MORE SAVINGS- FOOD AND BEVERAGES 1

OUR FIRST MEAL AT HOME IN SLOVENIA. AN APPROPRIATE FOR THE REGION GERMAN SCHNITZEL AND A VERY GOOD LOCAL WINE.

EXTRACTED FROM MY BOOK: MAKE THE WORLD YOUR SECOND HOME. MORE BY CLICKING ON THE COVER PAGE AT THE PICTURE.


WE SAVE BIG ON MEALS FOOD AND BEVERAGE:

The cost of everyday consumables will incur savings compared to other holiday options because you will be living in your own fully furnished home. It is my good fortune to be married to an excellent cook who delights in preparing meals. For my part, I delight in contributing all the necessary products that go into a well-stocked beverage department. Most of the places we have lived also have afforded me the opportunity to buy many fine local wines, often labels not available to the general public in the United States, but easily purchased in the home country. Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia,and even the Guadalupe Valley of Northern Mexico
have all contributed fine local wines to our table and Estonian vodka, Mexican tequila, and Irish whiskey have each contributed their share.

I don’t want to leave you with the impression that we stay at home for every meal. But, living at home without a stressful time schedule to catch a boat, bus,
or plane allows us to pick our restaurants with care, sometimes participating in discounts because we are able to schedule our dining during non-peak periods.
In every country we have stayed, Elysee and I keep a short list of restaurants that, once sampled, demand a repeat visit. We enjoy fine dining as much as anyone,
but on our terms. A second key factor on food and beverage is the opportunity to include local products in the meals.

Everywhere we have stayed fresh, locally grown food
products have made their way to our dining table. For
someone such as Elysee, who enjoys the adventure
of cooking, the opportunity to include local fresh
products is exciting.

Some examples are:

IRELAND: Mackerel fresh from the Irish Sea, lamb,
beef, and kidneys from the village abattoir, and
Mrs. Murphy’s scones cooked every morning
and delivered to the news store by 6 a.m.

MEXICO: Pacific yellowtail and halibut caught 500
yards offshore in front of our casita on the Pacific
coast of Baja California, prepared for dinner the
same evening.

CARMEL, CA.: Wild salmon caught that day and an
abundance of produce from the nearby Salinas Valley.

SlOVENIA: Fresh fish from the Adriatic Sea brought
to the village of Bled each Thursday, a wide variety
of locally grown vegetables, buckwheat dumplings,
and honey.

AUSTRALIA: Antelope and ostrich from the nearby homestead.

NEW ZEALAND: Blue tip mussels from the seas around Nelson.

ANNAPOLIS, MD.: A fine garden market every Sunday.

AND OF COURSE FRESH MAINE LOBSTER!!!

SECOND HOME RENTING VERSUS CRUISES OR TOURS

Excerpted from my book: MAKE THE WORLD YOUR SECOND HOME which can be purchased by clicking the cover on this page.

This is another way to compare the value of renting a second home each summer. Lets compare renting for an extended stay of three months or more versus a comparably priced tour or cruise.

My rentals are for about 100 days and typically include all utilities,
local phone service, as well as cable TV and Internet
access. At the conclusion of the lease there might be a few hundred dollars clean up fee. That’s about $75 a day to be in your own place, at your own pace.

Compare that to European cruises, tours. I’ll use
Europe having stayed there for extended summer rentals
on three recent occasions. All prices are for two adults traveling together.

CRUISE: A quick scan of early booking for Mediterranean cruises in 2011 revealed the following:
• A low-level twelve-day cruise for two would cost* approximately $7,500.

• A mid-level twenty-one day cruise for two would cost approximately $8, 600.

• A high-level eight-day cruise for two would cost approximately $15,000.


*This includes travel insurance, meals and on board entertainment but not other costs such as excursions, beverages, options or upgrades. For the high-level cruise all costs, other than ashore options, are included in the price.

TOURS:
• BOAT. Stay one week on a twelve passenger barge, cruising the canals of the French
Burgundy region, fine meals, wines and local excursions for about $7,300.

• BUS. Join a Smithsonian-escorted coach tour of the Baltic countries for ten days for $7,800.

• RAIL. Take a fifteen-day escorted tour of Switzerland, using Swiss trains to get around the country staying in hotels, for $6,000.

Or a thirteen-day Berlin and Poland tour, again traveling between cities by rail, for $8,000.

COMPARISON

On a dollars per day cost, there is no argument that renting a home for several months maximizes the dollar value compared to cruises or tours.

The average daily cost of the rental is $75 (plus you food and beverage) versus $500-600 a day for cruises and tours. I admit it all depends on what you want.

For us, we would rather stay in our own place for fourteen weeks than on a programmed cruise or tour for fourteen days. We take many meals at home, Elysee likes to cook, experimenting with native cuisine. We do travel around, even taking long excursions, but at our pace and our design. I have an entire chapter on our excursions each summer. Check it out.

FINANCIAL COMPARISON OF RENTING VS OWNING A SECOND HOME

This is excerpted from the revised edition of Make The World Your Second Home.

APPENDIX II:Cost Comparison: Renting vs. Owning

Another way to examine the cost advantages of renting a “second home” each year rather than owning is to compare my experience of renting to a person who might have bought a property and kept it for ten years. I have ten consecutive years of summer rental experience. (See chapter six, Our Love Nests.) My average per daily rental cost for one-hundred days each summer has been $7,500 or $75 a day.
I have estimated the market value for each of the ten properties to arrive at an average second home market value of $750,000. For comparison I assume purchase of a similarly priced second home and keeping it for ten years.

Other purchase favoring assumptions are a ten-percent down payment, five-percent mortgage interest, and a three percent compounded increase in the value of the property every year for ten years.

BOTTOM LINE: OVER THE TEN YEARS, EVEN WITH FAVORABLE ASSUMPTIONS FOR OWNING, IT COST MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH TO OWN A SECOND HOME THAN RENT FOR 100 DAYS EACH YEAR.

NEW EDITION OF: MAKE THE WORLD YOUR SECOND HOME

Announcing a revised edition of MAKE THE WORLD YOUR SECOND HOME. I have been able to reduce the price to only $12.95 and have opened an E-Store which can be conveniently accessed simply by clicking the book cover to the right. Please see also, my next posting which includes a new appendix to the revised book containing an analytical comparison of renting versus owning a second home. Of course this is only one reason for renting, but it is a compelling one.