‘We feel truly alive’ - Observer article about the newest crop of liveaboards.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Point is, what feels like poverty to you is not poverty but quite acceptable to others.

You eat out several times per week, many do that 1-3 a month and it's not an issue to them that they don't do it more often.

You want to be in a marina when you visit a town. Surely do it, but others anchor and take their dinghy to town (rowing!) and feel happy.

Some decide they have to have insurance and they would never feel comfortable without, to others that is quite acceptable if they can live their cruising livestyle due to this.

Cruising is not making indefinite holidays for many. If folks go out for three weeks holidays most of them have completely different spending habits than cruisers.

Cruisers on a pension have often very much different spending habits than the ones which work from the boat to finance their dream.
They all do it to a level they are comfortable with.

So frugal vs poverty is a very personal thing and viewpoint.

A+1...

[Fore and Aft]

Frugal verse poverty is open for interpretation. But I have never seen the point in traveling if you're not going to visit some of the local museums, attractions or eat local food? I couldn't imagine visiting Paris without climbing the Eiffel Tower or going to the UK and not visiting a castle.
I have said before on this forum that life's to be lived, not endured.
I think there fiver a day yarn, must be if nothing breaks or is replaced daily costs. I use my camera and laptop daily and seem to get three years out of them. That's £1200 to replace or £400 a year or 11 weeks 3 days of their budget. All I can think is they must love rice and soya sauce or pasta and tomato sauce. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Beans on toast is an easy dinner for us some nights and costs less than a fiver to feed a family of four. But we eat it because we like it, not because we have to save money to replace some equipment. Which also brings up the point that while I am not a foodie some cheap food just tastes awful. No brand beans is a good example.
Cheers

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Frugal verse poverty is open for interpretation. But I have never seen the point in traveling if you're not going to visit some of the local museums, attractions or eat local food? I couldn't imagine visiting Paris without climbing the Eiffel Tower or going to the UK and not visiting a castle.
I have said before on this forum that life's to be lived, not endured.
I think there fiver a day yarn, must be if nothing breaks or is replaced daily costs. I use my camera and laptop daily and seem to get three years out of them. That's £1200 to replace or £400 a year or 11 weeks 3 days of their budget. All I can think is they must love rice and soya sauce or pasta and tomato sauce.
Cheers

Different folks, different priorities.

We would not skimp on a museum and, when pushed (not the case currently), would rather eat 1-2x less out.

You can cook low budget many many more things than pasta and rice.
If you feel you can only cook those on a low budget you are not very creative..
There are still many free things to see and do, eat were the locals do, skip the tourist feeding spots.

Why are your laptop or camera only lasting 3 years?
Mine are fine and last much longer...

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Frugal verse poverty is open for interpretation. But I have never seen the point in traveling if you're not going to visit some of the local museums, attractions or eat local food? I couldn't imagine visiting Paris without climbing the Eiffel Tower or going to the UK and not visiting a castle.
I have said before on this forum that life's to be lived, not endured.
I think there fiver a day yarn, must be if nothing breaks or is replaced daily costs. I use my camera and laptop daily and seem to get three years out of them. That's £1200 to replace or £400 a year or 11 weeks 3 days of their budget. All I can think is they must love rice and soya sauce or pasta and tomato sauce. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Beans on toast is an easy dinner for us some nights and costs less than a fiver to feed a family of four. But we eat it because we like it, not because we have to save money to replace some equipment. Which also brings up the point that while I am not a foodie some cheap food just tastes awful. No brand beans is a good example.
Cheers

Many aren't into that permanent vacation type lifestyle though......visiting museums, attractions, local foods etc. with the rest of the crowd.

Lots of us were stuck doing those sorts of things as children followed by being made to sit and eat some sort of new crappy food we didn't like whereas back then a hamburger, fries, and a coke would have been heaven!

I'd much rather enjoy a new trail and different terrains in a new area than stand in line to visit something in the city.

And if you travel far enough maybe new stars in the sky each night......

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Frugal verse poverty is open for interpretation. But I have never seen the point in traveling if you're not going to visit some of the local museums, attractions or eat local food? I couldn't imagine visiting Paris without climbing the Eiffel Tower or going to the UK and not visiting a castle.
I have said before on this forum that life's to be lived, not endured.
I think there fiver a day yarn, must be if nothing breaks or is replaced daily costs. I use my camera and laptop daily and seem to get three years out of them. That's £1200 to replace or £400 a year or 11 weeks 3 days of their budget. All I can think is they must love rice and soya sauce or pasta and tomato sauce. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Beans on toast is an easy dinner for us some nights and costs less than a fiver to feed a family of four. But we eat it because we like it, not because we have to save money to replace some equipment. Which also brings up the point that while I am not a foodie some cheap food just tastes awful. No brand beans is a good example.
Cheers

Frugal folks just don't blow £1200 on a laptop and camera..
My current laptop/CP which replaced my 9yr old Notebook (£200 in Argos) cost me €275, as for a camera my €149 (Huawei) smartphone serves just fine with 5&8pixels camera.
As for museums, can live without them and despite having been in Paris a few times the Eiffel tower holds as much interest for me as the other tourist must do.. Harrods.
There's a difference between culture and tourist bucket lists.

[sailorboy1]

You know that 5 pound a day thing is the only mention really of money amount in that whole article. But of course there are zero details of that number. Maybe that was how much they spent on food last month after a major stockup the month before.

Those saying it is possible please post your detailed records covering at least the last 2 years. If you post some "back when I did it" story, please provide the year. Those with no real experience other than some book or story please provide the year for when it was written.

$5 in 1975 is almost $30 today.

These low cost cruise things always sound great and carefree. But are really a dangerous thing once the devil in the details are given. Attached is my real life spreadsheet and it includes a "not counting" page showing what it would take to get my real amount spend down to $30/day

[Franziska]

I see this not about being hung up on this 5$ a day thing.

It more about that one can cruise HAPPILY and FRUGAL without spending huge amounts of money.
Those folks are often the ones who also know how to fix just about 90% on their boats without external help.
You have a hole in the hull, well dry up and patch it yourself, if you don't know how, you learn it.
You have a broken sail, either stitch by hand or get an 80€ old Pfaff or Singer and stitch it. And so on and on...

Some feel it's not possible because they have the perspective from a top notch, well equipped boat and may have a hard time to imagine that others do a similar thing with comparably very little.

[Mike OReilly]

This lifestyle does not have to be expensive. It depends on your needs, wants and most importantly, your choices. I'm currently swinging from my own hook, in a remote anchorage in NE Newfoundland. Here's the view of my entertainment, and my natural museum.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Some feel it's not possible because they have the perspective from a top notch, well equipped boat and may have a hard time to imagine that others do a similar thing with comparably very little.

And then there are some that feel it is not possible because in their travels they have never come across these talked about mystical cruisers of lore.

"Frugal" is a funny word without a measurement to know its' meaning!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

And then there are some that feel it is not possible because in their travels they have never come across these talked about mystical cruisers of lore.

"Frugal" is a funny word without a measurement to know its' meaning!

Sail over to Europe, there's a ton of us..

[Celestialsailor]

I can't find it now but this thread reminds me of the thread that was active on CF for the longest time...Cruising on $500 a month. Same results as we're seeing here.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I can't find it now but this thread reminds me of the thread that was active on CF for the longest time...Cruising on $500 a month. Same results as we're seeing here.

‘tis true.

[Mariefred]

I was reading through one about living on $800/month earlier today that came up in the search results when I was looking to see if there'd been any discussions about RM Yachts (got threads about just about everything except RM Yachts).


There was some very useful stuff in there as it meandered its way around the subject.

Perhaps there should be threads covering the whole range of expenditures e.g. "I suspect I may struggle on fifty grand a week while cruising. Anyone got any tips on how to keep expenses down?"

[Marathon1150]

Responding to the original post regarding "what we are seeing out there", and not ignoring but not focusing on what it costs to live on a boat and cruise, I can comment on recent (earlier this year) experience. We returned to Baja, Mexico after being away in the South Pacific for 3 years (punctuated by pandemic induced border closures and nervous health insurance companies requiring us to be off the boat back in Canada). It was very clear in Tahiti and Bora Bora, post-pandemic, that there a demographic shift in the average age of cruisers is taking place. The number of young people with very young children living on board in the Taina anchorage in Tahiti, was remarkably different in October/November 2021 compared to early 2019 when we first arrived there.

Now, on the marina dock where we are keeping our boat in La Paz, BCS, Mexico, the average age of cruisers coming and going, and in the anchorages, is trending downward. We regularly meet people with young children, living on their boat and working virtually. Friends in other important cruising spots on the Mexican mainland (e.g. Banderas Bay) are reporting the same thing.

The many people in our age cohort (old!) that we knew, living on boats during the years 2009-2019 in La Paz have all sold their boats and are living on land - some in Mexico and some back in their home countries.

So the Guardian article seems accurate to me. Regarding the cost of living quoted in the article, we would not be able to live on that amount of money per day.

[Mike OReilly]

It would be interesting to have an accurate demographic picture of cruisers. I bet it would vary widely from place to place, but I’d love to see if there are any trends in the data.

My sense is that the cruising lifestyle shifted dramatically to the more senior ages in the past couple of decades. Basic economics explains this.

But the same economic argument could drive a resurgence in younger people coming in. Why? Because as the article indicates, and as a few of us know here, it is very possible to live quite inexpensively this way.