Month 38 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[sailorboy1]

I was surprised at the total expenses this month so adding it all up was helpful for me.

Traveled from Gulfport, MS to Marathon FL (that was a pretty serious 4 days of sailing in the Gulf). Wife is staying in Jacksonville with our daughter while she rehabs from her broken shoulder. Turns out that the shoulder medical plus the related transportation, plus an extra communication related cost, added up to over $1000. Plus, by my wife and I being in different places added costs in food and dining.

Did grocery, beer and supply run a little more to restock the boat and to have things a little beyond “basic” as I felt responsible to feed my free crew something “good”.

Boat costs were high. Of the total of $3150, $3009 was the balance for the new mainsail I ordered last month. The rest were just small but important “stuff”.

Made a mistake of buying fuel at Sarasota Fl, which is probably the most expensive in Fl.

Entertainment includes going to a movie, some books, Netflix rentals etc. and a yearly timeshare cost.

Communication was our cell phone plan plus I brought and activated a Garmin InReach unit. The inReach was useful out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico to get weather and my wife definitely liked that she could track me and get updates on how we were.

Marina costs were a month’s mooring in Marathon/Boot Key.

Medical of course are doctor and PT visits and copays for wife’s shoulder
Transportation and travel costs were a rental car/gas to go to our daughters and a bunch of Uber trips for my wife going to doctor and PT. I could put all the transportation costs down as medical as they all were due to wife’s shoulder one way or another.

The total expenses were $7,099.58. Cost breakdown as follows for planners and hecklers:

Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries - $ 1189.44
Boat upgrades, repairs, maintenance - $ 3150.11
Fuel (diesel, gas, propane) - $ 167
Dining and drinking out - $ 744.87
Entertainment - $ 181.88
Communication, storage, shipping - $ 636.25
Fees – $ -62.05
Marina - $ 348.30
Electric - $ 0
Medical - $ 375.03
Transportation and travel - $ 353.75
Gifts - $ 0
Water - $ 15
Registration - $ 0

[sailorboy1]

Sure been a quiet monthly posting

[JoeRobertJr]

Thanks for posting. It does help me evaluate whether my long-term planning numbers for cruising are realistic.

I have been debating whether to make similar expense posts from the perspective of a new trailer sailer sailor.

[Cthoops]

If you don’t count the sail and the medical related expenses, it was a low month.

We like our inReach. It keeps our friends and family happy and we can get custom Chris Parker forecasts on it when we want them.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Cthoops

If you don’t count the sail and the medical related expenses, it was a low month..

If only my bank account could understand the “not counting” concept of cruising budgets

[MV Wanderlust]

One-off... or hopefully one-off... expenses like the new sail and the medical/transportation happen. Other than those, you had a great month. Thanks for posting. It takes you time to put together these messages but they really do help many of us.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by MV Wanderlust

One-off... or hopefully one-off... expenses like the new sail and the medical/transportation happen. Other than those, you had a great month. Thanks for posting. It takes you time to put together these messages but they really do help many of us.

However just like in land based life, you need to plan for one off events, you have to have a padding.
Our month is going to be tough as well, our Youngest in College needed a $1300 car repair, and it didn’t fix it by the way, so who knows?
Then our oldest cracked a tooth, and couldn’t afford the root canal and cap, and I can’t bring myself to let her have it pulled and not save it.
Then our Son’s company he worked for filed chapt 11 so he’s unemployed and we have been having to “help” him.
I’m going to have to pull from savings and if nothing else happens and we don’t “do” Christmas then I can mostly recover with next month, and Jan we should be OK with money I pulled out back in savings.

Point being that none of this has anything at all to do with cruising, sometimes your possible expenses chase you even after you toss off the docklines.
Then of course there are boat related expenses too.

[sailorboy1]

Near as I can tell the last couple years is that there is going be an “one-off” expense every couple of months

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Near as I can tell the last couple years is that there is going be an “one-off” expense every couple of months

Yep, this month it’s $500 of water maker membranes, but to be fair they gave good warning and I may even could limp them through another year.

[Svsumurun]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Near as I can tell the last couple years is that there is going be an “one-off” expense every couple of months

This is what makes these threads so useful- it shows that real life happens .. sure, you could limp by cheap and then eventually be done and broke, but this is a right now version of what we are planning in the getting closer future!

Thanks for all of the work on this- it's a great help!

[Cthoops]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Near as I can tell the last couple years is that there is going be an “one-off” expense every couple of months

Ain’t that the truth. We were having a relatively inexpensive November until we decided not to go back to the U.S. this summer - new chip for the chart plotter, courtesy flags, etc. Here comes that one-off again. Cha-Ching!

[castone001]

Originally Posted by Cthoops

If you don’t count the sail and the medical related expenses, it was a low month. [emoji3]



We like our inReach. It keeps our friends and family happy and we can get custom Chris Parker forecasts on it when we want them.

I have an in reach as well. Can you explain the custom weather reports?

[Cthoops]

Originally Posted by castone001

I have an in reach as well. Can you explain the custom weather reports?

You can go onto the Marine Weather Center website and order custom forecasts. We ordered a bundle of ten which are good for a year. Once you decide to go, Chris can text your forecast on the inReach using as many texts as needed to convey the information. We wanted an updated forecast each day, so we texted him in the morning with our location, the current conditions, our plan, etc., and he sent an updated forecast in the afternoon. It worked very well and we will definitely be doing it again for multi-day trips.

You can find more information about it on his website.

[RickG]

Thanks for posting these. We've been off sailing so I am catching up. I agree that the one-off and unexpected costs seem to come once a quarter. We just splashed after bottom work, new propeller, and windlass install. Hopefully our bottom paint lasts at least two years (Trinidad SR). The old propeller and windlass lasted 17 years. But, the alternator is not charging and I need to troubleshoot that this weekend. Things happen.

Cheers, RickG

[GILow]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Near as I can tell the last couple years is that there is going be an “one-off” expense every couple of months

This is a valuable observation.