Cheapest country for a live aboard?

[wavetwister]

Whats the cheapest country that i can live on a sailboat?
I'm going to be solo so i'm looking for somewhere i can park my dingy to load up provisions. My thoughts where ... philippines .. peru ... ecuador ..
I'm wanting to keep the costs under $800 usd

[skipmac]

To some degree it will depend on how you plan to live and to a greater degree on how long you plan to stay. Most countries it's free to anchor but if you want to tie to a dock the costs for that vary a lot from country to country and also from place to place within the country.

A major factor is how long you plan to stay. Many countries limit visitors to a few months or so unless you get some kind of long stay visa.

One question, $800. Is that per month, per year or what? If $800/month you could easily do that in the US if you anchor out and cook most of your own meals.

[Zanshin]

You might want to add in some additional information to narrow down the list. You can live for next to nothing in Greenland in the winter months... because there aren't any places open and that means you cannot spend any money. But would you want to be there?

You are probably thinking about tropical paradise locations with warm soothing winds and soft sand beaches. That narrows down the list of countries to those perhaps +/- 20 degrees of the equator. Do you want a country where they can understand English? one with big cities to escape to? Marinas? Is criminality an issue, or corruption?

[wavetwister]

Originally Posted by skipmac

To some degree it will depend on how you plan to live and to a greater degree on how long you plan to stay. Most countries it's free to anchor but if you want to tie to a dock the costs for that vary a lot from country to country and also from place to place within the country.

A major factor is how long you plan to stay. Many countries limit visitors to a few months or so unless you get some kind of long stay visa.

One question, $800. Is that per month, per year or what? If $800/month you could easily do that in the US if you anchor out and cook most of your own meals.

Its $800 per month and the plan is to live live on a boat vs getting an apartment. I hear that $800 is hard to live on in the USA. I have family by the philippeans and i assume i would have to live on a boat if i moved by them.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by wavetwister

Its $800 per month and the plan is to live live on a boat vs getting an apartment. I hear that $800 is hard to live on in the USA. I have family by the philippeans and i assume i would have to live on a boat if i moved by them.

If you live on a boat, anchor out, don't own a car, pick the right location and cook your own meals then I assure you that you can live in the US for $800/month. This does assume you don't run into any big, unexpected boat repair bills.

Have not been to the Philippines but have had friends that spent time there. If you aren't living in a fancy apartment in a city then you should be able to live modestly even on land for that much. Have a friend who retired to Thailand who lives very, very well on $2,000/month. Again if you live modestly you should be able to live ok on $800.

[Iains boatyard]

Thailand on boat anchored out no problem. How frugal are you?

[rwidman]

Join the military. They will house you, feed you, provide medical and dental care and give you spending money to boot.

[Iains boatyard]

The criteria was live on a sail boat not in barracks

[Boatguy30]

Once you are “in” New Zealand is actually pretty cheap. But as housing prices soar, I think liveaboards are going to be more and more restricted.

But then again, we’ve been referring to it as the “last freedom” here since 2005....

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

Once you are “in” New Zealand is actually pretty cheap. But as housing prices soar, I think liveaboards are going to be more and more restricted.

But then again, we’ve been referring to it as the “last freedom” here since 2005....

Using USD or EUR makes NZ not so expensive, but local goods and services are relatively expensive due to the small market. I had forgotten how much cheaper virtually everything is in Australia. But at least in Queensland there seem to be anchoring limits pretty much everywhere that would make it difficult to live aboard in a single place, while we hadn’t run into that issue in NZ.

But hey, if you don’t need to spend money on big boat projects and don’t need marina facilities, just about anyplace in the world is cheap to live where there is no housing cost. Except maybe northern Europe?

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by wavetwister

Whats the cheapest country that i can live on a sailboat?
I'm going to be solo so i'm looking for somewhere i can park my dingy to load up provisions. My thoughts where ... philippines .. peru ... ecuador ..
I'm wanting to keep the costs under $800 usd

probably Bangladesh

as for Philippines, it cost $20 a month to rent a 3 room house when I was there, so you wouldn't need to live on the boat once there. It depends on the island though. I managed about $100 a month there.

NZ is bad value. Lots of stuff there has high prices which is strange as it doesn't cost any more to send container ships there than anywhere else.

You could live in any country in the world on $800 a month.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by seandepagnier

You could live in any country in the world on $800 a month.

No chance in Switzerland and Denmark. Lived there, it just doesn't work.

[Russian007]

I lived in Philippines and maintain a business there. It's much cheaper than the US and English speaking. There aren't a lot of Marinas but you would need security somehow. You don't need to fret over piracey, but the seas are full of fisherman that will pilfer things. There are viable solutions though re security.
I don't know about 20 usd/month housing. crowded boarding houses with students and tiny noisy buggy spaces go for around 30 to 40/month. Things are cheap, not free.

[SVTwilight]

Originally Posted by Iains boatyard

The criteria was live on a sail boat not in barracks

So join the Navy? 😎

[Stewie12]

Goa is the cheapest place I have been to. Dinner at a restaurant at $5- $6. Rum $3 a bottle. They even have some wine of their own. Temperature about 25C in the winter. Down side is there is rubbish everywhere. The people are pleasant and speak English. I would not want to live there as it is pretty run down.