**In a previous post I explained what I consider and include in our own personal “budget”. For tracking and sharing purposes I am only counting true living expenses and general boat maintenance. (Althought I do note major purchases each month, if we have any) So if I don’t include the boat payment and major purchases, what DO I include? Food, diesel, gas, propane, eating and drinking out, dog stuff, clothes, cell phone/data, toys, land adventures, mooring balls and marinas,and general boat maintenance such as oil changes, watermaker filters, zinc anodes, etc. Pretty much every bit of boat related money we spend other than boat payment and insurance – now that the upgrades are finished. Why don’t I include those? Because they are so variable to you – the person I am tracking this information for. You may or may not have a boat payment, and you may or may not have boat/medical insurance. And if you have either, the costs vary wildly.**
If you read the January budget post, you know we pretty much rocked it. And guess what!?! We did it again in February. Almost… Yes, living on our (pre-provisioned) boat in the Bahamas – often noted as one of the most expensive places to cruise, we almost, sort of kind of, were able to stay on our $1000/month budget.
You’ll notice we went over by about $54. Which also happens to be the exact amount we spent at Lumina Point during the Super Bowl Extravaganza. But that was definitely a fun night – and worth the expense!
What do I notice, personally, while going over this month’s budget? Not anything related to money, actually. More that we FLEW through some of our favorite islands! We went from George Town, Exuma to Long Island, to Cat Island and back to Spanish Wells Eleuthera – all within the month of February. That was entirely too fast, in retrospect. Our desire to get to the Abacos and have plenty of time to explore pushed us too hard. In hindsight, we would have spent more time south and skipped the Abacos. But then we wouldn’t have met Sailing Salacia and Tipsy Gypsy – and we wouldn’t have had as much time to catch up with Ma Bulle again. Let me tell you – who you hang out with is just as important, if not more so, than where you hang out. As always, everything worked out in the end.
This fall, when we head south to Puerto Rico via the Bahamas, I guess we’ll just have to stop in again at all those favorite spots!
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Isn’t it nice to have a big zero in the mooring/marina column. I love that our average daily cost for mooring/marinas over the past two months is only 60 cents 🙂
The best thing EVER is big fat zeros in the spending columns!