Cost to Cruise - Dec 2012, and a Year End Summary

We left 2012 with a Bang, so to speak.  Spending a budget-busting $6,558!  Wow.

Here is the overview for December:

We are almost $2,800 over our already higher-than-we-hoped average monthly run rate.  What happened?  Well, some of the big things:

1. Purchased a spare raw water pump and transmission heat exchange, and the Magnum inverter.
2. Moorage includes next year's Washington State Park Pass ($140).
3. Dining Out:  Kristi and I did a lot of entertaining over the holidays with Family and Friends
4. Medical includes next year's pills,
5. And Transportation has three weeks of car rental (and gas) for our trip to Portland.

This is also one of the last months I will be consulting; we did kind of go wild.  Going into 2013 will be a new frontier for us, being 99% 'retired'.

On another sad note, the Solar Modeling missed the actuals a whopping -14%!  Yes, we only got 14Ah / day vs. the predicted 16Ah.   Biggest miss yet.

YEAR IN REVIEW

There is now sufficient 'data' that we can start looking at 'yearly' averages aligned with the end of the year!  

                                        2012 Full Year review.    (Click for larger image)

Looking back over 2012, we can see that Boat Maintenance and Improvements have taken over the top spending spot (from Healthcare and Insurance).  Perhaps need to remember some of the major points:

• Haul-out in August.
• Installing Solar Panel system in May
• Magnum inverter 
• About $1,000 in filling in gaps in the spares carried.

Next year I do not anticipate any of these (Will dive on the boat to replace the zincs, the bottom paint was in great shape when we hauled and I expect it will carry over two years - even in Salt water).

We are also looking to significantly cut our medical / insurance costs in 2013 by adopting an international policy.  (Outside of finishing up our Winter 2012 stay in Friday Harbor, and Kristi's upcoming eye surgery ).  The new policy does have a side effect of forcing us out of the USA, but for the policy we are looking at (IMG's GMI Click here) only for 6 months out of the year.  Given we will be cruising in Canada in 2013, and looking to winter over in Victoria BC, this should not be an issue.  

And with consulting coming to an end, I would hope to also see Communications reduced somewhat.  We have already dropped one of the phones we carry, and are looking to cut back to only one to park our phone number in while outside the USA.  However, communication costs will really depend on how often Kristi can go between Facebook hits . . .

The rest will likely stay the same (to be honest), but as the year progresses, we might have to make some other changes.