[lbrindze]

Probably not, but cruising is likely cheaper than you expect and (if you are currently living in a major US city) significantly cheaper than your current situation.

Everyone has different standards of what they consider “liveable” especially when it comes to boat maintenance and preparedness. I cruised for a while just fine with almost nothing in the way of systems or electronics (paper/home brew charts, no radar/ais, no ac or refrigeration) boat expenses were definitely my largest slice of expense after food/beer and it still only accounted for about $3-5k per year (amortized over a few years). Some larger maintenance items are only semi annual, other big ticket items (eg sails) can be procured used and last for another 5+ years.

Also I didn’t have an engine so I guess that costs money too to maintain but all of this is to say it’s like anything else… it’s as cheap or expensive as you make it