Have just finished my first year (accounting wise) of living in a house after 7.5 years on a 41’ sailboat. During my boat cruising years I documented our monthly costs and kept doing it after moving into a 1939 brick 2-bedroom house that is fairly basic. So here is a cost comparison of my last full year on the boat where we lived on full time, cruised about 5.5 months and was in a low cost basic marina the rest of the time. Money I got selling my boat that was used in buying the house, furniture and a couple of big items like new windows are not in the numbers as I consider that an asset swap.
Overall the costs were boat $4659/mo avg during 2022/2023 compared to house $5175/mo avg during 2024/2025. Categories as follows:
Yearly
General expenses (food, clothes, etc. for anything not in others) – boat $14,656 → house $16,234. That’s $1669 more living in house, but costs have increased in general due to inflation and there has been lots of smaller new stuff needed to replace stuff left on the boat (I have a lot more clothes now days).
Maintenance and upgrades – boat $7,583 → house $3,055. Yes house maintenance $4,528 less expensive than the boat’s and if I don’t fix something in the house it doesn’t put our lives at risk.
Boat fuel - $1,639 → $0. This of course is a no brain-er. I don’t have a breakdown of the boat diesel used by engine and the gas used for the generator that could be a part of electric costs for the house.
Dining and drinking out – boat $9,111 → house10,248. This isn’t surprising really as me generally go somewhere for a week each month and dine out when we do. Probably has more to do with not dining out as much when in the Bahamas on boat.
Entertainment – boat $2,633 → house $2,350. We need to work on this and do more entertainment things.
Communication and storage – boat $4,067 → $469. That last year on the boat we bought Starlink equipment and it cost $125-150/mo for use and we also got new cell phones. Now my internet is $27/mo and included in utilities. So really all we now have are 2 cells phones with cheap limited data plans.
Marina/mortgage – boat $3380 → house $12,045. No surprise really as the boat had 5.5 months of free anchoring with 0 days in a slip when not in home location of Jacksonville. Plus the marina we stayed was bare bones, it was just a slip with electric and water at less than half the cost of our monthly mortgage.
Transportation and travel – boat $6,625 → house $11,245. We used to drop registration on the car and change to basic insurance on it. Now in the house of course we use the car all year long. Plus we go somewhere for a week each month and that increases the travel costs. But we just can not stay in the house all the time because we are too used to traveling.
Utilities – boat $183 → house $2140. This is what happens when you got from a flat $25 electric and free water for 6.5 months on a boat to 12 months of living in house
Gifts – boat $1748→ house $1069. Maybe we are just getting cheaper
Boat, house, car insurance – boat $1,240 → house $1,333. The insurance for the boat was more than house per year. But the car being used all year has more insurance costs
So living and cruising on a boat wasn’t the cost savings for us compared to living in a hose. Last year was half and half and that also worked out about same overall for each. I miss cruising, but I definitely don’t miss living on a boat in a marina.
Overall the costs were boat $4659/mo avg during 2022/2023 compared to house $5175/mo avg during 2024/2025. Categories as follows:
Yearly
General expenses (food, clothes, etc. for anything not in others) – boat $14,656 → house $16,234. That’s $1669 more living in house, but costs have increased in general due to inflation and there has been lots of smaller new stuff needed to replace stuff left on the boat (I have a lot more clothes now days).
Maintenance and upgrades – boat $7,583 → house $3,055. Yes house maintenance $4,528 less expensive than the boat’s and if I don’t fix something in the house it doesn’t put our lives at risk.
Boat fuel - $1,639 → $0. This of course is a no brain-er. I don’t have a breakdown of the boat diesel used by engine and the gas used for the generator that could be a part of electric costs for the house.
Dining and drinking out – boat $9,111 → house10,248. This isn’t surprising really as me generally go somewhere for a week each month and dine out when we do. Probably has more to do with not dining out as much when in the Bahamas on boat.
Entertainment – boat $2,633 → house $2,350. We need to work on this and do more entertainment things.
Communication and storage – boat $4,067 → $469. That last year on the boat we bought Starlink equipment and it cost $125-150/mo for use and we also got new cell phones. Now my internet is $27/mo and included in utilities. So really all we now have are 2 cells phones with cheap limited data plans.
Marina/mortgage – boat $3380 → house $12,045. No surprise really as the boat had 5.5 months of free anchoring with 0 days in a slip when not in home location of Jacksonville. Plus the marina we stayed was bare bones, it was just a slip with electric and water at less than half the cost of our monthly mortgage.
Transportation and travel – boat $6,625 → house $11,245. We used to drop registration on the car and change to basic insurance on it. Now in the house of course we use the car all year long. Plus we go somewhere for a week each month and that increases the travel costs. But we just can not stay in the house all the time because we are too used to traveling.
Utilities – boat $183 → house $2140. This is what happens when you got from a flat $25 electric and free water for 6.5 months on a boat to 12 months of living in house
Gifts – boat $1748→ house $1069. Maybe we are just getting cheaper
Boat, house, car insurance – boat $1,240 → house $1,333. The insurance for the boat was more than house per year. But the car being used all year has more insurance costs
So living and cruising on a boat wasn’t the cost savings for us compared to living in a hose. Last year was half and half and that also worked out about same overall for each. I miss cruising, but I definitely don’t miss living on a boat in a marina.
