liveaboard costs

[paulstoke1975]

what is the likely cost monthly living aboard?

 

granted everyone's budget will be different, i have come up with my own rough estimate but i think i would be better coming from people who are actually living it,

 

i have been trying to working out my future budget to include monthly savings for servicing blacking and general maintenance and repairs .

 

i'll will also be setting aside an emergency fund of £3000.

 

 

are there any unusual expenses i will likely to come across?

 

im aware of the following

 

 

bss

blacking/anodes every 2 years

waterways licence

insurance

general servicing

mooring fees

 

 

and the usual house old type of bills,

 

 

what am i missing

Edited August 2, 2014 by paulstoke1975

[DeanS]

Greetings

 

coal in winter.

gas refills.

diesel for travelling and/or charging batts.

shorepower elec (for charging batts)

the inevitable purchase of solar panels and controllers at some point.

the inevitable purchase of new batteries at some point. (they are disposable...)

the cost of new fenders (they seem to disappear)

the cost of new windlasses (they seem to drop in the cut by themselves)

 

;-)

 

others will have more to add to the list.

[bottle]

£1,000 per month should cover everything, possibly, maybe , perhaps

 

Never costed it out accurately but others have and the figure of 5 to 6,000 per annum seems to be the 'norm' just for the boat.

 

Lifestyle, heating, moving the boat etc. all have a bearing, what you want is the main thing and whether you can afford it.

 

I am fairly certain that some one on here has done the costings but whether it is on their blog, web site or on here cannot remember

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Totally agree with Bottle,

Possibly, Maybe, Perhaps, but would add 'ish'.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[nb Innisfree]

Full time ccing 4 or 5 years ago cost us approx £5k.

[paulstoke1975]

I worked my budget to be 6-7k,

 

 

I will be buying a small amout of coal over winter but with the job I do I can pretty much get a endless supply of dry logs

[Bettie Boo]

I appreciate, this is really insignificant, in the big picture, but the amount of paper towel / kitchen roll / blue roll we go through on the boat has over quadrupled compared with what we used in bricks & mortar. And I'd like to find a company who produces window cleaner that I could buy some shares in - I've never in my life cleaned windows as often as I have since we bought the boat!!

 

This may change once we've been living the lifestyle for a little longer, but our entertainment costs (shows/plays/hotels/B&B's/dining out) has gone from about £300 - £500 per month to £15 per month. We've lived on-board now for the better part of 6 months and have had a total of 2 take-aways. Our entertainment, is being on the boat

 

With that said, our weekly grocery bill has increased, as we eat all meals on the boat, and I'm doing a lot more baking now there when we were in the house.

 

Dean covered every thing I could think of to add to your list.....other than if you buy a boat with a decent paint job and plan on maintaining it, the shampoo, polish & wax can be quite pricy.

 

I know it's frustrating trying to work out a budget before you have a boat. Been there, done that, asked the same questions your asking now. But it really does depend on the lifestyle you chose to live, the size of your boat, and the set up of your boats electrics, solid fuel stove, how thick you insulation is and on and on and on. There really is not definitive answer that applies to all.

 

 

Good Luck

[narrowboatham]

My mate sold a ruston engine this week to a guy who was going to use it in a 35 ft boat, he was going to cc and thought £100 a week was doable. Dan Brown on youtube also says £100 a week. I Think you would need a bit stashed away for unexpected problems though. Others will tell you it costs a lot more, when i asked if it could be done on £150 a week it was a 50/50 split with the responses... do you need a marina or will you cc?

[Ricco1]

Per month:

 

Licence £55.00

Insurance £8.00

Gas £25.00

Coal £20.00

Diesel £10.00

 

I've excluded less regular items such as blacking, maintenance and repairs. If we allow a generous £100.00 per month it takes the annual cost to £2616.00.

[paulstoke1975]

My mate sold a ruston engine this week to a guy who was going to use it in a 35 ft boat, he was going to cc and thought £100 a week was doable. Dan Brown on youtube also says £100 a week. I Think you would need a bit stashed away for unexpected problems though. Others will tell you it costs a lot more, when i asked if it could be done on £150 a week it was a 50/50 split with the responses... do you need a marina or will you cc?

 

I plan on a stay in a marina just enough time to get use to the boat and gain some much needed advice, after that I'll cruise

Per month:

 

Licence £55.00

Insurance £8.00

Gas £25.00

Coal £20.00

Diesel £10.00

 

I've excluded less regular items such as blacking, maintenance and repairs. If we allow a generous £100.00 per month it takes the annual cost to £2616.00.

Edited August 2, 2014 by paulstoke1975

[Nightwatch]

£1,000 per month should cover everything, possibly, maybe , perhaps

 

Never costed it out accurately but others have and the figure of 5 to 6,000 per annum seems to be the 'norm' just for the boat.

 

Lifestyle, heating, moving the boat etc. all have a bearing, what you want is the main thing and whether you can afford it.

 

I am fairly certain that some one on here has done the costings but whether it is on their blog, web site or on here cannot remember

We are in trouble then.

 

In fairness it depends what lifestyle you lead.

We don't as yet know what lifestyle we are going to lead.

 

We'll be okay I'm sure. Looking forward to the rest of our lives afloat, or not!

[Ex- Member]

We're full time live aboard with a 60 x 10/6 wide beam. Diesel heating, Gas cooker.

 

Monthly costs.

 

Licence £72.16

Insurance £26.33

Gas £15.00

Diesel propulsion £10.00

Diesel heating £30.00 averaged, but bought between Oct & March.

Maintenance £20.00 This includes odd projects.

Blacking £15.00 We are 2 packed so a 5 year stint before removal for assessment.

 

Annual cost. £2261.88

 

With regard to general living costs, we average £150.00 per week, the vast majority of which is food and drink including wine at least a bottle a day and beer and occasionally a bottle of brandy. This also includes an average one meal out per week and occasional takeaway.

 

Living cost £7800.00

 

Total annual cost £10061.88

 

These figures are based on the past year.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Julynian

[Nightwatch]

Might just make it then. Phew!

 

Martyn

[Bigredbus4468]

We're full time live aboard with a 60 x 10/6 wide beam. Diesel heating, Gas cooker.

 

Monthly costs.

 

Licence £72.16

Insurance £26.33

Gas £15.00

Diesel propulsion £10.00

Diesel heating £30.00 averaged, but bought between Oct & March.

Maintenance £20.00 This includes odd projects.

Blacking £15.00 We are 2 packed so a 5 year stint before removal for assessment.

 

Annual cost. £2261.88

 

With regard to general living costs, we average £150.00 per week, the vast majority of which is food and drink including wine at least a bottle a day and beer and occasionally a bottle of brandy. This also includes an average one meal out per week and occasional takeaway.

 

Living cost £7800.00

 

Total annual cost £10061.88

 

These figures are based on the past year.

 

 

We are considering buying and living onboard CCing. I am guessing as there is no mooring fees and council tax you are CCers.

 

Going on your figures my Navy Pension will cover that thankfully.

[Ex- Member]

 

 

We are considering buying and living onboard CCing. I am guessing as there is no mooring fees and council tax you are CCers.

 

Going on your figures my Navy Pension will cover that thankfully.

 

 

Correct

 

I would think so. After boat costs we could easily live on under £100 a week if we cut out all the luxuries such as booze & takeaways and meals out.

 

We shop at Lidl and Aldi mostly for the basics, but we buy most of our meat from farm shops & quality butchers which are twice the price so a lot of saving can be made there as well. We generally do 2 to Lidl/Aldi shops per week at £30/£40 quid a time. This is for 2 persons.

[honey ryder]

I did a tight budget when I lived on the narrowboat, it has changed very little when I moved to a different kind of GRP boat.

 

inland waterways:

 

moorings, they're expensive wherever you are. anywhere from 100pm (inline towpath) to 500pm (marina) After 4 months in a marina at the start, I constant cruised and never looked back. Sadly that option isn't available for the boat I have now with my current fixed place of work.

 

Licence, that's easy, look it up for the length of boat.

 

insurance, mine cost around 300pa

 

boat safety cert: not expensive unless they change the rules and suddenly you find you have to rip out an old fridge or cooker or hot water boiler etc etc.

 

gas, I had expensive 6kg bottles. used one of those each 6-8 weeks. I used the odd bit of gas central heating. I did a moderate amount of cooking. Though, hoenstly, I'm a fan of takeaway and pub food.

 

diesel, on average 1-2 ltrs per day charging batteries and cruising. (I could survive for 4 days without charging batts, then went off cruising which was usually around 8-10 hours over a weekend. which averaged out at 1-2 lts per day. Red diesel on 60/40 split.

 

coal, 2-4 bags per winter, using lots and lots of free wood. LOTS of free wood. an entire roof full of free wood. You're gonna need lots of wood.

 

haul out/drydock for blacking and new anodes every 2-3 years. I dug this link from my blog archive, it has info about this: http://www.boogie-nights.org/2009/07/i-see-dry-dock-and-i-want-to-paint-it.html

 

ongoing stuff:

 

Domestic Battery replacement: they last around 3 years or so. theyre fairly expensive. standard deep cycle lead acid batteries are fine for narrowboating, most have banks of 3 or 4 x 110ah costs vary.

I just replaced my 2 x 220ah AGM batteries at 450 each. You'd probably pick up some 110s for much less, usually around 150 each. shop around.

 

engine spares: camberly auto factors, way cheaper than marine specific. unless you have a stupidly antiquated old fashioned kerdunka kerdunka engine, then you derserve everything you get looking for spares. Good luck with that. ;-)

 

lock windlasses: buy a really nice expensive one. that way, you will NEVER ever drop it or leave it behind.

 

bank stakes, these get bent or yanked out and go plop, you might get through some of these.

 

and invest in a decent magnet. you'll never lose anything in the water again.

 

Oh, repairs...

 

<sucks air in through teeth>

 

I had my travelpower and intelligent charger/inverter go bang. That was 800 for a new charger. plus repairs to the travelpower box, my mind has blanked out the cost of this.

My Alde boiler sprung a leak. had to get a chap out to some and sort it.

My hob top cooker needed replacing as flame failure broke.

new chimney (they get damaged or go rusty)

paint, narrowboats need painting every now and again.

 

I suggest you invest in a bottle of vactan (14 quid, ebay). it holds off any paint chips and stops rust allowing a little time to get a plan together.

 

Narrowboating, as a constant cruiser is very affordable. Just allow a little contingency in reserve for when, not if, but when things break.

 

I also had the issue of having my car broken into twice. that was expensive. I had two bikes stolen, plus one attempted theft.

 

 

 

[paulstoke1975]

I did a tight budget when I lived on the narrowboat, it has changed very little when I moved to a different kind of GRP boat.

 

inland waterways:

 

moorings, they're expensive wherever you are. anywhere from 100pm (inline towpath) to 500pm (marina) After 4 months in a marina at the start, I constant cruised and never looked back. Sadly that option isn't available for the boat I have now with my current fixed place of work.

 

Licence, that's easy, look it up for the length of boat.

 

insurance, mine cost around 300pa

 

boat safety cert: not expensive unless they change the rules and suddenly you find you have to rip out an old fridge or cooker or hot water boiler etc etc.

 

gas, I had expensive 6kg bottles. used one of those each 6-8 weeks. I used the odd bit of gas central heating. I did a moderate amount of cooking. Though, hoenstly, I'm a fan of takeaway and pub food.

 

diesel, on average 1-2 ltrs per day charging batteries and cruising. (I could survive for 4 days without charging batts, then went off cruising which was usually around 8-10 hours over a weekend. which averaged out at 1-2 lts per day. Red diesel on 60/40 split.

 

coal, 2-4 bags per winter, using lots and lots of free wood. LOTS of free wood. an entire roof full of free wood. You're gonna need lots of wood.

 

haul out/drydock for blacking and new anodes every 2-3 years. I dug this link from my blog archive, it has info about this: http://www.boogie-nights.org/2009/07/i-see-dry-dock-and-i-want-to-paint-it.html

 

ongoing stuff:

 

Domestic Battery replacement: they last around 3 years or so. theyre fairly expensive. standard deep cycle lead acid batteries are fine for narrowboating, most have banks of 3 or 4 x 110ah costs vary.

I just replaced my 2 x 220ah AGM batteries at 450 each. You'd probably pick up some 110s for much less, usually around 150 each. shop around.

 

engine spares: camberly auto factors, way cheaper than marine specific. unless you have a stupidly antiquated old fashioned kerdunka kerdunka engine, then you derserve everything you get looking for spares. Good luck with that. ;-)

 

lock windlasses: buy a really nice expensive one. that way, you will NEVER ever drop it or leave it behind.

 

bank stakes, these get bent or yanked out and go plop, you might get through some of these.

 

and invest in a decent magnet. you'll never lose anything in the water again.

 

Oh, repairs...

 

<sucks air in through teeth>

 

I had my travelpower and intelligent charger/inverter go bang. That was 800 for a new charger. plus repairs to the travelpower box, my mind has blanked out the cost of this.

My Alde boiler sprung a leak. had to get a chap out to some and sort it.

My hob top cooker needed replacing as flame failure broke.

new chimney (they get damaged or go rusty)

paint, narrowboats need painting every now and again.

 

I suggest you invest in a bottle of vactan (14 quid, ebay). it holds off any paint chips and stops rust allowing a little time to get a plan together.

 

Narrowboating, as a constant cruiser is very affordable. Just allow a little contingency in reserve for when, not if, but when things break.

 

I also had the issue of having my car broken into twice. that was expensive. I had two bikes stolen, plus one attempted theft.

 

 

 

 

Some great advice there

 

 

Thanks

[John V]

She really means LOTS of wood

 

winter fuel by mudlarker2, on Flickr

[John Williamson 1955]

lock windlasses: buy a really nice expensive one. that way, you will NEVER ever drop it or leave it behind.

 

bank stakes, these get bent or yanked out and go plop, you might get through some of these.

 

and invest in a decent magnet. you'll never lose anything in the water again.

 

Buy the cheapest windlass you can find and get on with. Expensive ones don't like living on boats, they prefer the bottom of a lock, and the posh aluminium and bronze ones can't be retrieved when they end up in the water.

 

Plus one for the spare mooring pins and magnet. You will find many places where you need at least four pins to hold you securely to the bank.

[b0atman]

Just found my Dvd Life on a narrowboat The peak forest and Macclesfield canals a Mike Barret production. That's the way to live the good life.

[RLWP]

Buy the cheapest windlass you can find and get on with. Expensive ones don't like living on boats, they prefer the bottom of a lock,

 

I've pointed this out before. You never own a windlass, it just happens to stay with you for a while before moving on. Jumping into locks is part of their breeding instinct

 

Richard

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

 

I've pointed this out before. You never own a windlass, it just happens to stay with you for a while before moving on. Jumping into locks is part of their breeding instinct

 

Richard

It's the Leming influence in them

Edited August 11, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[Marco_mark]

Wow that is cheap !

[honey ryder]

Buy the cheapest windlass you can find and get on with. Expensive ones don't like living on boats, they prefer the bottom of a lock, and the posh aluminium and bronze ones can't be retrieved when they end up in the water.

 

Plus one for the spare mooring pins and magnet. You will find many places where you need at least four pins to hold you securely to the bank.

Honestly, I had three different windlasses. The grumpy ex had an aluminium one which he loved. I had two metal ones with rotating sleeves on the handles, one long, one short. the long one was great for hard to wind locks and the short one was great for locks with limited space to turn a handle. they all had two different sizes of square taper hole. NEVER ever lost a handle. never even came close to losing a handle. I liked them too much to lose them. though when I sold the boat, i left the steel ones on the boat but kept the aluminium one, just in case.

[Pykebird]

One thing us boaters seem to be good at, is finding ways to get things cheaper! I was never flush when I lived on land but seem to have got more canny in the last 12 years(some would say tight!). I have just downsized my car so saved on insurance, petrol etc as this was one of the biggest outgoings it has really helped. If I get flush I either pay for something in one hit so its less to find each month or do jobs ahead of schedule if is costs less where I am. For example I dry docked my boat again when I was up north, got welding done and the blacking, again and it cost me under half what it would have done down south.

Although I do not go out much or drink or smoke, I do have 3 other mouths to feed and the regular vet bills thanks to the big one!

As mentioned aldis and lidlls have been mentioned, I have noticed the other big guys are starting to lower prices, so worth your eyes open.

I tend to look out for logs, as and when I can and store on roof till needed. I recycle as much as I an and use things for different purposes. I refuse to cut down on shiny shoes and clothes and have the storage to cope with these. But if I can't get something in the boat, I don't have it! Things get given away on a regular basis. But the boat is now lighter in the water than she was 8 years ago, so I must be doing something right.!

I know it costs me less to live on my boat than it would on land, but that is just me. I also know more than half of the money I have earnt last year went on the maintence of her, so hopefully I will be able to but more shoes now!