I was sick of paying expensive rent so moved into a boat – I love my tiny home, except when the toilet or gas breaks
A WOMAN who was fed up with paying expensive rent has revealed how she decided to move into a narrowboat to save cash.
Now, Laura Woodley, 35, regularly shares updates from life onboard her tiny floating home, which she’s named May Moon.
Speaking to Insider, she said: “I’ve always been a bit of an unconventional person. The standard, cookie-cutter life pattern has never appealed to me.
“So, when I could no longer live alone in London due to rent increases, I decided to start looking at alternatives. Lots of people in London live on canals around the city in ‘narrowboats,’ which are usually 6 feet 10 inches wide.”
After seeing the fun community narrowboats can provide, she decided to take the plunge and get a loan to buy her own boat.
At the time she was 31 and living with housemates, but decided this would be the perfect way to live by herself and have a new adventure.
She picked up her boat in Northampton and had hoped to cruise it back to London, which was about 60 miles away.
However, a week after living on the boat, the UK went into lockdown, which meant she was forced to isolate on the boat.
While it was “very stressful”, Laura said it was “good experience” as she had to handle all the boat’s machinery by herself, and it built her confidence.
Laura, who works in social media, started sharing pictures and videos of her life aboard her 48ft narrowboat and has now racked up 174,000 TikTok followers on her @canalcore account.
Apart from doing boat tours, she also answers questions about how she showers – usually at a friend’s home – and how much she pays.
Due to her boat loan, she pays around £650 in monthly repayments, and hopes to have fully paid for May Moon by 2025.
She also needs to pay a £60 a month boat licence to use the canals and rivers.
Laura added: “I don’t have access to utilities, but other bills, such as laundry (when I don’t have access to friends’ houses), coal and wood for heating, and the cost of pumping out the toilet waste, come to about £190 a month.”
Laura’s only water access in her home is by continually filling up a water tank, so she has to monitor how much she uses.
And her biggest hassles are when her toilet breaks, she runs out of gas, or if she has to walk up to two miles to dispose of rubbish.
However, she admitted: “I love living on a boat, but I want to make it clear that the lifestyle is not for everyone.”