May's cruising expenses for Thailand and Malaysia

May was our most expensive month EVER at NZ$ 4573. This was no surprise as a lot of expensive things happened this month. Travelling and shopping is expensive. We spent ten days away from Sophia in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur. The main purpose was to do the TOG regatta and we then spent two days in KL on our way back. The tickets were a bit last minute, so not the cheapest. We spent about NZ$1768 on flights, accommodation, race fees and food in Thailand and KL.

Shopping is another big item! My old second hand computer that I had in NZ before we left finally gave up the game. $600. We also splurged on a new phone for me, my first phone in two years and my first new phone in about seven years. $355. H&M clothes shopping was another splurge, cruising is (also) hard on clothes and we both needed new stuff. $227. I (heart) H&M.

Finally Sophia also needed new stuff, new batteries this time! $859. One of the very first things we did up in Auckland right after we had purchased her 3 1/2 years ago, was to get two 6V Trojans. They have served us well, but have taken a beating (I think initially we only looked at battery capacity % and not voltage!). A few months ago in Thailand we came back to Soph after having been away a few hours and the bilge pump was going, and it had really drained the battery. After that it has been a very fast steady decline, some mornings towards the end the fridge was off because the voltage was low 10s!. Phil build our battery box to fit four, which we now finally have, and it's great. On the wish list is more solar!

April's cruising expenses for Thailand and Malaysia

This post is way overdue, but my old laptop packed up. I finally got a new one now, and yes, therefore May will be an expensive one!

April's expenses came in at NZ$ 1,104, so pretty average. It was atypical in that we had visitors for two weeks, Cassie and Pablo, and they kindly paid for several of our meals out, which probably explains why groceries is higher than eating out. Only other thing to note is how much more expensive laundry is in Malaysia compared to Thailand.

March's cruising costs for Thailand

I knew it was going to be an expensive month already at the beginning of the month when I ordered a new underwater camera and a new kindle on amazon. Unfortunately our underwater camera has give up, been too deep (over 10 m)  too often I'm afraid. The new one is good to 15 meters, so hopefully that should be fine, if not is supposed to warm me I'm going too deep. Phil killed my kindle when he put a knee onto the screen, ups. It's very hard to be without a kindle, we LOVE them.

All up we spent NZ$ 2477 for the month of March, definitely one of the more expensive months. Two big shopping trips (with car hire) didn't really help either, although we did get some yummy things we have been missing, e,g. falaffel mix, lollies and sour cream to name a few.

We spent a lot on boat bits as well, specifically $404 on winch service and repair. It took them two goes to get it fixed, and over two weeks, not very impressive, but at least the winch is finally working now and we're happy to be able to move around again.

February's cruising expenses for Thailand

A quiet and somewhat typical month I think, coming in at NZ$ 865. For the first time in half a year or so groceries is a bigger item than eating out. We still eat out a lot, but we have been to more low-key Thai places and we have also enjoyed the good selection that Thai supermarkets offer. Food all up accounts for 71% of our expenses for the month of February. I also love how cheap it is to do laundry in Thailand. And filling our water tanks with drinking water was also only about $9.

December and January's cruising costs for Malaysia and Thailand

We're back with internet connection after five lovely days on Surin Islands, but more about that in another blog post.

I have included December's expenses (NZ$3190) although it's not very representative for two reasons. First of all it includes our new dinghy which is a massive cost layout, for us anyway, at $2508. The old dinghy was literally falling apart and has been the last half year or so! We hope this new dinghy is a good investment over time, and it definitely should last a lot longer, it is also 2.5 times more expensive! We ordered it from Defender in the USA and had it shipped to Langkawi. We found it better value and also better quality than what we could get locally. We were however quite limited in choice as it has to fit exactly under our solar arch to get the biggest size possible, yet it's still a small dinghy compared to most other cruising dinghies around.

Secondly, we only spent roughly half of December on the boat in Malaysia, the rest of the time we flew to Denmark for Christmas holiday! We probably wouldn't have spent a whole lot more if we had stayed on the boat, as the marina costs would be roughly equivalent to extra food and eating-out costs. If the dinghy is excluded, it would have been a cheap month, maybe $700 or so. My parents were kind and very generous and actually paid for our flights to Denmark, and I have not included our few expenses in Denmark. To fly home from somewhere (far away) isn't cheap and would roughly equate one or two months' cruising expenses! Definitely worth considering.

On the 5th of January we were back in Malaysia and only spent a couple of days in Langkawi before we sailed to Thailand. Louise visited us for two weeks, and so both with her and on our own, we have been eating out a lot (say Thai food...), so we feel like it was an expensive month. In total it was 'only' NZ$ 1206, so not too bad, but eating out was by far the biggest expense that month. The supermarkets are also pretty good, so some spending there too.

Cruising expenses for November for Malaysia and Singapore

Our total expenses in November were NZ$ 1378. We spend half the month in Tioman island where we also left Sophia while we travelled to Singapore. Tioman marina is a tiny bit cheaper than Danga Bay to leave our sized boat at, so although travel expenses were higher, it was worth it to us, mostly because of timing.

This time I have kept our Singapore visit in amongst the other expenses and not as a separate sightseeing event. While we were in Singapore Phil flew to Hong Kong for a couple of days, but I have left out that expense, as it was pure business and I think even paid for itself as he carried sails back to Singapore.

All up we spent 22 days in marinas, which without a doubt is a record number. Our only big expense this month (besides transport) was miscellaneous, it's always surprising how all those little things add up, and well, shopping in Singapore is easy and fun (there's a Spotlight!!).

October's cruising costs for Brunei and Malaysia

An expensive month at NZ$ 2059, but considering that Phil bought a new computer (NZ$ 850) and that our amazing little side trip to Gunung Mulu national parks came in at NZ$ 520, it's not bad at all. Without those two costs it would have been NZ$ 686, which (in theory) would have been a record low.

We now again have internet and laudry costs. Those costs we part of the $5 we paid a day for the yacht club in Brunei, I think I forgot to specify that in the last cost post. Speaking of which, were only in Brunei the first couple of days of the month, the rest of the time was spent in Malaysia. And doing a fair bit of passasing, which also always helps keep the expenses down.

September's cruising costs for Brunei and Malaysia

After skipping the month's of July and August (only two of those weeks were actually spent on the boat), I finally got a new month's budget.

Sarah and Anton visited the first week, and Phil wasn't back until two-thirds way through the month, so it's not quite a typical month. Our total spending was NZ$ 1236. After food the largest spending was various boat parts Phil bought in NZ. As a side note, we did also buy some parts in Denmark (in July and August), but it wasn't actually that much, some springs for rope clutches, a new kettle and other small bits and bobs.

The high transport cost is Phil going to KK to deliver a sail plus when we have borrowed Barry's car, we have topped up the petrol. One thing we'll really miss here in Brunei is the cheap fuel, we have even bought an extra five 20 liter containers (slightly dodgy ones for $2 each) so we can take come of that precious liquid with us.

June's cruising costs and the big annual overview of costs

June was our second most expensive month at NZ$ 2926, however, that's because our annual boat insurance was due and without that cost of $1974, June would have been our second cheapest month at only $952. And that even with our most expensive eating out month ever, funny how that item just seems to grow each month almost. I think the tipping point was an expensive lunch we had at the fancy Empire Hotel in Brunei with the Norwegians, but it was good too.

The last few days of our trip to Singapore (most figured in May's budget) came in at $151. Other than that, an interesting fact is that June is the only month without internet expenses! In Singapore we had internet at Theresa's place, in Brunei free wifi is part of the $5 a day for use of the yacht club's facilities. The two days we have just spent in Malaysia before the race we just used our old sim card from Malaysia we have loaded up earlier on. Although admittedly we barely had time for playing on the internet there, we were busy being social and also getting Sophia ready for the race.

As this is the 12th month, I have also made an annual overview of all the months put together, fun to see our whole year of cruising layed out like that. Interesting for example that the last four months we haven't had any expenses in regards to clearing in and out of countries. The reason for that is it's free in Malaysia and Brunei and in Philippines there are only entry, not exit fees. If you want explanations to each month and for example what the general misc item consists of (varies each month), you can find them here.

Insurance is a big item, without it the monthly average for our cruising costs would be NZ$1600 and not $1800. And this is even only insurance for Sophia, not our health insurance. My lovely parents insist we have health insurance and they also pay for it. I struggled to even find insurance, both for us and Sophia before we left, but in the end I found boat insurance through the (NZ) Island Cruising Association with Edward William Marine Services, and for health insurance I found several options from the Seven Seas Cruising Association (US). Thankfully we haven't needed to make any claims, so I can't say anything about either services.

I have also made a pie chart to show which items are biggest. For that I added some of the items together, eg groceries, alcohol and eating out, otherwise the many different items made it confusing to get a good overview.

This cruising budget is of course reflective of us and will vary hugely from boat to boat. This is our first year out, so Sophia was well stocked with food from NZ, the cost of which occured before this year began. Sophia also left NZ with brand new sails and canvas and major work done to her, so this first year will probably also be cheaper than subsequent years when more things break and wear out. Another thing to note is we're pretty light drinkers, so the alcohol item and drinks out is very small compared to most cruisers. Other cruisers also spend much more on sightseeing and here in Asia there are quite a few marinas, and they aren't free. In the Pacific it's easy because there simply aren't any marinas (or only a couple), so it's all just free anchoring. We do also know some cruisers who spend less money than us, typically older people (hardy long time cruisers) with only a set income like pension.

May's cruising costs for Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore

And wham, with NZ$ 2364 we're back with an expensive month. It all started when we stayed in flash Kota Kinabalu (KK), making eating out and marina fees our highest ever. Most items are more than average, but especially so boat parts and miscellaneous.

We spent almost $500 on boat parts, mostly the cutlass bearing and associated costs. It is 'funny' that the local cutlass bearing we got in KK was only $35 compared to $280 for the one we got from NZ (via Phil's parents). We didn't dare rely on getting a local one and in good enough quality, which is why we had to quickly order the one from NZ, so Phil's parents could bring it with them. Phil might change over to the NZ one next time we're on the hard. Phil's parents of course also brought along a bunch of other random boat bits (and other unexpected NZ goodies such as kiwi dip!). We love visitors :-)

The other very expensive item is miscellaneous, $845. We did go on a bit of a shopping spree in KK buying all sorts of various things, none very expensive, apart from a new hard disk for Phil's computer, but it all adds up. I also added our Singapore trip( $505) under there and not under sightseeing, as it really mostly was to see Phil's parents and get all the things they had brought for us.

The only item that was exceptionally cheap is fuel. Diesel, petrol and LPG were all filled up, which is also quite rare that it all happend in one month: both gas bottles, petrol cans and 100 litre of diesel, but thanks Brunei's extremely cheap fuel prices (30 cents a litre of diesel), it was very cheap.

Next month will be our 12th month, and I'll make an additional yearly overview and averages etc.

April's cruising costs for Philippines and Malaysia

Wow, we're really into Asia now! Despite the fact that we hauled out, April was still a cheaper than our monthly average! Overall we spent NZ$ 1314, but excluding the haul-out costs it's only NZ$ 527! It's probably mostly because we spent 2/3 of the month day passaging along the west coast of Palawan, Philippines where there aren't many possibilities to spend money. But, so far Malaysia is also very cheap, and the food is even better.

We are still in Kudat, it turned out the rattling of the shaft was worse than we initially thought and Phil has been working on a solution with some help from a couple other cruisers here in the marina, luckily enough one is a mechanic!

March cruising costs in Philippines

NZ$ 1263 is what we spent in March and that even includes my freediving course and associated travel, so all up a pretty good month.

Again we spent more on eating out than buying food :-) Philippines isn't exactly known for its delicious cousine, but at least it's quite cheap. They LOVE meat, and especially bbq, and if you're happy with meat of various (often dubious) cuts and sources, you can live on next to nothing. Being semi-vegetarian makes it a bit harder for me to find food, even the veggie dishes often have meat pieces in them. We're really looking forward to Malaysia and especially Thailand later this year.

Otherwise there aren't really anything to explain or comment on for this month's budget, it's pretty self-explanatory.

February cruising budget

In the month of February we spent NZ$ 2019. The biggies were Phil's doctor bills for his fractured toe ($280) and our little break from Sophia while going backpacking wasn't cheap either, so far it was $435. And this is only the first part of our trip, the whale sharks trip and my freediving course occurred in March. I have gathered all the costs for the land travel under sightseeing, rather than divide it into eating out, transport etc.

I have deleted the item Drinks and food for internet, as we haven't had any costs there since Vanuatu and I don't think we will anytime soon.

We haven't had much transport cost before now, and even though transport in Philippines is very cheap, we have travelled a lot on land and in cities and it all adds up.

Very interesting is we actually spent more on eating out than buying food in February!! That's for sure a first! It means we have eaten out A LOT, but it has still been really cheap, considering how many days we have eaten out!

January's cruising costs

Phew, again we knew it was going to be an expensive month, but let me say it one more time, phew. January has been our most expensive month so far at NZ$ 3205. The by far biggest cost is boat parts and mainly a new tiller auto pilot ram, which was US$ 700. Add a dripless shaft seal (US$ 300) plus a few other bits and bobs, including new anchor winch switches which Sheralee is bringing along in her suitcase when she comes to visit tomorrow.

One small new change to the budget is eating out which now includes drinking out, as that item normally is very small and it's natural that when we eat out, we sometimes drink alcohol with the food, although generally not much, we are pretty boring. I think back in Tonga we used to include non-alchoholic drinks in that category, so this way it's easier anyway. A fairly large part of eating out is actually ice cream, we (OK, mostly me) are pretty addicted and Palau (well, US really) has some really good ice creams, one example is snickers brownie sandwich ice cream, yum!

Another bigger than usual cost is groceries. There's no excuse really, except when there's a huge (compared to what we're used to) selection, it's easy to buy lots of food, including some more exotic and expensive things. We haven't even stocked up Sophia very much, as we know there will be good and cheap food in Philippines.

The entry fee and visa item is pretty ridiculous big also. Palau sure knows how to make money on cruisers! The entry fee was paid back in December, so January's amount includes: rock island permit for 10 days cruising (US$ 120), visa extension for another 30 days (because auto pilot was delayed from US) for us and Sophia (US$ 150) and exit fees (US$ 100).

December's cruising cost

We knew this was going to be an expensive month, so it was no real surprise that we spent almost $2000 during December. It's a good effort considering we spent half of it on passage, first five days from Kavieng to Hermit Island, then nine days from Hermit to Palau. The biggie is boat bits with a very expensive new toilet lit and seat at almost $400. Considering you can get a brand new (whole) toilet for about half that, it's even more expensive, but we do like our lavac toilet and have had no problems with it so far, besides the lid cracking, but then it was 26 years old. The lid hasn't actually arrived here yet, but we're really looking forward to it.

Another bigger than usual expense was internet. PNG wasn't cheap (until we discovered just using Phil's smart phone), where as here in Palau it is (but then it means we use it lots). Most of those costs should carry us through the rest of our time in Palau in January though. Miscellaneous was also big, but it wasn't one thing, just lots of little things adding up.

We can already reveal that next month is going to be expensive as Phil has just purchased a new autopilot ram and a dripless shaft seal, but more about that next month. Here's December:

October and November's cruising expenses

I missed October's months budget because of my parent's visit, first of all because they were here during the end of October and the beginning of November, and also because their visit kind of screwed up those two months' budgets. We were recording costs before and after their visit, but we totally stopped while they were with us as we were spending a lot more money than we would if we were alone, particularly on alcohol and eating out, but also somewhat on groceries. Another reason is they kindly paid for all those extra expenses.

Anyway, here is both October and November's cruising expenses. It's not 100% accurate, but I still think it's a pretty reasonable reality of what we spent, if we had just been the two of us alone. Overall the countries have been pretty cheap for cruising, although food (besides fruit, veggies and a few staples) is still more expensive than NZ, but then it's also quite limited what you can buy in the first place. Solomon Islands is quite expensive for clearing in and out of though. Interesting is also we haven't spent anything on mooring fees (haven't been any) or water (we have almost exclusively caught it all with our rain catchers). Drinks out has pretty much merged into eating out, I may delete it next month if we don't start going out drinking a lot. It's also mostly a night activity and we have spent pretty much all nights on Sophia for security reasons.

September's cruising costs for Vanuatu

Another month has ticked over, so it's time for another cost sheet. Phew, this one isn't looking as good as the last two months. Total spending cost was almost $2400!

There are several reasons why we spent more than in Tonga. Entry, immigration and exit (already paid) fees are much higher than in Tonga. We had to get a visa extension because we're here longer than one month, and it's only one set fee for up to 4 months, $85 per person. Although food is cheaper than Tonga, there's a much better selection here and we have used up some of our NZ stores, and we're also stocking up for Solomons and PNG, so all in all that means we have bought quite a lot of food here. We have only eaten out for dinner once, but ice creams, cheap lunches etc all adds up as well. We have added two new categories, transport and sightseeing and have spent some money on that like seeing the Yasur vulcano. There is some over-lap between the two, because some sightseeing includes transport cost.

Anyway, enough explanations/excuses, here it goes:

Cruising costs for Tonga

We have been keeping a close account of every penny we have spent, as it's a good way to find out where our money goes, and also to stop us over-spending. We do the accounting for our own sake, but we might as well share it, as we know there are several future cruisers back home, it might be able to give you an idea of cruising costs. Below is money we have spent cruising for July and August. It happens to be almost exactly the time we have been in Tonga, plus our passage to Vanuatu.

A few things to note: we are pretty frugal. We have eaten out for dinner only twice in those two months. Other eat out is the $3 fish burgers we got from the market and ice creams and the like. 'Drinks and food for internet' is mostly not money we would have spent on drink or food otherwise, but it's often the cheapest way to get on internet. We differ from most cruisers by our alcohol consumption. It's very low, as we just think it's too expensive, it was on Tonga anyway, getting closer to Asia should improve that situation. Sophia was also extremely well stocked coming directly from New Zealand. I did not keep a budget while in NZ, but I'd guestimate we have spent a few thousand on groceries alone in NZ to stock up Sophia with all the things that are either impossible or very expensive to find up here. Some of it should hopefully last for many more months to come, but it did lower our food budget while in Tonga.