Oops! I meant to post this in September and never got around to it. Too many distractions with a hurricane headed our way. But better late than sorry.
We track and report every penny we spend living aboard and cruising on
Tickety Boo, our Moody 346 sailboat for a couple of reasons.
1 - It helps us see where our money is going, helps us make informed
choices about where to spend our money, which in turn helps us stretch
our money further so that we can keep adventuring longer.
2 - We found it really useful to check out other people's cost of
cruising when we were starting out, so we figure we can return favor by
sharing ours.
While we had hoped to be in the Bahamas this season on our boat,
we're
currently at Indiantown Marina in south Florida on the hard in the
workyard due to a crack in our hull. We've sorted things out with
insurance but we're STILL working through logistics of how and when to
do the repair. Yes, we're STILL on the hard. It's a long story. Buy us a beer sometime and we'll tell you all about it.
In the meantime, we've basically put
everything else on hold. There's no point in spending money on our boat
until we're sure the crack can be repaired. So this cost report is going
to be a bit dull
as there was very little spending on anything besides workyard fees and
food.
You can find links to other cost updates from ourselves (on Tickety Boo,
camping across the States, and our previous boat in New Zealand) and
others on
this page, as well as on
The Monkey's Fist.
Living Aboard Costs | July & August 2019
Overall, we spent
>>$4,163<< during July and August. That was up a bit from the previous two months ($3,677). You'll see why below.
When you look at the nitty-gritty details of what we spent below, here are a few things to keep in mind:
1 - All costs are in US dollars.
2 - Not all expenses are included - here's what we've left out:
(a) We don't report how much we spend on alcohol. I remember reading
some horrible, judgy comments in a blog post a few years back about how
much someone spent on booze, so I left it out when we first started
tracking our cruising costs back in New Zealand. For consistency's sake,
I've continued to leave it out when tracking our cruising costs.
(b) We've also left out our costs for medical insurance. We didn't think
it made sense to include insurance costs as they can vary so widely
depending upon your nationality, where you cruise, what level of
coverage you want and can afford, whether you get subsidies etc. In case you are curious, while
we're back in the States, we do have a high deductible/high out-of-pocket expenses insurance through the health
insurance marketplace (aka the Affordable Care Act), primarily to protect our
assets and cover us in case of a catastrophic medical condition.
(c) I haven't included any expenses related to my writing projects (e.g., editor, book cover design, publishing expenses, author website).
3 - I've included any shipping and taxes we've paid in what we report - Florida has a 6% sales tax.
All right, now that we've got that out of the way, let's dive into the numbers.
GROCERIES | Total = $879
This category includes everything we put in our bodies in terms of food
and drink (excluding booze) that we prepare ourselves. It doesn't
include things like paper towels and ziploc bags, which I know some
people would classify as groceries. Sure, you could probably eat them,
but they wouldn't taste very good.
Although we don't budget (you can read more about that
here),
I'm happiest when we keep our monthly grocery spend per person under
$200. We didn't exactly pull that off this time around. I think it was in part due to the fact that we had gone through most of the provisions we had bought at the end of last year in anticipation of being out cruising.
PERSONAL & HOUSEHOLD | Total = $40
This is the category where we include household things (like paper
towels and ziploc bags) and personal hygiene items (like soap and
shampoo). We also capture items for the "home" here - like bug spray.
ENTERTAINMENT | Total = $189
In terms of drinks and eating out, this includes everything we don't
prepare ourselves, even if we get something to go and eat it back on the
boat. We also track how much we spend on books, magazines, DVD rentals and going to the movies
in this category, as well as the occasional lottery ticket.
Our spend in this category was a little high. I spent more on books than I normally do and we bought tickets to see the
Minnesota Twins play in Miami ($22).
COMMUNICATIONS | Total = $110
Our cell phone is actually one of our biggest non-boat related expenses.
We have a monthly prepaid plan with AT&T which includes 8GB of
data and unlimited calls and texts. To be honest, I should probably look at our plan. We've been able to use the WiFi at the marina and haven't had to use much of our cell phone data, so we might be spending more than we need to.
BOAT FUEL | Total = Nil
Tickety Boo has been sitting in the workyard so we haven't needed to get any diesel or gas.
PROPANE | Total = $7
We have a propane/LPG cooker on our boat, which we need to replace as
the stove no longer works and replacement parts aren't available. While
we're at Indiantown Marina, we use an electric hotplate and a crockpot
for cooking, so we haven't had to spend any money on filling our propane
tanks. But we did get some small propane bottles for our Magma grill in August.
MARINA COSTS | Total = $1,810
The workyard isn't cheap - $30 a day which includes water an electric.
If you pay for a month in advance, you get a small discount. You can kind of think of our monthly fees as rent or a mortgage payment.
BOAT STUFF | Total = $194
This category is for all the stuff we buy for the boat, as
well as
repair and maintenance costs. Since our boat is broken, we've put boat
projects on hold for
now for the most part (there are always a few things you still have to
take care of to keep your boat livable). Much of our spend over the past
two months was for insurance.
TRANSPORT | Total = $171
This category is for costs related to our vehicle, mostly for gas to
drive into the nearby "big city" of Stuart for
errands. We typically fill up our vehicle once a month. However, in August, we filled up twice which added to the overall cost. In addition to driving, this category also includes $42 for two round-trip tickets for the train from West Palm to Miami (once to go see the Twins play,
once to go biking).
MEDICAL EXPENSES | Total = $123
This category includes medical expenses outside of our monthly insurance
premium (which aren't included here - see section on exclusions above),
like over the counter medications and prescriptions, as well as doctors visits.
OTHER | Total = $638
In this category, we break out how much we spend on clothes and travel
expenses. We also include a catch-all miscellaneous group for stuff that
doesn't fit neatly anywhere else - things like laundry, Amazon Prime,
presents, postage etc.
I ended up buying a new laptop in August ($329) which is one of the major reasons why our expenses were so high. My old computer decided to have a nervous breakdown. Or was that me who had a nervous breakdown when it stopped working? We also had to FedEx some documents to the UK which cost seriously pretty penny. But there wasn't any choice - it needed to get there ASAP. Sometimes, you just have to spend money, even if you don't want to.
Any money saving tips to share? What do you spend the most on each month? Are there any areas you're trying to cut back on?
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