I saved £3000 per month by moving onto a narrowboat in London

[Alan de Enfield]

Divorced dad moves into narrowboat 'to save £3k a month' - and can fit five kids (msn.com)

 

Adad-of-five who had been looking at living in London bedsits after his divorce now claims to save more than £3,000 a month by moving into a narrowboat instead.

James Posner, 44, says the narrowboat lifestyle is 'London's best kept secret' amid the cost-of-living crisis - and has the freedom to have his children come and stay.

The commercial property sector surveyor, who is dad to Ava, 15, Arthur, 10, Florence, 10, Matilda, five, and Ivy, four, first began property hunting in the capital in 2020 after splitting from his wife of eight years.

He says he could only afford to rent either a room in a houseshare or a bedsit. Unable to find accommodation suitable for his children to visit, James then decided to buy a narrowboat for £12,000 and spent a year making it ready for the water.

 

"Living on the boat has given me so much freedom and, considering it only costs me around £300 a month with all my bills and expenses, I don't know why more people aren't doing it," he said.

"I always say narrowboat living is London's best-kept secret.

"I'm constantly amazed that it's a floating home with everything I could possibly need with unlimited outside space."

With all James' expenses combined, including fuel, gas and electric, canal and river trust licence, insurance through Insure4Boats and general maintenance, he estimates his outgoing to be around £300 a month, and says he saves over £3,000 each month.

He said: "It's been a massive learning curve. I've had to become like a builder, a carpenter, a plumber, a gas man, and an engineer overnight.

[rusty69]

With the obligatory youtube channel and crowdfunding page (£11508).

 

I wonder if the £500 survey picked up the fact that it required over plating. It doesn't seem to mention that in the article.

 

The £12000 is more like £15250 + £3000+£3600+£5900 +..... not including the overplating costs. Seems quite a cost for a 1971 springer.

 

£27550

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RgJoy-wnsU

 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/save-sloe-patrol?fb_comment_id=4469968473015940_4472828619396592

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_dmzakA_xE

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by rusty69

[enigmatic]

Not gonna lie, it's very much possible to live in London for quite a lot less than £3k per month if you're comfortable with living in a space the size of a narrowboat. Donations work out at more than £300 per month too...

 

I understand people doing the "OMG I've been hit by unexpected costs for my narrowboat, please send me money so I can keep my project alive" and people doing the "wow, living in a narrowboat is pretty inexpensive", but doing both strikes me as a bit cheeky...

[Chewbacka]

I suppose he could claim to be saving £500k per month if he had wanted a 4 bed house in Mayfair.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

With the obligatory youtube channel and crowdfunding page (£11508).

 

I wonder if the £500 survey picked up the fact that it required over plating. It doesn't seem to mention that in the article.

 

The £12000 is more like £15250 + £3000+£3600+£5900 +..... not including the overplating costs. Seems quite a cost for a 1971 springer.

 

£27550

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RgJoy-wnsU

 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/save-sloe-patrol?fb_comment_id=4469968473015940_4472828619396592

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_dmzakA_xE

 

Maybe another poster to this forum who plans to make money doing a boat up should watch that video 

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

Maybe another poster to this forum who plans to make money doing a boat up should watch that video 

I've certainly learnt something about crowdfunding. I've been slowly squirreling away money for years to have our boat overplated when the time comes. It seems all I need is a popular youtube channel, a go funding page and I can raise the money in a day.

 

Who wants to donate? I will take £5, £10, or even £20 donations.

[Quattrodave]

50 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Who wants to donate? I will take £5, £10, or even £20 donations.

 

I was just about to donate £50 but like most shops and petrol stations, you don't accept them 😁

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

 

I was just about to donate £50 but like most shops and petrol stations, you don't accept them 😁

You can always donate 2x20 +1x10.

 

No change given though. 

[Tony1]

 

If I spend any time moored in London (which I occasionally ponder about doing), I'll be setting up a crowd funding thing to pay for all the counselling I'll need after being double and treble moored for a month, queueing at the inadequate water points, and laying awake every night worrying about being burgled. 

Joking aside, I bet after a few months, all the snags and inconveniences just becomes a way of life that many people can get used to. I bet the boaters are a lovely bunch, and very eclectic, but I couldn't hack it with all the overcrowding for more than a couple of weeks.

  

Edited February 14, 2023 by Tony1

[StephenA]

3 hours ago, rusty69 said:

I've certainly learnt something about crowdfunding. I've been slowly squirreling away money for years to have our boat overplated when the time comes. It seems all I need is a popular youtube channel, a go funding page and I can raise the money in a day.

 

Who wants to donate? I will take £5, £10, or even £20 donations.

 

Mintball needs some hull work.  maybe I should get people to really pay attention to the adverts on Canalplan and then Nick and I wont have to find the money from our savings....

[Ianws]

I honestly don't know where to begin responding to this topic. 😕 

[Alan de Enfield]

7 hours ago, Ianws said:

I honestly don't know where to begin responding to this topic. 😕 

 

 

How about "Life is better on the water" ?

[mrsmelly]

Surely the beauty of living on a boat, is that you dont need to go anywhere near the shithole that is London.

[rusty69]

14 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Surely the beauty of living on a boat, is that you dont need to go anywhere near the shithole that is London.

He no longer lives in London:

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11748571/Father-five-faced-living-bedsit-divorce-saves-3k-month.html#comments

[Hudds Lad]

I have never lived in London, can i get my £3k a month backdated?

[MtB]

This bit people will see is "Bought a narrowboat for £12k".

 

Cue 20 calls an hour to Braunston Marina asking for a list of boats on brokerage under £12k...

 

 

 

[Jerra]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Surely the beauty of living on a boat, is that you dont need to go anywhere near the shithole that is London.

I don't live aboard but still manage to keep clear of London.  😁

[cuthound]

20 hours ago, Tony1 said:

 

If I spend any time moored in London (which I occasionally ponder about doing), I'll be setting up a crowd funding thing to pay for all the counselling I'll need after being double and treble moored for a month, queueing at the inadequate water points, and laying awake every night worrying about being burgled. 

Joking aside, I bet after a few months, all the snags and inconveniences just becomes a way of life that many people can get used to. I bet the boaters are a lovely bunch, and very eclectic, but I couldn't hack it with all the overcrowding for more than a couple of weeks.

  

 

Just take a trip on the Waterloo & City Line during peak hours. It will cure you of being wary of overcrowding. I used to do it twice a day when I worked in central London and it wasn't until I watched a documentary series on the London Underground (after I had retired) that I realised just how overcrowded that particular tube line is.

Edited February 15, 2023 by cuthound
Clarification

[Tony1]

3 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Just take a trip on the Waterloo & City Line during peak hours. It will cure you of being wary of overcrowding. I used to do it twice a day when I worked in central London and it wasn't until I watched a documentary series on the London Underground (after I had retired) that I realised just how overcrowded that particular tube line is.

 

I went through a decade or so when I was visiting London for work a few times each year, and those trips usually involved taking the tube during rush hour. 

It was packed every time I went on it, but in the summer it was unpleasantly hot in some carriages, and what with some walking at the other end, I was usually sweating before I even got to the meeting venue, which was a novel and most unwelcome experience.

I remember being stood on the tube, with people uncomfortably close on all sides, and sometimes almost no room to move. And I used to think to myself- why are you people doing this day in. and day out? Are the attractions and opportunities of London really that great that they are worth this miserable experience?

I've long had a theory that humans need a sense of having some living space, and preferably time outdoors, in order to stay mentally healthy. 

I suspect that for a lot of us, living in a crammed city of 10 or 15 million people, and travelling to work on packed trains or driving on badly congested roads, will over time lead to an unhappiness and a dissatisfaction- almost like a battery farmed chicken living in a giant overcrowded shed with barely room to move. The chicken, having never taken a step in the open air, doesn't understand why it is suffering, and what is wrong with its conditions- but on some level I believe it is deeply unhappy and badly affected mentally.  

I sometimes think that people living in giant cities are voluntarily giving themselves a little taste of the life of a battery farmed chicken. 

On a similar note, I don't think we really understand the cause and the nature of the feeling we get when we walk to the top of a hill or mountain, and we see an amazing natural view. We know its a great feeling, and we know it touches something inside us that no other experience really does.

But I'm not sure we understand the workings of those feelings we get on a mountain top any better than a battery chicken would understand its feelings, if it was released and allowed to walk on grass in an open field for the first time in its life.

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Tony1

[robtheplod]

I didn't realise it was this James!  His channel has been very good about renovation...

 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by robtheplod