A woman lives in a 50-foot narrowboat she bought for around $40,000. It saves her over $1,000 each month.

Dottie Turnbull had been dreaming of a nontraditional home since she was a teen.

In 2021, Turnbull, a full-time content creator, was living in a small cottage in Cambridgeshire, UK.

She liked her one-bedroom home, but she had been interested in alternative living after watching the show "George Clarke's Amazing Spaces" as a teenager.

"I saw this couple that bought a boat and lived in London and renovated it," she said. "They had the most amazing life because they were living a city life but with half the bills, basically."

Turnbull said the idea of a slower lifestyle that allowed her to be close to nature appealed to her, as did the prospect of a more affordable way to own her home.

"In the UK, you put the house deposit down, and then you're paying a mortgage for 35 years," she said. "I just didn't want that life."

When her landlord decided to sell her cottage, Turnbull took it as a sign that it was time to make her dream of boat living a reality.

Turnbull found the perfect boat in September 2021.

Turnbull started looking around online for a narrowboat. After nearly buying a boat with a gas leak, she found a blue boat called The Tanglewood that seemed like the perfect place for her to make her own.

It had a kitchen, a living area, one bedroom, and one bathroom, but it wasn't in great shape, which was OK with Turnbull.

"I always knew that I wanted to put my touch on it, so I wasn't as fussed about the interior," she said.

Using her savings and loans, Turnbull bought the 50-foot boat for £30,000, or around $40,000, which she said was pretty affordable for a narrowboat in the UK at the time.

"You'd probably be looking at paying £50,000 to £60,000 to get a decent one interior-wise," Turnbull said. "I was mainly focused on making sure the outside was OK, so it doesn't sink, and then the inside I could do whatever I wanted to it."

Turnbull moved into the boat immediately, but it needed a lot of work.

Turnbull moved in September 2021, and she adopted her dog, Teddy, in December 2021, raising him on the boat.

Rather than doing one big gut renovation, Turnbull renovated the narrowboat over about a year on her own, chipping away at smaller changes.

She said she didn't have the time, money, or experience to demo the interior, so it made more sense to keep the boat's general layout and make smaller updates.

"I kept the foundations in place," she said. "I didn't move any rooms around."

The boat has two entrances, each with a small outdoor patio leading to the doorway. The bedroom sits at one end, and when Turnbull bought it, it was surrounded by wood-paneled walls that made the space feel dark and dated.

The living room and kitchen on the other end were just as dated.

The entrance on the other end of the boat leads to the living area, which has a small heater.

A pony wall with wood columns separated the kitchen from the living room when Turnbull bought the boat.

There was also green carpeting on the floor and lining the middle of the ceiling, which Turnbull wasn't a fan of.

"It was awful, and it was really smelly," she said. "I ripped all of that out."

Taking down the divider between the kitchen and living area helped open the boat.

Turnbull took down the pony wall dividing the kitchen and living area, extending the countertop into an L-shape with the space she opened up. It made the kitchen and living area feel more connected.

Paint also made a huge difference in the boat's overall feel.

"All the walls were basically dark wood, and just putting a white coat of paint changed everything," Turnbull said.

In the living area, she painted the tops of the walls white and added a blue shade below the wainscotting.

The living area felt open and airy after Turnbull put her touch on it.

Turnbull replaced the boat's flooring with new paneling, giving it a fresh feel.

She also swapped the green fabric lining the ceiling for zebra print, adding a patterned pop.

Artwork and greenery hanging on the walls made the boat feel cozy.

The kitchen is small, but it has everything Turnbull needs.

The kitchen has an oven, a stovetop that can be covered to create more counter space, and a sink.

Turnbull added pops of pink to the space with tile on the walls and cabinetry, and she replaced the countertops with a butcher block for a more modern look.

There are also floating shelves in the kitchen for additional storage.

Multicolored walls help brighten the living area.

A futon-style couch sits in the living area, as does a record player. Green and orange paint on the back wall brought even more color into the space.

The boat gets plenty of natural light from the windows, but Turnbull also installed a disco ball to create dimension, as the metallic material reflects light into the boat.

She spends a lot of time on the "gardens" that frame each end of the boat, enjoying the built-in outdoor space they offer.

The bed is surrounded by built-in cabinetry.

Turnbull painted her bedroom walls hot pink, accenting the bold color with zebra-print wallpaper on the bottom half to match the ceiling detailing. She also used hanging storage to bring light into the room, getting creative with her space.

Built-in storage lines the walls throughout the boat, and in the bedroom, there's a closet and cupboards near the bed. Turnbull has learned from other boaters that her storage is particularly impressive for a narrowboat.

"I didn't really know what I was looking for at the time, but other boaters tell me how much space I've got on it," Turnbull said.

Making the bathroom slightly larger made a big difference in Turnbull's space.

Turnbull knocked down one wall in the boat so she could make her bathroom slightly bigger and get a better sink for the space.

She also covered the walls with vinyl, adding some personality in a durable way, and tiled the floors, which she said was challenging.

"It was a traumatic experience," she said. "In a house, you've got straight walls. On a boat, you're floating, so you can't really use any line measure or projector to make sure anything is even. You've got to go by your eye at all times."

The boat is still a work in progress, but Turnbull loves it.

Turnbull loves her space, but she said there are still projects she wants to take on.

For instance, she recently retiled the kitchen walls, and she plans to paint the space a new color as well.

There isn't a huge rush to fix everything as soon as possible, though, as Turnbull doesn't see herself moving out of the boat anytime soon.

"I think I'd really struggle to live in a house," Turnbull said. "Obviously, you don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I genuinely love the life so much."

Turnbull said she may eventually consider upgrading to a wide-beam boat, which is twice as wide as a narrowboat, but she thinks she's interested in the lifestyle for the long haul.

"I don't see myself really living in a house unless it's in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it," she said.

She has also found community through boat life.

In the UK, boaters can either cruise continuously or have a permanent mooring. For Turnbull, mooring made more sense.

"I always knew that I wanted somewhere permanent to be able to come back to," she said. "Continuously cruising is beautiful, but there's a lot more stress involved. You're constantly having to find places to dispose of your rubbish, or find water or get diesel."

When she first got her boat, she docked at a marina with about 200 boats, but in 2023, she landed a spot at a smaller marina, which she said has been great.

"I've gone from a marina that had 200 boats to a marina that's now got eight people living there," Turnbull said. "It's really cute. We've got a little pub on-site."

"I'm by far the youngest person on the marina, but it's such a beautiful community," she added.

She also said she saves around £1,000 each month by living on the boat.

As Turnbull shared in a TikTok video, she spends about £500 each month on the boat, including her mooring fee, gas, and other upkeep.

When she lived in the rental cottage in 2021, she paid around £1,500, so she's saving around £1,000, or about $1,320, each month. Turnbull said she likely couldn't live on her own if she didn't live in the boat.

"Living independently is quite hard to do over here," she said. "You're very lucky to live by yourself in your mid-20s. A lot of people live with friends or live with partners, so the fact that I've been able to live by myself for four years is kind of mad."

The financial freedom the boat offers has been one of the biggest benefits of narrowboat living for Turnbull.

The money she saves on housing has given Turnbull more flexibility to live the life she wants, which includes plenty of travel.

"I've managed to save loads of money and actually go traveling, which is something I definitely wouldn't have been able to do if I had a house and not a boat," she said.

Most notably, Turnbull spent a year traveling in Australia. She was able to keep her boat moored while she was away, and she used the skills she learned renovating it to turn a van into her temporary home for the year she spent traveling around the country.

"I ended up selling the van for more than I bought it for because I'd done all the renovations, so I think having done that on the boat really taught me how to do that in a van," she said.

She also became a full-time content creator with videos about her narrowboat, so it transformed her career, too.

Most of all, Turnbull loves the way her narrowboat has simplified her life.

Turnbull said the narrowboat lifestyle has helped her slow down.

"I think it's really, really taught me how to appreciate the little things," she said. "I have a cup of tea every day outside, and I make a point of doing it outside unless it's pouring down rain. In the summer, you sit on the top, and you'll watch the sunset and appreciate those little things."

"You have a bit more of a manual life," Turnbull said. "I have to fill my water up, I have to fill my diesel up for my heating, and I have to empty my toilet. It makes you appreciate everything else a little bit more."

That doesn't mean there aren't challenges of boat life for Turnbull, like keeping track of how the weather might impact the boat, walking her dog near the water in the bitter cold of winter, or making sure she plans far enough in advance to get gas for the boat. Still, Turnbull thinks the boat only adds to her life.

"I'm the biggest advocate for living on a boat because of the opportunities it's now given me," she said. "It's completely changed my life."