Living afloat....How much?

[larkshall]

compare and contrast folks. we live on ours, theres 2 people and a small dog.

 

Gas £75 ( used for cooking and a gas boiler - we have to use 6 kg bottles which are more expensive than bigger ones)

Coal £0 so far we have only used up what coal was on the boat when we bought it, which was one bucket full

Wood about £0 we get all ours free

Diesel £390 - we constantly cruise, but we dont like cruising far

Electricity £0 its included in the diesel price above

Licence £540 (2007-2008)

Insurance £165

Marina £0 we cruise

 

maintenance: £ 2500

this includes around 1000 for hull blacking, and the rest is general maintenance like gettingthe boiler repaired, replacing the curtains, servicing the engine, servicing the stove, new fridge and new sofa

 

Now, if we add on the enforced costs when we bought the boat because we were stuck in a marina... for 3 months, plus the buying of the boat and surveying

 

survey £500

lift out for survey £350

BSC £100

moorings £1000

electricity £35

 

I havent included my car and food i eat and the extra £200 each it costs us to commute to work. plus the extra 3-4 hours each per day we commute. (it used to be 10 mins for me and 60 mins for him)

 

Good god 3-4 hours a day communting? how far from the boat do you live?

[Scotty]

Excellent posts, many thanks. I'm pleased so see your costs are about what i was expecting to pay.

Let's hope the coming changes to diesel and licenses don't price boating out our reach

 

Interesting that Jill's insurance is double that of Honey ryder

Is Jill overcharged, Honey under insured ?

[Sir Nibble]

if you r cc. it logically means that you have to cruice 26 day s of the year someone said that you can cruise for an hour for a litre of fuel ? dont know but if thats right say £1.00 lite = 208 a year ie 208 hours crusing . does that make any sence

*sigh* Sorry Colin, the sigh isn't for you, It just seems that the question on the lips of so many ccers seems to be "How can I avoid cruising". To be continuously cruising, you must be on a progressive journey around the system and not stop in any one locale for more than 14 days. Shuttling back and forth from one place to another and back again on a 14 day rotation is not a progressive journey.

someone said that you can cruise for an hour for a litre of fuel

A bloke recently tried to argue that in court and he has been escorted off the waterway and banned for life.

[wrigglefingers]

Excellent posts, many thanks. I'm pleased so see your costs are about what i was expecting to pay.

Let's hope the coming changes to diesel and licenses don't price boating out our reach

 

Interesting that Jill's insurance is double that of Honey ryder

Is Jill overcharged, Honey under insured ?

 

My insurance is very expensive as I have full liveaboard contents insurance which is pricey - my boat insurance is about 140/year and my contents insurance is £300/year. Most people accept the contents insurance on a general boat policy but I was told I needed more cover 'cos of my weird collection of instruments.

 

Jill

[Bullfrog]

'cos of my weird collection of instruments.

 

Please tell us more

 

David

[onthecut]

Hi all.

 

Just looking at the tail end of the posts and the comment about the coming changes to diesel. If it hasn't already been covered elsewhere on the forum, be aware that HMRC have a consultation opportunity going on at present and it really is in all our interests to make our views known. I can't recall the exact address that gets you to the on line document, but I received an acknowledgement from the following address, so I guess they would point you in the right direction to complete the form.

 

claire.hardy2@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

 

Mike.

[honey ryder]

we dont have contents insurance because we dont have many contents worth insuring. no tv, no stereo as such, no real electronics of any kind. suppose the only expensive thing could be the watch on my wrist and earings i wear every day. I own nothing of any value. oh, maybe the booze cabinet has a value, but thats mainly to my sanity and not my wallet.

 

then again i do have irreplaceable things, such as my grandmothers sewing machine and sewing box. oh and a load of old super 8 reels.

 

If the boat went up in flames or got burgled, they are the only things i would try to save or try to find. they are not the kind of thing someone would be lively to nick, more like chuck in the canal out of frustration of finding nothing of value.

( my instruments are neither rare or unusual... a ukulele and a keyboard. )

Edited October 31, 2007 by honey ryder

[wrigglefingers]

Please tell us more

 

David

 

two concertinas

one melodeon

four recorders

two flutes

one fiddle

one french horn

one bodhran

one flautina

one harmonium

two tin whistles

assorted things to hit

innards of several concertinas

bits of a bassoon

one sheng

one kazoo

two combs

 

None of which are worth much except to me and replacing them would be difficult.

 

Jill

[Bullfrog]

Thanks for that Jill - almost as much as we keep in our shop!

 

Where the hell do you keep a harmonium on a narrow boat, or is a small Indian one?

 

David

[Bones]

we dont have contents insurance because we dont have many contents worth insuring. no tv, no stereo as such, no real electronics of any kind. suppose the only expensive thing could be the watch on my wrist and earings i wear every day. I own nothing of any value. oh, maybe the booze cabinet has a value, but thats mainly to my sanity and not my wallet.

 

then again i do have irreplaceable things, such as my grandmothers sewing machine and sewing box. oh and a load of old super 8 reels.

 

If the boat went up in flames or got burgled, they are the only things i would try to save or try to find. they are not the kind of thing someone would be lively to nick, more like chuck in the canal out of frustration of finding nothing of value.

( my instruments are neither rare or unusual... a ukulele and a keyboard. )

 

I have contents insurance for things such as clothes, hats, shoes toothbrushes etc, and that adds up to a surprisingly large amount. I pay about 117pounds or so a year and it is for 5k of contents insurance.

 

I have no idea how much it costs me to run my boat, but I am pretty sure it isn't cheaper than living in a *house* but then I get things by living aboard that are never really considered in living costs; own space, freedom etc etc. The one thing that does make it cheaper for me is that I pay as I go along so I can keep an eye on my finances - if I don't have the money, I don't buy the goods (whether that is coal or gas or whatever), but then I am happy to live in the dark and eat tinned tuna until the next pay cheque. What is sure is that boating is getting more and more expensive with the increase in licence fee's and the unpredictable nature of the waterways.

[Mick_B]

Snip>>

weird collection of instruments.

 

Jill

 

Yeah.. this sounds like a thread in itself....

[Callunna]

Jill - there's me thinking that I'll have to sell one of my 3 guitars when we get afloat! Now I can justify keeping all our instruments (not as big or as unusual a list as yours) Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou

 

As for running costs, the answer is quite simple for us. Given that we pay for lecky, gas, council tax and maintenance as homeowners, we expect to be paying roughly the same or even a bit more when we're liveaboards.

 

What we WON'T be paying, however, is the £800pm mortgage for the next 20 years, as we're buying the boat outright from the house's equity.

 

It's a no brainer for us, though I accept it's different for other people with other circumstances.

[wrigglefingers]

Thanks for that Jill - almost as much as we keep in our shop!Where the hell do you keep a harmonium on a narrow boat, or is a small Indian one?David

It's a briefcase-size indian one. Cost me £12.00 and is very useful when singing with kids to keep us all somewhere close to pitch!

Jill - there's me thinking that I'll have to sell one of my 3 guitars when we get afloat! Now I can justify keeping all our instruments (not as big or as unusual a list as yours) Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou

You're welcome - can't play of them really which why I face a constant barrage of questions about why Ellen needs the space more than me. And I did forget the hammer dulcimer currently on the table which I'm repairing and tuning for a mate.Guitars seem to to hang well from ceilings by the way, if you haven't got a particularly heavy case although large robust hooks seem to successfully suspend two flight cases on my friend's boat .Jill

[Bullfrog]

It's a briefcase-size indian one. Cost me £12.00 and is very useful when singing with kids to keep us all somewhere close to pitch!

 

My only experience with these boogy-boxes is that they are usually way off pitch!

[bottle]

My only experience with these boogy-boxes is that they are usually way off pitch!

 

That would be OK for me then, because that is the way I sing.

[Mick_B]

My only experience with these boogy-boxes is that they are usually way off pitch!

 

 

That would be OK for me then, because that is the way I sing.

 

I find that if you wait till people have that little bit more to drink you get a better response....

[wrigglefingers]

My only experience with these boogy-boxes is that they are usually way off pitch!

 

Quite correct, but I tweaked the reeds in mine. In any case, as it's the sole instrument used in otherwise unaccompanied singing and used as a light drone to stop the kids warbling about, it doesn't matter too much!

 

Incidentally, you should always tune other instruments to the free-reeded instrument first, thus betraying the concertina's origins as a tone generator for early sound generation experiments. My concertina is always less than one cent off pitch which can be painful when played with an out of tune fiddle for example. You'll find that bands with free-reeded instruments in them spend a disproportionate amount of time tuning up and it's usually 'cos the box player can't stand the tuning buzz from out-of-tune-with-the-box instruments.

 

Shep

[NB Willawaw]

two concertinas

one melodeon

four recorders

two flutes

one fiddle

one french horn

one bodhran

one flautina

one harmonium

two tin whistles

assorted things to hit

innards of several concertinas

bits of a bassoon

one sheng

one kazoo

two combs

 

None of which are worth much except to me and replacing them would be difficult.

 

Jill

 

I'll visit when you get a trumpet..

[wrigglefingers]

I'll visit when you get a trumpet..

 

Kids at school asked me if I was a strumpet today - does that count?

[NB Willawaw]

Even better - but a strumpet with a trumpet would be tops

[Hobbler]

Going back to the original question.

 

We have been liveaboards for the last fourteen years and have been both continuous cruisers and on residential moorings. Our expenses have always been well below the £14000 annual figure and we have even managed to live comfortably. It all depends what you want out of life !

 

Our only regret - we didnt do it 20 years earlier

[debbifiggy]

I'll visit when you get a trumpet..

Can I play my usual rubbish harmonica with you?

D

[colin1325]

hi i keep going thru this link and really cant see how it is as dear or dearer to live on a boat compared to running a household ? i know it easy to say this and another to actually live it . i wonder if folks r costing in car expences as part of the quoted figures 21 ,000 pounds yea right . champayne and caviar holidays in south of france maybe but not living on a boat .

[anhar]

Going back to the original question.

 

We have been liveaboards for the last fourteen years and have been both continuous cruisers and on residential moorings. Our expenses have always been well below the £14000 annual figure and we have even managed to live comfortably. It all depends what you want out of life !

 

Our only regret - we didnt do it 20 years earlier

You have misinterpreted the figures Hobbler. The annual costs were not £14,000, that was the income upon which it was asked whether one could live on a canal boat.

 

regards

Steve

[NB Willawaw]

Yes of course - we could start a band - I wonder what we could call it ??

 

I'll shut up now as I'm dragging this nice mans post

 

Sorry..

 

Can I play my usual rubbish harmonica with you?

D