Hello friends, I am really excited to bring you this guest post today from my friend Iris. We did a few contracts together out at sea years ago, when I was a cruise ship stage manager. While I’ve definitely got my land legs back, she married a sailor and is still part of ship life – including riding out this pandemic stuck at sea. If you’ve been following any of the news about the nonsense that has been repatriating cruise ship employees, that has been her life the last few months. If you’re interested in more cruise ship life and travel stories, Iris has an awesome blog called the Life of Iris.

This pandemic has hit people financially in a lot of different ways. For some they were either entirely laid off work or had their hours reduced. Some had to start working from home.

Some people found they were saving money by not going out so much. Some remembered that online shopping was a thing and all of a sudden all those impulse purchases started adding up.

I found I was saving money by not going out so much, or well at all. See, I’m stuck on a cruise ship, currently in Manila Bay in the Philippines. This Saturday marks 100 days since I was last on land. Coincidentally it is also the day that I am flying back to the states.

I’ve been sailing onboard as my husbands plus one so to speak and well, the policy has changed and they’re kicking me off. My hubby doesn’t get to leave though. He’s in that delightful category of “essential worker” which means he has to stay here until some government will open up enough to let cruise ship workers fly in/grant them visas so they can join their respective ships to send the current crew home.

Bureaucratic bullsh*t is entirely a thing. He’s well over a month past his contract end date, but then again, so is everyone else.

Now, as this is a personal finance blog, it may seem odd to have me write anything. I am largely unemployed and rely on my husband’s salary to pay the majority of my life expenses. Mel (brokeGIRLrich founder extraordinaire) has known me for a long time and she saw me struggle hard with the transition from working multiple jobs (side hustling like a boss!) to not, or at least for good chunks of the year not.

I married someone where if I wanted to be able to spend time with him more than a few months here and there or without him completely changing his career it meant that at least for the time being my career was going to take a back burner. We made the decision that his career would be the focus for now because he was A) earning more money and B) has better retirement benefits and matching options were better than my job at the time.

So, when this pandemic hit I found myself on the cruise ship where he works. Sailing around trying to disembark crew in their various countries.

We went from Australia to South Africa, changed course and went to Malaysia and then Indonesia, and then to the Philippines. And, in all that time, I keep coming back to the catch-22 of it. He’s stuck onboard because his position is deemed essential, and well, the stuck part pretty much sucks. But, that also means that he still has a job and keeps getting a paycheck. A paycheck we rely on because most of our financial eggs are so to speak in that basket.

Life is full of sacrifices. In this case he is sacrificing his freedom and ability to go home for our long-term financial security.

During my time onboard the realization of how much we rely on his job and his paycheck, as well as how even a seemingly stable job could be at risk sunk in. Relying on someone else’s income is like doing a trust fall. It was a very big step for me.

During a pandemic relying on someone else’s income is like doing a trust fall off a skyscraper – you can trust they’ll catch you, but without a safety net, you’re probably both going to be screwed.

I am so grateful that over the years we had put the work in – by budgeting and paying ourselves first – so that we could build up our financial safety net. That effort has paid endless dividends for the peace of mind it’s given me.

Now, out here stuck on a cruise ship isn’t all bad. From a personal finance point of view, we have actually saved quite a bit, even without me working. We can’t get packages or mail. The online spending category of our budget is very close to zero for the last 4 months, with the only items in it being presents for Mother’s Day. And, when you have no option to buy something, you have to make what you’ve got last. I was literally sewing up holes in my husbands socks the other day because we don’t know when he’ll be able to buy new socks again.

Will his socks last until he can go home? No idea!

Even with things starting to open up on land, onboard there is still only one bar open. No take out to be had, no socially distanced staggered reopening of your favorite Italian restaurant to go to. We don’t have to pay for food, or for the electricity to run a washer or dryer. We don’t have to buy tissues or toilet paper. My big expense is the stinking megabyte internet plans that I still have to pay for (that one is quite frustrating to be honest). The next biggest expense is buying $1.60 beers. The other day I went big and got a Cosmo for a whopping $3.00 – it was pretty exciting…. I should note that my threshold for what is “exciting” has changed quite substantially. One of our sister ships sailed by us and I looked at it with binoculars trying to see if I knew anyone on it. That was a good fifteen minutes of what I would now consider high level excitement.

Overall life onboard has been pretty good. If you can get past the Groundhog Day aspect of it, where each day is largely the same, with the exact same people, with absolutely no end to it in sight, then it’s pretty alright. There is a pool that’s open and the aforementioned bar. You can go for a walk or a run. We have access to a gym.

Did I mention it’s the exact same people? All stuck on a ship for a hundred days? I can tell you that of the 121 people onboard there are 14 women. I don’t have access to the ships database, so how do I know this? Because I can literally count them out by name. It’s been a lot of togetherness. That’s not all bad because I’ve gotten to know people that otherwise I probably never would have. It’s just like a family – sometimes you love them and sometimes you can’t stand them. And, also just like a family – you can’t seem to get rid of them!

Everyone’s pandemic story is different and everyone’s financial journey during this time has been different.

As I watched my friends disembarking the ship not knowing if or when they’ll ever have another contract again; trying to figure out how long they can go before finding a new job; trying to figure out what side hustle they could maybe to do in the interim I was grateful for the security of my husband’s job, and for the financial safety net we’ve built ourselves.

For me, for us, this pandemic thus far hasn’t been the financial struggle it has been for many, instead we traded in the financial struggle for the mental challenges of being stuck at sea. After 100 days at sea with a lot of time to think I feel like I learned or at least realized a few things.

• An emergency fund is the best peace of mind you can create for yourself
• That financial security often comes with sacrifices:
• Right now on cruise ships: Essential function = stuck onboard with no idea when you get to go home + time away from your family, but also = paycheck. :/

• I can save a lot of money if I:
  • Repair my clothes with minor tears and holes rather than just buying new ones.
  • Don’t buy things I don’t really need (no online shopping). It’s amazing what you don’t need when you literally can’t get it.
  • Go out to eat less and/or simply don’t have that option.
• My standards for what is entertaining has been likely forever lowered. It doesn’t take much to entertain me. I have become like a character in a Jane Austen novel – give me a good book, something to sew, and a place to go for a walk and I seem to be quite content.