Doreen left a comment on the blog yesterday asking me how much it costs to live on a boat. Well it’s certainly not the cheap living option it was a few years ago by any means. I keep a record of everything we spend but have never actually sat down and worked it out per week so thanks for the push Doreen, it’s made interesting reading.
These figures are the average per week and are taken over the first 6 months of this year so include winter marina moorings and electricity hook up which we don’t pay for during the summer when we’re out cruising.
Diesel £20
Gas £4
Solid fuel £10
Pump out £4
Mains electric £5
Winter mooring fees £55
BW Licence £15
Insurance £11
TV licence £3
Total £128 per week
That’s before the normal living expenses of food, entertainment, birthdays etc. and you also need to take into account servicing the engine and heating system and having the hull blacked every 2 or 3 years. We’re lucky that Roger is capable of doing all our servicing and we do our own blacking so the only extra costs are for the parts and renting a dry-dock for a week.
But compared to living in a house it’s the most wonderful place to be and I have NEVER for one moment regretted our decision. In winter the boat is warm and cosy and, providing we don’t get frozen in again this coming winter, we’ll carry on cruising around the stoppages and won’t go into a marina.
We’ve met some lovely people (some miserable ones too but they are in the minority) and there are just not enough hours in the day to do everything we need and want to do. It’s certainly never boring living on the boat.
My only fear for the future is that BW will bugger it up for all boaters by letting the system fall into disrepair.
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