How Much the Great Loop REALLY Costs

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29 күн бұрын

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The Great Loop is a year long circumnavigation of Eastern North America on your boat. We share exactly how much it cost us to do this journey, including a detailed breakdown, how we were able to Loop at 30, and some tips for saving money on your Loop!
Check out schoandjo.com/great-loop-expenses for all this and so much more!
Thanks for watching!
Cheers from the Loop,
Jennifer and Elliot
#greatloop #boatlife #budget
🎥 Episode 415 | Filmed in May 2024
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ABOUT US
Hi! We are high school sweethearts from Atlanta, Georgia who decided to take a year off to travel around the world. Together we decided to create vlogs for our journey as a fun way to remember it. On September 15, 2019, we left Atlanta with 3 bags, 2 one-way tickets, and 1 goal of traveling for a whole year. Little did we know, 6 months later we would find ourselves in a nationwide lockdown in India. After spending 5 months in India, we came back to the United States and decided to purchase a 34’ Trawler, dive headfirst into boat life, and kick-off America’s Great Loop.
The good, the bad, the ugly - and most importantly, the real and real funny. We’re not here to tell you “how it’s done.”, just how we’ve done it. And that whatever it is that’s calling you - the way you’ll do it is much more attainable than it may seem.
Thank you for following us along our journey!
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Пікірлер: 64

@edterry4073 27 күн бұрын

If you consider what it costs to live on land for about a year (mortgage/rent, property tax, car payment/insurance, food, entertainment, etc.), $40,000 sounds like a bargain - plus all the fun and character development - the loop sounds like a great deal. Thanks for taking us along on this journey.

@SchoandJo 27 күн бұрын

Totally! 💯

@Yukikazehalo 17 күн бұрын

My parents are retired and have done a partial Loop; bought their boat in Virginia, went through the 5 Great Lakes all the way to Chicago then turned around and took the inter-coastal down to Florida. They are currently in the Bahamas and will be there until Fall 2025 when they have the boat shipped home to the Seattle area and then use it for trips up to Alaska. It's been a wild and stressful couple of years but they traveled to and visited so many places they never thought they'd see, made some great boat friends and strengthened their relationship after years of stress.

@SirAdamMeek 27 күн бұрын

Thank you for putting the grand total right up front! Looking forward to the breakdown!

@ScottHirons 27 күн бұрын

Wow. Thank you for sharing the financial side of the loop. I was mildly surprised your grocery cost were a little higher than fuel. I would have expected fuel to be the biggest expense. Even being frugal (being able to shop at grocer of your choice, couponing, not buying organic) the cost would likely still been the biggest part of the pie. Found it interesting. Thanks for sharing all the info that you have on the entire loop. Looking forward to the next adventure.

@SchoandJo 27 күн бұрын

Thanks so much!

@user-lv7ck8gf2k 3 күн бұрын

A big reason for lower fuel costs is because they had a single little diesel motor doing 8 knots! Others have twin engines sucking a lot more fuel!

@SchoandJo 3 күн бұрын

@@user-lv7ck8gf2k A lot of it too, is how fast you run your engines. We ran at the most efficient speed for our engine most of the time, which saved quite a bit on fuel!

@annhysell6064 26 күн бұрын

Scho & Jo (and Ollie, of course) Great information. Thank you for your transparency & detailed information. For me, anchoring is the best as it is the most scenic, quiet, and the boat rides better as one is typically bow to the wind (depending on current). The free/low cost marina compilation. Absolutely! Well done.

@mvintrigue-trawlerdiy1101 23 күн бұрын

Excellent, detailed video. Much appreciated.

@cmichaelhaugh8517 22 күн бұрын

Good job folks! I can’t live at home on that budget but you used sweat equity very well.

@donaldbrown9437 26 күн бұрын

That was very informative! Glad you took so much time keeping track of everything! If I wasn’t 74 with a land loving wife I would find the loop a great adventure! Thanks again!

@kimsalmon7593 24 күн бұрын

Waving hello from Kingston, Ontario, thank you very much for all your wonderful films. Looking forward to your new adventure.

@doncritzer2798 22 күн бұрын

I bought two E bikes a couple months ago and my uber bill went to zero

@jimyoung1734 25 күн бұрын

Congratulations you hit 30k subscribers…. That’s awesome.👏

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Thanks, Jim!

@joulemine 27 күн бұрын

I traveled the US in 2019 and mainly boondocked and free camped and spent just right at $36k for two people. Fuel and food were the highest categories as well, I think yall did quite well! Currently van camping across the west coast if yall would like to catch up sometime. I know yall are heading into van life and I've been a rubber nomad for years and have a business around mobile solar. Not trying to sell ya anything, simply help some fellow YT travel peeps ✌ -Tom

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Hi Tom, thanks for saying hi! Very interesting to see a similar cost for camping! I don't know when we'll be out west, but it would be great to meet up then 😁

@mindiwilhelm4322 27 күн бұрын

❤😮 You are so organized that it is absolutely amazing.

@TheBoomershines 27 күн бұрын

You guys rocked it! Great details and great info. I am not sure how anyone could do the Loop for much less and still have fun. You hit the perfect balance of fun and economical. Well done!

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Thanks so much, y'all!

@randolphh8005 27 күн бұрын

Great job guys! Appreciate all the hard work and detail work. Awesome information.

@timgreen4137 27 күн бұрын

This was very informative. Thank you for sharing it all with us. Hopefully, the "anchor vs marina" costs will come in handy, to help us save money for adventures ashore. It's good to know at least a little about what to expect when embarking on a new adventure.

@AdventuresofAplusK 27 күн бұрын

Super awesome info! That anchoring spreadsheet looks mega helpful!

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

🚀

@michaelmckeon2892 22 күн бұрын

Great Post TY!

@AnneCalhounRN 24 күн бұрын

brilliant! Thank you!

@carpediemwithLesli 27 күн бұрын

Doing the anchoring and having a saving of approximately $6,900; pays for a nice solar panels system!!❤

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Absolutely! Although our nice electrical set up is less important for the Loop - since you are moving every two days, your alternator should keep you batteries nice and topped up! A couple panels do go a long way, though!

@richardstever3242 27 күн бұрын

Wow! You really did go from zero to gold. Congratulations

@TheJttv 27 күн бұрын

About the same as me living solo in Raleigh. (Ignoring rent)

@robnee3313 19 күн бұрын

Thank you.

@edl5731 27 күн бұрын

I feel like you left out a very significant number - depreciation (or capital gain). If you sold the boat for $20,000 less than you bought it than you overall cost was 50% higher on the other hand if your sweat equity resulted in a $10,000 capital gain, your overall cost was only $30,000.

@randolphh8005 27 күн бұрын

Old boats don’t depreciate if kept up and repaired, in fact I would guess it is a selling advantage if the boat and mechanicals worked well for the trip and are properly maintained. The boat costs that one can do the loop in have a HUGE range, based on size and age. So you’re not wrong to consider it, but each situation will be different.

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

What Randolph said is correct, when you buy an old boat for relatively cheap, there isn't much more depreciation to happen (because the price can't reasonably go much lower for a working, decent conditioned, boat). That factored into our buying process and since we replaced our decks we put in alot of time and labor and was able to get some of that back on the sale. Of course if you put our time as like $100 /hour then we didn't even come close to making that back haha. I will say, it's generally accepted to never buy a boat as an investment, if you can sell it for what you bought it for, that's a huge win! Also we didn't include the price of the boat here, because that happened pre and post Loop. It would factor more into a "how much does it cost to live on a boat" not so much Looping so we excluded it. Cheers!

@haroldconnell2973 27 күн бұрын

Great job

@scottm9010 27 күн бұрын

Let us know when you’re back in our Bobcaygeon neighbourhood and we’ll buy you an ice cream cone 🍦 😉

@Ulbre 26 күн бұрын

Nice job. Did you plan that the loop would take a year? Or is that just how it worked out? If you planned it that way I'd imagine keeping on schedule wouldn't be the easiest thing to do. You know you'll have to do another loop with your future children, and then another loop once they're off to college and then a fourth loop with the grand-kids!!!!!

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

haha maybe one day! And yes we planned the Loop in one year, but didn't plan it in alot of detail. We just planned certain goals that helped us: 1. Reaching the Chesapeake Bay by May 2. Reaching Chicago by the End of September

@georgelauchland7512 5 күн бұрын

Not sure that food should count , because you have to eat no matter where you are on the planet ie home or vacation . I do enjoy your vid and information about cost of your trip❤

@lpettet1 27 күн бұрын

Thanks for the financial accounting. Wasn't the cost/income of having a KZfaq Channel part of the trip? Medical bc you weren't near Drs./facilities? The difference between buying/prep and sale of Pivot? Living on $40k for the year, being debt free, all while seeing everything you saw was really a good, cheap year. Nice job. Let's see how Van life compares.

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Thanks, Les! Nope, our business expenses (KZfaq, etc.) was not included here. Medical sort of was, because our rental car to go to appointments was included, but not our actual insurance costs. We didn't include the buying / prep or sale of Pivot as that happened pre and post Loop as well. Cheers!

@doncritzer2798 22 күн бұрын

1200 bucks for doggy treats for Ollie 🐕 😂😅😊

@mvintrigue-trawlerdiy1101 23 күн бұрын

Excellent video. I think you guys ended up well below the average. After reading the replies...One thing to keep in mind, even if one could do it cheaper, and one definitely can, you are always one mechanical issue or grounding mishap away from a $5000+ bill that will have to be dealt with. So in addition to the budget, you must have some decent reserves on hand to deal with emergency haul out/repairs.

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Great point. You need to have that reserve to handle boat life "emergencies"! We didn't have a boat emergency but my wrist break in Maryland was almost 10k including rental cars, marina stays, hospital bills, so our cost of 1.5 loops had that emergency bill.

@klaaskoster7857 24 күн бұрын

Love your channel and appreciate your information. The topic of a slip in a marina versus anchoring is arguably presented a little biased. You made very significant financial investments to allow you to anchor as much as you did. This included buying a reliable outboard engine, a bigger anchor, top of the line snubber gear, and solar panels presumably with charge controllers and batteries. That may have been a $5,000 investment. You also added considerable stress to your life in your first weeks of boating while you figured out how to anchor with confidence. With the investment made and confidence gained, anchoring indeed became a great choice. On the other hand, I can image other Loopers deciding to keep it simple and just dock their boat and plug into shore power. Total cost might not be that much higher.

@klaaskoster7857 23 күн бұрын

Oh, and the ongoing hassle of launching, towing, and retrieving the dinghy of course. Depending on your setup that can get old too.

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

While I do agree, that our investment of Solar and Lithium (your 5k is close to accurate, although we probably spent closer to 4) drastically helped with anchoring - You don't need that sort of set up for the Loop, it helped us for times when we weren't looping and since we were working we needed a beefier power system. Because on the Loop you move on average very two days so even without solar your batteries can stay pretty charged up (from the Alternator), and if you add a panel or two you can be set. The part that i disagree is about "adding considerable stress" by anchoring. If you watch our earlier videos, it was the "docking" that gave us considerable stress haha. So in fact it was less stressful (for us) to anchor! I will add (for anyone reading this comment) our course on anchoring has been highly received for anyone wanting to lessen that initial anchoring learning curve 😁

@josephwhite8578 24 күн бұрын

Could you stay at a marina each night if you wanted to?

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Yes, you can do most of the loop at a marina every night. There is a section between St. Louis, MO, and Paducah, KY, that you have to anchor one or two times because there are no marinas.

@doncritzer2798 22 күн бұрын

You two were cruising when diesel fuel hit the roof too, and food prices went up too.......

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

Exactly!

@p.r.9219 21 күн бұрын

I've heard that the word "BOAT" is defined as "Break Out Another Thousand" 🙄🤔

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

That's absolutely right! If anything breaks, its measured in boat bucks (1k increments)

@JoeHasGotToGo 23 күн бұрын

Groceries and gas were the big expenses. Ya know, three years ago you could of done this for $20k.

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

You're probably right!

@user-lv7ck8gf2k 3 күн бұрын

I was gonna go political..... then I saw your name!😂

@wesleyferguson6932 24 күн бұрын

You spent way more than I thought you would have. Most people can't afford to spend like you did.

@randolphh8005 24 күн бұрын

If your budget was much less, then you would not be able to do this trip. Remember this was not a vacation. They have no other significant costs. A couple living on less than $4000 per month mostly all in while traveling 6000 miles on a boat is pretty frugal. We are retired, and our monthly budget is way higher than this living on land. We are contemplating this trip also, and would have expected to spend somewhat more. Plus, we would not give up our residence to do so.

@rjaquaponics9266 10 күн бұрын

Didn't you suffer a medical emergency, where are those expenses? It had to cost something Is it not part of the budget?

@SchoandJo 10 күн бұрын

I did! But that was our first loop attempt in 2021. This number is from our entire Loop from 2022-2023, and there were (fortunately) no medical emergencies!

@JakeRichardsong 14 сағат бұрын

What was the carbon footprint? That is another cost.

@p.r.9219 21 күн бұрын

Four oil changes ? You threw away money on those.

@SchoandJo 20 күн бұрын

If there is one thing we believe, its to follow the manufacturer's guidelines, especially on things that are very expensive to fix, like engines. In this case, ours was every 200 hours, so that is what we did.