How Much Did I Spend? (It's An Adventure for All of Us)

For some people, a setback to building a tiny house is the money aspect. There is a range for expenses when building or buying a tiny house. There are high-end tiny houses that can go for upwards of $150,000. There are also homes like mine that are self made with help of donation that cost less than $10,000. My building process took 7 months. I bought many of my materials. If you are looking to keep costs down using reclaimed and donated materials would do the trick; the problem being that the building process would take much longer and any plans or blueprints would have to be loose and able to adapt to materials you gather.

 Before I break my budget down, I am going to explain how I, a 13-year-old without a full time job, could save $10,000. The majority of my expenses were paid by my tuition. When the project started I was attending a project-based school run by my mother, so I didn’t need to pay tuition. My mum took what would be my tuition (approx. $7,000) and bought the majority of my materials. The second source of money was my Indiegogo campaign. I raised 1,660. I also worked odds and ends jobs to raise about $500. This is about $9,160, the rest 700 or so dollars were a gift from my excellent mother.

As I was going through receipts I realized that this would be a very short blog if I only told you what my house cost and didn’t break it down (beat boxing in the background). Probably the most expensive category (that is definable; we’ll get to that later) was wood. In total, wood cost $2,783.96. This does not include trim because as the wonderful planners my mother and I are, we never got enough trim, so as I was going through receipts there was a piece of trim on every. Single. Receipt.

The trailer: a vital part of my house yet such a pain in the a$$. We got a donated, homemade farm trailer which was amazing when I first got it, but I came to realize that this trailer was very difficult to find parts and wheels for. So in total finding and buying new tires, new brake pads, welding on scissor jacks and a new hitch, and wiring electric brakes and lights cost $1,948.79. However, I think if the cost of gas was added it would add an extra $6 million. We searched far and wide for these parts, so I definitely recommend buying a new trailer.

The interior cost $1,029.83. This included the appliances, silverware, decorations, etc. This was my favorite part. What can I say? I’m a teenaged girl.

The least expensive category is plumbing. Plumbing cost $659.64, this included pipes, fixings, two RV hookup inlets (we cut some things wrong, okay?), and a water heater.  

 

The last and most expensive category was the unclassified. We spent $3,629 on random things, things that include a toilet seat, a bucket, staples, etc. $1,000 was probably caulk. (Just a tip to any new builders: budget $1,000 for caulk. You are going to use a lot.)

 

In total we spent $9,838.69. There may be a few small things that didn’t make it into the receipt bag. I also didn’t add labor or donated items. This is just the moo-lah I’ve spent. In the next blog I am going to do a master post of all the people that have donated knowledge, time, and/or money because they have been a vital part of my house.

What was (or is) your budget for your house? How are you going to raise money?