How to beat cost of living by moving out to sea

Could you live aboard a cruise ship permanently?

As the cost of living continues to bite across Australia more and more people are turning away from the costly maintenance of homes and cars to pursue a life on the high seas.

Cruise hopping and residential cruise ship living on a full-time basis is an industry on the rise, particularly thanks to retirees.

People are realising it can cost less to spend your time on all-expense-paid cruise ships than it does to pay mortgages, repair bills, utility and grocery bills and everything in between.

In fact, an analysis by cruisepassenger.com.au found Aussies could save up to $2500 per month by ditching land for cruise ship living.

The number crunch found the monthly costs of rent, food, and entertainment in Sydney were nearly double the cost of living at sea.

MORE: Woman drops $2.9m on cruise ship home

Many people see cruise living as a cheaper alternative to the bills associated with land.

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“For a benchmark, Finder lists the monthly cost of living in Australia as $1805 per person, without rent. Meanwhile, the median rent for a two-bedroom place near the Sydney CBD (Darlinghurst/Surry Hills) adds another $650 per week,” cruisepassenger.com.au said.

“Added together, this comes out at $6210 per month. And this works out to be around $74,500 a year for a couple, living in Sydney.

“Meanwhile, we found one option that puts the monthly cost of cruising per couple at just $3589. That’s about $2600 more affordable than living in Sydney.”

Cruising costs can be reduced even further by savvy travellers who book back-to-back cruises with the same company in order to access loyalty rewards.

Apart from a substantial reduction in living costs, a permanent cruise ship lifestyle allows Aussies to see the world at the same time as opposed to booking additional expensive holidays while maintaining the cost of a home on land.

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Ryan Gutridge works remotely from a cruise ship 300 days a year.

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People who are able to tie cruising with remote employment are able to unlock even more benefits of full-time life at sea.

Ryan Gutridge is one such person. spending about 300 days a year working remotely aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

The US resident works in the IT industry and said he found cruising to be so cost effective he was considering selling his apartment.

”I’ve been told I’m crazy for trying to live full-time on a cruise ship, but it’s not just for retired people,” he told Insider.

”I work in IT as a cloud-solution engineer for a cloud-solution provider and started working from home in 2012. But because of the pandemic, my team was able to work from home and access the data they needed from anywhere.

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Working and living aboard cruise ships can open up the world for a fraction of the cost.

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”I do meetings in the morning and afternoons, but I can also go to lunch and socialise or meet people at the gym. I’ve even met people that I stay in contact with and that have come back and cruised on this ship with me multiple times since.”

And Gutridge isn’t alone.

One US woman went as far as buying a $2.9 million apartment on a bespoke residential cruise ship.

Others choose to cruise-hop by securing deal after deal on conventional holiday cruise ships.

Another woman, also from the US, has detailed how she lives aboard cruise ships full-time for as little as $3350 a month.

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