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Frugally Living Aboard


ImmaDuckQuackQuack

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Hi all,

 

I wanted to pick your brains for frugal living tips on board, what do you do to keep living costs down?

I like to live frugally but with the exception of some modern necessities that come with having a young child, I can get free wood, so firewood is sorted. Using the woodburner to boil kettles and make one pot meals on, I've been recommended solar panels, but how effective are they? are there recommended makes and styles for boats? Any tips for energy saving technology?

Please share anything and everything that a boat newbie like me, may find useful!

 

cheers.gif

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Drink at home. Ditto eating. Sprout seeds instead of buying expensive salad-in-a-bag.

 

Turn off lights unless absolutely needed. Install very low wattage lights in strategic places so that you can see your way around without turning on brighter lights - I had some warm orange leds wired in that stayed on all the time and used a miniscule amount of power - meant I didn't need to turn on bigger lights just to move about the boat.

 

Make use of the library. It is free and reading by candlelight in front of a solid fuel stove is one of the great delights of life.

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Wood for the stove uring the day, but you will need coal for keeping it in overnight, that's unavoidable on cold nights.

If you are going to live aboard full time, find the cheapest mooring possible, ideally offline, as there's no licence to pay to C&RT then.

What Alistair says is spot on.

Make the stove work as hard as possible - run a back boiler with radiators, and hot water tank too if possible.

If you can, get a gas/12v/240v fridge freezer, freezers do save money on food costs, but the fridges cost a lot to buy.

Bake your own bread.

Learn how to glean free food from the hedgerows WITHOUT stealing it from farmers!

There are probably dozens of other ways that I've forgotten about!

Good luck.

  • Greenie 1
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This might turn out a interesting thread. :-)

 

Learn as much as possible about foraging, shrooming and legal sorces of animal protein if you are carnivorous. Grow things in the boat, like sprouts, cress and sunflower shoots. Grow things on the boat. Plant things in areas you know you'll return to in the future and mark it down on a map. Always start a shopping spree looking at the short date shelf and plan meals around your finds there. Only fill kettle with the amount you need during the season the stove isn't lit. Amazing how many that boil a half full kettle when they only need one cup of tea. Solar is awesome! Turn the fridge off when outside is fridge temperature. Think, do I need or want this when the urge to acquire something pops up. If you need it, can you make it your self? If you can't, can you learn how to make it? Knit! Wooly socks and a cup of foraged tea saves fuel. Eat more soup. Anything can be tossed into a soup :-) Learn to preserve food when in plenty to forage or in season and cheap, for when it is not. Cure, dry, ferment, pickle, jam, preserves..... Swap things with other frugals :-) To talk to people, help out and be generous, is often surprisingly rewarding.

 

But be sensible. There's a lot you can do without going over the top. You want to be comfortable. Not silly frugal :-)

  • Greenie 3
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Wow! fantastic advice so far! just what i've been looking for! we have an allotment and chickens ashore anyway so we grow all the fruit and veg we need, as well as eggs, just setting up to breed the chickens for meat requirements too, and considering a larger plot to raise other animals for food purposes, we are usually supplied with game from farmers for free, along with wood etc, and regularly go foraging. Quite right Caprifool, I am indeed not foolish enough to go to the extremes of losing out on home comforts, The TV, laptop, smartphone and washing machine will be coming with me haha!!


Wood for the stove uring the day, but you will need coal for keeping it in overnight, that's unavoidable on cold nights.

If you are going to live aboard full time, find the cheapest mooring possible, ideally offline, as there's no licence to pay to C&RT then.

What Alistair says is spot on.

Make the stove work as hard as possible - run a back boiler with radiators, and hot water tank too if possible.

If you can, get a gas/12v/240v fridge freezer, freezers do save money on food costs, but the fridges cost a lot to buy.

Bake your own bread.

Learn how to glean free food from the hedgerows WITHOUT stealing it from farmers!

There are probably dozens of other ways that I've forgotten about!

Good luck.

Hiya, can you explain offline moorings to me please? never heard of it???

wouldnt dream of stealing from farmers!! they have shotguns!! :o haha ;)


Eat skip food.

 

Now there's a suggestion! I do have a 5 year old child I could hoist into a supermarket bin to search for all the edibles! ;)

Obtain food from farmers fields, do a lot of fishing, get diesel from nearby boats, plug into street lamps.

smile.png

plug into street lamps??? who? what? where? how?

Im afraid im not a keen fisherman, ill do most things but maggots...eeeek!!

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Start from where you are...

How do you live now and how much does it cost? Make a detailed list of what is essential for you and your child and what's nice to have.

Accept it's a process that will take time...

You will need to change habits and learn skills. Accept that this won't happen overnight

Share your time and resources...

Buy in bulk with like minded friends. Swap skills.

Check that you are enjoying it...

And how will you develop this over the next several years?

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Start from where you are...

How do you live now and how much does it cost? Make a detailed list of what is essential for you and your child and what's nice to have.

Accept it's a process that will take time...

You will need to change habits and learn skills. Accept that this won't happen overnight

Share your time and resources...

Buy in bulk with like minded friends. Swap skills.

Check that you are enjoying it...

And how will you develop this over the next several years?

Currently living in a house, frugally to the point i grow most of my fruit and veg, (During summer I even give it away or swap with other people for skills or otherwise), I do my own DIY, I have access to an orchard and can have as much wood as I like as well as kindling from a builders yard, used to having an open fire which I keep in overnight with coal. As we are currently going through house sale and finding a liveaboard, I need tips on what we can feasibly do frugally on board, from saving money on the unnecessary, e.g. using a woodburner with back boiler for water and heating rather than paying out for gas/electric, solar panels for electric in summer, As a complete newbie to it all (other than holidays aboard) I'm also a bit stumped at what I could purchase and install at the time of boat purchase, that will over time save money for the next couple of decades (or more) that I hope to live aboard.

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This is what we've spent in the last year and we have not "gone without", i.e. we use what we like when we feel like it. This is based on staying at Willowbridge Marina as per my other post:

 

Mooring: 3000

Electric: 300

Coal: 382

Wood: 60

Gas: 125

Pumpout: 105

Diesel: 280

Laundry: 190

Licence 900

 

We have a tumble drier on board but not a washing machine. Both shower daily (gas) and cook onboard daily (gas), have had diesel central heating since October.

 

Other outgoings:

New water pump: 50

Recon boiler: 400

Blacking: 150

Craning/Jetwash: 420

Paints: 200

Dehimidifier: 120

Tumble drier: 125

Chimney hat: 12

Stern cover: 800

 

This might give you a rough idea but of course everyone is different smile.png

Edited by Psycloud
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You will not be running a TV, washing machine, fridge and freezer off solar panels. Not unless you have a widebeam and live in the med. Forget it.

 

I find myself questioning why you are moving onto a mobile home when you are also setting up an orchard, chickens etc. These require daily attention which will be difficult to do from a boat mooring (unless you are very very very lucky and have a mooring already adjacent to these things).

 

I used to live very frugally (out of necessity) on a boat. It meant giving up on thinking I had to have many of the 'necessities' such as TV, washing machine, fridge. Instead I filled my time with daily boating activities such as gathering wood, motoring to waterpoint, feeding ducks and swans through my window.

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If you're keeping your allotment, bunnies are great. New Zeeland Red is a good full bodied breed. Belgian Giants......naaa, don't like them. They eat a lot, have heavy bones and are clumsy mums. I don't know the English word, but the big floppy eared ones are ok too. You can get breeders for free from people who have kids that have gotten tired of them. I prefere bunnies for the pot rather than chooks. I do eat the old ladies and young roosters when culled though. Just think they are icky to pluck and gut.

 

If you're looking into milk, I know a lot about goat husbandry and dairy practice as well. That would take all day to write about. But I'm available via PM if that's something you like a few pointers about.

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wouldnt dream of stealing from farmers!! they have shotguns!! ohmy.png haha wink.png

 

(Never worried Keith Floyd)

 

 

plug into street lamps??? who? what? where? how?

(When I was on the Canal De Midi, I came across boaters who had moored up against the street lights and had removed the bulbs and plugged themselves in.)

 

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I forgot something.

 

If you can, get a widebeam.

 

Why? Because widebeams have enough volume to fit normal household appliances. If you are insistent on having 'home comforts', then being able to purchase normal household fittings will save you a lot of money.

 

Sure, you can get slimline washing machines etc. But they are dearer than anything standard-sized.

 

Where you can, use 240VAC. Will you have shore-power hookup? If so, don't fit an expensive inverter etc, fit a household (choose a 'garage' model, they are more robust) consumer unit and run a simple ring-main from that. Cheap, simple and safe.

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One problem with growing your own food is that you need land and easy access to that land to do it. It's relatively easy if you live in a house with a garden, but unless you already have a mooring in mind, are you going to be able to keep up access to your current allotment once you're waterborne? Even a couple of miles can be a pain in the backside if your only transport is a pushbike in the Winter.

 

There were a lot of things I used to do to save money in the house, but most of them are no longer possible now I'm on a boat.

 

On the other hand, free berries in season, free firewood, and a smaller space to heat are all plus points hen it comes to living frugally.

 

I'd also say don't plan *too* far ahead when you're buying stuff to save money in the long run. Estimates of life for things like solar panels have, in the past, been somewhat optimistic, for instance. I'd go for stuff with a payback of no more than five years, so solar panels would pay if you're generating electricity on board, but not if you have access to a shore supply. You'd also have to reduce your power needs to the minimum by installing things like LED lighting, and possibly an Ecofan on top of your stove to circulate warm air, which reduces your coal bill.

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I forgot something.

 

If you can, get a widebeam.

 

Why? Because widebeams have enough volume to fit normal household appliances. If you are insistent on having 'home comforts', then being able to purchase normal household fittings will save you a lot of money.

 

Sure, you can get slimline washing machines etc. But they are dearer than anything standard-sized.

 

Where you can, use 240VAC. Will you have shore-power hookup? If so, don't fit an expensive inverter etc, fit a household (choose a 'garage' model, they are more robust) consumer unit and run a simple ring-main from that. Cheap, simple and safe.

But you will be totally reliant on shore power the. Which will make cruising interesting!

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An offline mooring is one on water that is not owned/controlled by C&RT. This means a place that for one reason or another has no connection charge made on it by C&RT. So there should be no annual licence to pay for, and often no need for a BSC either. Also as the boatyard has lower overheads ( no connection charge to pay for), the mooring and other fees may be cheaper.

Where we are blacking and docking, and possibly mooring, is cheaper than mentioned by Psycloud, perhaps for that reason.

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But you will be totally reliant on shore power the. Which will make cruising interesting!

Changeover switch for a genny or inverter supply. Or, for cheapskates, run the boat 240V supply through a plug and have two or more sockets to select the source. I've got IP rated sockets from inverter and shore supplies in the engine 'ole, and move the plug as needed. I may get round to putting a switch in, now I'm on holiday for a week.

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Solar panels are great for 8 months, but will need some help for winter.

wow 8 months? I was only expecting the 2 weeks of 'summer' that we get to produce anything decent then if anything for the rest of the summer months, fab! how much energy do you find they return?

 

This is what we've spent in the last year and we have not "gone without", i.e. we use what we like when we feel like it. This is based on staying at Willowbridge Marina as per my other post:

 

Mooring: 3000

Electric: 300

Coal: 382

Wood: 60

Gas: 125

Pumpout: 105

Diesel: 280

Laundry: 190

Licence 900

 

We have a tumble drier on board but not a washing machine. Both shower daily (gas) and cook onboard daily (gas), have had diesel central heating since October.

 

Other outgoings:

New water pump: 50

Recon boiler: 400

Blacking: 150

Craning/Jetwash: 420

Paints: 200

Dehimidifier: 120

Tumble drier: 125

Chimney hat: 12

Stern cover: 800

 

This might give you a rough idea but of course everyone is different smile.png

woweee!!! thats 1/4 of our monthly outgoings in this house, LIVING FRUGALLY, Im going to be minted, sod the frugal living I can live like a queen!! :lol: Holiday in barbados here we come!!!

 

Never pass up on Road Kill

Phil

I never do! rabbit & deer especially, Yum!

 

If you're keeping your allotment, bunnies are great. New Zeeland Red is a good full bodied breed. Belgian Giants......naaa, don't like them. They eat a lot, have heavy bones and are clumsy mums. I don't know the English word, but the big floppy eared ones are ok too. You can get breeders for free from people who have kids that have gotten tired of them. I prefere bunnies for the pot rather than chooks. I do eat the old ladies and young roosters when culled though. Just think they are icky to pluck and gut.

 

If you're looking into milk, I know a lot about goat husbandry and dairy practice as well. That would take all day to write about. But I'm available via PM if that's something you like a few pointers about.

I will definitely be giving you a shout Caprifool, Ive toyed with keeping bunnies but to be fair usually end up with enough wild rabbit to do us nicely! Have definite plans for goats i the future so will be Pm'ing you! clapping.gif

 

 

wouldnt dream of stealing from farmers!! they have shotguns!! ohmy.png haha wink.png

 

(Never worried Keith Floyd)

 

 

plug into street lamps??? who? what? where? how?

(When I was on the Canal De Midi, I came across boaters who had moored up against the street lights and had removed the bulbs and plugged themselves in.)

 

 

Ooohh errr, I dont fancy shimmying up a streetlamp haha!

 

You do need to slow down a little before you drive into it though. Otherwise it's a bit of a mess

clapping.gif

 

I forgot something.

 

If you can, get a widebeam.

 

Why? Because widebeams have enough volume to fit normal household appliances. If you are insistent on having 'home comforts', then being able to purchase normal household fittings will save you a lot of money.

 

Sure, you can get slimline washing machines etc. But they are dearer than anything standard-sized.

 

Where you can, use 240VAC. Will you have shore-power hookup? If so, don't fit an expensive inverter etc, fit a household (choose a 'garage' model, they are more robust) consumer unit and run a simple ring-main from that. Cheap, simple and safe.

 

I wont have the finances for a widebeam, plus I wish to be able to travel what I can of the system without the trouble of craning in and out of the water, Im quite happy to pay out for energy saving, space saving 12v gear if its viable for my way of living.

 

One problem with growing your own food is that you need land and easy access to that land to do it. It's relatively easy if you live in a house with a garden, but unless you already have a mooring in mind, are you going to be able to keep up access to your current allotment once you're waterborne? Even a couple of miles can be a pain in the backside if your only transport is a pushbike in the Winter.

 

There were a lot of things I used to do to save money in the house, but most of them are no longer possible now I'm on a boat.

 

On the other hand, free berries in season, free firewood, and a smaller space to heat are all plus points hen it comes to living frugally.

 

I'd also say don't plan *too* far ahead when you're buying stuff to save money in the long run. Estimates of life for things like solar panels have, in the past, been somewhat optimistic, for instance. I'd go for stuff with a payback of no more than five years, so solar panels would pay if you're generating electricity on board, but not if you have access to a shore supply. You'd also have to reduce your power needs to the minimum by installing things like LED lighting, and possibly an Ecofan on top of your stove to circulate warm air, which reduces your coal bill.

I already have the allotments and land, animals to tend daily including horses near where my daughter attends school, travelling about does not bother me, as I do it on a daily basis anyway. Any clues as to what you found you could save money on in a house compared to life aboard? Im trying to check that the information ive gathered over the last year is as accurate as I believe it to be :)

 

But you will be totally reliant on shore power the. Which will make cruising interesting!

Thats my thoughts too... I wish to cruise weekends and school holidays, and stay in places and possibly even moor where there is no civillisation, I wish to be as self sufficient as possible on board

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I already have the allotments and land, animals to tend daily including horses near where my daughter attends school, travelling about does not bother me, as I do it on a daily basis anyway. Any clues as to what you found you could save money on in a house compared to life aboard? Im trying to check that the information ive gathered over the last year is as accurate as I believe it to be smile.png

 

 

Mains gas is much cheaper than bottled gas for cooking and coal for heating. I had space for a large freezer, so I could buy bulk packs of food and store them. Or, if I'd been harvesting stuff, I could keep it until I needed it. On a related theme, I could do one big shop per week, where I now tend to shop every day. I had room for a washing machine, so a wash cost pennies and entailed no hanging about rather than the current fiver in the launderette and hang round for an hour while it's happening, or pay extra for a service wash I pick up a couple of days later. Having a driveway turned out to be saving me hundreds of pounds a year in car insurance premiums. It was a *lot* easier to get stuff delivered, so I didn't have to use the local, more expensive, suppliers.

 

While I appreciate that you already have the allotments and land, how far away from your house are they? Depending on where you are moored up within the range you quoted in your other thread, that could easily be half an hour of driving and towpath trudging each way, every day. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. When I was on the water in the '70s, I had to walk or cruise a mere half a mile to the tap, which was no fun. It was also a three mile commute to work, along a grotty towpath on a pushbike, which didn't do a lot for my attendance record....

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Have definite plans for goats i the future

 

 

plus I wish to be able to travel what I can of the system

 

Thats my thoughts too... I wish to cruise weekends and school holidays, and stay in places and possibly even moor where there is no civillisation, I wish to be as self sufficient as possible on board

 

 

 

 

I'm wondering if you have thought about the moorings for your boat? And who will look after the menagerie when you cruise at weekends and holidays? I too have had a dairy herd of goats, also chicks, ducks etc ,etc on a smallholding. We had no holiday for the 10+ years we did it. Goats in particular are very difficult to leave, especially if they are milkers. They hate strangers milking them - the one time I asked an (experienced) friend to milk them for me for a few days, I came back to dry goats, naughty girls! And of course they need milking at regular times twice a day, every day. It is a massive investment of time and routine and for the life of me I can't see how this can be compatible with a regularly away lifestyle, even if for short periods.

Edited by wandering snail
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Your posts are a bit contradictory . . . . you say you want money saving tips but don't mind spending on kit.

 

Now, cruising the system isn't compatible with chickens, rabbits and gardening. Not unless you are going to have all of this on a butty and tow it behind.

 

12V kit is frequently double the price of 240V kit. You don't have to be buying much before it would have been cheaper to get a good inverter and run most things on 240VAC. Wiring a long narrowboat for all 12V can get expensive, since you will need large cables to avoid voltage drop problems.

 

I really don't want to see negative. I love living aboard and miss it a lot. I did much of it on a very tight budget. But there are compromises to be made. These were more than made up for by what I gained.

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