Month 15 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by DennisRyan

We are in Boot Key also. At the City Marina. There's a 3/4 sunk trawler about 100 feet away, sloops with shredded genoas, several sailboats with masts missing, sailboats still piled up in the mangroves, and, my favorite, a 30 -
40 ft sailboat driven up onto somebody's back yard with the boat and mast leaning on the roof.

We just left there last week. The day before we left a handful of FEMA folks, official clipboards and all, we walking around taking pictures and notes. Some of the 'debris' may have been left on purpose. I know the destroyed dinghy docks were a big issue and getting lots of attention.

[SV Bacchus]

SB, thanks again for the update. We enjoy following and keeping up with true money.

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

The Harbor looks fine and there's lots of moorings still available (I'm on a mooring). We have been here 4 days but haven't been anywhere yet due to wife's knee injury.

I'm glad people still are interested in the budget posts. I'll keep doing as long as I feel people are interested ( replied etc)

Keep 'em coming. They are a great help to the admiral and me as we make plans for our upcoming "retirement" (which means pretty much the same amount of effort expended as before but with more delirious results). At least that's the plan.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I don't know why a category that is "Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries" coming in as $40/day seems unreasonable????????????????????????



You are welcome to help yourself by reading each monthly thread and adding them up.

We spend 75 a week for food plus maybe 300-400 every 8-12 weeks at costco... so 40 per day plus expenses for eating out is a lot for us.

We stock up on chicken, various fish, scallops, turkey items, and big portions of block cheese which we either freeze or wax.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

SB, thanks again for the update. We enjoy following and keeping up with true money.

Wifey B: We keep detailed records like he does with more categories, but not about to ever share any of that information. Sailorboy is brave. When it comes to us sharing...

[Maka]

Love your posts.
Invaluable info Keep em coming.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by BandB

Wifey B: We keep detailed records like he does with more categories, but not about to ever share any of that information. Sailorboy is brave. When it comes to us sharing...

In the time I've been doing these lots of people have posted how they spend a lot less etc and that 'next month" they will post it to prove it, so far none do. One was in the marina a while ago with me and when I told him that I was still waiting for him to post his numbers he said "turns out my wife likes to spend money". I think to many this budget topic is a contest and if you aren't low cost you lose. But my numbers aren't a contest, it's what my wife and I spend and people can use it as a guide. I don't care if people think I spend too much/little and I don't care if they spend more/less.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by zboss

We spend 75 a week for food plus maybe 300-400 every 8-12 weeks at costco... so 40 per day plus expenses for eating out is a lot for us.

We stock up on chicken, various fish, scallops, turkey items, and big portions of block cheese which we either freeze or wax.

That's great, but I don't have a category for just food! But (75x4)+(300/2) = 450 for just food. So based of the cheap cruiser theory, you eat too much!!!!

[Iaangus]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I've adjusted for the tax deduction loss by reducing the quality requirements, which why entertainment is so low

Careful, reducing quality requirements could lead to increase in medical costs.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

In the time I've been doing these lots of people have posted how they spend a lot less etc and that 'next month" they will post it to prove it, so far none do. One was in the marina a while ago with me and when I told him that I was still waiting for him to post his numbers he said "turns out my wife likes to spend money". I think to many this budget topic is a contest and if you aren't low cost you lose. But my numbers aren't a contest, it's what my wife and I spend and people can use it as a guide. I don't care if people think I spend too much/little and I don't care if they spend more/less.

Wifey B: To us, budgeting is just a good discipline that we teach kids and employees too. It's the way of truly understanding what you're spending your money on. It's not a "gotcha" thing. It doesn't say we can't spend more, but it makes us aware. Just being under budget isn't some great feat either as it could just mean you budgeted high. We've been under on our boating budget each year so far because we have budgeted higher fuel costs per gallon than we've seen. However, we just set that part aside and look at the rest. My hubby's background is business and we do the same accounting for our personal life that we do for our businesses.

My first budgeting was when I was young and I had a goal of one day going to college. Even though I wasn't making a lot, I was still determined to save toward that goal. I had two roomies. They'd get upset with me because I wanted to eat at home when they wanted to eat out. However, I was very conscious of how much it cost to eat out all the time. All these years later, I can remember that I could eat quite well at home for $8-10 a day and I budgeted $10 which meant if I ate out one day and it cost $20 then I had to only spend $8 on 5 days to balance it out. I budgeted then eating out one day a week and not expensive eating out. Expensive counted as two days and meant not the next week. I learned to look at the grocery store sales. I never deprived myself but I didn't waste. My roomies were shocked I'd buy clothes at Walmart and at thrift stores. Well as a kid, everything I ever wore came from either a thrift store or a hand me down. I allowed myself one new nice outfit a month from a department store and I valued those items so that in 12 months I had 12 very nice, like new, outfits. Those were bought on sale too.

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by BandB

Wifey B: We keep detailed records like he does with more categories, but not about to ever share any of that information. Sailorboy is brave. When it comes to us sharing...

I'm with you 100%! A couple months ago, when we moved onto the boat, I posted my costs to make that move. I thought it might be interesting to tell others what actual move on costs were when you are in one city and the boat is 5 hours away.

I had full intentions of posting monthly costs after that. However, after reading the feedback, even though most was good or well intentioned, I decided I did not want to go through that every month.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

I'm with you 100%! A couple months ago, when we moved onto the boat, I posted my costs to make that move. I thought it might be interesting to tell others what actual move on costs were when you are in one city and the boat is 5 hours away.

I had full intentions of posting monthly costs after that. However, after reading the feedback, even though most was good or well intentioned, I decided I did not want to go through that every month.

coward!!

[zboss]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

That's great, but I don't have a category for just food! But (75x4)+(300/2) = 450 for just food. So based of the cheap cruiser theory, you eat too much!!!!

I am pretty fat, this is true.

We try and keep eating out to once a week for about $80 a week, including alcohol but not including trips to the liquor store, which is maybe 20 a week. For clothing I buy a dozen plain colored Hanes T-shirt’s from Walmart and stretchy shorts from Kmart or Walmart twice a year.

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Left Brunswick GA and am now in Boot Key/Marathon FL.

The total expenses were $2961.40. Cost breakdown as follows for those of you planning:

Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries - $ 1,258.92
Boat upgrades, repairs, maintenance - $ 277.39
Fuel (diesel, gas, propane) - $ 177.37
Dining out - $ 236.41
Entertainment - $ 82.48
Communication, storage, shipping - $ 201.50
Fees – $ -43.84
Marina - $ 70.17
Electric - $ 45.46
Medical - $ 42.46
Transportation - $ 69.71
Gifts - $ 407.22
Insurance - $ 136

I also just wanted to say thanks for continuing to post these real numbers. Very helpful as we plan our cruising days.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Another +1 vote and support for more posts! Looking forward to Month 16. If you would like me to set you up with a website that you can post numbers to, then let me know. I can program it to calculate averages or whatever else you'd like. I'm proficient in PHP and MySQL programming and would love to help. My reward would be to look at the results and plan accordingly for my future endeavors as a liveaboard or permanent cruiser