Month 35 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[sailorboy1]

Box of wine is 5 liters, take out of the cardboard and it becomes a nice refrigerator form fitting bag of chillable red. In Florida it's only a 3 liter box which becomes a pita to replace every day

Cheap wine on the boat can instantly be turned to upscale premium wine by putting it into a real wine glass A glass one not one of those fake boat things.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Hard to understand how a restaurant meal can be cheaper than making it at home,

Doubtful in a 'restaurante" but cafe quite often can be cheaper for *that particular* menu del dia than making it onboard. And tastier as well, they've been at it for centuries
Though often I'll have a huge pile of salad onboard for lunch for must easily be well under a euro, lots of the world you really can eat really well and very healthy for so little, just stick with the locals

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Always interesting to watch these revenue discussions. I know next to nothing about it all, and have minimal direct stake in it all.

Instead of focusing my energies and resources on the revenue side of the balance sheet I've tried to increase our overall wealth by focusing on the expense side. As any business person knows, you can improve the bottom line b increasing revenue OR decreasing expenses.

So much discussion here, and indeed in our wealthy societies in general, is focused on the revenue side. That's fine, but people tend to ignore the other side of the equation.

I agree 100% Mike ,theres two sides to economic well being, the money in and the money out. Personally I believe its wise to address both sides of the equation.

Being debt free and having a paided for roof (either boat or house) is a great start as it enables one to have minimal fixed costs, this allows alot of control regarding outgoings BUT one still needs income, therefore concentrating on securing longterm income regardless of economic conditions is important as well.

Governments absolutely can kick the can down the road for a very longtime, and do, BUT every now and then things go bad, lots and lots of people were financially destroyed in 2008 and in my opinion 2008 hasn't been solved yet and "hope" they keep kicking the can down the road isnt a financial strategy that works for me, in fact it's not a strategy at all..........personally I'd prefer a little more control over my financial and cruising future than just relying on hope.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Box of wine is 5 liters, take out of the cardboard and it becomes a nice refrigerator form fitting bag of chillable red.

Not sure how to send messages without a proper glass bottle.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by cyan

Not sure how to send messages without a proper glass bottle.

lots of trash bottle on the shore, just pick one up

[cyan]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

lots of trash bottle on the shore, just pick one up

One man's trash is another man's sand...
https://youtu.be/CJLyiR3OekU

[Scatterling]

Originally Posted by conachair

Much of 1st world living is behavior programed to make you spend more, not be happier

Quote of the day!

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by daletournier

I agree 100% Mike ,theres two sides to economic well being, the money in and the money out. Personally I believe its wise to address both sides of the equation.

Being debt free and having a paided for roof (either boat or house) is a great start as it enables one to have minimal fixed costs, this allows alot of control regarding outgoings BUT one still needs income, therefore concentrating on securing longterm income regardless of economic conditions is important as well.

Governments absolutely can kick the can down the road for a very longtime, and do, BUT every now and then things go bad, lots and lots of people were financially destroyed in 2008 and in my opinion 2008 hasn't been solved yet and "hope" they keep kicking the can down the road isnt a financial strategy that works for me, in fact it's not a strategy at all..........personally I'd prefer a little more control over my financial and cruising future than just relying on hope.

Agree Dale, both sides are important. I guess my observation is just that we (both on CF and society rit large) seem to spend a lot of energy on the revenue side, be it chasing jobs or investments or pensions. But little more than lip service is paid to the expense side of the sheet.

Given that our developed economies are mostly consumer-driven, it's no surprise. The collective we wants everyone to chase more, More, MORE. Cutting back, reducing, and minimizing expenditures is definitely not part of our societal messaging.

Speaking only from my own perspective, I think it's easier to be in control of the expense side vs the revenue side. But that no doubt has to do with my inability to understand investing, or finance or anything beyond term deposits.

BTW, I completely agree with you about the powers that be kicking the financial can down the road. And it's not just governments. I too think there is a fundamental flaw in the current version of so-called capitalism (which I don't think really is capitalism). I think the days of reckoning are approaching.

... But what do I know .

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Quite possibly. Hard to understand how a restaurant meal can be cheaper than making it at home, but if you say so...

But this would mean I'd be anchoring close to urbaness. Here's my idea of the perfect spot

Attachment 198247

Actually Mike, I live in Spain and I work in Asia.

In Thailand, Many houses and condos are sold without kitchens fitted. It is cheaper to buy precooked rice and meat or fish and soup than having to pay for it and cook at home. In one restaurant, I buy rib eye with fries and salad and a coke for 159 Baht. To buy the same for home and then cook it is 310 baht.

I took 15 people to dinner and they ate and drank what they wanted... it was 2500 baht. I deliberately am not doing the conversion for you so you can see in your own currency.

Here in Seville, I get a beer for 0.60 euro and a tapa for free.

Weird huh?

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by weavis

Actually Mike, I live in Spain and I work in Asia.

In Thailand, Many houses and condos are sold without kitchens fitted. It is cheaper to buy precooked rice and meat or fish and soup than having to pay for it and cook at home. In one restaurant, I buy rib eye with fries and salad and a coke for 159 Baht. To buy the same for home and then cook it is 310 baht.

I took 15 people to dinner and they ate and drank what they wanted... it was 2500 baht. I deliberately am not doing the conversion for you so you can see in your own currency.

Here in Seville, I get a beer for 0.60 euro and a tapa for free.

Weird huh?

Last time I hauled out was in Thailand, each night I'd have dinner at a little Thai restaurant and have a lovely healthy thai meal for approx $4.
I've just hauled out in Trinidad, had a hamburger and chips at the yard restaurant tonight for $20 .

[weavis]

If I was living off street food, I could eat for $8 a day and be stuffed in thailand.

$11 with 2 cokes and 1 beer and 1 coffee. (below restaurant food) It helps to know where to go. In the front there is Satay peanut sauce... um.. the pork on skewers went before the photo was taken...

[weavis]

The Med can be as expensive or as cheap as you want.

For cruising it makes it affordable. (Spain). Other countries I have little recent experience of costs.
But as with all things, we are subject to prevailing costs of the region.

I spend for evening meal about 7 euros, including 2 or 3 beers. Comes with bread.

[weavis]

And I for one, would be the last person to criticise any cruiser for the money they CHOOSE to spend. As long as can be afforded and it makes the cruiser happy, that's all that matters.

[CatNewBee]

As we are mentioned several times with our decission to go electric with LFP, Solar, residential devices...

We have not done it with cruising expenditures or savings in mind.

We compare our budget and spending at home to liveaboard cruising, our horizon is about 7+ years of using the boat as liveaboards and then decide what to do next, maybe sell it and go for the next adventure or return to land based living.

We do save, when we can and spent if it is appropriate. There are homelass people living in first world countries and spending almost nothing, this is not our intention, nor the way we want to live.

Of course, we compare our spending in our former live on land to the living costs at sea.

On land in our house we spent about 7500kWh electricity per year, or 1600EUR, the bill for heating with oil and warm water was about another 1200EUR, then bills for water and sewage, garbage collection, taxes, isurances, cars, fuel, you get the concept...

We make our water now off solar, we cook and travel off the wind, we still use fuel and maybe we pay a marina for the winter or maybe not.

The investment for a house and a boat are comparable, also insurances, car fuel and boat fuel do match too, a house needs repairs, refits, upgrades in furniture, electronics, toys too, even maintenance and repairs, paint, windows replacements, new roof, new oven because of environmental regulations... There are running costs of living on land.

So, bottom line is, cruising and living on board is not more expensive, and you can do it without sacrificing your comfort too much.

Costs for food is comparable, some running costs can be overcompensated by technology, like solar and LFP, you have great food on board, a galley to make it comfortably, you make your water and sewage is free too, even garbage disposal on land. No propane bill too, no renewal of the Propane hoses and pressure valves components every 10 years.

You totally can live of a few bucks per day as you can on land. You even can eat out in some countries much more than at home.

It is about quality of live, we had a great home and busy jobs from dusk till dawn, so very little time to enjoy it, northern climat has a few months summer, half of the year rain and clouds and some days winter, now we are exploring the world and have more time for living our dream stretching the summer to a big chunk of the year, squeezing monday to friday to a few hours for working on the boat and maintenance and extending the weekend to 6 days.

It is a negative budget, because we do not earn any money doing so., but our life time balance is positive.

What price tag would you put on an hour of your life?

[LauraleeG]

Originally Posted by weavis

And I for one, would be the last person to criticise any cruiser for the money they CHOOSE to spend. As long as can be afforded and it makes the cruiser happy, that's all that matters.

YES!! A lot of the dialogue on the threads is about trying to convince each other that the way we choose to live our lives is somehow better/cheaper/more pure than the way others choose to live. Wonder why that is?
Dont we all just live our lives as we can afford to?
If the purist who lives off the grid, eats nothing but sea urchins and sea weed and spends 30whatevers a day vs someone else who spends 500whatevers a day suddenly inherited a million bucks...would they continue to live that way, or would their lifestyle change as a result of their increased means?

Live your life as you want to live it and within what you can afford...if ya cant, change something. But dont think that your way is better than my way--cause its not --its just different, and thats ok.