Our cruising costs - month 19 for a middle-aged couple on a modest boat.

[Cthoops]

I've decided to get caught up with my posts of our monthly costs.

March was our 19th month of cruising full-time on our Bristol 29.9.

When March 1st rolled around we were in the Exumas and didn't imagine we'd be back in the U.S. by the end of the month, but Covid changed things for us so by March 30th we were sitting in Vero Beach waiting for things to settle down a bit.

The Defender Warehouse Sale is traditionally at the end of March and we had planned to take advantage of the prices to buy a few upgrades, so March was higher than January and February. However, we had one very large upgrade coming up in April (month 20) which made March's spending look miserly. Ouch.

March opened with us anchored in the Exumas and closed with us sitting on a mooring in Vero.

Here we go:

Groceries/Non-food Groceries/Alcohol: $323.29

Gasoline/Diesel: $63.71

Medical: $14.34

Cell data, iCloud storage, and Garmin inReach subscription: $256.43. This was much higher because we paid for a new SIM card and a new month of service when we returned to the U.S., plus we paid for a month of data on the iPad so we could check back in to the U.S. using the ROAM app.

Marina: $434.10 (Vero Beach mooring paid in advance for four weeks)

Restaurants/Entertainment: $42.00

Non-owners auto insurance premium for six months: $62.30

Boat stuff: $1,069.16 (AIS transponder and NMEA 2000 cables, Spartite, Rescue Tape, 303 protectant)

Random and subscriptions: $39.68 (subscriptions, marina tip, trash disposal, postage to return MyIslandWifi)

Total: $2,305.01

2020 Monthly average: $1,824.76

2019 monthly average: $3,457.97

2018 monthly average (September – December): $4,465.95

Monthly average since starting to cruise: $3,412.31


I hope this is helpful.

[sailorboy1]

you are doing it wrong, maybe you need a forum's help

maybe month 20 will be better (can't wait to find out)



BTW - to haters that may show up I already know how it turns out and I hope that the OP's post is taken as the planners help it is met to be

[Cthoops]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

you are doing it wrong, maybe you need a forum's help

maybe month 20 will be better (can't wait to find out)



BTW - to haters that may show up I already know how it turns out and I hope that the OP's post is taken as the planners help it is met to be

Ack! Month 20! I'm still psychologically recovering!