Tips and advice for seafarers and their budget the next time they go ashore!
Written by: Christopher Torralba ( Seafarer )
Taking our break by means of shore leave means a lot for all of the seafarers out there, but what if I tell you that even in going ashore you can make a plan for it? well, this is just a simple advice base on my personal observation last two days ago.
If you want to learn how to manage your finances well, absolutely you need to learn it even in small things like when you go ashore, because of the joy of learning and sharing I would like to share this tips on my fellow seafarers.
How can you prepare yourself and your budget in your next shore leave ?
and I hope it can make sense to all of you mga kabaro!
1. Make a list of your items to buy:
Priority: Things that you cannot leave without
* Ship's stuff that captains ask you to buy
* Toothpaste
* deodorant
* etc
* medicine & vitamins
Wants: Things that can leave with or without it
* Snacks
* Wine
* chocolates
* soda & etc
Second priority:
* some of your colleagues on board that asks your favour to buy their stuff because they cannot go ashore.
Note! You put your colleague's stuff at the second priority because you go ashore for yourself to buy your own stuff that you need and that is your first priority.
But make sure that you can buy their stuff or else you know what will gonna happen ;-)
reason for making a list to buy:
If you will not set aside a budget you cannot identify what is need or what is wants and suddenly you buy already the things you like because of the alluring advertisement and later you will felt what you bought is not a need but a wants and what you need to buy for you needs is the one who neglected to buy.
2. Set aside your budget:
Placing a budget when you go ashore is a good practice because if you have a list and you have a certain budget you will stick to it. but if you will not set aside a budget you will neglect your expenses when you come back onboard and you will tell to yourself " what? this is my expenses? what happen?
3. How to make money in going ashore and take the advantage of it?
* If you have a hobby to sell not just to make additional money but to enhance your skills in selling you can take advantage of it. well, it will be a threat! for the slop chest manager hahahaha...
it is possible if the vessel doesn't have any snacks to offer for the crew so you can buy some peanuts, chips, and some chocolates in this way whether you like it or not it can be sold because what you buy is the item that the ship's crew wants to have when they are watching their movie stuff or surfing on the internet in their rest time.
4.Prepare two types of old or faded cash
Why old and faded bill? so that you can immediately dispose of some old notes of you dollar money in this way if you have a quality dollar notes it is easy to exchange it in the Philippines and you know already what I mean.
* Prepare Large bills like 100 US dollars
You can prepare your large bill if you have so that if they can change you their own currency and they can also return some dollar amount then you change your 100 $ so that you can have a smaller bill, let's say you just want to spend 50 dollars as your budget on that day and you have a 100 dollars so if the money changer has a dollar to exchange in return so you can change the 50 dollars into their own currency and likewise you still have your 50 dollars in return.
* Small bills like 5, 10, 20 or 50 dollars
The purpose of the smaller bill is you can have easy cash when paying for the taxi or small items that you don't need to be mindful if your money is just a small amount, we all know it's a big deal if we will use a 100 $ and you know what I mean if you have at least 2 years experience in your sea career in a worldwide route.
5. Bring your own backpack if the journey is a little bit long
The purpose of it is you can take your valuable stuff safely at you own backpack, I have experienced before with my bosun we go ashore and he did not take any small handbag or backpack after he has his tablet on his pocket. and what happen is when we eat got home onboard he remember that his tablet is missing and he got insane for the situation after that the other group came on board much later and bosun ask about his tablet if it is in the taxi because we just use one taxi on that drydock terminal so what we do is we call his number on his cell phone and luckily it rings and when we are near in the terminal gate we got pee on the near grass and we heard something's ringing! and that's it! it is bosun's tablet fall on the ground near on the grass because before he enters the dry-dock terminal he got to pee and he did not felt that his tablet got to fall on the ground, the lesson here is if you have a backpack or any handbag that your put your shore pass, passport , seaman's book and other important stuff it is all there and secured because your hand carry is always in your body which hangs.. I hope you learned some lesson here guys.
6. Ridding a taxi or any service from the terminal
Before you leave to make sure check all your stuff and check also the taxi compartment if you put your stuff there because I experience that I left some of my stuff there when we came back onboard how lucky am I it's just my " big mac "
7. Bring some drinking water
Normally when we go ashore though It is fun but we admit we can felt tiredness of walking from one place to another if you don't bring a water even a half litter you will need to buy a drinking water instead it is your budget already for your soda or ice tea when you eat from fast food or restaurants out there.
8. Bring extra plastic bag
Why do you need to bring an extra plastic bag? If you have your list of your priority and wants sometimes it has some changes let's say you plan to buy for just one month consumption but when you go to the grocery you felt that the price is cheaper and fare enough to your budget so in this way maybe you will buy more of your personal stock in your cabin, or if you will have your next voyage that will be around 45 days at sea maybe that is a good decision to buy additional for your personal stocks.
The other purpose of it is if you are going ashore in a group and sometimes when you buy something there is too much plastic to bring but if you will put all in one plastic bag it will be secure and safe and you don't need to forget everything because you just need to bring one big plastic bag one at a time.
9. scrap paper for your money envelope system
The purpose of this envelope system is if ever 2 to 3 of your colleagues ask your favour to buy something for them, every change of their money when you purchase something will be divided systematically that you don't need to compute the change because after you count all of the change in the counter you can just put it into their respective envelope so that it will be easy and effectively manageable.
10. cotton gloves
sometimes are gangway railings have a huge amount of dirty grease, to avoid it to your expensive shirt and pants and to your hand as well, you should bring even one piece so that your hands is free from any grease.
I hope I shared something useful every time we take our shore leave, Maybe you can share your ideas too by giving your comments and suggestions so that all of us will benefit for this small topic that we discuss.
Want to learn more about Serious money management?
Finally!
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( Registered Financial Planner )
and I am honored to share his expertise in handling finances and giving a genuine advice from all of interested in managing their finances well and I will assure you he will assist you in any financial management matters.
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Thank you for reading my article! God bless to all seafarers!
