Does Tiny House Living Really Mean Financial Freedom?

With the focus on family, health and financial freedom, it’s no wonder more and more Australians are turning to Tiny House living. For many, the living tiny lifestyle is a great way to reduce financial stress and enjoy the relief of a financially sustainable lifestyle.

We chatted with Amy and Greg who designed and built their Aussie Tiny House in 2019 about the reality of daily living expenses of family life in a Tiny House and how downsizing changed their financials after making the move.

Daily Living Expenses In a Tiny House

Amy shares, “Living in our Tiny House we still experience the standard expenses we had in our traditional home; rent (for land rather than the house though), internet, electricity, gas, water and groceries. However, these expenses have reduced significantly since going tiny. 

The smaller house footprint means less space to cool, heat or light which has resulted in a substantial decrease in our electrical usage. Plus, we now capture our own rain water which means we don’t have a water bill – we’ve only had to purchase water once, when the tank was first installed.” 

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Other Financial Benefits of Living Tiny

Going tiny and renting land offers other financial benefits that weren’t available to Amy and Greg in their previous home.

“With a smaller house we have a larger amount of outdoor space allowing us to keep free range chickens for eggs and an organic veggie patch that provides an abundant amount of fruits and vegetables – hello smaller grocery bill! Plus we have a great agreement with our landlord and split the costs for the internet. 

In going tiny we reduced our travel time as we relocated to be closer to work – previously we were unable to afford the rental prices for the area around our workplaces.” 

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Tiny Houses Building Costs

Amy took a long term view when accounting for building and setting up their home. She says, “Of course for all the reductions in daily living, there is the initial financial output for the purchase and setup of the Tiny House which is more than the bond for a rental but substantially less than the cost of purchasing a traditional home and land. 

Before committing to going tiny we calculated that purchasing our Tiny House equates to just under 5 years of rent (based on $375 per week with no increases) except at the end of that period we still have the Tiny House as an asset, rather than having paid off someone else’s mortgage!”

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Standard House Living vs. Tiny House Living

Amy and Greg’s general monthly expenses for standard house living vs. Tiny House living:

Expenses	Standard House	Tiny House
Rent	$1,500	$360
Electricity	$285	$40
Gas	$0	$10
Internet	$80	$30
Water	$55	$0
Total per month	$1,920	$440

The Relief of Financial Sustainability

Aussie Tiny Houses was established to create healthier communities and house families in a whole new way. Amy and Greg are living the dream…

“After the passing of my father we reflected on our lifestyle and the path it was heading. We realised if we continued as we were, life would be void of connection, memories, adventures and true happiness. We were working long hours to make more money hoping to break our paycheck to paycheck cycle, to have more things and pay the bills. 

This cost us our emotional and physical health, used time that should have been reserved for loved ones and meant we weren’t truly enjoying the beauty that is life. On reflection, the easiest way to change this was to reduce our expenses – trying to increase our income clearly wasn’t working! We wanted financial freedom. 

Our largest expenses were associated with a large rental home in which we only used 30% of when we were home. We realised the easiest way to reduce costs was to decrease the footprint of our home – key the Tiny House movement.”

Tiny living has eased financial pressure significantly, allowed us to reduce our hours of work and increase our savings.

Amy, Life Done Simple

To learn more how living in a tiny house can lead to financial freedom, listen to Amy and Greg on the Tiny House Ayurveda Podcast series below where they chat about how stress-free their life is in their Aussie Tiny Houses home on wheels and how it’s giving them financial freedom.

Achieving financial freedom is a goal for many people and living tiny can set yourself on the right financial path. Visit our website to learn more about our tiny homes and get in touch if you think downsizing is right for you.