$500 v $5000 a month budget - which is best?

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

I suspect there is a lot of truth to this. If the average $500/month cruisers woke up one day each month and found $5k on the salon table with a note telling them to enjoy...I'll bet better than 95% would live the $5k/month lifestyle.

Actually if I found $5000 a month on my table, I would save at least $4000 and live on the largeness of $1000 a month. Maybe after five years or so I might live on $1500 a month.

Thing is on a 34 foot boat, there just is not any place to put more "stuff", so buying stuff is not going to happen. Ok I would fit a windvane and another water tank and then go annoy zeehag and fix her engine. But only after a few years O saving Magic money trees tend to die now and then

Really I would be hard pressed to spend $5000 a month. Well unless I found prada fowl weather gear. That might do it.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

You guys do realize DOJ started this thread as a joke, right?

Yes - and no!

Just seemed a shame to clog up the $5k thread with this discussion.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

SNIP

Thing is on a 34 foot boat, there just is not any place to put more "stuff",

SNIP

One thing I notice is that living on a boat results in a recursive process of figuring out what stuff you want on a boat.

When I am on the ball at the harbor I can go to Publix a couple of times a week so I turn off the Frigaboat and just use the Engel. When I am anchored in the Boca Grande Pass for a month I fill the Frigaboat with yogurt, cottage cheese, hard cheese, and some meat cuz the nearest store is a days sail in Key West.

I am still refining what clothes I keep on the boat, and may have to look into Prada foul weather stuff (maybe not). Same thing for provisions, it is a recursive process of selecting things that not only keep well but also taste good enough that I will eat them.

The result is that while maintaining things can get more expensive as they wear out there can also be a decrease in the cost of consumable items like food, paper products, and such since you start to build up a stock of what works and are able to find them at bargain prices if you look around.

[David_Old_Jersey]

The rule of thirds....

1/3rd for boat expenses (maintenance/repairs/dockage)
1/3rd for "you" (and crew) living and fun expenses
1/3rd for travelling expenses (a cross over from both boat expenses and living / fun expenses....... but being new in places and not permanent always costs more and doing miles on a boat ups the wear and tear)

(Am ignoring the saving for the future stuff - that is 1/3rd off the top ).

Like all 'rules ' , made to be broken .........but a ballpark / starting point to hone own budget (initially using research and a WAG and then from own experiences)

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

The rule of thirds....

1/3rd for boat expenses (maintenance/repairs/dockage)
1/3rd for "you" (and crew) living and fun expenses
1/3rd for travelling expenses (a cross over from both boat expenses and living / fun expenses....... but being new in places and not permanent always costs more and doing miles on a boat ups the wear and tear)

(Am ignoring the saving for the future stuff - that is 1/3rd off the top ).

Like all 'rules ' , made to be broken .........but a ballpark / starting point to hone own budget (initially using research and a WAG and then from own experiences)

I'm pretty sure, leastwise for me that the 1/3 travel is just not in the $500 a month budget. I have a $30 dollar diesel allotment which is about 300-350 miles. That sailing and walking is the extent of my monthly travel budget. So if I can't walk or sail there its not happening.

Luckily, being a part of nature, watching wild life and sunsets, is free entertainment.

But no worries, I've been bucking rules for a long time.

[Mark Stillwell]

Sailorchic laid out a good budget based on her actual expenses. I suspect her lifestyle is much more frugal than we would like. Our liquor bill will be more than her total food bill.

As others noted, we plan to retire and cruise Florida, east coast and Caribbean in a comfortable lifestyle we have been living. I don't anticipate our food bill will be much different while cruising. We also have boat payments for a few more years and believe insurance is an important risk management tool. Our proposed budget is about $3K per month:

$500 Food and Drink ($125/week)
$200 Restaurant ($50/week – once a week)
$100 Diesel/gas/ propane
$100 Cell phone
$100 prescription meds
$700 health/life/long term care insurance
$100 Clothes, hair perm, wife beauty stuff
$700 Boat payment, taxes and insurance
$100 Misc. boat repairs
$400 Marina (one night a week @ $100 for slip and electricity)


The budget is based on only 1 night per week in a Marina.

It does not include $1,000 every 3 months to fly home to check on property (keeping our house) visit grandkids and aging parents. It clearly does not include the cost of maintaining our current home, cars etc....Suzanne isn't willing to sell the house at this time...another risk management strategy.

Our big unknown is finding anchorages in Florida for 6 nights a week.

Is this possible??

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Mark Stillwell

SNIP

I don't anticipate our food bill will be much different while cruising.

SNIP

Maybe so but I doubt it. First off even in the 1%er boats it is hard for me to imagine a freezer the size of ones in even a modest home. Same for the frig. Shopping is also much easier ashore, just jump in the car and fill up the cart. Even at dock you will most likely will have far fewer bags of groceries than if you are on land, and the items you buy will be different as well.

Maybe some places on the East Coast do not fall into this category but in the Keys and Bahamas the humidity will eliminate some foods you would buy on land.

Not saying any of this is bad, just that unless you are on a very big boat/ship you will most likely be eating differently than if you are on land.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Actually if I found $5000 a month on my table, I would save at least $4000 and live on the largeness of $1000 a month. Maybe after five years or so I might live on $1500 a month.

Thing is on a 34 foot boat, there just is not any place to put more "stuff", so buying stuff is not going to happen. Ok I would fit a windvane and another water tank and then go annoy zeehag and fix her engine. But only after a few years O saving Magic money trees tend to die now and then

Really I would be hard pressed to spend $5000 a month. Well unless I found prada fowl weather gear. That might do it.

In the example, the assumption is you have $5k/month indefinetly, so no need to plan for the rainy day. The whole idea is that you have $5k available to spend.

Also spending doesn't neccessarily mean boat equipement (though it can include it). It can include eating out, buying better food, motoring more, tourist activites, whatever floats your boat.

Fresh out of college I would have thought $5k/month was a lot of money. 20 yrs on, it's more than we spend but it would be very easy to increase the lifestyle to match.

You may be the exception but I'd be willing to bet within a year, you would be accustomed to the extra money and be spending a lot more than you think. (I'm just not willing to fund the experiment)

[CatInHand]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Also spending doesn't neccessarily mean boat equipement (though it can include it). It can include eating out, buying better food, motoring more, tourist activites, whatever floats your boat.

.....silk pillows for the kitty, caviar on toast, socks without holes....

[Mark Stillwell]

Tomfl, I agree our refrig/freezer is less than a quarter of at home. I anticipate grocery shopping every couple of days fresh produce vs. once a week. So we won't be able to buy 40 lbs. of pork loins when on sale for $1.70/lb., 20 lbs. of top round beef roasts for $3.50/lb. or chicken breasts for $1.66/lb. as we did this week. Or 25 lbs. of hamburger that was on sale 3 weeks ago. So we anticipate meat costs will be a considerably higher.

I anticipate our wine costs also increase as we won't have space to store a couple of cases that give us a 20% discount locally. In reality, about a third of our food/drink budget is wine, liquor and Bailey's Irish Cream.

I don't know about fresh produce. Our big grocery stores are much cheaper here in Missouri than summer farmers markets.

[avb3]

[QUOTE=tomfl;1478921..,

I am still refining what clothes I keep on the boat, and may have to look into Prada foul weather stuff (maybe not). ...[/QUOTE]

I thought Prada foulies were called Gill.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Mark Stillwell

SNIP

I anticipate grocery shopping every couple of days...

SNIP

Not sure that is realistic on the hook. Even at a dock you will need a cab/bike to get to most stores. It really gets old fast to hop in the dingy, motor to shore, get to the store, get back and load the dingy and go back to the boat. In the Keys the stores are a little more expensive but in the islands shopping can be a real adventure.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

In the example, the assumption is you have $5k/month indefinetly, so no need to plan for the rainy day. The whole idea is that you have $5k available to spend.

You may be the exception but I'd be willing to bet within a year, you would be accustomed to the extra money and be spending a lot more than you think. (I'm just not willing to fund the experiment)

I've learned that one should always have a rainy day fund. I am probably the exception to a whole lot of things.

I guess if I had a million or two and somebody said spend it in a day, I probably would take that challenge. Actually that would be easy to do. I'm so use to living simply, that most of the rampant consumerism, passed me by.

Mind you, I'd not turn down $5k a month

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by CatInHand

.....silk pillows for the kitty, caviar on toast, socks without holes....

Wow, I could buy socks.... Wait I don't wear socks. They clash with the flipflops.

[sailorboy1]

I started that $5k/mo thread and you know what? I WISH I had $5k/mo to spend and when I picked that I thought it would provide a pretty high boat life (read the first post on it that says "if you won the lottery"). But you know what I have found out? It is that based on my research that $5k/mo isn't all that high because I bet a lot more people are at this level than they admit because people don't keep good records and don't really know where their money goes, or they have a "it depends" budget that is thousands of dollars a year that get spent but never credited as a normal reocurring cost even though it happens every year. And this applies to even the "$500/mo" people who except for a few with no savings and fixed income from whatever don't really seem to know what they spend their money on or call it money spend on "getting ready" or post cruise "refit".

My current hope is that $3k/mo will be a good life, otherwise I've really wasted a lot of time and money on this boating stuff. I don't want to end up as that guy hanging from his halyard one morning in some foreign port.

BTW - when I first got interested in the possibly of cruising as a way to travel I had a fantasy that $1500/mo would be easy living among the local savages. Maybe if I can get some better drugs I can regain that happy belief.