There are some things that are the same for everyone, given a narrow range for personal differences. Food for example: It costs about 6,000 euros a year for food and wine, based on three meals a day and a reasonable plonk wine instead of a steady diet of Chateau Talbot. If you don't drink at all you can save about 1,000 a year but give up a good measure of what is special about France. A base budget for year round live aboard is as follows, with greater detail under the Click Button on the left.
Food and wine 6,000 Euros/yr
Clothes, assuming you are no longer in acquisition mode 500
Electricity, phone, email, postage 800
Winter moorage based on a 25 metre boat in Roanne 700
Cruising fuel 1 Euro/litre 1600 km cruising at 4 litres/hr 4 km/hr 1,600
Annual vignette cost 400
Heating with red deisel 2000 litres/yr at .50 Euros/litre 1,000
Boat insurance 1,500
Maintenance in an average year in a range of 500 to 2000 Euros 700
Total base cost 13,200
Owning and operating a car during the winter 2,000
A two week vacation in Spain or Southern France in winter 2,000
Dinner or lunch out every couple of weeks 800
Health insurance, based on the French government plan 3,000
Top up costs for medicin, doctor visits, mutuelle insurance 1,200
Total costs 21,200 Euros/yr
The detailed budget supports these numbers in a general way. If you don't want a car or a mini-vacation and are prepared to self insure, costs will be in the order of 15,000 Euros, maybe a little less. If you want to stick with the Chateau Talbot and dinner at Troisgros ten times a year your budget will not resemble these figures, but that is up to every individual.
Our point is that it is not expensive to live on a barge in France. You can't do it for 5,000 Euros, but a reasonable pension should take care of the costs. A number of more enterprising bargers take on paying guests to augment their income, but you have to like being a host, and you may have a tough time if you are depending on this revenue to make ends meet.
