Hi folks,
I wanted to go a little further into one of the biggest reasons that both Tom and I are planning on building and living in a tiny 7.2m x 2.4m space.
I sat down a few weeks ago and worked out that in an average year Tom and I spent $11,000 minimum EACH on rent and basic house bills. Thats $22,000 a year between us that we are never going to see again. We are not living anywhere palatial either, this estimate is based on our rent and bills for living in a (pretty ugly) 1960's 5 bedroom unit in Brunswick, Melbourne shared with 2 other people. When I saw that figure, my heart and mind were made up, especially when I compared it to the average figure of approximately $20,000 that people spend when building their own tiny homes.
To think that we could basically pay back our original costs for the build in one year is quite incredible. That means that every year that we spend living in out little home will essentially be ''free'' and the hefty weight of rental costs will be lifted. We also have to take into consideration that there will be some ongoing costs of living in the tiny house, markedly depending on where we end up 'mooring' our home may involve some land rental costs, as well as the small ongoing costs of gas and electricity.
Financially it just makes complete sense. That's a no brainer. So you may ask, where are you both planning on getting $20,000 from to build your tiny house and also how will you support yourselves whilst you're building? Well we certainly don't have the money lying around in a trust fund anywhere that's for sure, so we are setting about planning a strategy for earning all the money we need this year. In 3 months Tom and I will be leaving our rental property here in Melbourne, putting the majority of our stuff in storage and moving up to Tom's parents small holding in Ruffy, Victoria. Here we will spend the next 3 months working ridiculously hard for a local cherry farm in their packing shed. This will be the 3rd season that Tom has helped run their computer and grading software for the harvest and I have also helped out during the last 3 seasons as well. It's a very fast (and exhausting) way of getting savings quickly, as the days are long and living with family our expenses will be very minimal.
We are estimating that we will be able to save approx $15,000 between us between November 2015 and January 2016. After this we will be travelling to India, for a mindfulness practice that I take part in most years and will also be visiting my family briefly in the UK. This will burn through some of our savings from the cherries, however Tom has also been offered work during the Canadian cherry season through his contacts in the industry (around June 2016) and I intend to go over and work the season too). With both of these harvest seasons combined we should be able to come back with plenty of money to complete our build. If more money is needed there is also the option of the following local cherry harvest season (nov 2016-onwards) thought the thought of 3 harvest seasons almost back to back gives me the shivers. This is our plan to come up with the funds, it's going to be hard work but hard work is always more enjoyable when you have an awesome goal at the end of it all to focus on.
My absolute perfect scenario would be to to have enough money after the Canadian cherry season to have our build in progress in August/September 2016. This way we could have the build completed in the beautiful spring Australian weather and be moved in before the local cherry season starts in November 2016 so that we can replenish our savings post build. I have read many accounts of couples completing their own tiny houses in approximately 800 work hours, so working full time on the build together we should be able to complete our home in 2-3 months easily.
All of this is tentative planning but it's in action. We will be moving out of the home that I am sitting writing this in, in about 8 weeks. CRAZY!
Yay for adventures,
Bex
(me in the organic gardens in Ruffy in the gorgeous Aussie summertime)
I wanted to go a little further into one of the biggest reasons that both Tom and I are planning on building and living in a tiny 7.2m x 2.4m space.
I sat down a few weeks ago and worked out that in an average year Tom and I spent $11,000 minimum EACH on rent and basic house bills. Thats $22,000 a year between us that we are never going to see again. We are not living anywhere palatial either, this estimate is based on our rent and bills for living in a (pretty ugly) 1960's 5 bedroom unit in Brunswick, Melbourne shared with 2 other people. When I saw that figure, my heart and mind were made up, especially when I compared it to the average figure of approximately $20,000 that people spend when building their own tiny homes.
To think that we could basically pay back our original costs for the build in one year is quite incredible. That means that every year that we spend living in out little home will essentially be ''free'' and the hefty weight of rental costs will be lifted. We also have to take into consideration that there will be some ongoing costs of living in the tiny house, markedly depending on where we end up 'mooring' our home may involve some land rental costs, as well as the small ongoing costs of gas and electricity.
Financially it just makes complete sense. That's a no brainer. So you may ask, where are you both planning on getting $20,000 from to build your tiny house and also how will you support yourselves whilst you're building? Well we certainly don't have the money lying around in a trust fund anywhere that's for sure, so we are setting about planning a strategy for earning all the money we need this year. In 3 months Tom and I will be leaving our rental property here in Melbourne, putting the majority of our stuff in storage and moving up to Tom's parents small holding in Ruffy, Victoria. Here we will spend the next 3 months working ridiculously hard for a local cherry farm in their packing shed. This will be the 3rd season that Tom has helped run their computer and grading software for the harvest and I have also helped out during the last 3 seasons as well. It's a very fast (and exhausting) way of getting savings quickly, as the days are long and living with family our expenses will be very minimal.
We are estimating that we will be able to save approx $15,000 between us between November 2015 and January 2016. After this we will be travelling to India, for a mindfulness practice that I take part in most years and will also be visiting my family briefly in the UK. This will burn through some of our savings from the cherries, however Tom has also been offered work during the Canadian cherry season through his contacts in the industry (around June 2016) and I intend to go over and work the season too). With both of these harvest seasons combined we should be able to come back with plenty of money to complete our build. If more money is needed there is also the option of the following local cherry harvest season (nov 2016-onwards) thought the thought of 3 harvest seasons almost back to back gives me the shivers. This is our plan to come up with the funds, it's going to be hard work but hard work is always more enjoyable when you have an awesome goal at the end of it all to focus on.
My absolute perfect scenario would be to to have enough money after the Canadian cherry season to have our build in progress in August/September 2016. This way we could have the build completed in the beautiful spring Australian weather and be moved in before the local cherry season starts in November 2016 so that we can replenish our savings post build. I have read many accounts of couples completing their own tiny houses in approximately 800 work hours, so working full time on the build together we should be able to complete our home in 2-3 months easily.
All of this is tentative planning but it's in action. We will be moving out of the home that I am sitting writing this in, in about 8 weeks. CRAZY!
Yay for adventures,
Bex
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