This is the question we get asked most, by far, mostly by people our age who are sitting at their kitchen tables doing the same arithmetic we did. So here's the whole thing. Every receipt goes in a coffee can in the chart table, and at the end of every month I sit down with the calculator and a pencil and put it all in a notebook. These are the averages for each stretch of the year, rounded to the nearest five dollars. They're our numbers for our boat, and yours will be different. — S.

Some notes on the lines:

• Groceries cost the most in the Bahamas, even though we stocked up in Florida before we left, because everything there comes in by boat. A box of cereal was about twice what it costs at home. Fresh fruit and vegetables are worth every penny when you can get them. — S.
• Diesel was high on the way down because the canal and the waterway are mostly motoring. In the Bahamas we sailed nearly everywhere. In Florida we hardly moved. — M.
• Marinas are the big swing. On the trip down we were in a marina most nights, plus the canal. In the Bahamas we anchored out almost every night for free and paid only for park moorings and the odd night at a dock to fill the water tanks. In Florida it's our monthly slip and the electric bill. — M.
• Boat parts and repairs in Florida includes the haul-out in August to paint the bottom. I do all the work myself. If you can't, double this line. — M.
• Health insurance is Martin's retiree plan from the shop, for both of us, and we thank our lucky stars for it every month. If you're thinking about doing this before Medicare, find out what this line will be for you first. It could be the biggest one. — S.
• Phone, e-mail and mail is high in the Bahamas because calling home from the islands is expensive. We have a mail forwarding service in Florida that collects everything and sends it in a big envelope wherever we tell them. — S.
• Water in the out islands is bought by the gallon. You learn to wash dishes in a cup. — S.

That's about $1,623 a month on average, for two people, for a year of living on a boat and going places we'd only looked at on charts. For comparison, in our last full year in the house in Livonia we spent more than that every month just to stay put, between the property taxes, the gas and electric, the upkeep, two cars and their insurance, and the snowblower. We didn't count the snowblower in the comparison. We just wanted to mention it again. — M.

We already owned the boat outright, which is the biggest thing. These are what we spent to get her ready to live on and go offshore. Some of it we could have done without, and some of it (the second anchor, the beacon, Sherry's medical kit) we hope we never really need. — M.

What we don't pay for anymore: property taxes, a furnace, a lawn service, two cars and their insurance, gas for the snowblower, the dining room set we never sat at, cable TV, and a closet full of clothes we didn't wear. We don't miss any of it. We miss Jon and the grandkids, and good sweet corn in August, and the library in Livonia. That's the list. — S.

Our advice, for what it's worth: anchor out, cook aboard, stock up in Florida, learn to fix your own engine, write it all down, and don't wait. — M. and S.

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