REAL Annual Living Costs in a Tiny House

2018-2019 ANNUAL EXPENSES 

OF OUR TINY HOUSE

(32sqm / 344sqft)

Water:  $480 (hopefully a lot less this year as we have a new way of getting fresh water to our tank for a fraction of the price!) The water delivery is $120 per load and you have to buy a whole literal truckload of water and as our tank is small at the moment significant amounts of water were wasted and we filled our water pond and watered our trees with the extra water. (guilt!) keep this in mind if you are getting a load of water delivered to your tiny house!

Electricity :  $1598 this includes a 2400kw wall heater and a external water heater that is bigger than we require but came with the house when we bought it! When it comes time to replace our water heater I will be looking carefully at a heat on demand water system to reduce electricity costs.

Total electricity for the year was  5041 k/w(We had a 6 week holiday when we were not at home but there is a daily connection cost) works out 5041 k/w div. 323 days we were home in 2018 =15.61 K/w per day.  I am going to look at several measures to reduce this in 2019!

Petrol:  $2340 for one person! (unleaded petrol as I drive 1 hour per day on my commute to/from work 4-5 days a week) I hate having to drive as far as I do to get to work, but unfortunately the local real estate market is getting beyond ridiculous. The prices are completely unattainable for us in the areas where we work so this is the next best option. My partner drives twice as much as I do to get to work.

EDIT 2020: both myself and my partner now work at the same place and 80% of the time car share, so petrol usage has approved

Sewage: NIL Costs this year as we are on a septic system, but this 10+ year old system will need maintenance in the future if it stops working efficiently. It is working well at the moment with no problems.

Groceries: $6795 Changed to a vegan diet from a vegetarian one mid way through the year. And our grocery bill also covers our household pet food, kitty litter etc.


Laundromat: $520  2/3 loads at $8-$12 per week at our local laundromat as we have no washing machine facilities at home. We usually air dry our clothes on our clothes line and this seems to be working out ok! takes me 30 minutes to do all the washing at once.

EDIT 2020: struck a deal with my mum and I do one load of washing at her place and in return buy the septic/grey water friendly laundry powder for us both to use. I still do one load of washing at laundromat so that's $4 p/w