Living on the UK’s canals in a houseboat sounds like a dream – freedom, flexibility, the gentle rocking of the waterways… what’s not to love?Now, one boat owner has lifted the lid on the realities of life on the canal, including the real costs involved. Adam Lind, 33, bought a houseboat in 2021 for £38,000. After refurbishing it – as well as a rise in the value of boats overall – it is now worth around £70,000, and he and his wife have already paid off the loan they took out to buy it.Adam tells the Daily Mail: ‘We bought it just before lockdown, and then when Covid happened, boat prices went up quite a bit, because people were able to work from home. ‘I think a lot more people were thinking there’s more to life; it slowed everyone down, and people were looking for alternative ways of living.’For the foreseeable, I don’t see myself moving to a house any time soon.’ Adam’s bills remain low, too – with his monthly expenses all in £300-400 for two people (so £150-200 each).Adam said: ‘We don’t have a mortgage, we don’t have rent, we pay a boat license monthly, ours is around £200 a month, but that covers water, maintenance of the canals, rubbish and recycling points. Adam Lind, 33, bought a houseboat for £38,000 – and now estimates it has almost doubled in value’Other than that, your bills are quite low.’The prices of houseboats have hit the headlines as of late. It comes after Green Party leader Zack Polanski faced a formal standards investigation after he admitted failing to pay council tax while living on a narrowboat for three years in east London. The findings of a sleaze probe into the furore were published earlier this month by the Greater London Authority, after complaints by both the Conservatives and the Labour Party.But the investigator swiftly concluded that Mr Polanski’s tax affairs did not ‘fall within an official capacity and were therefore not regulated by the code’.Adam, however, keeps his costs low – but also puts time and effort into revamping his new digs.So, what drew Adam to life on the water? He lives on the boat with his wife, where they enjoy the lifestyle Greenery is important to the pair – and they installed plant boxes on the boatHe says: ‘The catalyst came when I was 17, I lost my father. He was an addict, he was an alcoholic. And then when he died, I had this idea that I really wanted to live life to the full and go against the grain.’I met my wife when we were 19 at university, and we embarked on this five-year adventure trying to hitchhike from London to India, so we spent five years on the road, relying on the kindness of strangers.’At the end of that trip we ended up coming back to the UK, and we didn’t have much money, we couldn’t get a mortgage, but we didn’t want to rent anywhere, because we were so used to moving around all the time.’The idea of a boat came up, so on a bit of a whim, we took a loan from the bank and bought a boat, because it allowed us to move around and travel and explore, but it gave us the home and roots we were craving after living out of a backpack for five years.’The excitement was evident from the start. ‘When we first bought plates, when we bought this boat, we were so overexcited. It’s just been this crazy journey.’Adam has chronicled his life journey in his new book, Floating Home: How Kindness Carried Me Around the World and Led Me to a New Life on the Waterways, which is out now in Paperback. What does life on the canals look like? Their boat was a new home for the pair, after spending five years travelling ‘We’ve done a lot of work on it, we gutted it and renovated it, and we’ve put a new solar system in, we’ve built a vegetable garden on the roof – it’s my wife’s work, she’s the DIY expert. ‘We ripped out the kitchen in the bathroom, repainted the bedroom. My wife really wanted to grow her own food, and she wanted to be able to do yoga, which she was worried you couldn’t do on a boat. ‘So she built a yoga deck on the roof, and she built these big vegetable planters, so we can still grow things.’We grow some bits, but I don’t want people to think we’re fully self-sustainable – we get a few nice carrots and beetroots, but we still rely on supermarkets.’Ironically, Adam says his low-cost lifestyle actually allows him to spend more.’We can actually spend more on things that people would consider a luxury because our running costs are so low. ‘We can treat ourselves to nicer food, and in the area we’re currently in, we joined a really nice gym that has a spa.’You can choose where you to spend your money elsewhere if you’re saving costs at home.’The best part of living on a boat? The sense of community, and getting to explore villages you didn’t even know existed. ‹ Slide me › They revamped their kitchen, updating the furnishings and refreshing the counter tops ‘I just love that everyone on the canals has a story, and other communities are usually bound together by like a shared sense of idealistic ideas, but on the canals, everyone is completely different, but you share this body of water, so you’re so bound, and people really help each other. People really support each other. ‘If you see a boater having a problem you don’t walk past, you always go and help.’Plus, he says, ‘you also get to dip into these little communities within the UK’.Adam warns, however, that it’s not all easy-breezy.He says: ‘I always say to people, it’s definitely an active lifestyle. Don’t just try it because it’s a cheap way of living. Adam’s book Floating Home: How Kindness Carried Me Around the World and Led Me to a New Life on the Waterways is out now’In the winter, it can be a bit harder if you don’t know how to make a fire – or if you don’t want to deal with your own toilet waste, which a lot of people wouldn’t.’That’s one of the worst parts, Adam admits – alongside the ‘transient nature of it, because you can make connections and friends, but people move on.’You have to think ahead, you have to think about when you’re going to run out of water. It’s definitely a lifestyle, not just a cheap way of living. And I think some people do it just for the costs, and then get a bit of a surprise.’His words of wisdom are clear: ‘Try before you buy. We rented a boat off a friend for a couple months, just to test the lifestyle. ‘I think some people idealise it, and then when they’re in the space, it’s quite small for them. So try and get on as many boats as you can in some capacity before moving onto one.’Adam’s philosophy is not really about living on a boat – it’s much more than that.He concludes: ‘I think we should be taking stock and asking ourselves, are we content in the life we’re living? ‘If not, what are the small things we can do to try and make ourselves look back at the end of our life, and think, “I really enjoyed that”.’Floating Home: How Kindness Carried Me Around the World and Led Me to a New Life on the Waterways by Adam Lind (Bloomsbury Tonic, £10.99) is out now in Paperback.