Realistic boating article

[Cheese]

Link   Not the usual "everything is wonderful" piece

[Athy]

Interesting. I note that, while she minutely itemises her expenditure for the week, she doesn't tell us what she earns - if she is in higher education (university lecturer?) her salary should be substantial enough to bear £450 per week in outgoings.

 

Edit: she is a "Researcher Training and Development Manager" at Oxford University, so probably earns a little less than a lecturer would.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Athy

[Mike Hurley]

Half of that expenditure was on her car tyres and MOT, not a weekly expense. She looks like Sarah Ferguson, maybe Andy will join her on the boat soon.

[Athy]

5 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

Half of that expenditure was on her car tyres and MOT, not a weekly expense. 

Yes, a good point, though doubtless she will have other such incidental expenses during the year, so the figure may be close to her weekly average.

[peterboat]

Interest read enjoyed it

[Stilllearning]

The article was about much more than costs involved in living on a boat. The main thrust of the article was about poverty and  how to deal with it in an affluent society, and despite having a “good job”. 

[Bee]

interesting. Its expensive when you borrow money to buy the boat, the mooring is dear and the car .... £296 for oil and filter and a couple of tyres!  The lessons are that you need to do all your own maintanence (if you can). As soon as I finish this I will be finishing off my sons MOT failure, 2 new shock absorbers £58, 2 discs, £28, set of brake pads £20 labour £0, cost of MOT £40, £150 ish. (please don't bring your MOT failures round to my house!) When I moved on to a boat donkeys years ago it was an opportunity to save money, now it just seems to be another way to get stuck with little chance of saving enough to move on.

[matty40s]

Well being is all around....

 

Two years ago I acquired a £4,000 overdraft debt overnight (due to the Canal and River Trust omitting the VAT on my mooring fees and threatening me with a CCJ [county court judgement] unless I paid the VAT bill in full immediately) and I have been in the debt trap ever since.

[Athy]

That does sound drastic of CART, if it was their own error as she suggests. But hang on, £4,000? VAT is 20%, so that means that her taxable mooring fees were £20,000; so over how long did this debt accumulate?

[peterboat]

26 minutes ago, Bee said:

interesting. Its expensive when you borrow money to buy the boat, the mooring is dear and the car .... £296 for oil and filter and a couple of tyres!  The lessons are that you need to do all your own maintanence (if you can). As soon as I finish this I will be finishing off my sons MOT failure, 2 new shock absorbers £58, 2 discs, £28, set of brake pads £20 labour £0, cost of MOT £40, £150 ish. (please don't bring your MOT failures round to my house!) When I moved on to a boat donkeys years ago it was an opportunity to save money, now it just seems to be another way to get stuck with little chance of saving enough to move on.

I do all my own work on cars and boats as well it makes life much cheaper for us and our kids

[MichaelG]

If this young woman has an eye on her future financial security she would be much better advised to be investing the £1000 a month she currently spends on her boat loan and licensing fees into bricks and mortar. In ten years time she will have an asset that has appreciated in value, rather than a boat which will probably have depreciated. I would also say the expenses of running a small modern house are likely to be lower than the boat. 

[Jerra]

I found it interesting that she included the MOT etc not a weekly expense but didn't mention the petrol to London any parking charges etc.  What else wasn't mentioned I wonder?

[john6767]

On 28/11/2019 at 09:52, matty40s said:

Well being is all around....

 

Two years ago I acquired a £4,000 overdraft debt overnight (due to the Canal and River Trust omitting the VAT on my mooring fees and threatening me with a CCJ [county court judgement] unless I paid the VAT bill in full immediately) and I have been in the debt trap ever since.

Sounds like a load of bull to me.  The article also says that she spends approx £3000 pa on mooring and boat licence, so the mooring would be about £2000 pa.  it also says she has had the boat for 3 years, so any unpaid VAT bill would be a max of about £1200.  And why was she just keeping her head down hoping it would go un noticed, rather than pointing out the omission.

[matty40s]

It wont just be the VAT, it will be the lumped on charges for ingnoring final demand and bailiffs letters and fines....