The cost of living aboard . . .

[NB Alnwick]

We have just analysed our expenditure for our first full year afloat - during that time we travelled just under 1,000 miles and paid for several 'one-off' maintenance jobs on the boat. Nevertheless, the results were surprising and we would welcome comments from others with more experience.

 

Edited July 19, 2009 by NB Alnwick
Updated web address for image

[anhar]

Hello Graham

 

The most obvious comment to me is that most of that money is not boat related, expenses you would have anyway wherever you lived.

 

Stripping out all non boat costs leaves £8,176 for the boat. Still a hefty whack for one year of course. Far more I'm sure than most of us would have thought. As you say this includes isolated maintenance jobs but still a rather scary situation for many, especially us newcomers I feel.

 

regards

Steve

[NB Alnwick]

The most obvious comment to me is that most of that money is not boat related, expenses you would have anyway wherever you lived.

 

Stripping out all non boat costs leaves £8,176 for the boat. Still a hefty whack for one year of course. Far more I'm sure than most of us would have thought. As you say this includes isolated maintenance jobs but still a rather scary situation for many, especially us newcomers I feel.

 

Although not boat related - the encouragement to eat in pubs is, sort of, canal inspired.

And, the cost of buying food was higher because we were not always able to use the cheapest outlets and some canalside shops and supermarkets are relatively expensive - especially when you are in a strange town. Clothing costs were high because we invested in lots of specialist marine gear - some of which we haven't used but for the Winter our best buys were a couple of 'Guernsey' sweaters - they cost about £60 each but I wear mine almost all the time! Another excellent buy was a pair of RN (Royal Navy not Russell Newbery) engineer's overalls - bought through eBay for £5 - they fit well, keep the wind and damp out and wash easily.

 

I tried to isolate non-recurring boat related costs - this was mainly painting our name on the back cabin.

Other boat maintenance costs include lots of paint which may not be an annual requirement (we hope!) and replacing the lines and fenders which also may last a lot longer than a year - having said that, there are a lot of chandleries beside the canal and it is so easy to spend money in them . . .

[Supermalc]

Reading that Graham, I must be quite 'economical to run' as I did 1300 miles on the boat, and ran the car, and house, fed myself and Barney for a total income of £4000, plus a bit out of the now almost defunct boating fund.

 

I recently read people spent ONE BILLION POUNDS last year on 'toilet cleaners'. Water and a brush do EXACTLY the same job, including getting rid of all germs.

[Supermalc]

Just for curiosity, I've worked mine out.

 

Diesel ..... £203.73

Pub ..... £245.70

License ..... £372.74

Upkeep ..... £159.75

 

Total ...... £981.92

 

Very difficult to be precise, as although I record all expense, difficult to know if 'pub' is boating, or night out (on my Birthday for instance) I also spent about £2 every time I've been to the club, although that was less than once a month last year.

 

About £90 was for my trip to Thurmaston, which I took as a sort of holiday, my first break for about 10 years.

 

Diesel and License/insurance/mooring costs are accurate.

 

The upkeep includes the cost of taking it out, antifouling (blacking) and painting. Also some small tools I required to repair the engine coupling. I also gave it regular oil changes, which were a little unnecessary, but helped to scavene the oil pressure. Now the pump has been done I hopefully won't have to do quite so many.

 

License and mooring should be much cheaper this year as well. Come to think of it, I don't think I noted the one month extra fee for October.....around £30.

[shane]

i cannot speak from experience so please feel free to correct me when im wrong but, i find it astonishing that you spend you spend £160 per week on food and day to day expenses not including diesel coal and gas and as for the total of £1819.062 per month thats a lot of money i dont spend that in my house including my mortgage repayments i will do a more precise costing tomorow as i may be wrong but i dont think i am .

 

please dont get me wrong its not that i dont believe you it was just a shock seeing such a breakdown of costs as i will be taking the plunge in the next few months

 

surely some of the experienced people on here will be able to offer hints ,tips and advice on how to cut costs

shane

 

 

 

but is it worth the costs im sure it is ?

[NB Alnwick]

As it was our first year we kept a very accurate record - all expenditure being entered on a Lotus 123 spreadsheet everyday. Obviously we also incurred additional costs in keeping and maintaining our house. On completing the calculations we were quite taken aback since it had been our belief that boating represented a cheaper way of living.

 

I am sure people do it cheaper and any money saving tips would be most welcome . . .

[wrigglefingers]

Hello folks,

 

I haven't updated my spreadsheet for a while but I was PM'd for a copy today just as I thought it was time it was done. However, I'm typing this on the Mac and the spreadsheet on my laptop at school, but these are my rule of thumb figures.

 

Mooring £150

Licence £48

Insurance (liveaboard) £35

Boat Diesel £35

Gas £20

Coal and wood £45 (averaged over year)

Phone and internet £100 (two 'phones and broadband)

Food (2+ people) £500 (but I use some of that in school as I teach Food Technology)

Maintenance and equipment £290

 

That makes £1225/month if my reckoning is right and doesn't include council tax as I'm waiting for an assessment at the moment. The figures for food and maintenance are high. Food is explained but the high cost of maintenance is partly explained as my boat is quite elderly (1993 fitout) and I've replaced a few things on it. That said, I'm about to spend another £3k on her as she needs the weed hatch sorting out and repainting in addition to replacing the window rubbers, major engine service and re-routing the cooling system, completing the lighting change and buying a new cooker. Such is life, and I'm sure that a house would need just as much spending on it.

 

Regards, Jill

[carlt]

I stopped looking at bank statements years ago (although I'm currently going through the 'give me my charges back' process). Anything left at the end of the month goes into the wood fund.

[Ernie]

Maybe someone could start a pole on what it costs to live aboard over a period of a year??

 

The figure Alnwick quotes for eating out and cloths is more than I would have spent on these items over the last 10 years so I suspect any pole will show some wildly differing results......

 

If someone who knows how can set up a pole, can it be limited to boating expenses only please as things like running a car are not really relevant to living abord costs. Likewise, phone bills, I am not sure these are relevant as I probably only spend £20 a year on phone calls where as SWMBO probably spends 10x that amount!!

[magnetman]

Maybe someone could start a pole on what it costs to live aboard over a period of a year??

 

The figure Alnwick quotes for eating out and cloths is more than I would have spent on these items over the last 10 years so I suspect any pole will show some wildly differing results......

 

If someone who knows how can set up a pole, can it be limited to boating expenses only please as things like running a car are not really relevant to living abord costs. Likewise, phone bills, I am not sure these are relevant as I probably only spend £20 a year on phone calls where as SWMBO probably spends 10x that amount!!

I don't mind setting up a poll on this if nobody else is already doing it. Just let me know.

[carlt]

Maybe someone could start a pole on what it costs to live aboard over a period of a year??

 

The figure Alnwick quotes for eating out and cloths is more than I would have spent on these items over the last 10 years so I suspect any pole will show some wildly differing results......

 

If someone who knows how can set up a pole, can it be limited to boating expenses only please as things like running a car are not really relevant to living abord costs. Likewise, phone bills, I am not sure these are relevant as I probably only spend £20 a year on phone calls where as SWMBO probably spends 10x that amount!!

I often wonder what the point is (not a suicide note, honest). Is it an attempt to prove living on a boat is cheaper or dearer? You don't see house owners debating how much they spend on loo cleaner, as opposed to elsan, or how their mortgage is so much cheaper than the mansion down south. I hope you're all living comfortably, and happily, within your means and, that you're not kept awake at night by spiralling debts. I don't need to know your figures though.

 

But I do note the NB alnwick household spends over ten times the amount on partying, than xmas presents. It's better to give than receive you know (mind you, if I can't make it, they don't get it, kids excepted of course "wooden PS2? cheers uncle carl")

[Ernie]

I often wonder what the point is (not a suicide note, honest). Is it an attempt to prove living on a boat is cheaper or dearer? You don't see house owners debating how much they spend on loo cleaner, as opposed to elsan, or how their mortgage is so much cheaper than the mansion down south. I hope you're all living comfortably, and happily, within your means and, that you're not kept awake at night by spiralling debts. I don't need to know your figures though.

 

But I do note the NB alnwick household spends over ten times the amount on partying, than xmas presents. It's better to give than receive you know (mind you, if I can't make it, they don't get it, kids excepted of course "wooden PS2? cheers uncle carl")

I will be moving on board in the very near future and will be CCing for the next few years or so - depending on how things go.

I am interested to know if my calculations on living aboard on a small pension are realistic. The only way I can think of to judge this is to get some real numbers from others that are in the same position. £21k a year is not an option for me!!

[Linty]

I find those costs astonishing and alarming. More than my monthly salary !! I sincerely hope the running costs of Minimo don't approach anywhere near those figures, since this will be our first year.

 

ahhhh solution.... >> As SWMBO - I will have to send Alex out to work as well !!

 

 

 

(thinks...but then when would we ever get to go cruising)

[magnetman]

I often wonder what the point is (not a suicide note, honest). Is it an attempt to prove living on a boat is cheaper or dearer? You don't see house owners debating how much they spend on loo cleaner, as opposed to elsan, or how their mortgage is so much cheaper than the mansion down south. I hope you're all living comfortably, and happily, within your means and, that you're not kept awake at night by spiralling debts. I don't need to know your figures though.

Good point, I wouldn't have put my details into the poll anyway. I won't bother with it.

[Ernie]

Good point, I wouldn't have put my details into the poll anyway. I won't bother with it.

That's a shame because I suspect that your numbers would be much closer to the norm than £21k.

 

Are the poles not anonymous ??

[carlt]

I will be moving on board in the very near future and will be CCing for the next few years or so - depending on how things go.

I am interested to know if my calculations on living aboard on a small pension are realistic. The only way I can think of to judge this is to get some real numbers from others that are in the same position. £21k a year is not an option for me!!

If you can afford to live in a house, and maintain it, you can afford to live in a boat, and maintain it. We live within our means (or not) and our choice of home shouldn't affect that (unless you're putting £300 a month in the oak account of course). Of course, having met the residents of the good ship Alnwick I can confirm, they are obviously people of refined taste and living (noone else arrived at the Braunston Banter by boat, and had the chauffeur leave the Bentley in the pub car park)

[magnetman]

That's a shame because I suspect that your numbers would be much closer to the norm than £21k.

 

Are the poles not anonymous ??

How about a poll of how many people want the poll?

Doing that now. Democracy

[Ernie]

How about a poll of how many people want the poll?

Doing that now. Democracy

Am beginning to wish I had never participated in this thread!! It's all getting far too complicated......

[bugs]

going by the figures on here i recon it will cost me around £800 per month to summer cc with winter moorings. As a liveabord x2 adults. Assuming £3k of repairs per year. That would include 3G internet. The figure that i cannot be sure of is fuel, any cc' ers want to say what the costs are for this per year and the miles they cover? If i can ditch the car i will save £150 p/m. I have spent the last 6 mths hammering my food bills down and only buy clothes once a year. Always in the sale at my camping shop.

This is good as it is a double bonus, I want to live afloat for lifestyle reasons and now it's going to save me a fortune. I currently pay that in rent alone.

[magnetman]

Am beginning to wish I had never participated in this thread!! It's all getting far too complicated......

Me too, have got that attempted poll deleted thanks Theo

[NB Alnwick]

I am interested to know if my calculations on living aboard on a small pension are realistic. The only way I can think of to judge this is to get some real numbers from others that are in the same position. £21k a year is not an option for me!!

 

This was entirely the point of our exercise - we want to live aboard but almost everyone has advised us that we should also keep the house - 'don't get off the property ladder" etc.

 

We are not extravagant and our children are fully independent. The £21,000 cost was a serious shock for what we thought would work out at less than half that - continuously cruising for twelve months.

 

And, I didn't include the £10,000 that I think would be a reasonable figure to put aside each year for the depreciation of 'Alnwick' - not that we intend to sell it but we feel that we will need a fund to overhaul the engine and gearbox within the next five years and possibly a full interior re-fit within, say, fifteen years.

 

Nevertheless, we are not deterred! Our plans may change slightly and we may now look to sell our house and buy a cheaper box to put our stuff in . . .

 

Of course, having met the residents of the good ship Alnwick I can confirm, they are obviously people of refined taste and living (noone else arrived at the Braunston Banter by boat, and had the chauffeur leave the Bentley in the pub car park)

 

If only that were true - we did however enjoy a lift back to the boat courtesy of Keith and Anne (Mr & Mrs Bottle) but it wasn't in a Bentley!

[Lady Muck]

We spend about £1000 a month for the three of us (incl our dog!). That includes the boat loan repayments (£440), two blackberry pdas a mobile phone and a datacard (£200), fuel (coal gas and diesel) is about £70 - £100 a month in winter, about £50 a month in summer, food and booze and other stuff comes to about £200 a month. Launderette costs us £8 a week in winter, £4 a week in summer because we don't use the tumble dryer, we hang it out. We are lucky to live near a market and a Lidl so our food bills are minimal. We don't eat out and rarely go to the pub. We get all of our wood for free from a local industrial estate - flytippers dump wooden pallets there. We cruise about one weekend a month in winter and about 1 week out of every three in summer, but we run the engine about every third or fourth day whether we are cruising or not. If we cruise I stockpile cheap cupboard staples and booze to try and prevent buying overpriced things when we're travelling.

 

Other costs: £2400 per year moorings (paid in lump sum so we get a discount). Plus boat license (£600), boat insurance was about £150. We don't have a car, we hire when we need one, which isn't often, we walk or cycle otherwise. Engine servicing was £400 last time, we do a lot of the other maintenance ourselves - the reblacking cost us £250 for crane out, £50 pressure wash and £75 for the blacking (did it ourselves), but the boat is quite new so it doesn't require that much maintenance YET! Probably spent another £200 - £300 in the chandlers last year, but we try to avoid paying through the nose for stuff - we buy it elsewhere if possible

 

Oh and don't forget to factor in increased diesel costs, they might DOUBLE!

 

We wanted to keep an eye on our costs so we learned how to do as much of the maintenence ourselves as we could. To cut down on fuel bills we found a source of free wood. We said 'sod the Alde' and keep a copper kettle of water on the stove for washing up. We're lucky coz our boat came with massive meaty solar panels and a wind generator - it would be a big investment to buy these - this means we run the engine much less often. We're also not bothered about having tropical temperatures all the time - I don't have the stove on today, I put a jumper on instead. I don't use a fridge in the winter either - I don't see the point.

 

I think it all boils down to what kind of lifestyle you want, how much you will have to spend per month.

 

We might scrimp on fuel etc, but we don't scrimp on the boat, ok we might get our tools cheaper and do a lot of shopping around and do a lot of DIY, but we do make sure it gets reblacked regularly, the engine is serviced and the oil is changed etc and all repairs are done and I can't wait til spring so we can get these rust spots off that have started to appear over the winter!

Edited February 28, 2007 by Lady Muck

[bottle]

If only that were true - we did however enjoy a lift back to the boat courtesy of Keith and Anne (Mr & Mrs Bottle) but it wasn't in a Bentley!

 

It was similar, it had a wheel at each corner and a chauffeur

[nbtafelberg]

For us as a family living aboard our biggest SAVING has been family holidays, since we all love boating having access to this form of holiday means we can go to so many different places.

 

So perhaps in our calculations we should KNOCK OFF all the money for the weekends away and weeks spent enjoying the waterways!! :-)

 

Another point I'd like to make is that it's ALWAYS ALWAYS expensive when you first Live on a boat,

 

for example You tend to find a lot of things that need fixing (especially if its second hand), You have your stove running VERY hot and using a LOT of coal because you've not worked out how to calm it down, you use gallons of deisel charging your batteries because they are stuffed and you are running two mirowaves, a washing machine and a big hyper super dooper TV.

 

After time these things get ironed out. This year we've had an expensive year after having our engine re-built (bent con-rod)..