The cost of living on board a narrowboat . . .

It’s Christmas time and so our thoughts turn to money.  People keep saying, Oh you’re living the dream, and I suppose we are but we’re here because we wanted to stop work; stop the 0605 get up and enjoy the later phase of our lives before events prevent us from doing so! This meant we couldn’t afford to live in our house any more and so here we are.  House rented out & a longish holiday on Adagio. We’ll give it a go for a few years. So, what are the costs . .  well, the biggest one after actually buying a boat is the mooring fees of the marina – around £3,000. Then there’s the licence to float on the waterways . . £900, insurance around £200, RCR (kind of AA of the waterways) £200 after those it’s the weekly costs of heating & hot water – currently we spend about 42p/day on electricity (far less than our house!), about £1 a day on bottled gas and about £15 a week on coal – yes expensive but it does warm the whole boat. Yes, it is very messy  – dust everywhere and the smell of smoke but it does warm the heart and soul as well as the body.  A back boiler maybe a good addition later as this fire is 60 feet from our bedroom. I guess there’s a comparable outgoing cost of maintenance but then there’s similar cost to a house.  Water is included here and you need to fill her up weekly. Emptying means a short drive to the service quay and a pump out (£10) about every 2 months . . so far.  She’ll need the hull re-blacking next year (£700) and also a new safety certificate (boat MOT but accent on the safety).  Those storage batteries are on their last legs – being in their 8th year and being the AGM type, will cost around £1200 to replace. So, some lower costs than bricks and mortar but also some extra ones.  If you’re thinking of doing similar then Paul Smith has an excellent website & interactive system where you can examine the costs – http://livingonanarrowboat.co.uk/ . One big factor will be depreciation – whereas our house is increasing in value each year (so far) a boat will pretty much shrink in its reselling value.  We paid around £65k and new, this boat will fetch nearer £160k but after 10 years? Who knows? Less for sure.  I’ll update this as we bimble along …