How much do you spend

[sailaboutvic]

How much do you spend a month while cruising ?
Our biggest out lay after food is fuel , we don't use marina .
Cruising Sicily , Sardinia west coast of Italy , Corsica and the south of France last year we managed to cut our fuel bill down to just over 150 lts over 3000 miles .
But we still end up spending 650 to 700 euros a months .
Winter months can be very different with haul out , repairs , marina fees and socialising
How did you manage ?
Newbies watch is space , here the answers you all looking for

 

[chuckr]

we are an american boat and have been out 6 years -- we sailed the east coast of the usa 2 1/2x, then to mexico and down to colombia, across the carib to jamaica and dom republic and down to trinidad, from trinidad back up island to antigua and then across the pond to the azores, portugal, spain, balerics, sardinia and now in tunisia for the winter
we sail a jeanneau ds40 that we bought new in 2003 - we try to keep her in good condition and try to make one major upgrade a year --
we track every penny we spend be it on the boat or at our kids when we visit -- we have 5 years of data by catagory but can not figure our how to download the file -- any help and we will download

 

[Pavalijo]

I'd suggest that downloading your personal accounts onto an open forum wouldn't be very wise. You never know who could be reading it. What if it was a tax inspector? That would be terrible as we'd then have yet another thread about tax!

Obviously Chuckr has nothing to hide.

This would be of great interest to those of us who are in our final few years of working and preparing to cast off. I have no idea how to download your file Chuck, but would be very interested and grateful to see it, and thanks for your info sailaboutvic,
Paul

 

[Glyka]

we are an american boat and have been out 6 years -- we sailed the east coast of the usa 2 1/2x, then to mexico and down to colombia, across the carib to jamaica and dom republic and down to trinidad, from trinidad back up island to antigua and then across the pond to the azores, portugal, spain, balerics, sardinia and now in tunisia for the winter
we sail a jeanneau ds40 that we bought new in 2003 - we try to keep her in good condition and try to make one major upgrade a year --
we track every penny we spend be it on the boat or at our kids when we visit -- we have 5 years of data by catagory but can not figure our how to download the file -- any help and we will download

PM sent

 

[miyagimoon]

How much do you spend a month while cruising ?
Our biggest out lay after food is fuel , we don't use marina .
Cruising Sicily , Sardinia west coast of Italy , Corsica and the south of France last year we managed to cut our fuel bill down to just over 150 lts over 3000 miles .
But we still end up spending 650 to 700 euros a months .
Winter months can be very different with haul out , repairs , marina fees and socialising
How did you manage ?
Newbies watch is space , here the answers you all looking for

The below link takes you to the SV BeBe blog. Click on the Cost Tab and go to the bottom. One of the best cost breakdowns I've seen.

We would have gone bust by year 2 based on those figures!

http://www.svbebe.com/

 

[Tranona]

How much do you spend a month while cruising ?
Our biggest out lay after food is fuel , we don't use marina .
Cruising Sicily , Sardinia west coast of Italy , Corsica and the south of France last year we managed to cut our fuel bill down to just over 150 lts over 3000 miles .
But we still end up spending 650 to 700 euros a months .
Winter months can be very different with haul out , repairs , marina fees and socialising
How did you manage ?
Newbies watch is space , here the answers you all looking for

This subject has been done to death many times on here. The consensus is that there is an irreducible minimum based on subsistence and no maximum. Most people set their budget depending on the amount of money they have available and their expectations of lifestyle. Really no different from living on land.

The major choices that affect levels of expenditure are the boat and its maintenance, the use or otherwise of marinas and the discretionary expenditure on leisure activities. The first two are partly under your control in your choice of boat and your ability to maintain it yourself. Berthing costs vary enormously according to where you are and what sort of facilities you use. subsistence expenditure (food drink etc) varies very little according to where you are and similar to the UK, although in some countries eating out is much cheaper and a viable alternative to feeding yourself.

So, much like living on land you adjust your expenditure to meet your income, but it may take a little while and some experience to strike the balance that suits you.

 

[Liz_I]

For simplicity just have a balance of payments. What has gone into your bank & what has come out. That is the cost. Forget the folks that say they spend X amount. At the end of the day all costs should be shown. Postage/phone calls/ flights back and forth/ maintenance/food/entertaining/fuel etc.etc. After one year you will get the idea. I suggest you add 150% to your original plan and you might get close.
It also depends on how you want to live your life. Using marinas will up the cost.
How long is a piece of string?
We have met & known folks who scrimp & save every brass farthing & for them the cost of cruising is minimal. Most folks don't want to live that way. I would hazard a guess at around £ 20,000/£25,000 per annum all up but then we never wanted to live like paupers!!

 

[sailaboutvic]

The below link takes you to the SV BeBe blog. Click on the Cost Tab and go to the bottom. One of the best cost breakdowns I've seen.

We would have gone bust by year 2 based on those figures!

http://www.svbebe.com/

I started to wish I didn't start this thread , first Tranona has a go at me for starting a thread thats been done before , And just as I was getting over that ! I took a look at BEBE blog accounts and nearly died , that should put a few people off being a live-aboard , haha ,
Thanks for reminding me Tranona , but things do change and anyone who have just become a member of our great forum what need to trail thought pages and pages of thread to find the info . But hey I get your point .

 

[Tony Cross]

I started to wish I didn't start this thread , first Tranona has a go at me for starting a thread thats been done before , And just as I was getting over that ! I took a look at BEBE blog accounts and nearly died , that should put a few people off being a live-aboard , haha ,
Thanks for reminding me Tranona , but things do change and anyone who have just become a member of our great forum what need to trail thought pages and pages of thread to find the info . But hey I get your point .

I don't think you'll ever get any useful information from a question like this. There seem to be almost as many different levels of expenditure as there are cruising folk. We all live differently, we all approach maintenance differently (some do it all themselves, others pay contractors and most do something in between) some eat out a lot others never do, some use marinas a lot others never do. How long is a piece of string?

 

[Glyka]

we are an american boat and have been out 6 years -- we sailed the east coast of the usa 2 1/2x, then to mexico and down to colombia, across the carib to jamaica and dom republic and down to trinidad, from trinidad back up island to antigua and then across the pond to the azores, portugal, spain, balerics, sardinia and now in tunisia for the winter
we sail a jeanneau ds40 that we bought new in 2003 - we try to keep her in good condition and try to make one major upgrade a year --
we track every penny we spend be it on the boat or at our kids when we visit -- we have 5 years of data by catagory but can not figure our how to download the file -- any help and we will download

Thanks chuckr, your files are here:

http://ttbridge.info/Files/5_YEARS_COST_DATA.pdf
http://ttbridge.info/Files/5_YEARS_COST_DATA.xlsx

I have added a second sheet to the excel file that expands percentages to real amounts (I thought it might be useful).

 

[KellysEye]

One thing I would say is that always allow for a major breakage, we had to replace a broken 3,000rpm generator with a 1,500rpm Westerbeke generator that last as long as a marine engine, cost. £8,000.

 

[chuckr]

One thing I would say is that always allow for a major breakage, we had to replace a broken 3,000rpm generator with a 1,500rpm Westerbeke generator that last as long as a marine engine, cost. £8,000.

if you look at our cost -- we did a major upgrade before heading to the carib -- we have had a few breakages as we went along - and yes you do have to account for them --

 

[Skylark]

Thanks chuckr, your files are here:

http://ttbridge.info/Files/5_YEARS_COST_DATA.pdf
http://ttbridge.info/Files/5_YEARS_COST_DATA.xlsx

I have added a second sheet to the excel file that expands percentages to real amounts (I thought it might be useful).

This is incredibly kind and generous of you to share such information. I'm land-locked in the middle of Manchester with the though of "when" often on my mind. Very detailed and helpful, thank you.

 

[chuckr]

I'd suggest that downloading your personal accounts onto an open forum wouldn't be very wise. You never know who could be reading it. What if it was a tax inspector? That would be terrible as we'd then have yet another thread about tax!

Oh i have little to hide -- after all i am not a king obama support so i have probably already been audited more than once by the irs -- and their finding is he has not money and if fact i got a note that i am eligible for food stamps but will not go into that as that is for the lounge forum

 

[Pavalijo]

Thanks chuckr, very interesting and useful. Any more?
Paul

 

[Tranona]

I started to wish I didn't start this thread , first Tranona has a go at me for starting a thread thats been done before , And just as I was getting over that ! I took a look at BEBE blog accounts and nearly died , that should put a few people off being a live-aboard , haha ,
Thanks for reminding me Tranona , but things do change and anyone who have just become a member of our great forum what need to trail thought pages and pages of thread to find the info . But hey I get your point .

Sorry, did not mean to be negative. Guess it is a bit like the magazines - February article on chartering, March article on fitting out, April planning your summer cruise - and so on. Difficult to put a new spin on a subject which changes little over time.

Still, there are always new members that have not seen it before, so I hope something useful gets posted for them.

 

[chuckr]

Thanks chuckr, very interesting and useful. Any more?
Paul

any more?? not sure what you mean -- if for this year - no we will produce this again next year when we get a full years worth of data

if you mean did we spend anything else -- no this is the total amount of money we spent on everything - even we went to visit family and took the kids out to eat -- that is in there -

 

[Pavalijo]

any more?? not sure what you mean

Sorry - I was appealing to any other forum users who might be prepared to share. And sorry to those old hands who have seen it all before, but it is not compulsory to read the thread! This is, however, very interesting to us wannabees nervously edging towards early retirement.

At the moment I am hoping to sell the business and set off either next year or the year after. I think we can live how we want with where we will be financially next year, but another year of working could make a significant difference. Then again I can never buy an extra year of good health. It is a big decision to take, hard to go back (ie hard to get another job at our age) if we make a mistake, and information such as this is invaluable.

Paul

 

[sailaboutvic]

Sorry, did not mean to be negative. Guess it is a bit like the magazines - February article on chartering, March article on fitting out, April planning your summer cruise - and so on. Difficult to put a new spin on a subject which changes little over time.

Still, there are always new members that have not seen it before, so I hope something useful gets posted for them.

It's no problem , at the time I though it be usefully to get up to day info on cost and at the same time take the heat off the Greek business , given everyone time to cool down a bit . People seen to be make use of the thread so take good .

 

[KellysEye]

>we have had a few breakages as we went along - and yes you do have to account for them

I spent about 2 days a week either fixing things that had broken or general maintenance such a changing fuel filters on the engine and generator. The longest I didn't have to fix things was one month in the Venezuelan out islands when we arrived in Bonaire three things broke the following day. I always carried two spares for everything and a huge range of appropriate tools. I also had exploded diagrams for every bit of kit. The problem is except for radios, radar etc everything boaty is made for weekend and holiday sailors, so it all breaks at some point more than once or in our case three or four times over six and a half years cruising.