Month 13 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[sailorboy1]

This past month we traveled ……………. nowhere again and are still in a slip in Brunswick GA for the hurricane season. Given a clean medical and good weather we plan to get out of here beginning of Nov.

The boat was the big expense category this month. Repaired some hatches that had broken hinges and got charts and chart plotter chips $$$$$. Replaced our master berth mattress with a 12” foam/gel unit I got off Amazon for $245 and made up the weird wedge shape at the head board with some foam that I cut out of the 6” foam mattress I removed. And even cut the old mattress and used that to replace the forward berth double mattress. Got some cushion foam replacements and got a couple of spice racks.

Didn’t dine out all the much and 1/3 of the dine out costs was something we did with the dock mates that we stayed with during hurricane Irma evacuation.

Rented a car a couple times to do doctor appointments

Communication is all in cell phone costs.

Entertainment expenses were for some Kindle books, going to a couple of movies, some sightseeing, and a month of CBS on line.

Marina cost is for a month of dockage and paid electric (broke out the costs).

The total was $3,406.21, which could have been under the $3,000 budget if we hadn’t gotten charts and travel guide for next season’s journey. Cost breakdown as follows:

Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries - $ 863.31 (25%)
Boat upgrades, repairs, maintenance - $ 1,128.62 (33%)
Fuel (diesel, gas, propane) - $ 15
Dining out - $ 286.27
Entertainment - $ 126.66
Communication, storage, shipping - $ 128.36
Bank Fees – ($ 36.01) using my cash back card saves money
Marina - $ 586.17 (17%)
Electric - $ 108.79
Medical - $ 26.58
Transportation - $ 132.10
Gifts - $ 40.06

[MV Wanderlust]

All sounds pretty reasonable, especially considering some of that stuff like the mattress and charts aren't going to be repeated expenses.

A month of CBS All Access? Watching Discovery?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by JohnEasley

A month of CBS All Access? Watching Discovery?

Thursday night football and binge watching last seasons shows. Has been an excellent $/hr of entertainment. Even get to watch the new Star Trek show

[Hoosiersailor]

Do you ever use Uber to get around or is it more cost effective to rent a car? I guess it would depend on distances.

[Kenomac]

I highly recommend you head straight out of the marina next season, cross the pond and spend some time here in the Adriatic and Greece. For off-season monthly slip rental we pay €150/month electric, security and water included just 80km from Venice, for a 16 meter boat. Plus you can cut your food budget in half or eat twice as much, whichever is preferred.

Not critisizing anything because I know expenses are high on the US coasts for what you get, New England is even higher than Florida. But... the Eastern Med is just sooo much cheaper and you can take a high speed train to anywhere in Europe. Just a way to get more for your $3,000 budget... why not live like a king and queen?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Hoosiersailor

Do you ever use Uber to get around or is it more cost effective to rent a car? I guess it would depend on distances.

We do Uber when it makes sense. At our current location a round trip to the movies with Uber would is $21.30, while a rental for the day is abut $45. Either an Uber trip or a car rental becomes a multi-use event like a big grocery run to get the most out of it.

[zboss]

Are you including depreciation of your equipment in your boat upgrades, repairs, etc? For example, we set aside $100 a month into savings to cover our next haul and paint job, which happens every two years. We also include about that much for sails and rigging replacements according to our predicted replacement cycle.

[ReneJK]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

For off-season monthly slip rental we pay €150/month electric, security and water included just 80km from Venice

Kenomac, that is really cheap for that area ?


Are you still in the Veruda/Verudela area ?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by zboss

Are you including depreciation of your equipment in your boat upgrades, repairs, etc? For example, we set aside $100 a month into savings to cover our next haul and paint job, which happens every two years. We also include about that much for sails and rigging replacements according to our predicted replacement cycle.

This is cash accounting, I only include money that I spend

[sailorboy1]

I'm buying a rental house and going to rent it to our daughter at below market rate. She gets a good deal and I still make a pretty reasonable return and get to have an address. The deal is she has to buy the house from us in a couple of years for what we paid for it (I need the cash more than the "income") or I toss her out and sell it it for a profit.

[Maka]

Very informative as always
Thanks

[Navicula]

I enjoy your monthly
posts.....

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by zboss

Are you including depreciation of your equipment in your boat upgrades, repairs, etc? For example, we set aside $100 a month into savings to cover our next haul and paint job, which happens every two years. We also include about that much for sails and rigging replacements according to our predicted replacement cycle.

Thank you Sailorboy for this great info! I really appreciate it.

I'm curious about the depreciation question that zboss has brought to the table. You calculate this differently?

assessing for depreciation, of course, "depends", but could we talk about this a bit for say a not-so-new-but-in-good-condition, pretty-well equipped bluewater plastic classic of 33' or so?

- 100$/m for next haul out and paint job (on a two year scale)
- 100$/m for sail and rigging replacement
-
-
....

could experienced folks chime in and make this list more extensive?

Kenomac: were you not just in Sardinia a few months ago? Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought I read this. In any case, I plan to spend some time out your way once i pull it all off (ahem, not there yet). Spent time in mainly the Aegean two summers ago and was abashed by the quality of life/cost ratio. And the color of the water...

I need to look into the sailing-folk communities there, however. in the aegina area, there were few, mostly english ex-pats who were not sailing anymore; these were living-in-the-marina, and they really seemed quite starved for company.

[sailorboy1]

O tobably will post month 14 in next day or two. But none of my numbers have depreciation in them, it is just cash out and those include whatever comes up.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Thursday night football and binge watching last seasons shows. Has been an excellent $/hr of entertainment. Even get to watch the new Star Trek show

Not sure where you are but we watch all tv and movies for free via the internet - maybe it is just outside the USA - watching both new and old shows - example we watched NCIS one day after it runs on USA tv -