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sailorboy1 · 14-09-2023, 08:10

Just finished 7 years of cruising and living on the boat and am sharing the results. I provide this as info for planners/wannabes and entertainment. The following is how and what my wife and I spent OUR MONEY on, and you can look through and change as you feel to make whatever number YOU want it to be. Plus remember it is cruising and living on a boat and I would bet it is within $100-200 of the total amount we spent during the year, and everything is included.

Like the last 3 years things didn’t really work out as I hoped for before I started 7 years ago. Turns out as you get older so does your family and that makes demands on your time (assuming you care, which is a different story). So, this year like last, we have spent a lot of time in an inexpensive marina in Jacksonville Fl. But did manage to do a 5-month trip down coast of Florida and to Bahamas and back (most of it in Bahamas). It works out that we actually spend less when cruising over being in the marina.

So here goes:
General Living - Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries, other - $14,546 (~~$/4,659.76~~ $1,212 / mo. avg.)
This is our “living” category and would be pretty much the same living on land as on the boat. If something doesn’t fall into another category it goes in here. Inflation adjusted it has been pretty consistent over 7 years. It feels like when we go to the grocery store it is a LOT more than in past, but it isn’t really even considering the Bahamas time/prices. This category accounted for 26% of the year’s total costs and was down $968 from last year.

Boat costs - upgrades, repairs, maintenance - $7,583.61 ($631.97 /mo. avg.)
Had to replace the dinghy this year, AGAIN for the second time in 7 years that was a $1806 cost. Had to also replace my batteries AGAIN as the expensive $1953 FireFly carbon foam batteries only lasted 2.5 years. Went “cheap” drop in lithium batteries for $1320 and will see how that goes. Had to repair head sail webbing in the Bahamas and the mainsail webbing in the US and those were around $900. The rest is mostly just everyday maintenance and small repairs that add up. This category accounted for 13.6% of the year’s total costs and was up $776 from last year.

Fuel (diesel, gas, propane) - $1,637.77 ($136.48/mo. avg.)
We are sailboat and try to sail as much as possible. But the ugly truth of cruising on a sailboat is that you motor more than you planned because you want to get there when the weather and conditions allow. This category accounted for 2.9% of the year’s total costs and was down $968 from last year.

Dining and drinking out - $9,111.28 ($759.27/mo. avg.)
Yes, we dine and drink out a fair amount. It is our money remember. Most of our dining out is less than $100 and we consider it just part of traveling etc. This category accounted for 16.3% of the year’s total costs and was down $89 from last year.

Entertainment - $2,633.67 ($219.47/mo. avg.)
Lots of times it is hard to decide if an entertainment cost should be called something else. Sometimes I decide car gas and a motel stay while on a road trip is entertainment or travel. But this is how I accounted for it this year. This category accounted for 4.7% of the year’s total costs and was down $169 from last year.

Communication, storage, shipping - $4,066.57 ($338.88/mo. avg.)
We got a Starlink this year so had the equipment costs plus $125-150/month for the service. This was offset some by changing our cell phones to a cheap prepaid plan. Also had to replace a couple cell phones this period as my wife’s phones like to go swimming. We also decided to get a small storage locker to offload some stuff from the boat that we had just because we had nowhere else to put it. This category accounted for 7.3% of the year’s total costs and was up $2,555 from last year, which is the third highest increase from last year.

Fees - $(174.34) ($(14.36)/mo.)
This includes country check in costs, money exchange costs, and money we get back from using our credit card. Overall since we use our credit cards for 99.5% of everything, we spent money on, pay the card off each month, and collect the cash back it saves us money each month. This category accounted for -0.3% of the year’s total costs and was up $618 from last year.

Marina - $3,380.31 ($281.69/mo. avg)
We spent 7 months this year in a marina slip. The other 5 months we spent only 1 day in a slip, some dinghy docking marina fees, and paid $100/mo. at our home marina that held us a slip and got us a place to store our car in a covered and lock parking garage. This category accounted for 6% of the year’s total costs and was down $671 from last year.

Electric - $183.75 ($15.31/mo. avg.)
I started this category in year 1 when we stayed in a marina that had metered electric that included a fee, But the last few years when in Jacksonville Fl I have had a flat monthly low-cost electric charge. It is a great deal for us, and you may as well just consider it the cost to run the air conditioning. This category accounted for 0.3% of the year’s total costs and was up $34 from last year.

Medical and dental - $3,116.96 ($259.67/mo. avg.)
Medical and dental were up a lot this year. We are on an ACA (Obama Care) US plan and it went up $150/mo. and this year and we are paying $218/mo. Yet our coverage is less and deductible more. There is an emergency room visit that isn’t even in the books yet as I am waiting for the bill that I expect to be $1600-2000. At least this year our plan included dental and we currently have clean teeth! This category accounted for 5.6% of the year’s total costs and was up $2.590 from last year. This was the second highest category change from last year.

Transportation and travel - $6,625.35 ($552.11/mo. avg.)
We got a car last year and it needed a few repairs this year. Plus, we drove up to Canada from Florida to visit friends and did many weeklong vacation trips. Not all the cost in this category is about the car as there are motels, condos etc., from land travel also in it. Overall, we have determined the cost of having a car is not a whole not more than getting rentals and using other forms of transportation and the convivence is worth it. This category accounted for 11.8% of the year’s total costs and was down $7.427 from last year. This was highest category change of the year.

Gifts and presents - $ 1,748.41 ($145.70 mo. avg.)
We still buy birthday and Christmas presents. This category accounted for 3.1% of the year’s total costs and was up $270 from last year.

Boat and dinghy registration - $ 196.50
No words needed I feel.

Boat insurance - $ 1,240.16 ($103.35 mo. avg.)
Our boat is under value insured. But is a balancing act of what we are comfortable risking verse paying a lot more. This category accounted for 2.2% of the year’s total costs and was up $487 from last year.

There it is. We spent $55,917.14 ($4,659.76 mo. avg.) last year all in with no “not counting”.

Spreadsheet attached with monthly spending, year comparisons, big cost items tracking and an attempt to have a “not counting” page for those that want to have a basic cost basis because they feel they wouldn’t do “stuff”.

Stormbrow · 14-09-2023, 08:21

Thanks for posting, it is appreciated.

Dave

pdxsailordiver · 14-09-2023, 09:05

Thank you!

sailorboy1 · 14-09-2023, 09:23

maybe a mod will see and fix the "general" monthly cost as it is too later already for me to do :-(

Shrew · 14-09-2023, 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

General Living - Food.......

I can't believe you "eat"

, How Bougie!! You're doing it wrong!!!

sailorboy1 · 14-09-2023, 10:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrew

I can't believe you "eat"

, How Bougie!! You're doing it wrong!!!

It isn't me ............................ its the cat!

two-rocks · 15-09-2023, 06:38

Always like these. We are two years away from casting off and gives a baseline, accurate example.

We have tracked expenses for 20+ years to the penny in 'hundreds' of categories with quicken (self employed).

Our car is one area of concern - it will go unused for many months a year, but the convenience is huge for traveling to family. Just not sure where to leave it.

sailorboy1 · 15-09-2023, 07:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by two-rocks

Our car is one area of concern - it will go unused for many months a year, but the convenience is huge for traveling to family. Just not sure where to leave it.

Unless you plan to return to a place frequently it isn't worth having a car IMO. I got a car back during covid and used while waiting the world to reopen and once I sold the car it worked out I spent less for transportation compared to same period the year before. Last year I got a "better" used car because I could see I was going to be returning for a while and wanted to do more land travel while "stuck".

Don't think of a car as a "need" and be aware the hassle can outweigh the convivence.

ChrisJHC · 15-09-2023, 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by two-rocks

Our car is one area of concern - it will go unused for many months a year, but the convenience is huge for traveling to family. Just not sure where to leave it.

One option would be to lend the car to one of your family members that you intend visiting regularly.
They pay for all running costs and, when you want to use it, you just have to get yourself to their location and then you have a free car.
Finally, should you decide you want to stop cruising, you’ve already got your car sorted.

* Assumes that the car is owned outright and you can trust the chosen family member to play by the rules.

sailorboy1 · 02-10-2023, 16:29

So I got some THC/CBD gummies today to help me sleep and help with some inflation. I know from past these also make high enough that I can not operate equipment etc. safely.

So next month should I record the cost as general living, recreation, or medical?

Pinchecharlie · 02-10-2023, 17:08

Wow! You spend more a month than we do living and working in a house, driving two cars and raising two kids! I don’t even make that much a month lol! Being poor is terrible! Hopefully your living well for that !! Are you going to continue to sail or are you going to do something else?

sailorboy1 · 02-10-2023, 17:21

Maybe

smj · 02-10-2023, 18:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

So I got some THC/CBD gummies today to help me sleep and help with some inflation. I know from past these also make high enough that I can not operate equipment etc. safely.

So next month should I record the cost as general living, recreation, or medical?

So did the gummies cut down on the alcohol consumption? If not, consider it medicinal. [emoji16]

Hoosiersailor · 06-10-2023, 08:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

So I got some THC/CBD gummies today to help me sleep and help with some inflation. I know from past these also make high enough that I can not operate equipment etc. safely.

So next month should I record the cost as general living, recreation, or medical?

I'd probably go with entertainment.