Month 48 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[sailorboy1]

This makes 4 years of my doing the monthly posts, which are met as an example for how much, what on, and why the cruising kitty got spent. I am thinking this will be the last of the monthly reports as the readership and comments have gone way down. I will say I read a story in the Caribbean Compass the other day of a cruiser couple who said they have averaged mid $1800/month. It didn’t really have a lot of details to be able to tell what they do different than me and I just mention it as another story for the wannabes to look into. I plan to post a year 4 review in a later thread once I get the info sorted.

Still sitting in Jacksonville FL doing the “living” part of the thread title. Planning to get out of here next month and go “somewhere” once all doctor appointments are complete

General living - Grocery, beer, supply runs, sundries, “other” etc. for the month were “normal”. This category has been very stable overall the last 4 years

Boat costs were high with the purchase of 4 new house batteries. Went high tech with 4 FireFly batteries and their promise of being resistant to PSOC. By the time I got the batteries, new cables and some other work that went into the installation these were about $2200. I am going to consider this as $500 maintenance and repairs and $1700 as upgrades as if I had just gotten new Trojan T105s it would have just been $500. The rest in the “boat” category was odds and ends, a hose, and some items to install a new refrigeration system, which really really add up.

Dining out and entertainment costs were low due to virus considerations.

Entertainment includes my wife taking off with our daughter and going on vacation. I got to stay and cat sit and install new batteries. What a great deal for someone, …………………. who wasn’t me!

Communication was cell phones with internet and data. Since we really use the phone more for video streaming Netflix etc. and as hotspot for internet, they are as much entertainment as communication.

Marina cost was a month slip in Jacksonville. Electric was all the power we want at the dock (air conditioning is great!).

Medical/dental monthly ACA plan premium.

Transportation costs were gas and tolls for the car.

The total expenses were $ 5,090.09. Cost breakdown as follows for planners and hecklers and spreadsheet attached:

General Living - Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries, other - $ 1,086
Boat costs - upgrades, repairs, maintenance - $ 2,519.22
Fuel (diesel, gas, propane) - $ 0
Dining and drinking out - $ 121.88
Entertainment - $ 550.58
Communication, storage, shipping - $ 138.59
Fees – $ -44.90
Marina - $ 307.09
Electric - $ 21.20
Medical - $ 64.04
Transportation and travel - $ 63.39
Gifts - $ 0
Water - $ 0
Registration - $ 0
Insurance - $ 263