Sell it all. Move onto a sailboat. Live for free. Sounds simple, right? When we sold everything and moved aboard, we knew it would be cheaper than renting an apartment in one of Canada’s most expensive cities. And when we set sail for full-time cruising, we figured the costs would drop even further.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we didn’t win the lottery and we aren’t trust-fund babies. We don’t have an endless pot of money funding our cruising lifestyle. We didn’t wait until we were retired with a solid nest egg either. Instead, we work, we tackle projects on our boat ourselves, and we’re always looking for ways to save money. Cruising can be expensive, but if you’re cruising on a budget, it’s absolutely doable. You just need to get creative.

No, we didn’t win the lottery. We don’t have a secret trust fund. And despite the tropical backdrops, this cruising life didn’t just fall into our laps. We work. A lot of other younger cruisers we’ve met work too. Often between snorkel trips, surfing and sail changes there’s a laptop open. It might not be the glamorous “quit everything and drift into the sunset” life we imagined when we left Vancouver two years ago

When we tell people we live full-time on a sailboat in the tropics, most assume we’re either retired or sitting on a hefty trust fund. Truth? We’re neither. We’re just two regular people who decided that time was more valuable than stuff—and figured out how to make money sailing so we could keep doing what we love.

When we first talked about buying a sailboat and traveling full-time, people often assumed it would be a cheap way to live. And, honestly, so did we. But the real answer to “Is it cheaper to live on a boat?” is: it depends.