I will be the first to admit, I’ve been procrastinating on this post. I mean, really.  Who WANTS to publish their every little expense in a public forum?  But I learn so much from reading other people’s, and it will be a cool record for us down the road.  So here we go: How much we spent in the first 3 months cruising!  (I will break it down in monthly posts from here on out) You can check out my intro to our Budget here.

As far as maintenance goes, you will see those costs here as well.  While we’ve run into many cruisers who are just out for a year – and often feel like small repairs can wait until they return to home, we repair and maintain as needed.  We are in this lifestyle for the long haul.  So if something breaks or needs maintenance it is done as soon as possible – regardless of where we stand on our budget for the month.  Often, if it’s under $100 I just add it to our expenses that month.  But if it’s over $100, or a long term upgrade, I generally take it from savings.  You’ll notice these items on the bottom in that Upgrades section.

October 2016

A little recap on our goal here:  Our budget is $1000/month – or about $30 per day.  In October, we were just heading out – then got hit by Hurricane Matthew…  Plus there was some provisioning, etc.  And playing with friends while we were still in driving distance of Savannah.  We went over budget a wee bit.

November 2016

Yep.  In November we went over budget also. It was $300 to check into the Bahamas (WELL worth it!)  We were trouble shooting our solar/batteries, something on one of the bikes broke, yada yada yada.  Also notice the new Mooring/Marina category I had to add this month.

December 2016

Notice the UPGRADES at the bottom.  While it looks like we were close to budget – we totally blew it on a new dinghy engine, battery charger and solar panels.  We have yet to use that battery charger.  But man, those solar panels have been worth every last penny!  Keep in mind, this is why we have savings.  We knew that we’d have some out-of-savings purchases – both expected (dinghy motor) and unexpected (solar/battery/vet expenses)

So there you have it.  What we spent in our first 3 months cruising.  At the first of 2017 our budgeting improves, I promise!  But keep in mind that I provisioned the heck out of this boat before we left the States.  That means we didn’t have huge food bills in the Bahamas.

What have we learned?

We can definitely live comfortably on $1000/month – even in the Bahamas where food has to be shipped in and is more expensive.  I can’t wait until we get to more affordable places to see just how little we can spend – while still enjoying ourselves.

What else have we learned?  Well, we’d like a slightly bigger budget.  Maybe $1500? So we’re working on that this summer – while we are in the States for hurricane season.  We’ll see how it goes.  Worst case, we stick with our $1000/month and keep on bobbing around in these gorgeous waters!

About Author

Jennifer

Artist, food nerd, SUP/yoga enthusiast and travel obsessed blogger – chronicling the process of going from land to sea. Selling all of her worldly possessions so that she can set sail into the sunset with her husband and two dachshunds – searching for that next sunrise paddle. Follow along. It’ll be fun 🙂

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