Just a quick post of a running tally we have on days anchored, days moored, days docked, and how much we’ve spent on each of those. 

158 days anchored (all free except the days spent in Morro Bay)

4 days moored 

17 days Docked (proud to say, still only 17, all free except for Ensenada) 

Paid $: Mooring $40 (Morro Bay YC)

              Docked $105 (Ensenada’s Baja Naval Marina)

              Dingy Dock $15 (Cabo San Lucas)

              Anchored $159 (Morro Bay Guest Anchorge) 

Fuel consumption for 6 months (60 gal diesel). 

Mexico check in expenses in Ensenada: $105 for passport/tourists cards, $256 for Port Captain fees, $60 for TIP card, and $45 for fishing license.

I haven’t been too good with figuring how much we spend on food. I’m guessing we spend around $500 a month. We’re not eating out all the time, but we aren’t living on beans and rice either. 
Big ticket items that were not anticipated: 

replacing our windvane with a new hydrovane. Let’s just say >$5,000 (yikes!). 

And just recently, replacing our windlass. Another $2500! Our manual “triple nickel” finally had its last days. Rods sheered, springs broke. Basically, our manual windlass had reached its final day. Unfortunately you can’t find a new manual windlass for a boat larger than 32 feet anymore. Since we are in this for the long haul, we chose to go with a new windlass that is electric with a manual override. Shawnigan had previously had an electric on her, but we wanted manual. At least she’s pretty much all set to install a new electric windlass. Hopefully that’s it, for big ticket purchases this first year of cruising. 
Overall a very inexpensive way of living! We’ve noticed that we are one of very few kid boats that anchor instead of docking at a marina if one if available. I’m not sure why this is, but we wished more kid boats anchored out too. I know it can be more of a challenge in ways, but to us, it’s worth it.  By not going in to Marinas we basically extend our cruising time by at least 3 months without having to refil the cruising kitty.  Or another way to look at it, a month in the Marina at Barra Navidad is about 3 months of food for our family of five! Plus we enjoy our time being  more than 10 feet away from the boat next to us. It give us time to focus on each other or school without interruption. It does take more time management to be anchored, and maybe more meal planning, but again, it’s worth it. I enjoy the 15 minutes it takes us to get from our boat to town with our little 5 hp tahatsu outboard. And in more situations, the extra time to row in and out (a little exercise never hurts). 

If you’re a kid boat reading this, come anchor with us!

   
 
Here’s our pile of chain prepping for windlass change!