10/31/01 | Six month budget update

Every six months we've been posting a table showing our expenses, so that those of you who are planning to go cruising can see what it really costs. (If you missed it: May 1999-April 2000, May 2000-October 2000, November 2000-April 2001.)

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; 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, or because there were so few expenditures in them that we folded them into the Misc category (things like haircuts and office supplies are under Misc).

Some notes on categories and on particularly large numbers follow the table. We were in the eastern Caribbean during this entire time period, except for August 15-September 18 when we were back in the US for a visit. Note that this only reflects expenditures, not income. The exception is that refunds show up as negative numbers in the table. Now that we are no longer (mostly) buying lots of new boat equipment, our expenses seem to have settled down to close to the $2000/month planning figure we have been aiming for.

Category Description	5/01	6/01	7/01	8/01	9/01	10/01	TOTAL
Alcohol	19.00	0.00	6.00	0.00	0.00	2.50	27.50
Auto-Gas	26.00	0.00	0.00	71.48	97.64	0.00	195.12
Auto-Parking and Tolls	4.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	4.00
Auto-Rental	134.85	0.00	0.00	0.00	584.22	0.00	719.07
TOTAL Auto	164.85	0.00	0.00	71.48	681.86	0.00	918.19
Bank Charge	1.50	0.00	0.89	0.00	4.00	0.00	6.39
Boat-Charts	0.00	0.00	0.00	94.78	0.00	5.00	99.78
Boat-Equipment	335.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	335.00
Boat-Fuel	0.00	18.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	12.35	30.35
Boat-Insurance	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	2174.00	2174.00
Boat-Maintenance	384.90	0.00	22.43	0.00	0.00	17.25	424.58
Boat-Parts	105.76	71.58	214.56	688.70	0.00	87.52	1168.12
Boat-Service	0.00	0.00	11.00	437.50	130.00	0.00	578.50
TOTAL Boat	825.66	89.58	247.99	1220.98	130.00	2296.12	4810.33
Books	39.95	50.91	0.00	112.73	0.00	0.00	203.59
Clothing	121.00	0.00	0.00	183.17	0.00	24.76	328.93
Comm-Internet	4.95	4.95	20.95	4.95	12.95	12.67	61.42
Comm-Mailing service	17.99	13.99	15.99	15.99	15.99	15.99	95.94
Comm-Phone	33.28	0.00	10.65	3.86	0.00	0.00	47.79
Comm-Postage	20.70	0.00	75.64	52.12	23.15	129.61	301.22
Communications-Other	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	7.00	7.00
TOTAL Communications	76.92	18.94	123.23	76.92	52.09	165.27	513.37
Computer	0.00	0.00	0.00	291.26	0.00	0.00	291.26
Dining	246.00	190.74	117.83	290.19	443.28	98.60	1386.64
Entertainment-Bar	23.00	4.00	30.00	17.00	4.00	8.00	86.00
Entertainment-Movies	12.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	12.00
Entertainment-Museum	26.00	25.78	10.00	4.00	0.00	0.00	65.78
Entertainment-Other	0.00	0.00	24.00	0.00	3.00	0.00	27.00
TOTAL Entertainment	61.00	29.78	64.00	21.00	7.00	8.00	190.78
Groceries	273.46	15.00	111.61	47.42	72.00	220.09	739.58
Household	0.00	0.00	34.00	21.00	6.10	17.14	78.24
Hotel	175.97	0.00	0.00	50.40	139.17	0.00	365.54
Laundry	18.00	26.00	19.00	0.00	18.00	15.00	96.00
Licenses and Permits	21.00	26.00	25.00	0.00	0.00	63.30	135.30
Medical-Dental	0.00	0.00	0.00	287.00	0.00	0.00	287.00
Medical-Doctor	0.00	0.00	0.00	72.00	25.00	0.00	97.00
Medical-Glasses	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	332.96	0.00	332.96
Medical-Health insurance	5.00	0.00	-220.90	0.00	0.00	0.00	-215.90
Medical-Medicine	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	30.00	30.00
TOTAL Medical	5.00	0.00	-220.90	359.00	357.96	30.00	531.06
Misc	52.00	58.04	18.53	80.69	0.00	45.74	255.00
Recreation-Diving	20.00	394.82	12.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	426.82
Recreation-Entry fees	22.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	20.00	26.50	68.50
Recreation-Fishing	25.00	14.00	0.00	43.00	0.00	0.00	82.00
Recreation-Other	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	9.56	0.00	9.56
TOTAL Recreation	67.00	408.82	12.00	43.00	29.56	26.50	586.88
Tax-Fed	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	-317.15	0.00	-317.15
Tax-Other	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	38.00	0.00	38.00
Tax-State	-200.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	-200.00
TOTAL Tax	-200.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	-279.15	0.00	-479.15
Tools	0.00	0.00	0.00	6.88	0.00	0.00	6.88
Travel-Airfare	0.00	0.00	1504.00	39.00	0.00	0.00	1543.00
Travel-Transit fares	2.00	0.00	23.00	31.00	56.00	12.20	124.20
Travel-Other	3.00	0.00	2.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	5.00
TOTAL Travel	5.00	0.00	1529.00	70.00	56.00	12.20	1672.20
TOTAL OUTFLOWS	1973.31	913.81	2088.18	2946.12	1717.87	3025.22	12664.51

Notes on categories

Alcohol

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

Auto-Rental

We rented a car for nearly a month while in the US.

Boat-Charts

Includes cruising guides.

Boat-Fuel

Includes diesel, dinghy gas, and propane for cooking.

Boat-Maintenance

We bought three gallons of bottom paint in May.

Boat-Parts

We bought a bunch of things in the US in August to replace damaged electronics from when we had a ground wire vibrate off the alternator, running the voltage up too high.

Boat-Service

The big chunk in August was what we paid to have our SSB repaired after the event described above.

Groceries

In addition to food, this includes nonedible consumables like paper towels, soap, toothpaste, bandages.

Hotel

Traveling around Puerto Rico in May, and around the US in August and September.

Household

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

Licenses and Permits

Check-in fees, cruising permits, etc.

Medical

We switched insurance companies, and also went from a quarterly payment to a yearly payment. The negative number in August is the refund from our old company. Our health insurance only covers major illness or injury.

Tax-Other

Duty paid when we brought boat parts in from the US.