How much is enough.....$$$$

[Timeguy]

Spent last 4 years sailing in the Great Lakes. Sold the house, the cars, all the furniture. Have a good solid Morgan, and I have gone through every single nook and cranny. Currently in Florida getting ready to.... Won't get S.S. For a couple years and don't have a pension. What I have is all I have. I'm pretty frugal and can fix anything. I've seen cruising budgets from 1200-4000 a month.
What do you think I need TOTAL to cruise for several years and some left at the end. I know it's going to be all over the place but I would like some comments.

[Lizzy Belle]

Welcome to CF!

Originally Posted by Timeguy

What do you think I need TOTAL to cruise for several years and some left at the end.

Ima go with a minimum of $750 a month x 12 = $ 9,000
$ 9,000 x several = total cruising budget
Total cruising budget + some left = answer to your question.

(Based on one person, not sure what exact boat, no clue as to locations or duration or anything else to base any kind of answer on. And based on you being *very* frugal since your boat will eat most of this budget.)

Yes, this reply is useless, but I thought I'd humor you since this is your first post

[Zeb]

There is never....enough....

- Zeb

[belizesailor]

Lots of threads on this or related subjects already. Give those a browse.

The answer is of course..."it depends".

[Paws]

I don't think anyone can answer this but you. Everyone is different. Every boat is different. Even skipper has different views of properly maintained. My experience has been that whatever you spend the year or two before you go sailing is what you will spend while cruising. You will spend it differently but if you're in the habit of living on $2k/month now you will likely continue to spend $2k/month. If you live on $10k/month, enjoy. So much of the budget is based on your lifestyle, desire for marinas, restaurants, liquor and other sins, etc.

I think the greatest mistake you can make is to assume your lifestyle will suddenly change. Geography will change, availability will change, you will not.

Just my $0.02

John

[RDW]

somewhat of a dumb answer but decide how much you want at the end. Then go do your thing until you get to that point and come home a work or start working where you are at that time. Just go.
rdw

[JPA Cate]

If you don't have it, you don't spend it.

For us, cruising as a lifestyle choice, the biggest expenses are stateside travel and boat stuff.

For you, two years, if the boat is in good nick and you have all that you need already, unless there is an urgent need, you would not require either stateside travel or much new boat stuff, for that period. If you become addicted to cruising, then you'll work something out.

Having some sort of nest egg for emergencies is for peace of mind: it makes life easier, but really, in life, one finds a way of coping. You might like taking a look at the $500/month thread, to see ways you may not yet have thought of to save money.

Ann

[chris mac]

There are two answers. However much you have is what y ou need, you will make it work somehow.
Or.. However much you have is not quite enough, save up some more.
The difference is the first answer has you sailing now. The second answer could keep you waiting and saving indefinitely.
I am waiting, but not for financial reasons. The kids are done school in 4 years, so I might as well put more money in the kitty. But it is an easy trap to fall into.
Would you rather regret not going, or spending all your money on an awesome adventure!
Good luck

[LLCoolDave]

You are frugal and can fix anything... drop anchor as much as possible and you will probably be comfortable on $1k per month maybe less.

[Timeguy]

Thanks for the info. I've been reading this site for a couple of years. Just a little background. I used to sail on merchant vessels as a marine engineer. Ive sailed all over the world, but certainly not on a sailboat. I left that life to to have a family and raise my children. Now that they have all started their own lives it's time to get back out there. I miss the sea terribly. It gets in your blood.
My wife is game for the change and I just got burned out working. Just couldn't see the point any more. I met a few cruisers and then bought a small (30 ft) boat to learn on up on the lakes.
I feel I'm ready, but cutting that last line is tough. Just don't want to go back to work if we decide to stop in a year or two.
Everybody's budgets are different and I do appreciate the feed back.

[Lizzy Belle]

Oops, "I" just became "we" so there goes my $750

[TJ D]

Hi Timeguy,

I've been living aboard and cruising for 6 months or so per year for a couple of decades.

As has been noted, everyone's experience varies. I find that two of us spend somewhere around $2k per month while cruising. This varies widely, of course. When in more remote places with no opportunities to spend much money save buying some fruit from the locals, we might only spend $300 during some months. In more developed, urban settings, we might drop $5k in the same time. On the average, I'd say that it works out to around the 2k figure. We aren't particularly frugal, we stay at docks pretty often, and also eat out regularly. We don't drink, so that saves some coin.

This figure does not include anything other than routine maintenance. It's really hard to factor that into a budget. Blow out a chute or a mainsail beyond repair, or end up with an unexpected engine overhaul (or any number of other expensive calamities), and that makes it quite hard to actually stick to a fixed number and keep the boat in good repair.

Obviously, if you've already done all the expensive stuff (rigging, engine, sails, etc, etc,), your expenditures will be lower for a year or two, but if you're using your boat offshore, some expensive gear will fail, period.

For example, we had a set of spectra sails delaminate prematurely, and we would up replacing the working sails unexpectedly. This cost $25,000 bucks that we had not budgeted for. But, we really had no choice but to replace them, and going with a cheap, used Dacron sail was not an option.
Our boat's pretty big, so anything above the deck is substantially more expensive than you will encounter on your Morgan. Our other systems are comparable, however.

On average, we probably spend 20-30k per year just on the boat. We only hire labor for specialized work. We could do with less, but we like to keep her gear in top order. I don't think that we could keep her in offshore-worthy shape for much less than half that, and that would be done by deferring replacement of kit beyond where it would typically be replaced.

As I said, everyone's different. Many reading this probably think that we're spending way more than any sensible person would ever need to spend, others might find our budget a hardship to live on. In talking to people cruising in different far-flung places, I think that we're pretty middle of the road.

Hope that does something other than add mud to the waters.

Good sailing, TJ

[LLCoolDave]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

Oops, "I" just became "we" so there goes my $750

Haha, that's what I thought. For two maybe $1500-2000. Better to have a margin of error. As you get older the shoestring budget is not quite as attractive.

[onestepcsy37]

We cruised the Bahamas over the past few years and averaged maybe $1k a month. This is all anchoring and a boat that was ready to go.

My friend lives out in the anchorage here in Florida. He's strictly a liveaboard and has been getting a minimal SS check for the past six years, about $700 after medicare deduction. He's alive is about the best I can say. Enough to feed him and his cat with some left over for small extras. Could probably do better if some of those extras didn't include beer, wine, and cigarettes....

[Adelie]

How big is the Morgan?
What insurance do you have on the boat, liability only or full collision and hull insurance?
Do you smoke?
Do you drink spirits?
Do you drink beer?
Do you need/want meat at every meal?
Do you need a lot of instruments to go sailing or are you good with GPS, magnetic compass and depth sounder?
What sails do you have for light air sailing?
Do you have a sewing machine?
What do you have for anchoring gear?
Do you have any health issues that require periodic purchase of drugs and/or therapy?

Not really an answer to your question but questions to help you figure out the answer that works for you and to point out the issues that I can see in my own quest to get out.