions of bolognaise sauce. It just requires a very slow cook over a very low flame - the lowest on the cooker. Since I've got the bits here....

1.6kg of mince (3.5lbs) - cost £4.00
2 tins chopped tomatoes - cost £0.40
2 cloves garlic (1 bulb = 25p, so 2 cloves would be 2p)
1kg of onions - cost £0.44
2 carrots - cost £0.10
1/4 tube of tomato puree - roughly £0.25

Total cost = £5.21 (about $8) for 16 portions.



OK, I'm not counting the pasta or the gas to cook it, but you get the idea. If we added some pasta (3x1.50), cheese (£2), garlic bread (3x£1) and some bottles of red plonk (4 x £4.50), I could have a whole bunch of friends round who would be too full to move when finished for 5.21 + 2 + 3 + 22.50 + 4.50 = £37.21 = $57

This stuff will be divided up into 4 portions and frozen. When I need a quickie dinner for the family in the week the sauce can be cooked from frozen in less than 30 minutes, the pasta in 10 and some garlic bread in 20mins.

If you are in no rush to cook then the savings to be made are very substantial.
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Old 01-05-2010, 22:25   #33
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. I remember our greatest "triumph" to this very day. We made one chicken do 20 meals.

.
Thats excellent

It must have been a tough 8 months. I think many of us have had to tighten the belt for a while and make do. I think it makes us better people... sometimes, no doubt you've heard too, when people say Grace "thanks for the food we have"... and you know damn well they have never had to say grace with virtually no food on the table...

However, that period you would still have had the optimism that its for a short period of time till you can get another job. There may be a strong psychological difference in belt tightening for a short period, or a period of necessity, than for a long period. Would you have wanted to be that frugal for the next 5 years? humans are an optimistic mob... as long as we think its going to get better then we can suffer being rolled in mud for a while.



For those that love eating fish the tight budget would be better, again with a proviso.... that you can actually catch fish!!!!!! We are still at our 4 fish for our trip. Thats 1 fish caught per 6,000nms.
We saw big fish jumping yesterday so Nicolle drops a lure in. The fish disappeared.
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Old 01-05-2010, 23:28   #34
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Old 01-05-2010, 23:47   #35
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Once I found out that Joshua Slocum was a terrible fisherman I felt better about my lack of skill in that area. Too much other stuff to do and the rods get in the way. And cleaning-cooking fishing is a filthy pain in the butt chore. I don't mind doing it every now and again, but if I had to prepare fish every day for years of cruising I'd turn over my captain's hat tomorrow morning.

The Pardey's mentioned that several boats they talked to in 1997 (in Europe) were in the $500/month budget area.

You can have a pretty cheap food bill of nice stuff if you prepare your own meals and buy whatever is inexpesive wherever/whenever you are. Anything out of season or that has to be transported in will cost a lot more.

Flexible cooking skills.
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Old 01-05-2010, 23:48   #36
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Yea I keep hearing about your fishing problems. It's not super difficult.

1. Fish where there are fish.
2. Use a lure that looks like what the fish are eating.
3. Move the lure in a way that looks like the way the thing that the fish are eating would move.
4. Repeat.

Fish tend to have great senses of smell, so wash your hands with seawater quite thoroughly, and be quiet, because the fish can hear you .

It also helps not to have a woman in the boat, and to bring plenty of cheap beer.
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Old 02-05-2010, 01:21   #37
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several boats they talked to in 1997 (in Europe) were in the $500/month budget area.

.
Thats 13 years ago, Eric... and thats probably the book publishing date so the actual meetings may have been 2 years before... 15 years ago.

But I know what you mean

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Fish tend to have great senses of smell, so wash your hands with seawater quite thoroughly, and be quiet, because the fish can hear you .

.
HEAR ME????????????????????

This Dorado was talking to me!!!!!!!!!

Becalmed for a week off the coast of India we were HARASSED for 3 days by these 3 Doarado. They would look at all 57,000 fishing lines I had out and just snigger! the boat was a friggin lure making factory! I tried everything.
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Old 02-05-2010, 02:16   #38
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Mark:....The lure needs to be tied to a string...
THAT was funny! Good one!

Not to belabor the fishing theme and create further thread drift ....
Trolling while underway is really nothing more than wishful thinking since your focused on a destination rather than optimum fishing conditions. However, if you do get lucky and catch something, thats great! I would rather clean a fish than open a can of corn beef hash.

The secret to fishing is presentation of the bait. Big fish eat small fish so why not give them what they want? I use a bait trap like this:


When your on the hook, put a little hard cat food, left over spam or whatever in the trap, drop it to the bottom beside the vessel and go to sleep. Next morning retrieve the trap and take it with bait still inside to deeper water. If you present this live bait to the bigger fish out a little further, your gonna catch something. If all else fails, eat the bait! You can buy professionally made traps that fold up nicely if stowage is an issue.

Something tells me that local fishing regulations might need to be reviewed before attempting to use a trap though. In Florida and the Bahamas your good to go, I do know that.
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Old 02-05-2010, 02:24   #39
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Becalmed for a week off the coast of India we were HARASSED for 3 days by these 3 Doarado. They would look at all 57,000 fishing lines I had out and just snigger! the boat was a friggin lure making factory! I tried everything.
If you just had 1 live bait....just 1
Or 3 if you want to fill the freezer!

I enjoy your posts and your blog btw. Happy trip!
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Old 02-05-2010, 02:47   #40
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For you drinkers, how about converving a water tank to a wine fermentation vat. Run vent into a jug of water, airtite cap, add carbohydrates from local fruits,grains and yeast, water and you have alcohol aplenty. A still and you have bootleg moonshine, valuable commodity anywhere there's people. I used to make excellent elderberry wine from bushes in backyard, and a plastic drum. With added sugar cost about $0.10 a gallon and was 10-12% alcohol.
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Old 02-05-2010, 03:05   #41
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Thats excellent

It must have been a tough 8 months.

Yep! It was not good.

Quote:
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I think many of us have had to tighten the belt for a while and make do. I think it makes us better people...

LOL! I never thought of it as "character building" but I see what you mean. You are probably right.

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Would you have wanted to be that frugal for the next 5 years?

Hell no! The point is that once you get away from expensive, supermarket produced, ready-made stuff then the food bill can drop dramatically. Vegetables are often priced low compared to meat so eat more of them. I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch - although I could live on chinese vegetarian menus, not european ones - but if you don't need a huge slab of meat on the plate for every meal then your costs will drop. It's even rumoured to be better for you but I'm not sure I believe that.

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We saw big fish jumping yesterday so Nicolle drops a lure in. The fish disappeared.
Fishing is like sailing. There is a skill to it. Do you and Nicole plan to drop in to the UK on your little tour?
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Old 02-05-2010, 03:08   #42
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Hi,

As a circum-navigator, I offer this thread to everyone interested in cruising on a budget.

In this case the budget is $500 US Dollars per month...

This is a tight budget, and one we barely fit into, but the sort of budget necessary for
younger folks to cut ties and set off...

I offer the following break down of expenses for such a budget based upon a crew of two:

Food $ 150
Port Entry and Clearance $ 50
Entertainment $ 50
Sail maintenance $ 50
Fuel $ 50
Haulouts $ 50
Repairs $ 100
TOTAL $ 500

I am assuming a haulout every 3 years costing $ 1800 including paint and yard fees.

I am assuming Sail repairs will be done by the crew and $ 600 / year is set aside for
replacements

I am assuming the engine is used as little as possible, LPG is used for cooking and costs $12 / month the balance being fuel for the main engine, with the dink rowed or sailed.

I am allowing $1200 / year for repairs and up grades to the boat itself.

My entertainment allowance is based upon potlucks.. inviting guests aboard for tea..
limiting drinks severely.

The food budget assumes meat is a luxury, bread is baked aboard, legumes and vegetables are the bulk of the diet, and dining out is a rarity.

Now... what sort of boat makes sense for this kind of cruising???

If we look at those who went on such budgets... the Pardeys for example... we find
the following characteristics...

Tiller steering
Heavy Displacement and 24 - 32 ft OAL
Masthead cutter rig
aft cockpit
hard dink which is rowed or sailed
very small engine ~ 4 HP or none
Ice Box
Oil Lamps
Paraffin stove
Virtually NO ELECTRONICS
Paper Charts

Wanderer III, Taleisn, Seraffyn, the Southern Cross 31 fit this category..

Your comments and suggestions are welcome..... and PLEASE examine the below
photo to reinforce why you might do this...

INDY
I see these threads all the time and I dont know wheather to laugh or cry.How is it possible to narrow down the exspenses of circumnavagating into 7 catagories .We are clearing out of Cairns next week to start our 5 year circumnavagation .Just this week alone we spent $620 on vaccinations,$280 on Malaria tablets $410 on a modest but adequite first aid kit {the very least you should take}.Medical insurance $1400 for 6 months, ships stamp $48, a few globes some batteries for the torch $18 .500ml of varnish $48 ,some good glue for dingy repairs $22.Gearbox oil for the outboard plus new "O rings"and a spare impeller $32 .

The point is i could go on and on and on .None of the above are luxury items but all neccessary .Oh almost forgot $580 to have our passports renewed as we had just under a year left on them .$350 for our Indonesian cruising permit and $238 for our P.N.G. VISAS .plus we will have to pay for Indonesian visas.

I wish our cruising exspenses could neatly fit into your 7 catagories but its just not been realistic.

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Old 02-05-2010, 03:26   #43
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$410 on a first aid kit? Holy cow! Does it come with its own stretcher bearers?
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Old 02-05-2010, 03:32   #44
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$48 USD for a tin of varnish? What are you putting on there? Clear 2 part poly? GEEZ!

Be careful about vaccines. Do your research.
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Old 02-05-2010, 03:38   #45
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Do you and Nicole plan to drop in to the UK on your little tour?
Not this year. But yes. I've heard about the malt rally around Scottland. that sounds like me!
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