Tom.B
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2009
- Messages
- 5,839
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Skinny Dippin'
- Vessel Make
- Navigator 4200 Classic
In an attempt to control costs, set a budget for next year, and just out of curiosity I went through all of my receipts (I keep them all) since buying our first boat back in July. I sorted them into a dozen or so categories. After simply entering the data into Microsoft Excel, I was able to have it sort the data into a small pie chart. I thought it would be interesting to share this chart with you guys.
Let's talk about the differences that other boaters have that may differ from this and thanks for all your input.
A few things to note:
I do almost all my own repair work, so I segregated what I had to pay for the labor of others into its own category.
The 'Big 3' (payment, insurance, and slip fee) constitute 53% of all costs.
A few things that I left off (and do not track) are things like extra fuel for the cars to get back-and-forth to the coast, pet sitting costs, and the extra eating-out costs.
There are a few things on there that we needed to upgrade when we bought it and show in the percentages, but will never be bought again. Things like mattress, 2 radios, 2 antennas, curtains, bottom paint (for a while anyway), tools etc. That said, it's not that there will not be more of these costs in the future, what I am noting is that we are primarily down to things we WANT to buy and have nearly all of the things we NEED behind us. The major cost still ahead is a $2000 bimini job.
Transient costs are just docking fees at marinas we visit.
Nav Aids are charts we bought, but I included magazines and other educational publications we have bought.
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Let's talk about the differences that other boaters have that may differ from this and thanks for all your input.
A few things to note:
I do almost all my own repair work, so I segregated what I had to pay for the labor of others into its own category.
The 'Big 3' (payment, insurance, and slip fee) constitute 53% of all costs.
A few things that I left off (and do not track) are things like extra fuel for the cars to get back-and-forth to the coast, pet sitting costs, and the extra eating-out costs.
There are a few things on there that we needed to upgrade when we bought it and show in the percentages, but will never be bought again. Things like mattress, 2 radios, 2 antennas, curtains, bottom paint (for a while anyway), tools etc. That said, it's not that there will not be more of these costs in the future, what I am noting is that we are primarily down to things we WANT to buy and have nearly all of the things we NEED behind us. The major cost still ahead is a $2000 bimini job.
Transient costs are just docking fees at marinas we visit.
Nav Aids are charts we bought, but I included magazines and other educational publications we have bought.
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