Cost to Cruise–June

Boilerplate disclaimer: This is not what it will cost you to go cruising.

DSCF0154People’s constant advice, discussing cruising finances, always seems to be: It’ll cost what you have. We did not find this helpful in our planning, however true it may be. What we’re trying to show is the cost to us, more or less, for one month to go cruising. We’re going for monthly expenses, because they’re easier for us to track; so you won’t see the boat insurance amortized, you’ll just see that expense when we pay it. It won’t be what you’ll spend, but it was the kind of information that helped us out when we were trying to wrap our heads around that magical number for our cruising kitty.

If you have questions about the cost of our refit, we are woefully unprepared to answer them; we weren’t very good at keeping track. I actually ran across a huge stash of receipts the other day, and made the call to pitch them; we’ll never know exactly how much we spent, and we’re probably better off that way. Now that we’re on the water, it’s easier to tally our costs.

As far as June goes–it was a short month. We started keeping track of finances on June 11th, the day we left our house and officially moved on the boat. We did not include any of the embarrassingly large amounts of money spent on last-minute provisioning or repairs, or anything pertaining to our house or the refit.

We’re modeling our expense chart after the good folks at Terrapin.

Marinas: $449
Grocery: $360.53
Restaurants: $180
Supplies: $42.75
Booze: $39
Ice Cream: $14
Laundry: $12.25
Transportation: $0
Communications: $0 (but much cursing at the Wave antenna)
Entertainment: $27
Pumping out: $10
Boat parts: $11.50
Fuel: $30--dinghy; $34--stove

GRAND TOTAL: $1210.03

So, it’s important to remember: we started with an almost full tank of diesel; we had a bunch of groceries aboard, and will continue to be well-stocked in maple syrup and sushi rice for quite a while; we didn’t include party expenses, and the box wine from that party has really held us over; and we’ve been treated to a lot of meals by friends and family this month. We spent more on marinas than we anticipated, but the lure of hot showers is too powerful to ignore. We expect to do better on that front, but not until we get to warmer waters…quite a ways down the road.

We also have to confess: we still have our Netflix subscription. The kids are really into watching The Flash. Clearly, we can’t quite cut all the ties holding us to land.

Cost-effective solutions: fender covers from XXL Walmart sweatpants. Who says you can't learn anything on Cruisers' Forum?
Cost-effective solutions: fender covers from XXL Walmart sweatpants. Who says you can’t learn anything on Cruisers’ Forum?

3 Comments on “Cost to Cruise–June

  1. T — all the raspberries are ripe and missing you picking them each day. I am doing my best trying to keep up.
    Enjoy each day,
    Marsha

  2. Tell the kids that their Barreiro cousins are also huge fans of the Flash on Netflix. Awesome blog !

  3. Flash is excellent. You should also watch the crossover with Supergirl. 😛

Leave a Reply to Marsha Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *