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expenses

January 2012 Cruising Expenses

Feb 16th, 2012
by Sara.
2 comments

It’s a good thing we spent over two weeks away from any towns or cities in the month of January because we sure make up for it when we get into town! It’s hard to resist $2 ice-cream cones heaping with handmade ice-cream, $1 tacos, towering $6 burgers with fries. We were even delighted to pay $1 each for long, hot showers in La Paz. We are taking a trip later in February up to San Diego to gather supplies for our Puddle Jump and have been giving our Visa a workout in the process. I’ll have the whole nitty gritty of what it has cost us to prepare for a major ocean crossing in next month’s expense report (which includes the repair of our nearly-new ICOM IC-7000 HAM radio that blew out in Agua Verde and the cost of a spare radio as we realized again just how important this piece of communication equipment is when there is nobody else in VHF range…). But thankfully for January, it was just regular-old-living-the-easy-life-in-Mexico expenses.

S/V Wondertime’s January 2012 Cruising Expenses

activities – $20
books – $13
bus/taxi – $26
DAN membership – $55
diesel – $315
dinghy dock – $3
dinghy gas – $8
eating out – $196
fishing gear – $11
gifts – $150
groceries – $387
banda ancha internet – $36
laundry – $22
showers – $2
supplies – $40
toys – $16

total: $1,300 USD

December 2011 Cruising Expenses

Jan 17th, 2012
by Sara.
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To be honest, we were a little nervous adding up this past month’s expenses. What with Christmas presents, eating out nearly everyday at the many amazing restaurants and taco stands around Banderas Bay, recertifying and refilling dive tanks given to us by friends in San Francisco along with hookah gear, a trip to Costco, and filling the diesel tank again we thought that our budget would be a disaster. While it’s still a boat buck above our target, considering all the fun we had — and a few projects checked off — in Banderas Bay in December we still consider living down here a serious bargain.

S/V Wondertime’s December 2011 Cruising Expenses

boat bits – $135
books/magazines – $16
bus/taxi – $49
cat care – $76
cell phone – $29
clothing – $135
diesel – $222
dinghy gas – $34
dive/snorkle gear – $329
eating out – $387
galley – $9
gifts – $239
groceries – $605
internet – $36
carousel ride – $2
laundry – $35
moorage – $146
movie tickets – $21
mp3 album – $9
personal care – $36
supplies – $85
toys – $4

total: $2,639

November 2011 Cruising Expenses

Dec 12th, 2011
by Sara.
4 comments

After a mere month in Mexico, we have already reached cruising budget nirvana! We were delighted to find in November that cruising Mexico really is still cheap. Here’s what we got for just a touch over $1500 USD for the month of November: time at the dock in both Ensenada and at the luxurious new Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz, full diesel tanks, four 6-month Mexico tourist visas and one Temporary Import Permit for the boat, a three-year birthday party, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at the gourmet marina restaurant I didn’t need to lift a finger for, countless taco cart visits, trips to the ice-cream freezer, and ice-cold Pacificos consumed at various palapa bars, taxi ride home with a huge load of groceries, a used Seatiger 555 windlass (story coming soon…), laundry dropped off and picked up washed, dried and folded, two haircuts, and high-speed cell internet service right on our boat. Living in the lap of luxury at thrift store prices — thanks in large part to our excellent exchange rate (nearly 14 pesos per $1USD).

S/V Wondertime’s November 2011 Cruising Expenses

bus/taxi – $12
cat supplies – $5
cell phone – $32
clothing – $30
diesel – $263
eating out – $264
gifts – $20
groceries – $260
haircuts – $13
tourist visas – $78
internet (banda ancha cell card) – $50
laundry – $34
marina water/electricity – $11
moorage – $242
mp3 download – $7
skype – $10
souvenirs – $44
temporary import permit for boat – $50
used windlass – $150

total: $1,575

October 2011 Cruising Expenses

Nov 26th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

Perhaps I should label this month “Cruising in California Expenses” as well as September. The money continued to bleed out like crazy and we hope crossing the border will finally put a tourniquet on our budget once and for all. We knew our anchoring choices were limited in Southern Cali and we’d have to pay to moor the boat at times but ouch. (Why we didn’t join a yacht/cruising club to get free/reduced moorage I have no idea. Sigh.) We also bought lots of new bits for Wondertime (some new halyards, a whisker pole, engine oil, spares, fans, guidebooks and all sort of other junk to stuff in our lockers “just in case”). We stocked up on our favorite foods at Costco and Trader Joes as well as tubes and tubes of Toms of Maine toothpaste. There was also a trip to Disneyland which was worth every penny.

S/V Wondertime’s October 2011 Cruising Expenses

allowance (Leah) – $8
activities – $317
boat bits – $2,269
boat insurance – $54
books – $59
camera – $38
car rental – $227
cat supplies – $63
cell phones – $23
clothing – $50
computer – $211
diesel – $211
DVDs – $20
eating out – $359
faxes & copies – $15
galley – $78
groceries – $964
hotel – $104
laundry – $27
mexican fishing licenses – $180
guidebooks – $141
moorage – $629
parking – $15
personal care – $186
propane – $14
rental car gas – $37
supplies – $268
toys – $18
wifi – $10

total: $6,595

September 2011 Cruising Expenses

Oct 16th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

September was definitely not a typical month budget-wise but it still hurts more than a little to look at the numbers. We’d been putting off several major items for our arrival in the Bay area, namely purchasing a new dinghy and adding two additional solar panels. But even not including those two items we’re still well above $2k. I guess we may have had a little too much fun in San Francisco! We did have access to a car for a day so we did major stock-up trips to Costco and Trader Joes; I’m sure a lot of what we purchased will be consumed months from now. Or maybe not…we are amazed at how much two little girls eat!

S/V Wondertime’s September 2011 Cruising Expenses

allowance (Leah) – $10
boat insurance – $54
boat stuff – $3,866
books – $15
car rental – $55
cat supplies – $44
cell phone – $23
computer – $76
diesel – $477
eating out – $337
fishing gear – $7
gas for dinghy – $41
groceries – $1,344
kindle – $150
laundry – $34
moorage – $122
postage – $14
propane – $20
souvenirs – $134
supplies – $55
toys – $26
transportation – $29
welding – $75

total: $7,008

August 2011 Cruising Expenses

Sep 12th, 2011
by Sara.
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Yet another benefit of exploring the Canadian wilderness was that we were away from town much of the time in August and were able to make our monthly cruising budget goal of $1200. The cell phone bill was actually from July but we paid it in August so it’s in there. Of course, we’ll be spending the next month and a half in California so our budget is going to be blown away (but we’re trying hard to keep it reeled in). Thankfully most of November will be spent off Baja so we should be able to balance it out a bit which is what this is all about.

S/V Wondertime’s August 2011 Cruising Expenses

activities – $20
allowance (Leah) – $8
beer – $87
boat bits – $41
boat insurance – $50
books – $10
cell phone – $55
clothing – $18
diesel – $103
eating out – $119
fishing gear – $65
fishing licenses – $14
groceries – $440
laundry – $44
moorage – $94
personal care – $2
postage – $3
propane – $18
showers – $12
souvenirs – $6
supplies – $12

total: $1,221

July 2011 Cruising Expenses

Aug 4th, 2011
by Sara.
4 comments

As promised, we are sharing our cruising expenses for all the world to see. The totals were both not so shocking and a little shocking at the same time. (Check out that eating out category! Must work on that one immediately.) We spent a great deal more than we normally expect to on boat bits this month as we were still working on the boat a good portion of this past month (the new mast tangs alone were $930CAD). Thankfully we won’t be anywhere near a West Marine for another six weeks. We also purchased the Canadian charts and the Dreamspeaker guidebook for the west coast of Vancouver Island which we should have purchased used before we left. Sadly, the numbers are a little lower than reality as we have been in Canada since July 11th and our dollar has been worth only $0.95 of Canadian dollars and I’ve not made the conversion in my notes. We also are currently paying 1% International Service Fees when using our credit union ATM/debit/Visa cards which also is not in the totals. Here you go:

S/V Wondertime’s July 2011 Cruising Expenses

activities – $41
allowance (leah) – $8
boat bits – $1,236
books & charts – $326
cat supplies – $10
clothing – $20
computer – $11
diesel – $364
eating out – $376
garbage – $2
dinghy gas – $51
groceries – $354
laundry – $11
moorage – $127
personal care – $36
shower – $1
supplies – $39
toys – $46
transportation – $13
wine/beer – $77

total: $3,149