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Old 01-05-2019, 10:31   #1
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Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

We just finished up our eighth month of cruising full-time on our Bristol 29.9.

We have now spent three months in the Bahamas, and while it was still a good month our expenses did creep up thanks to our wanting to replenish some provisions (note to self: bring more snacks next time) and having to pay some taxes on April 15th.

This month we'll begin to head back to Connecticut for the summer, so it will be interesting for us to see how the expenses change.

Below is 100% of what we spent in April. I don't leave anything out in these monthly reports because I don't believe "not counting" is particularly helpful for those still planning and dreaming.

Expenses:

Groceries/Non-food Groceries: $454.91

Diesel/Gasoline: $98.00 (15 gallons at $6.53/gallon on Great Guana Cay, the Abacos)

Propane/Denatured Alcohol: $4.29

Medical: $8.97 (prescriptions)

Cell phone and internet (2 phones, iCloud storage, Garmin inReach subscription, and myislandwifi because the T-Mobile service is so slow in the Bahamas): $202.63

Water: $20.00

Laundry: $6.00

Ice: $15.72

Boat US Towing annual membership fee: $151.00

Restaurants/Entertainment: $130.00

New York Times subscription: $20.20

Two nights anchored at the Exumas Land & Sea Park: $30.00

Hair cut: $30.00

Life Insurance: $220.75

10 pack of Chris Parker custom weather forecasts: $250.00

Random: $349.22. (Turbo tax plus state tax owed, conch horn, postcards, grocery bagger and fuel dock tips)

Total: $1,991.69

September, 2018 through March 2019 monthly average: $3,797.38.


I hope this is helpful.
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Old 01-05-2019, 12:09   #2
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

It is and thank you for posting. Your post and SB1's are very helpful.
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Old 01-05-2019, 12:24   #3
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

You had a good month IMO
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Old 07-05-2019, 05:51   #4
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cthoops View Post

Total: $1,991.69

September, 2018 through March 2019 monthly average: $3,797.38.


I hope this is helpful.
I wonder why you don't get the grief here over your spending the way I do
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Old 07-05-2019, 08:02   #5
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sailorboy1 View Post
I wonder why you don't get the grief here over your spending the way I do
Because there's only been 3 responses and 2 were yours? Sheesh, Sailorboy, give it time...
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Old 07-05-2019, 08:09   #6
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

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I wonder why you don't get the grief here over your spending the way I do
It's still way over 15euros a day
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Old 07-05-2019, 08:26   #7
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

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Originally Posted by gamayun View Post
Because there's only been 3 responses and 2 were yours? Sheesh, Sailorboy, give it time...
It had been 6 days. That's like a decade ago in a forum.
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Old 07-05-2019, 08:38   #8
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

Thanks!
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Old 08-05-2019, 08:24   #9
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

Almost $3,800 a month? $45,568 a year? Thanks for posting, very helpful.
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Old 08-05-2019, 09:10   #10
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Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

We planned $4500 a month, but have a lot of land based expenses still.
Leaves us with about $4k a month, it’s still not hard to save $1,000 a month from that for the inevitable, scheduled big ticket items like bottom jobs.
Then there is a separate oh **** fund for a blown engine, dismasting etc. that hopefully just sits there, it’s invested with the other money but was set aside in the planing phase.

I don’t post cause truthfully I don’t watch the budget, it’s been easy so far to stay well within it.
Expensive times have been Marina living times when we have the car out of storage and I’m buying stuff for the boat etc. cruising you lose all of those expenses and can live pretty frugally.
It helps if you can do laundry and make your own water etc. Except for an occasional repair, all we need is food and fuel.
You really could I believe pretty easily live below $1,000 a month for a couple, but I’d assume your deferring maintenance and that will eventually catch up with you.
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Old 08-05-2019, 09:40   #11
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

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I don’t post cause truthfully I don’t watch the budget, it’s been easy so far to stay well within it.
all it takes it to set the budget bar high enough, I'm so stupid sometimes

BTW - personally I don't believe it's "pretty easily live below $1,000 a month for a couple". That's like $7k/yr below the poverty line. Yeah people do it, but I wouldn't say it's "pretty easily".
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Old 08-05-2019, 10:30   #12
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

Well living below $1,000 a month is poverty, but I don’t think it would be too difficult, of course there is no going out to eat, and you don’t drink alcohol or smoke.
Entertainment would consist of watching sunsets etc., not a night out on the town.

But think about it, you can eat pretty healthy on $400 a month, not steaks, but as long as you do most all of the preparation, its not hard to only need $100 a week on food.
Clothes come from Goodwill or other sources, used clothing is real inexpensive, I’ve seen it sold by the pound for almost nothing.
Figure $100 a month for fuel, and that’s high for someone that doesn’t move much and rows a dinghy.
That leaves $500 or almost anyway.
I’ve already stated that I think the boat would be in a slowly decaying State.

Not that I want to live on $1,000 a month, not should I ever have to, my Military Retirement is much more than that, and my SS should be too, but I think I could if I had to.

There are forum members that have, and do, and they even have internet access.
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Old 08-05-2019, 10:31   #13
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

We live on about ~$1200 US ($1500 CND). Two adults. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but neither is it hard, as in living a hard life. Truth is, we live very well. We’re just very conscious of what we buy, and what we pay.

Some months are pretty lean. I’ve even had cut back on my craft beer consumption at times But mostly it’s not been too hard.
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Old 08-05-2019, 10:39   #14
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Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sailorboy1 View Post
all it takes it to set the budget bar high enough, I'm so stupid sometimes

What is your budget? I’m saying we spend on average about $3K or less a month.
Isn’t that about what yours is?
The difference I guess is that I try to put $1,000 a month back for the inevitable, our dinghy needed replacing about a year ago for instance, and last month we got a bottom job at R&B boatyard in Spanish Wells.
If not for the money I set aside each month, those would of course have blown the roof off of the budget, both were significant expenses.

If you have only planned to spend X amount of money on a monthly average, and you do I’m fact spend that, well unplanned expenses will occur and bust the budget, over and over again.

However it’s the same as living in a house on land, if you live from paycheck to paycheck, that isn’t going to go well, eventually the car or whatever will need replacing, and that busts the budget, so you either draw down on your investments, or you use credit.
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Old 08-05-2019, 10:48   #15
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Re: Month eight for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

I always look at the posts on monthly spend with interest. In most parts of Africa many many families live on $200 per month. I just yesterday read an article that South Africa is the most unequal society in the world with the average salary of $700 per month at the bottom end. Where I am living the average security guards salary is about $150 per month.

If you guys remember the Delos crew only turned around once and that was to go back to Madagascar when then spent another year and continually remarked at how dirt cheap in was.

What does all have to do with most here ??

Well I for one think it would be extremely helpful to all of us if we could road map costs per region in the world which will help people with their cruising plans. I have heard Australia is extremely expensive and cruisers I have met have said they could live on $200 a month in Thailand.

Imagine a world map with “average” monthly costs for all to access here on the cruiser site.
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