the boating life: Bills

I returned from Birmingham (in the rain) at the weekend and am now finally having some time off. I really enjoyed working in Birmingham because it is the absolute centre of the canal network and it felt like home from home. I was able to walk along the canal every evening and chat to other boaters.

Now I am on catch up with chores etc. I think I have finally sorted out the damp problem. I cleared out both wardrobes and have taken a lot of clothes I don't wear very often up to our storage unit, so there is now some breathing space and the cupboards are not jam packed. I have bought loads of damp collecting tubs and have put three in each wardrobe as well as an air freshener in each. If you try to buy the damp collectors at specialist caravan or boating shops, they cost about £5- £6 but our local 'pound' shop stocks them for £1 each and they last several weeks, so it doesn't work out too expensive.

I was again accosted in the town centre today by a gas provider trying to get me to change my supply. He looked quite distraught when I told him I don't use mains gas as I live on a boat. I felt sorry for him, it must be a hard job trying to get people to change to another provider and I bet he only gets paid on a commission basis.

Talking of gas etc. I thought it might be useful to give some sort of breakdown of costs this quarter: -

Our gas comes out of a bottle which we keep in the locker at the front of the boat. We have two bottles in there so if one runs out while we are in mid flow of cooking a meal, we just get a spanner and switch the supply over to the full one! We last got a full bottle about 6 months ago and it cost £26. We checked it the other day and there is still plenty left. I would say that at the very most you would use two bottles a year.

Our electricity bill for this quarter was £25. We have mostly used the wood burner for heating this last few months and have generally used wood, because coal produces too much heat at this time of year. We get our wood free, either by foraging, or from friends. The central heating uses diesel and again we haven't had to buy any recently. We have two jerry cans full which our neighbour gave us to say 'Thankyou' for cooking him so many meals over the last few months. They contain 20 litres each which will see us right for fuel to move around and heating for many months.

As you can see it is a very cheap way of life as far as utility bills goes. However, it isn't so cheap for other costs. We pay £2900 per year for our mooring and £700 per year for our waterways license which entitles us to have a boat on the water ( a bit like car tax). In addition we pay £26 for storage every month. If you own your boat outright that wouldn't be so bad, but we have a small mortgage on ours which puts our rental costs up to the equivalent of renting a very nice flat in town. We know this because we are helping son number two to get a flat with his girl friend and we were in the estate agents yesterday and looking at some very nice properties which were the same or less than we are paying now.

This looking closely at things has partly come about because we are dissatisfied with where we are living. Although it is a nice spot we don't seem to get a lot for our money and as I have intimated before there are problems with some personalities there. For me it is to do with one particular boat whose occupants I consider to be anti-social and there are also problems with people not getting on together and, although we keep out of it, it spills over and affects the general atmosphere of the place.

We have seen lots of lovely Marinas advertised in the boaters magazine 'The Towpath' which seem to offer better value for money and we are considering going onto the main system and moving to another area. I love the boating life and would be unwilling to let it go easily, but I can see the argument that we could live much more easily and peacefully on dry land at the same cost, so ....... are we going to 'swallow the anchor'? I'm really not sure.

At the moment we are in our favourite place and have peace and quiet away from the marina, but we can't stay here forever - watch this space, I will keep you posted ......

On a more positive note we had a nice day yesterday when T came up to join us and we helped her through the locks. We are looking after Jack next week while she is on holiday, so it made sense to have her boat up here with us so that he can feel at home if he needs to.