*this post is originally from April 16, 2015 (and went viral!) and can be found here.
One of the many reasons I decided to live the tiny life, besides the obvious environmental reasons, was financial, just like so many other tiny house people. My perfect credit had been ruined by divorce and a short sale during the housing crisis of 2008. I was throwing money away on rent in a neighborhood that wasn’t that great. I wouldn’t even send my kids to our neighborhood schools, so I was always stressed about where they would go.
So we decided to buy a tiny house! I was scared to death, but we cashed out a retirement fund, used some cash and a large tax refund…and we had enough money to buy the Bumbleshack.
Then I needed to find land to rent, which I did by creating an ad with photos of our family in front of the Bumbleshack and posting it here on our blog and on social media, particularly the Tiny House Listings Facebook page. Our ad was shared over 17,000 times! We received over 40 offers from farms and private land owners in and around Asheville starting at $100 up to $300 a month for rent. I narrowed it down to two places via online pictures and only had time to visit those two. Then I picked one based on the fact that the other one didn’t have water. Land procurement done. Time to move in!
We have been living tiny for about 6 months now. So how much money are we saving EXACTLY??
| Big House | Tiny House | |
| Rent | 1,400 | 300 |
| Electric | 250-350 | 30-75 for 2 tiny houses |
| Water & Sewer | 60 | 0 (well) |
| Lawn Service | 225 | 0 |
| Internet | 120 | 65 |
| Total | 2,055 | 395-440 |
That’s a difference of $1,660 per month or $19,920 per year. Hmmm, that just happens to be almost enough money to buy another smaller tiny house on wheels for Adelaide! She can live in it as a teenager, take it to college with her and start her life out right with low rent payments, no debt and no student loans.
Or, that could be our land money! We would like to spend around $20,000 to $35,000 on our land, and this seems to be almost feasible in certain areas just outside Asheville. Imagine being able to save enough money to buy your dream property in just one year! Even better, imagine having two tiny houses and land to put them on without taking out a mortgage! After we buy our land, we can subtract that $300 monthly rent payment from that chart up there. Once we get solar panels, we can subtract the electric payment too. Then we are left with internet as our only household expense. Wow. That makes me happy.
Wait, let’s take it even further. Over the next 20 years, we will save about $400,000 by living tiny.
Um, WOW.
The Bumbleshack Tiny Farm & Studio 