Having a tiny home is a dream for many people. It’s a small space, yes, but it’s also more efficient — you can have everything you need and potentially save a significant amount of money, especially in the long term. However, a tiny house isn’t free. It’s generally less expensive than a full-sized property, but you still need to spend time-saving up and investing in your tiny house dream.
How do you do it? Here are the tips you need.
How Much Money Do You Save With a Tiny House?
Before you make your goal a reality, you may wonder what your financial picture will look like after you’ve gotten your tiny home. Do you really save that much money?
You absolutely do!
You’ll have much lower bills. Your mortgage will be much smaller than average and easier to pay off — or, even better, you may have no home debt at all.
The only recurring expense you may face is that you’ll likely need to rent land for your tiny home to sit on since most zoning laws don’t yet allow you to live in one and claim it as a house. Even if you put your home on a foundation, in many areas residential property is required to be a specific larger size.
However, tiny houses allow you to save both money and energy. With a smaller roof and fewer appliances, you can take advantage of solar energy panels to generate electricity, insulate your walls and windows, and using a programmable thermostat to save energy. Jenna, of Tiny House Giant Journey, laid out the expenses she has living in her tiny home. The house is paid off, and she would normally pay $500 per month for the space to park her tiny house. However, she was able to do a work exchange for that fee. In all, with gas, internet, insurance, and maintenance, she pays only $166 per month!
How Can You Raise Money For Your Tiny Home?
Before you can see those savings, of course, you need to save up and get your own tiny home. How can you do it?
Personal Saving Strategies
Living in a frugal way now, before you move into your new property, can help you prepare for the change. After all, you’ll be living with far less, so why not start getting used to it?
Consider practicing minimalist living: you can declutter, pay in cash, and plan free or low-cost date nights with your beau. Ordering groceries for pickup can even save you money and help avoid tempting impulse purchases. Further, when you sell the items you’re getting rid of, you’ll have even more money to put toward your tiny home.
You can also take steps to save money on electricity. Three of the most common causes of high energy bills are related to how you use your air conditioning, so be sure your air conditioner is properly maintained, used efficiently, and that you plug any air leaks in your existing home.
Finally, consider working a second part-time job or getting a side-hustle to bring in extra money especially for your tiny home project. The best part-time jobs are flexible and pay well, and include things like online tutoring, freelance writing, or at-home data entry jobs.
Outside Funding For Your Tiny Home
On top of pinching pennies, you can also look for funding from others. While most banks will not give you a traditional mortgage on a tiny home, even if it’s expensive, you may still be able to take advantage of a personal loan. You won’t have as long to pay it off, but since a tiny house is less expensive, it may work out well anyway.
Another idea is to raise money from others using social media. It’s important to make sure that there is something important in it for your backers, though, and that you are honest and follow through on your commitments. You might choose to document your tiny-house journey on Instagram, take sponsorship deals, and more. Especially with social media grew into a bigger and bigger branding and marketing opportunity for lots of different industries, using it to your own advantage in your personal life makes a lot of sense, too.
One tiny house builder found success in getting sponsors for her project. She found businesses that could provide the materials she needed, put together a sponsorship request, and called to follow up. Amazingly, she was able to procure over $16,000 worth of materials this way!
Your Tiny Home is Worth the Effort
Building and living in a tiny home is a lot of effort. If you buy one new or used, you’re looking at a lot of money upfront. If you build it yourself, you’re going to be using money over time to buy materials and labor.
Either way, taking steps to raise money and invest more in your tiny house is worthwhile. The more you’re able to live frugally and downsize, the better prepared you’ll be for your tiny home. Save even more by using your energy wisely in your current home and bringing in additional income with a part-time job. You might also decide to take out a personal loan to top off the rest of the expenses, either to buy the home or to buy materials that you need to build it. You may even be able to have sponsors or others help fund your dream.
No matter how you do it, you can live a much less expensive lifestyle in your tiny home. That can free you to do work you love, travel, and more. It’s worth it!
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