All homeowners can struggle at one time or another with the constant costs and bills of running a home. Whether you live in your own house or a rented property of some kind there are bills. When you have a family those bills will increase. As a result you are often then forced to think about managing the costs and ensuring you live in an affordable home. Here are some innovative hacks to help you get started on reducing your home costs.

Innovative Ways to Create a Wonderfully Affordable Home

Somehow, no matter how hard we work in life, it seems like we can barely get ahead. We put in endless hours of effort each week only to see our pay check disappear as soon as we put it in the bank. Renting or making mortgage payments on your home may take a third of your income or more. From there, you can quickly deduct payments for utilities, automobile and in some cases child care. It’s frustrating to have to work so hard in life, and doubly painful when it gets you nowhere.

Have you ever wondered why life is this way? How did it happen that you work constantly and yet at the end of the month your bank account is nearly empty? The answer is that our economic system is carefully crafted to extract resources from you and keep money moving around. You think you are working hard to get ahead, but in reality, you are generating money that can be taken from you and used to make someone else wealthy. You need to look after yourself and maintain an affordable home for you  and your family.

The First Step to an Affordable Home

If you want to get off the ever-spinning hamster wheel and truly have a chance for a good life, take another look. Imagine you were the person designing life and you could set up any way of living you want. You could start by making things affordable. Houses should not cost one third of your income or more, and you wouldn’t design a world where you had to work 40 plus hours a week. So, what is the alternative?

Fortunately, there is a different way of living that could instantly change your life for the better. Buy your own piece of land and put an alternative dwelling on the property. Then you can live for a fraction of what you pay to live in a city or in suburbia. Instead of signing up for a 30-year mortgage with oppressive monthly payments, you could actually pay for your land and home in less than 4 years. You would then live the next 26 years rent and mortgage free.

How to Pay for Your Land and Affordable Home

It’s possible to buy affordable land in many parts of the country. Luckily, more and more employers are now supporting remote work. With this option you can get a good paying job online and still be free to live in a lower cost, more remote rural area. You can easily purchase five or more acres so you have lots of room for your homestead. Sometimes land owners sell land via a land contract. Other times you can finance your purchase with a personal loan. Once you have your property picked out, it’s time to shop for your affordable home.

Two of the best choices are either a geodesic dome or a ger, a Mongolian-style yurt. Both of these options will cost less than $10,000 delivered and installed. If you need to borrow money to pay for your new dwelling, you can take out a personal loan. With a personal loan you’ll be able to start living in and enjoying your new home as you make convenient payments over time.

Making Your Cost of Living Even More Affordable

Once you have your land and your home in place, you can begin to save even more money each month. One of the ways to do this is to go completely off the grid. Take advantage of renewable energy systems. Instead of paying ever-higher electric bills, you can install a solar or wind-turbine system and have all the electricity you need. You can also power your well with solar, or you can opt for a water catchment system if that works in your area.

You can also save a lot of money each month if you grow your own fruit and vegetables. Best of all, you’ll be delighted by the wonderful meals you can prepare with the bounty from your home garden. If you find that you produce more food than you or your family can eat, you could sell your extra produce. Try at the local farmer’s market. Then you can use that money to buy cheap and affordable staples such as rice, beans and flour each month.

We hope you enjoyed these ideas to help you run an affordable home.

HANDY REFERENCES ABOUT REAL ESTATE AND MAINTAINING PROPERTY

At Housesitmatch.com we like to offer useful and practical articles on topics for our readers. In this selection we offer you a number of suitable pieces from our own blog on renovating and maintaining a home.

Maintaining a sustainable lifestyle at home

Switching to solar – The big benefits

Budget for home improvements and save money

Housesitters keep pets safe at home and save money

What a housesitter does – Top 10 responsibilities