10/31/00 | Another six months of spending

For our log entry for April 30 of this year, we posted a table showing all our expenditures for the previous 12 months. We used this date because we got Windom into the water in late April; May was the first month we were true live-aboards for the entire month, so our "fiscal year" as cruisers is May 1-April 30. Several cruiser wannabees sent us email, saying they found this information helpful for their planning, so we decided to post a six-month update for the period May 1 through October 31, 2000.

The good news is that our wildly varying month-to-month expenditures are settling down somewhat. The bad news is that the amount they are settling down to is around $2200 (exclusive of new boat gear, i.e. additions rather than replacements), a bit more than we were hoping to be spending.

We track all our expenditures with Quicken. Keeping tabs on our account balances is important since we don't get our mail regularly. The following table was made by creating a Quicken report from our transactions for the last 6 months, exporting it as a tab-delimited file into Excel, and then exporting that spreadsheet into an HTML table. The categories are those we find useful, and we frequently add new ones and combine existing ones. Some categories (indicated by TOTAL after the name) are further broken down into subcategories; one subcategory (Communications-Phone) is broken down into two sub-sub-categories. For example, Auto-TOTAL includes Auto-Gas, Auto-Rental, and Auto-Other. Some categories that we use don't appear in this table because we didn't spend money on those things during this period (such as boat insurance, which we pay once a year in November).

Some notes on categories and on particularly large numbers follow the table. We were in the Bahamas for nearly all of May. We were in Colorado at Britt's family's ranch for the second half of October. Although we had some maintenance done on the boat in October, we didn't actually pay for it until November so the cost doesn't appear here.

	5/1/00	6/1/00	7/1/00	8/1/00	9/1/00	10/1/00	TOTAL
Alcohol	0	152.19	85.24	21.34	68.4	12	339.17
Auto-TOTAL	0	8.54	0	74.34	0	21.84	104.72
Auto-Gas	0	8.54	0	15.54	0	21.84	45.92
Auto-Rental	0	0	0	58.8	0	0	58.8
Bank Charge	0	3	0.75	49.95	41	-36	58.7
Boat-TOTAL	40.62	6,519.42	388.22	349	88.25	5,189.74	12,575.25
Boat-Dockage	0	314.81	85	110	80	0	589.81
Boat-Equipment	0	4,053.65	0	191	0	4,847.71	9,092.36
Boat-Fuel	11	177.71	174.19	18	0	7	387.9
Boat-Maintenance	29.62	321.26	2	30	0	22.29	405.17
Boat-Parts	0	1,646.99	127.03	0	8.25	312.74	2095.01
Boat-Service	0	5	0	0	0	0	5
Books	0	0	56.27	13	31.99	0	101.26
Clothing-TOTAL	0	89.04	172.76	544.48	0	0	806.28
Clothing-Shoes	0	0	0	62.97	0	0	62.97
Clothing-Other	0	89.04	172.76	481.51	0	0	743.31
Communications-TOTAL	145.85	115.87	166.28	31.32	215.44	29.64	704.4
Com-Internet	4.95	4.95	32.31	6.93	4.95	4.95	59.04
Com-Mailing service	14	17.99	15.99	15.99	15.99	15.99	95.95
Com-Postage	87.9	26.96	19.61	8.4	6.5	8.7	157.07
Com-Phone-TOTAL	39	65.97	98.37	0	188	0	391.34
Com-Phone-Computer	39	0	0	0	0	0	39
Com-Phone-Other	0	65.97	98.37	0	188	0	352.34
Computer	0	19.99	0	0	0	11.49	31.48
Dining	48	161	272.71	167.53	403.22	287.27	1339.73
Entertainment-TOTAL	0	37	172	36	252	148	645
Entertainment-Bar	0	8	0	0	8	33	49
Entertainment-Movies	0	29	8	0	3	15	55
Entertainment-Museum	0	0	116	36	241	4	397
Entertainment-Other	0	0	48	0	0	96	144
Groceries	120	309.97	370.88	137.64	156.88	10	1,105.37
Household	0	12.05	34.23	0	0	19.45	65.73
Laundry	19	24	9	18	15	14	99
Licenses and Permits	0	3	0	0	0	15	18
Medical-TOTAL	391.5	139.94	289.46	538.5	0	539.22	1898.62
Medical-Dentist	0	0	0	0	0	267	267
Medical-Doctor	60	0	100.46	144	0	72	376.46
Medical-Glasses	0	0	189	0	0	0	189
Medical-Health insurance	331.5	0	0	388.5	0	0	720
Medical-Medicine	0	139.94	0	6	0	200.22	346.16
Misc	29	20	16.21	11	4	32	112.21
Music	0	0	93.82	15	0	0	108.82
Office supplies	0	0	0	0	0	71.51	71.51
Personal care	10	0	0	20	12	49.31	91.31
Recreation-TOTAL	52.85	65.59	54.8	31.28	8	34.29	246.81
Recreation-Bicycles	0	0	0	7	0	0	7
Recreation-Diving	37.35	0	0	0	0	0	37.35
Recreation-Entry fees	0	0	1	8	0	0	9
Recreation-Equipment	0	65.59	42.8	0	8	20.29	136.68
Recreation-Fishing	15.5	0	11	16.28	0	14	56.78
Subscriptions	97	25	0	0	0	0	122
Tools	0	47.62	0	0	0	0	47.62
Travel-TOTAL	45	1	474	18	885	29	1,452.00
Travel-Airfare	0	0	450	0	857.5	0	1,307.50
Travel-Transit fares	45	1	24	18	27.5	29	144.5
TOTAL	998.82	7754.22	2656.63	2076.38	2181.18	6744.76	22144.99

Notes on categories

Auto

Since we don't have a car anymore, gas expenditures are either for rentals or for filling up the tanks of the nice people who loan us their cars.

Alcohol

Booze bought from stores. Drinks in a bar are listed under Entertainment-Bar.

Bank Charge

Generally we only have $2 or so a month in this category, but this summer a missing receipt and some double charges led to not having enough in our savings account to cover our Visa bill, which is ordinarily automatically slurped out of the account. Although we fixed things up by phone as soon as we found out about it, we still had to pay two bounced-check charges on our savings account. Then it turned out that although we paid the Visa bill immediately by "phone check" (incurring another fee), they still added the full amount of the past-due bill to the next month's bill, and of course when they tried to take that doubled amount out of the savings account, there wasn't enough money, again. This time we called our credit union to tell them it was the fault of the card company, and they reversed the bounce charges.

Boat-Equipment

There's a fine line between "equipment" and "parts". Mostly, "equipment" is gear which retains its own identity, e.g. the radar is equipment but the pole we had made to mount it is a part. The big numbers in this category are the radar and whisker pole in June, and the diesel heater and hot water system in October.

Boat-Fuel

Includes diesel, dinghy gas, and propane for cooking.

Boat-Maintenance

Items which must be renewed or replaced regularly. Bottom paint, fuel filters, oil filters, engine oil, zincs, metal polish, wax, varnish, and so on.

Clothing

You can sure see our Freeport ME spree! Britt bought new foul-weather gear there, which is why we spent so much.

Communications-Postage

This includes the postage fees we had to pay to our mailing services in addition to postage on items we mailed. It doesn't include delivery charges on mail-ordered equipment (we rolled that into the equipment category).

Communications-Phone

We separated out phone usage in the Bahamas that was strictly for making an internet connect (Batelco connect charges and phone cards) from general phone usage. In the US, our cell phone service (AT&T One Rate) cost us about $98/month -- the high charge in September actually includes August due to a billing date artifact. We just switched to a new calling plan which should drop the charges to about $65/month.

Entertainment-Other

The August entry was the advance payment for attending Ilana's high school reunion in October, and the October amount was mostly for tickets to Miss Saigon on Broadway.

Groceries

In addition to food, this includes nonedible consumables like paper towels, soap, toothpaste, bandages, and also nonprescription drugs such as aspirin.

Household

Things for the boat which are related to making a home aboard, such as towels, storage baskets, soap dispensers, kitchen utensils.

Medical

Our insurance is from Golden Rule and basically covers only hospital stays for major illness or injury. While in Colorado we got dental checkups and cleanings and Britt had a cavity filled. Other medical expenses were an eye exam for Britt and a doctor visit for Ilana's mystery allergy (and the medicine to treat it).

Recreation-Equipment

Things that don't fit into other subcategories of recreation.

Travel-Airfare

The July ticket was for getting Britt's brother out to visit us in Maine, and the September amount was for our tickets out to Colorado in October, plus a ticket for Ilana to fly from Savannah to D.C. to attend her brother's wedding in November.