I bought ‘Peaky Blinders’ boat & turned it into a tiny home – it’s saved me £20k on rent & bills… but there’s a catch
A WOMAN who bought a “Peaky Blinders” boat and turned it into a mobile home has saved 20k on rent and bills – but there’s a catch.
Elizabeth Earle, 34, has lived on the antique vessel, named ‘Maggie’ for over a year and says she saves mounds of cash with her alternative lifestyle.
The author and illustrator bought the 70-foot boat for £35k and revealed in a TikTok that it her total costs only add up to about £3,400 a year.
She said: “I was spending around £1,200 a month in rent, council tax, bills and I had so little to put aside and save.
“I just thought is this going to be my life forever? I have a kitchen, bathroom and a very comfortable bed.”
The boat is heated by a coal fire, with a £16 bag of coal lasting about two weeks.
Elizabeth also buys spends about £117 a month on diesel as well as gas bottles to heat water so she can have a warm shower, while the water supply is free.
But despite saving bags of money she wants to install one handy feature to knock off living costs even further.
Elizabeth added: “My plan is eventually to have solar to help the battery.”
Elizabeth is a freelance author and illustrator specialising in watercolour, and has a dedicated space onboard to write and paint.
“I am a self-employed artist and this means my earnings can fluctuate.
“I know that I am able to pay my bills and my boat payments and it gives me some flexibility.”
“Every penny I put into this is not going towards someone else’s bills or someone else’s mortgage. It’s going towards my future.”
To be able to use the boat, she pays £108 for her Canal and River Trust license fee and insurance for just £100 a year.
Other than that, her only major expense is paying back the loan on the boat itself.
Elizabeth moves around from place to place and, because the boat is so old, lives like it’s the early 1900s – including taking just two showers a week.
She has previously said that she bought ‘Maggie’ from a close friend, who is letting her pay them back in instalments.
As always, TikTokers were quick to take to the comments section and share their opinions on Elizabeth’s boat life.
Many were impressed and praised her for being “very talented”.
Another commented: “What a great life!”
“I’d like the narrow boat life. Where do you start?” said a third.
Though Elizabeth admitted that the old-school life is hard sometimes, she insisted that she’s “free and happy”, even when she’s covered in coal and mud.
She publishes a YouTube series explaining life on the water and is hoping to tour the UK to research the history of women in narrowboats.
Iain and Brioni Cameron, a couple from Scotland, gave up their boring lives to sail around the Caribbean on a catamaran.
Meanwhile, another couple have saved £1,000 a month after switching their Hertfordshire flat for a boat.