What it's really like living on a canal boat - and how much it costs

But she was willing to make sacrifices for a different and cheaper way of living.

"The way I did it was the dumbest, hardest way possible," she tells Money. "I was just so full of dreams and wanting to make it but I made it work."

She'd joined the growing number of people - 15,000 by the latest estimate - deciding to ditch the comforts of a house to live on a canal boat instead.

Elizabeth and three other boaters speak to Money about their reasons for living on the water, how much it costs and the challenges they face.

'I can just leave tomorrow'

Elizabeth first bought a canal boat six years ago. She'd spent seven years sailing the world and had no money for a house deposit, instead using her overdraft to buy a shell of a boat for £3,800.

It was tough going at first but she was willing to make sacrifices, she says: "I wanted a boat so much that I was okay with living without a shower, I was okay with using a bucket for a toilet for the first few months, I was okay with being cold."

The two years of renovations were worth it - she sold the boat for £20,000 and bought a more comfortable 70ft 100-year-old narrowboat for £35,000 from a friend.

Speaking to Money from the Coventry Canal in Warwickshire, Elizabeth, 36, says she has no regrets.

"I'm in the middle of the countryside right now and it's beautiful," she says.

"I've got no one bothering me and if I want to leave this place I can just leave tomorrow.

"You're constantly covered in bruises and soot and it's muddy but you also think 'wow I can make a fire' and carry 25kg of coal.

"When you go back into the outside world you put up with such little bullshit and it makes dating a lot easier because you just say no to almost everyone. If a guy can't make a fire then it's an immediate no. It makes you more selective.

"But I'll find my Tommy Shelby [from Peaky Blinders] someday."

Elizabeth, a self-employed writer and illustrator, acknowledges the lifestyle came with its challenges and as a solo female boater she "does worry about the dangers".

"I see my friends in town and then I have to walk about a mile down the towpath at night and you are just praying to God you don't meet a drunk. You just wear your baggiest coat and you hope they think you're a boy. It is crazy being a female boater," she says.

But it's winter that's hardest for any boater, Elizabeth, who lives onboard with her rescue German Shepherd mix Leela, says.

"If your fire goes out it is a huge deal or if you've run out of coal and you're two miles away, you have to carry 25kg of coal on your shoulder through the mud.

"One thing I try and do is try is put myself in a storyline - it's like I dissociate. I imagine I'm in Middle Earth and trying to escape a raid and get home with a basket of bread. I try and make it into an adventure so it feels easier to cope with."

But then spring arrives and she spends her evenings sitting on her roof watching the sunset: "My friends will come and we will have a massive loud party on the boat, play guitars, drink as much as we want, run around in the fields and it's amazing."

'When you get to use a toilet - it's fabulous'

Canal boats come with three typical options for toilets - pump-out toilets, which are similar to conventional toilets and sit on top of a tank, cassette toilets, a scaled-down version of a pump-out toilet, and a compost toilet, which separates liquids and solids into two separate containers and decomposes the waste before users dispose of it.

Elizabeth has the latter on her boat.

"I empty mine every three weeks," she says. "When you go round to your friend's house and you get to use their toilet you can't believe your luck. You can go for a posh poo and it's fabulous."

As for showers, Elizabeth goes to the gym instead of using the one onboard: "I can carry 700 litres of water which will last me about four to five weeks until I have to refill so I shower at the gym."

What about the costs?

Elizabeth spends around £4,500 on bills a year - or £375 a month.

This includes £12 a month for boat insurance, £40 to £50 per gas canister (one lasts her four to five months), £30 to £40 a week on coal, around £400 for a full tank of diesel and £146 a month for her Canal and River Trust licence.

Blacking the hull of the boat, which has to be done every three to four years and involves pulling the vessel out of the water and painting it to protect the steelwork from rusting, costs roughly £1,200.

She doesn't have to pay mooring charges as she's a "continuous cruiser", meaning she has to move every two weeks. If she were to stay in a marina in the Midlands it would cost about £350 annually.

'Don't make an expensive mistake'

When Tracey Essery's marriage broke down, she sold her house and moved on to a wide beam barge.

It was supposed to be temporary, but three years on she's still there.

"I think some people have an overly romantic view of what it is like to live on a boat," Tracey, 63, a part-time sustainability consultant, tells Money from the Kennet and Avon canal. "It can be hard but it can also be massively rewarding."

Tracey bought her boat for just over £100,000 and spends £500 to £600 a month on bills.

This includes her £1,700-a-year Canal and River Trust licence, £300 on insurance, about £1,500 a year on diesel, around £2,000 on maintenance a year, and propane to cook with, which costs £75 a year.

She also spends £400 a year on her pump-out toilet, paying to get it emptied every four to six weeks.

Living near water is good for her mental health, Tracey says, but there is a necessary "adjustment" involved.

"There's a lot more planning involved with living on a boat than living in a house. You have to make sure you have enough coal or wood, diesel, water and check whether you've made enough electricity through the solar panels to keep the lights on," she says.

Boating repairs are "a lot more expensive to fix" than house repairs, she says, pointing to a battery replacement last spring that cost her £1,500.

But she's "not in any hurry to move on to land".

On advice for new boaters, Tracey says: "I think it's important to enter into it with your eyes open. Understand the challenge before you do it because it's an expensive mistake if you find out it is not for you.

"There's a joke among boaters that BOAT stands for 'bring out another thousand' because they can be money pits and you need to have enough money to deal with the unexpected when it arises - and it will."

'You've only got one life'

Maxine Brown, a semi-retired writer of children and self-help books, and her husband Steve moved on to the water when he lost his job.

They had their boat, which they named Never Too Late, built for from scratch in 2020 for £150,000 and began living onboard in 2022.

"When Steve got made redundant we thought you've only got one life and it's just the two of us and our dog and so we just said 'let's do it, let's go and live on a boat'," Maxine tells Money, speaking from the Coventry Canal.

Their yearly costs amount to around £6,000, or £500 a month. They're continuous cruisers too, moving from location to location every 14 days, so avoid marina costs.

"It's a much slower pace of life, which is fantastic. It's peaceful and you see so much more of the country. You meet so many different people as well," Maxine says.

"When I was living in the house I didn't know my neighbours. You get up, go to work and there's no community but on a boat there is a community and you may not see people for a year or so but when you do meet them again it's like you saw them yesterday," she says.

"I would never go back and live in a house again. We've said when we're older we will go and find a mooring alongside the canal."

'I'll pay my mortgage off in five years'

Jan Gazda, 31, a regional manager for the charity FoodCycle, has been living on his 50ft narrowboat with his partner for nearly three years.

He bought it for £40,000, taking out a mortgage with the marine lender Promarine Finance that costs about £800 a month.

"I work for a charity and living in London is not the best place to be working for a charity and paying rent so there was the financial incentive - you can't find a place for £40,000 to live in unless it's a boat," Jan, whose boat is currently near Broxbourne, says.

Yearly expenditure (without the mortgage) costs around £5,000 - or £416 a month.

This includes spending £120 to £130 a year on gas, £250 a year on diesel, £500 a year on coal, around £2,000 a year on maintenance and repairs, £1,400 a year on his licence fee, £300 a year on insurance and around £20 a month for internet use.

"I wouldn't be able to afford the mortgage on a house and we are not dependent on a landlord and our mortgage is only five years," he says.

"But it comes with never-ending maintenance and repairs, moving every two weeks, thinking about our electricity and water usage, and there is much less safety than in a house."

As for the future, Jan says he hopes he'll be able to travel around England more once the boat is paid off.

"It's just nice to be out in nature, even in the city, you can watch water birds from your living room and when you get out it only gets more beautiful," he says.

-SKY NEWS