Grand Plan

I currently live in an apartment built in the 1970's. Although the electric bill is about $100 for about 600 sq ft. and rent (with water bill) is about $500 / month, I find these numbers are not sustainable economically with my $800 /month minimum wage part time income. I am limited to a small amount of sunlight on my three 15 W solar panels. It takes days to charge them. So, I have to pay for the use of all of the power monthly -- I can not own it.

A friend of mine in NTEAA built a tiny house and has got me wanting one for the low cost and the low cost of living. I googled around and found a few cool web sites and blogs which talked about tiny houses.

http:/www.nteaa.org (North Texas Electric Auto Association)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/sets/ (see the "Moving to Texas - Sorta!")

Yes, a tiny house is small. But, we all can get use to it if 3/4 of our pay goes to housing cost -- rent and electricity -- and the remainder going to food, gas, and car insurance. Notice I did not say anything about savings and health insurance -- the reason the economics is not sustainable.

Here is the general plan:

Build a house which can generate more power than it uses. I will be using solar for the most part.
Build or buy an electric car, truck, or van which can be powered by the extra house power.
Install a rainwater collection system as to reduce the need for water and to lower the water bill.
Find a small lot for the home and stop moving around.

If I meet a woman in this time frame, some "change in plans" are required, but this plan still holds to any size place she can afford with me. If you look at the list of bills that I pay, I would have all, but food and car insurance, but then I can add health insurance and start to save money. Oh, as for debt, that is another can of worms.