Cruising on $500 per Month . . .

[w1651]

Stay out of the Med and Europe and you'll be alright. From what I hear Africa is still a good deal as well as the Asian continent but things are changing fast everywhere.

[SURV69]

Eating out . . .

unless one is talking McDonald's for coffee and a double cheeseburger(that is . . . "real" resturants(sp)), we're looking at a $2 drink(or more), an 8-15 dollar meal and a reasonable tip.

AND for what? Usually less than stellar service and often for food that has to be returned and tweaked. Let's not talk about the occasional night of being cemented to the head.

ANYWAY, by forgoing the use of one's own galley the cost of eating arises quite dramatically. Figure one meal a day will wind up being anywhere from another $200 to $400 a month. If one's too habitual about it, the costs could be $500 or $600 . . . abut the limit of what this entire thread is all about.

AND let's not forget that the more you go into town, more often than not, there's gonna be a sojourn into the nifty shops and all so one can bring more useless stuff back to stuff their boats with . . . more collateral damage to the budget.

OVERALL, for a person to live within a reasonable budget, the idea of shopping and letting others feed you(at a cost), isn't cost effective.

[callmecrazy]

there are cheap ways to live anywhere in the world. You have to remember that there are poor people in every city and country on this planet. There is a class system in every society...

Somewhere between subsistence fishing and restaurant food, is a place called 'smart shopping and simple mealtime'. When you read on the forums about 'higher cost of living' in places like europe or the south pacific, they are not talking about beans and rice, or hand picked fruits and local market vegatables...

You can spend $30 before you leave and have more than 6 months worth of beans and rice onboard. All you have to do is find/buy fish and produce. And for those, you simply find out what the lower class of people (because every society has a class system) are eating and where they're shopping, and follow suite.

As for subsistence fishing, a cast-net will serve you well. And small fishing gear for small fish. The bigger the fish the more chemicals in their body. Shellfish, panfish, and baitfish are all you ever need to catch and are almost universally edible. You can catch also squid in most locations and the occasional reef fish when you want to impress a girl.

local knowledge is required for any and all fishing locations. cohorting with the locals will save tons of money on all fronts. But not the suburban locals, the POOR people If you don't like poor people, you may not want to go cruising on ~$500 a month.

[zeta]

I have lived on $500 a month and while not easy it is doable, especially if single, young, and healthy. I used a system whereas I had $16/day and if I would eek out Mon-Thurs on practically nothing maybe $3/day to eat in (camper) then would have $100 for the weekend to enjoy a movie, ice cream, museum, and maybe a meal/w coupons. Never ran short. This does not leave any monies for maintenance so not sure I could do it on a boat easily.
I am about to set off (few months) and think I will have no problem with a military pension (health care included) and some savings. Although I will have a bit more than $500/month I will still use a daily allowance and plan to keep it below $1000/month, cruising 6 months and living in an RV for 6 months. I like simple and understand the term "less is more".

I do believe one can do it on $500/month but not sure, at my age, if I could live without a safety net to handle emergencies and maintenance.

My $0.02, make that $0.01

[zeehag]

cruisers on budgets do not frequent the turista shops, nor do they frequent the kind iof restaurants that accept attitude , ie, returning food one doesnt think is cooked correctly. 10 peso tacos are just that. 10 peso tacos. 5 star restaurants are in the too high to use category, and many arent really 5 star places--as the owner has bribed the powers that be into their rating.
i found most of the places to cruise do have different qualities of food service places---is your own choice as to where you choose to eat.

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse74

If you are cruising on 500 a month that is great. If you are cruising on 500 a month and taking food stamps, medicare, and free cell phones, what you are doing is having the American tax payers supplement your lifestyle. It is time to go get a JOB!!!

Those things are provided as a safety net not a damn hammock. It is a large part of what is wrong with this country today.

Brad

This thread is about cruising on a micro-budget. It makes no distinctions regarding morality of economic conditions experienced by those choosing this life style. Furthermore, this thread is for the express purpose of helping others cope with life on a micro-budget.

I consider your response and others of it's ilk, little more than the ravings of a petulant child. Were you to go to

Bill Mitchell – billy blog | Modern Monetary Theory … macroeconomic reality

and learn how the modern monetary system actually works, you'd find that no sovereign currency issuer such as the USA, Canada, NZ, Auz, and the UK is ever revenue constrained. You'd also learn that Banks create the principal for loans out of thin air, and the borrower is expected to earn back the principal and interest too. This is in direct violation of the US Constitution, which reserves currency issuance to the Congress.

You'd also learn that the economy is an upflow system, with the rentier class supported by household income, which comes from Labor.

That the efforts of the Rentier cabal, masquerading as a political party decimated the earnings of working people such that Labor's share of GDP fell from 60% to 51%, and working people attempted to maintain their lifestyles via debt accumulation, and this progressed until private debt/GDP exceeded 350%, at which point households were saturated with debt.

Once this occurred, households began deleveraging, which reduced demand, which led to mass layoffs.

To date, the Federal Government has done little to correct the situation while significant issues remain buried under the carpet. The elephant in your living room is failing bridges, levees, canal systems, railways, highways, electricity grids, water supplies, and other critical infrastructure which can only be maintained/ repaired by Americans working in the USA to fix them. Yet nearly 15 million remain jobless, including nearly 50% of recent college graduates, creating crime, destroying families, young people, and those in late middle age.

Those who qualify for food stamps and medicaid reimbursement of Part B medicare premiums can easily be cruising in a good old boat with an LOA of 28-32 ft. As a matter of fact, US law considers such people to be Homeless, and they qualify for additional targeted benefits.

I for instance, find people at the 1st Baptist Food Pantry who have SUVs, or very nice cars. I do not disparage these folks, regardless of the fact that they have something I simply cannot afford on Social Security. Instead, I am grateful that Publix cannot or will not mark down groceries, meats, and vegetables to a fraction of their retail price, for the purpose of liquidating them within it's stores. Instead Publix donates this food to the food pantries, who give it to me.

As I mentioned elsewhere, if you are of modest means and want to go cruising on a micro-budget, are willing to adopt the recommendations given in pp 28-36, and are trying to save for a boat, you should take advantage of all the resources available, including medicaid, food stamps, social security, disability, va pension, va medical, welfare, free phones, and of course, should you find it, employment.

In our specific case, access to food pantries, food stamps, and medicare premium reimbursement means that our effective income is nearly $1200 / month. This has permitted us to pay the myriad costs associated with Natalie's successful competition for and landing of a US Medical Residency in Brooklyn.

Of course, once Natalie actually begins working at the Hospital, we will no longer qualify for much of this assistance, but meanwhile it permitted us to pay the following expenses out of revenue, without a need to borrow funds:

USMLE - 3 exams $3500
Immunizations $ 200
ECFMG certification - $ 1000
Study Materials - $ 2500
US Clinical rotations in Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology - $5000
Electronic Residency Application Service - $ 1600

National Resident Matching Program - $ 1600

96 Mercury Tracer - $ 2900

We have used this assistance to go from living marginally to returning to the middle class.

However, there are many in my age group who for various reasons prefer retirement, and many young people who simply cannot find work due to Federal Economic Policies which discriminate against working people in favor of the rentier class, and many, many in their fifties who have been thrown out of work in what should be their max earning years, and will never work again.

This thread is for the express purpose of helping them transition to a fulfilling life cruising on a micro budget.

Furthermore, I consider any pompous over stuffed behind of a donkey flaming from his deluxe computer system esconced in his luxury apartment paid for with revenues from his Banking, Loan Sharking, or Financial legerdemain job should remember that "but for the grace of God, there go I".

To make my remarks very short, "Get a Life".

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by w1651

That's why I'm a real Capitalist and not a part timer like many on this thread. Corporate welfare is far worse then what we think of when talking about the welfare state. Though the less fortunate are taking a pretty good chunk.
Corporate loop holes, bailouts, and subsidies have been a big problem for a long time and it ALL needs to stop.
Everyone should be paid their value but THEY have to figure out what their value is. Too many people refuse to keep learning and making themselves better people which in turn makes them more valuable to society and able to charge more in return.
I'm in business trying everyday to eek out some sort of living, taking leadership classes and promoting my business by way of customer service, quality of product and I could go on the dole but choose not to.
I am captain of my own ship master of my own destiny. I don't pay for anything if I can't afford it and I don't take anything that isn't mine. And it Pi$$e$ me off and a lot of other Americans that able bodied people including corporations are taking advantage of a system meant to help and not support a person in need. Not a company a person.
Instead of giving you a safety net we should just leave you alone and let you all die in a pool of excrament and urine because your to lazy or stupid to get to a toilet and relieve yourself. Oh! Wait! Forget I mentioned it The government won't be there to wipe your sorry A$$e$ !
Now that's a rant

This is rubbish pure and simple.

This individual was born through the intercession of many who remain unknown to him. He was educated through the efforts of many who depended upon the largess of government. He commutes to work on transport systems built from a pool of community monies, drinks water using public systems, dumps his sewage into public systems, breathes air kept reasonably clean via public systems, swims in waters cleaned up through public action, or kept that way via public activity.

This individual is very likely middle class, about 40 years old and selfish. He resents paying tax because he sees little benefit therefrom.

Yet, he advocates war with Iran, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and intervention in the internal matters of China, Syria, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere.

He through his proxies refuses to use the sovereign currency issuance authority of government to improve the quality of domestic life, preferring policies which kill and maim millions overseas.

He and his ilk are the number one reason, Americans overseas are not liked and cruising folks find many difficulties.

His pontificating is inappropriate, and postings like his should be removed from this thread.

If the established moderators cannot find the balls to strip this thread of this kind of irrelevant rubbish, I can assure everyone, that I, the person who started it, can.

It is about time this crap was permanently removed from this thread, and postings thereon restricted to constructive comments and suggestions that make micro-budget cruising easier to do, safer, and affordable. Everything else is off topic.

And I mean OFF TOPIC!!

INDY

[goprisko]

During the past month or so, various boats less than 28 ft LOA have
visited the Cocoa Anchorage.

A 21' free standing sharpie ketch, manned by a couple stopped in last month. They have cruised the Bahamas in this boat.

Uhuru, a 26' sloop was back after a Bahamian cruise last week.

A 17' ComPac Catboat was launched at the boat ramp for a weekend cruise.

My good friend Tom, got a job and is saving $100/ week for his boat. He boat sits a 25' Catalina for Dave.

Dave lives on a 30' sloop and recently had hernia surgery. I know, because he stopped by for free medical advice from Natalie.

Dave and Randy tried to get me a free dink, but it was gone.

Randy and friends completed a month long cruise from Fernandina to Miami, in kayaks.

If these can go cruising, or can live simply and cheaply, so can you.

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by wolfenzee

I worked all my life and paid into my social security all my life, after wrapping a car around a tree (due to a patch of black ice) I screwed up my brain enough so I am unable to work, I am collecting a modest amount based on how much I paid in. It would not be as modest and would not have taken as long (three years and a lawyer) to get had it not been for all the people that are trying to cheat the system. Back benifits (after lawer fees ) paid for the boat and $1000/month is not enough to live comfortably while land based but will make a comfortable cruising budget.
This thread will help me to live a comfortable lifestyle as well as to provide someone the opportunity to share it.

First of all, my condolences to you. You are not alone, I am a vietnam vet. As a vet, at age 65 I qualify for a modest pension, designed to keep me above $14,000 / year. I was turned down because I worked for an NGO for 30 years. VA tried to force me to commit the felonious comingling of the NGO's assets with mine to avoid paying the pension.

What is missing in all this is perspective:

In 1970, when I returned from the war, gas cost $0.30/gal, Mrs Samek rented me a 1 bedroom furnished apt for $75/month, a new buick cost $3000, social security informed me that my pension at age 65 would be $500/month, and I earned $14,400 / month teaching school. At about this time Lyn and Larry Pardey cruised extensively in 24' Seraffyn on ~$3,000/ year.

Today gas costs $4/gal, apts go for $1000/month, new cars cost $30,000. That is expenses now cost ~ 10x as much as 40 years ago.

However, social security pays me $830/month, not $5000/month, and beginning teachers get ~ $40,000 / year, not $144,000/year.

Given that the Pardeys cruised in a very simple 24' boat they built themselves, without an engine, without electricity, without a windlass or winches, on $3,000/year, it's reasonable to imagine that duplicating their lifestyle should cost ~ $30,000/year or $2500/month.

If you are to hope to keep your expenses to the minimum at ~$500/month, you aren't going to live as well as the Pardeys did, and you are not going to be able to afford many of the things the Pardeys took for granted, and you are going to have to skip many of the more expensive places the Pardeys could visit. It's as simple as that.

Regarding the assertion regarding welfare cheats, there are only welfare cheats because the system's arcane qualifications create same. Given a simple qualification system, which guaranteed you either a job or income at least of a certain level, and which had no other restrictions, cheating would be eliminated. Why? Because, the system would not care what your assets were. If you make less than Y, the system gives you the difference between X the amount you make and Y or Y-X=Z.

If you had French type single payer health system, you'd not have medical cheats either. Everyone simply shows up, is diagnosed, treated, and sent home. Cheating, by definition is eliminated.

Cheating in the US context, is the direct consequence of politicians trying to make political hay out of offering benefits they have no intention of providing. It has nothing to do with the actual activities of the population.

So, good luck making your way through the system, and I do hope you secure your disability benefits.

To ensure you get the maximum bang for the buck, visit pp 28-36 and study the information presented therein.

INDY

INDY

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by w1651

Stay out of the Med and Europe and you'll be alright. From what I hear Africa is still a good deal as well as the Asian continent but things are changing fast everywhere.

IME around the world (albeit mostly sans boat) is that once a location moves from welcoming visitors (from providing nada up to some facilities) into tourism being an important local industry it is time to move on - both cost and welcome wise as the basic attitude always becomes "leave yer money ASAP and f#ck off ASAP" - even if wrapped up with a smile / service......the natural conclusion usually involves killing the golden goose .

Come to (old) Jersey - we long ago killed our tourism industry and never got the hang of making here a cruising boat destination, so have not perfected the art of fleecing folks. But for dirt cheap you will need to dry out (boat - not liver!) otherwise it is into a(nother?) expensive floating carpark.

But always far more "Normal" (and therefore cheaper) places in the world than Tourist destinations - just that they are usually a bit more hardwork as don't always have the same easy access facilities and services for visitors as folk actually want (despite protestations to the contrary - "I want to experiance the real blah blah land, except I want it exactly like home".....I confess to having also been guilty of that one on occassion ).

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by goprisko

This thread is about cruising on a micro-budget. It makes no distinctions regarding morality of economic conditions experienced by those choosing this life style. Furthermore, this thread is for the express purpose of helping others cope with life on a micro-budget.



As I mentioned elsewhere, if you are of modest means and want to go cruising on a micro-budget, are willing to adopt the recommendations given in pp 28-36, and are trying to save for a boat, you should take advantage of all the resources available, including medicaid, food stamps, social security, disability, va pension, va medical, welfare, free phones, and of course, should you find it, employment.

In our specific case, access to food pantries, food stamps, and medicare premium reimbursement means that our effective income is nearly $1200 / month. This has permitted us to pay the myriad costs associated with Natalie's successful competition for and landing of a US Medical Residency in Brooklyn.


We have used this assistance to go from living marginally to returning to the middle class.



This thread is for the express purpose of helping them transition to a fulfilling life cruising on a micro budget.



To make my remarks very short, "Get a Life".

.....................................

If you are to hope to keep your expenses to the minimum at ~$500/month, you aren't going to live as well as the Pardeys did, and you are not going to be able to afford many of the things the Pardeys took for granted, and you are going to have to skip many of the more expensive places the Pardeys could visit. It's as simple as that.

..............................................

INDY

Interesting that this thread was all about 500 a month and somewhere the OP must have told us all that it wasn't really 500 but a lot more. I must have missed that post.

So all this time people have been talking, and listening to someone, about 500. But now someone let us know now that that is not it at all eh?

I have a life. So do you. But you sap part of mine as I work (or am on call 7 days a week) and you travel instead of working.

Uh huh. I got it.

Thanks.

I hope this (total BS) thread is closed now that the real truth is out.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by goprisko

If the established moderators cannot find the balls to strip this thread of this kind of irrelevant rubbish, I can assure everyone, that I, the person who started it, can.

so much useless anger over an internet thread, but I wait to see the above


but this thread has been off topic for at least of its' pages

[justwaiting]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

so much useless anger over an internet thread, but I wait to see the above


but this thread has been off topic for at least of its' pages

add the word political in there and i agree that most of the last few pages are rants, within the rules ?

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Therapy

Interesting that this thread was all about 500 a month and somewhere the OP must have told us all that it wasn't really 500 but a lot more. I must have missed that post.

So all this time people have been talking, and listening to someone, about 500. But now someone let us know now that that is not it at all eh?

I have a life. So do you. But you sap part of mine as I work (or am on call 7 days a week) and you travel instead of working.

Uh huh. I got it.

Thanks.

I hope this (total BS) thread is closed now that the real truth is out.

this is a great thread,with lots of good stuff!

unlike most of the other threads on cf it addresses how not to spend money on expensive gear,as opposed to discussing how to spend it if you have it.

perhaps if the name was changed to"cruising on a shoestring and a prayer" it would attract fewer trolls

[ShaunJ]

Originally Posted by goprisko

This is rubbish pure and simple.



If the established moderators cannot find the balls to strip this thread of this kind of irrelevant rubbish, I can assure everyone, that I, the person who started it, can.

It is about time this crap was permanently removed from this thread, and postings thereon restricted to constructive comments and suggestions that make micro-budget cruising easier to do, safer, and affordable. Everything else is off topic.

And I mean OFF TOPIC!!

INDY

Seriously? ? ? ?
Indy, I am questioning your ownership of this thread? Do you actually own a thread if you start it?
I have learned a thing or two from this thread but I must have missed this part of CF.