Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

I've been playing with excel files quite a bit lately for a bunch of different business releated reasons. At some point I got the harebrained notion to start a spreadsheet of boat expenses. I suppose it started as innocent curiosity over what I've actually spent on the recore project, and while I had my folder of boat receipts out, I just kept on going. Hey, wouldn't it be neat to have all of this information in a sortable, searchable format? To be able to know what I've spent and where?

This is right up there on my "Dumbest Moves I've Ever Made' list.
I won't be so uncouth as to go into detailed figures, but suffice it to say that the bottom line is over 10x the purchase price.

In hindsight, I truly did NOT need to know that.

The mafia has it right. It's better for everyone if you don't keep records.

Welcome to the disease! It's an elite crowd...

In hindsight, I truly did NOT need to know that

I know EXACTLY how you feel...

-Britton

When I started my Triton my wife said " Lets start a file with all the reciepts and we can add them up and see how much it all cost."
I said " Let's don't. I really don't want to know."

I can honestly say that I am really glad I don't have that file. There are some things in life better left to conjecture I think boat expenses are one of them. I also resist the urge to divide the boat hauling, mooring fees, storage fees and maintainance expenses into the number of trips I take on the boat each season to arrive at a per trip cost. I think I enjoy my boat more without knowing that as well.

Brock Richardson

The Good Goose wrote:I also resist the urge to divide the boat hauling, mooring fees, storage fees and maintainance expenses into the number of trips I take on the boat each season to arrive at a per trip cost.

I actually did that my first season, and even included an estimate of food/drink costs associated with boating and was pleasantly surprised.

Those other costs though.... brrrrr.

I was reading of the restoration of Bolero and the fellow said something that really struck a nerve...."you spend the first third of your money taking a totally seaworthy vessel and making it unseaworthy, at 1/2 way the boat has no value and you might as well have flushed your money down the toilet, you need the last part of your money to make the boat decent again" More true words were never spoken.

windrose wrote:...."you spend the first third of your money taking a totally seaworthy vessel and making it unseaworthy, at 1/2 way the boat has no value and you might as well have flushed your money down the toilet, you need the last part of your money to make the boat decent again" More true words were never spoken.

Boy, that sure is true! I've never quite heard it put that way before.

Pleasure boats are an unjustifiable expense. They truly exist only for a few moments of sheer pleasure that you could never acheive in any other way.

Therefore, any attempts to justify boat-related expenses are just a bad idea from the getgo. What the boat wants, the boat gets...and as long as I get the pleasure and enjoyment out of all aspects of the process, I will never reget those expenditures. I will say that I really don't spend much discretionary income on anything else besides boats. It's all about the boats.

Thanks to Quicken, I do track all boat expenses (and all other expenses, for that matter)...but honestly, I never look at the totals! It will be what it will be. If I didn't spend the money on boats and project boats, I'd probably be into cars, or woodworking, or some other silly, unjustifiable hobby and lifestyle. I think the benefits more than make up for the expenses, for me.

As once written by E.B. White: "If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps better than most".