Ms TR made me cut my boat in half - Annual Foolish birthday post
Posted: August 18th, 2018, 12:53 pm
Hi All,
Long time no see! I received a calendar notification that it was my Foolish birthday so I thought I'd pop in for a beer and a post.
The big news here is that I recently cut my narrowboat in half! It came about because MsTR decided she didn't want to live in a house anymore, so she quit her job and sold her house as part of the plans to join me aboard on my merry adventures. The sticking point that had prevented this occurrence before now was the fact that my boat was only just big enough for me. After weighing up the pros and cons of buying a new bigger boat, and the option of buying an unpowered tow-along craft to use as a floating office (It's called a 'butty'), we eventually plumped on the idea of having my current boat stretched.
Essentially this meant cutting the boat in half and adding in an extra 11ft, taking it from 50ft to 61ft. The stretch meant we had room for a proper office with two standing-desk work stations, a bigger galley, bigger bathroom, a utility/laundry area and another wardrobe and shelf space for her clothing etc. The project cost £32,000 for the steelwork, electrics, gas, plumbing and interior joinery fit out. We've been aboard now for a couple of months and we're very pleased with our purchase. It's been a glorious summer for boating.
MsTR has been a fully signed up member of the normal world for the years before I met her. Meeting me was a bit of a culture-shock to say the least. Living on my boat has meant that I'd managed to avoid the pressure to keep up with the Jones's, and thereby avoided the mortgage payments, house maintenance and the need for a new shiny car every few years. It's also meant that I couldn't (and didn't want) a proper job with a boss and a fixed location. To be honest, I've worked for far too many plonkers and I am far too much of an unemployable renegade (read: gobby git) for that to have worked out anyway. Working for myself as a writer meant I could not only do that from anywhere I could get an internet connection, but it also meant I could put my money where my big fat mouth was and prove that I could do it my way all by myself thank you very much. Anyone who runs their own business will know that you live or die based on your own decisions. And there were certainly times in the early years where I was close to flatlining financially. Those were the times when living a frugal life on a boat with no mortgage was a lifesaver, because I couldn't have afforded to pay a mortgage at that time for sure. Hell, I couldn't have even paid rent in the scummy part of scumsville some months! Yes, the boat saved me and allowed me to build my business as a writer.
Anyway, MsTR was similarly dissatisfied with having to work at an unfulfilling job, just because she had to pay the mortgage. First she sold her three bed house in the Lake District and rented a cheap place in Lancaster. It wasn't posh, but it was in a lovely village and a great place to initiate part two of the plan. This involved quitting her shitty job to go part time in another role, allowing her to begin building her own business. This took two years to do - 24 months of paying £1000 in rent and bills. The quicker we got on board the sooner we could pocket that money.
What it costs
Remember the £32,000 cost of stretching the boat? Well, the rough fag-packet calculations show that within three years we'll have paid for the boat stretch by saving the £1000 rental expenses each month. Our approximate annual expenses on the boat pan out something like this.
Boat Licence (Like a tax disk for a boat) - £1000
Boat and contents insurance - £350
Safety certificate (Like a boat MOT, except every 5 years) - £150
Diesel (£1 per engine hour) - Not sure yet, but we estimate around £500-£800 per year
Moorings - Essentially no cost if we cruise around, as is our intention, but for a few months each year a marina will be no more than £500 - £1000.
Gas - A bottle lasts us a month and costs about £30
Boat maintenance - how long is a piece of string? We recently installed solar (£1200) and bought a new inverter when ours blew up in the heat of summer (£1500 fitted). There's bottom blacking to do and a few niggly jobs on the list, but I'd be surprised if our maintenance budget of £2000 each years gets used.
Costs we don't have
Mortgage/rent etc - nope!
Our newly installed composting toilet means we don't have toilet pump put costs.
Because we don't have an address we don't pay council tax. (These facilities costs are what we pay our licence for.)
Water charges are also included in our licence fee.
We cut down from two cars to one, and we hardly use that one now we both live and work aboard. We kept the two seater soft-top (Mazda MX5) and sold the Seat Ibiza, of course!
Electricity - Solar provides all of our needs and more in the summer. When we get rid of the 240v fridge we expect we'll be largely sorted in the winter too.
The downsides
Our water tank only seems to last for about 5 days, then we must go find a tap to fill up. This was a shocker as a tank used to last me a month or so when I was on my own. MsTR points out that I shower more often and wash clothes more often. I say it is because I would shower and wash clothes at her place previously. Filling up once every 5 days isn't ideal, but we will live.
Piggy-backing the car every time we move the boat. I'm ready to get rid of the car and hire when we need one, just like I did before I met MsTR and had to travel to the Lake District every few days.
Post is difficult to get. Thankfully most things can be done online, but we have to change our delivery address every time we move a significant distance and this isn't always easy or possible.
Why I wouldn't change it for the world
I've moved around so much during my life that stability wasn't always good. I've been homeless as a youngster, and there have been times when I have been on the road for months on end. And there have been times when I have been close to homeless since then. The boat saved me. Our businesses as a writer and a graphic designer are going pretty well and there isn't really much chance of us finding ourselves in financial trouble given our low cost of living. Despite this, I still get nightmares that if it all goes Pete Tong I'll be on my [expletive deleted] in the gutter. The low monthly expenditure of our boatlife means that, even if we have some really lean months, we can still live comfortably. As long as we have a bit of diesel, a bottle of gas and enough money for food, we're sorted.
It also means we don't have to put up with a work situation if we don't want to. We're not beholden to a boss or a company who have us over a barrel because we have to pay the mortgage. We don't even have to put up with a crappy client if we don't want to. Last year I sacked a client because they weren't very nice. I lost about 20% of my income, but gained back my (largely) happy, stress-free life. It's a liberating position to be in. And of course, I soon filled the gap with another client.
I'm currently writing the second edition of my book, The Liveaboard Guide. It's been interesting to compare my life back then with how it is now. There have been many changes and I have spent lots of time reflecting on my life over the last decade. After 10 years aboard the only thing that was missing was a soulmate to share my adventures with. Now I have MsTR and it seems like my life is set to get even better now that we can live aboard together. The next step is to spend a few months each year abroad, probably in countries with a low cost of living. To take our income from well-paying jobs in the UK/USA/AUS, we can live quite handsomely in Bulgaria, India, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Thailand - just a few of the places on our list.
I remember back to when I was thinking of buying the boat in the early 2000s and a mate of mine was very disparaging. He wanted me to put a deposit on a house instead. "Buy a house, get some equity, get a car, move to London, buy nice things and you'll be respected."
"No, I said, I just can't see myself doing that. It seems stressful and I'm just not cut out to do well in that world."
"You're a fool. You'll never have any of the nice things that I have ."
I thought about it for a while. I was going to reply, but I realised that he just wouldn't get it.
So I just smiled, and I thought to myself. "I'll have something you'll never have."
I have enough.
Lemony Foolish regards
RE
Long time no see! I received a calendar notification that it was my Foolish birthday so I thought I'd pop in for a beer and a post.
The big news here is that I recently cut my narrowboat in half! It came about because MsTR decided she didn't want to live in a house anymore, so she quit her job and sold her house as part of the plans to join me aboard on my merry adventures. The sticking point that had prevented this occurrence before now was the fact that my boat was only just big enough for me. After weighing up the pros and cons of buying a new bigger boat, and the option of buying an unpowered tow-along craft to use as a floating office (It's called a 'butty'), we eventually plumped on the idea of having my current boat stretched.
Essentially this meant cutting the boat in half and adding in an extra 11ft, taking it from 50ft to 61ft. The stretch meant we had room for a proper office with two standing-desk work stations, a bigger galley, bigger bathroom, a utility/laundry area and another wardrobe and shelf space for her clothing etc. The project cost £32,000 for the steelwork, electrics, gas, plumbing and interior joinery fit out. We've been aboard now for a couple of months and we're very pleased with our purchase. It's been a glorious summer for boating.
MsTR has been a fully signed up member of the normal world for the years before I met her. Meeting me was a bit of a culture-shock to say the least. Living on my boat has meant that I'd managed to avoid the pressure to keep up with the Jones's, and thereby avoided the mortgage payments, house maintenance and the need for a new shiny car every few years. It's also meant that I couldn't (and didn't want) a proper job with a boss and a fixed location. To be honest, I've worked for far too many plonkers and I am far too much of an unemployable renegade (read: gobby git) for that to have worked out anyway. Working for myself as a writer meant I could not only do that from anywhere I could get an internet connection, but it also meant I could put my money where my big fat mouth was and prove that I could do it my way all by myself thank you very much. Anyone who runs their own business will know that you live or die based on your own decisions. And there were certainly times in the early years where I was close to flatlining financially. Those were the times when living a frugal life on a boat with no mortgage was a lifesaver, because I couldn't have afforded to pay a mortgage at that time for sure. Hell, I couldn't have even paid rent in the scummy part of scumsville some months! Yes, the boat saved me and allowed me to build my business as a writer.
Anyway, MsTR was similarly dissatisfied with having to work at an unfulfilling job, just because she had to pay the mortgage. First she sold her three bed house in the Lake District and rented a cheap place in Lancaster. It wasn't posh, but it was in a lovely village and a great place to initiate part two of the plan. This involved quitting her shitty job to go part time in another role, allowing her to begin building her own business. This took two years to do - 24 months of paying £1000 in rent and bills. The quicker we got on board the sooner we could pocket that money.
What it costs
Remember the £32,000 cost of stretching the boat? Well, the rough fag-packet calculations show that within three years we'll have paid for the boat stretch by saving the £1000 rental expenses each month. Our approximate annual expenses on the boat pan out something like this.
Boat Licence (Like a tax disk for a boat) - £1000
Boat and contents insurance - £350
Safety certificate (Like a boat MOT, except every 5 years) - £150
Diesel (£1 per engine hour) - Not sure yet, but we estimate around £500-£800 per year
Moorings - Essentially no cost if we cruise around, as is our intention, but for a few months each year a marina will be no more than £500 - £1000.
Gas - A bottle lasts us a month and costs about £30
Boat maintenance - how long is a piece of string? We recently installed solar (£1200) and bought a new inverter when ours blew up in the heat of summer (£1500 fitted). There's bottom blacking to do and a few niggly jobs on the list, but I'd be surprised if our maintenance budget of £2000 each years gets used.
Costs we don't have
Mortgage/rent etc - nope!
Our newly installed composting toilet means we don't have toilet pump put costs.
Because we don't have an address we don't pay council tax. (These facilities costs are what we pay our licence for.)
Water charges are also included in our licence fee.
We cut down from two cars to one, and we hardly use that one now we both live and work aboard. We kept the two seater soft-top (Mazda MX5) and sold the Seat Ibiza, of course!
Electricity - Solar provides all of our needs and more in the summer. When we get rid of the 240v fridge we expect we'll be largely sorted in the winter too.
The downsides
Our water tank only seems to last for about 5 days, then we must go find a tap to fill up. This was a shocker as a tank used to last me a month or so when I was on my own. MsTR points out that I shower more often and wash clothes more often. I say it is because I would shower and wash clothes at her place previously. Filling up once every 5 days isn't ideal, but we will live.
Piggy-backing the car every time we move the boat. I'm ready to get rid of the car and hire when we need one, just like I did before I met MsTR and had to travel to the Lake District every few days.
Post is difficult to get. Thankfully most things can be done online, but we have to change our delivery address every time we move a significant distance and this isn't always easy or possible.
Why I wouldn't change it for the world
I've moved around so much during my life that stability wasn't always good. I've been homeless as a youngster, and there have been times when I have been on the road for months on end. And there have been times when I have been close to homeless since then. The boat saved me. Our businesses as a writer and a graphic designer are going pretty well and there isn't really much chance of us finding ourselves in financial trouble given our low cost of living. Despite this, I still get nightmares that if it all goes Pete Tong I'll be on my [expletive deleted] in the gutter. The low monthly expenditure of our boatlife means that, even if we have some really lean months, we can still live comfortably. As long as we have a bit of diesel, a bottle of gas and enough money for food, we're sorted.
It also means we don't have to put up with a work situation if we don't want to. We're not beholden to a boss or a company who have us over a barrel because we have to pay the mortgage. We don't even have to put up with a crappy client if we don't want to. Last year I sacked a client because they weren't very nice. I lost about 20% of my income, but gained back my (largely) happy, stress-free life. It's a liberating position to be in. And of course, I soon filled the gap with another client.
I'm currently writing the second edition of my book, The Liveaboard Guide. It's been interesting to compare my life back then with how it is now. There have been many changes and I have spent lots of time reflecting on my life over the last decade. After 10 years aboard the only thing that was missing was a soulmate to share my adventures with. Now I have MsTR and it seems like my life is set to get even better now that we can live aboard together. The next step is to spend a few months each year abroad, probably in countries with a low cost of living. To take our income from well-paying jobs in the UK/USA/AUS, we can live quite handsomely in Bulgaria, India, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Thailand - just a few of the places on our list.
I remember back to when I was thinking of buying the boat in the early 2000s and a mate of mine was very disparaging. He wanted me to put a deposit on a house instead. "Buy a house, get some equity, get a car, move to London, buy nice things and you'll be respected."
"No, I said, I just can't see myself doing that. It seems stressful and I'm just not cut out to do well in that world."
"You're a fool. You'll never have any of the nice things that I have ."
I thought about it for a while. I was going to reply, but I realised that he just wouldn't get it.
So I just smiled, and I thought to myself. "I'll have something you'll never have."
I have enough.
Lemony Foolish regards
RE