ElizabethB Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I have had a number of homeschooling friends who were so committed to homeschooling their families that they did a bunch of interesting things during their early years to be able to homeschool and live on limited dollars. Most would only work for a 2 parent family, but some could apply for a single parent, please feel free to add your ideas here for cheap housing ideas. 1. Lived in basement of elderly woman, doing some caregiving for her in return 2. Lived in small unit of large self storage place to have someone on premises, got paid $400 per month to be a presense there, also had some responsibilities for storage place. 3. Lived in country, many friends 4. Lived in trailer park. This can be questionable neighborhood for kids depending on the park, but my parents live in a RV park 1/2 of the year for very cheap and it is a good environment, most of the RV folks bring grandkids to visit. 5. Managed a RV park in return for a small income and free housing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I guess someone could lower their living standards a bit. Don't get a place at the top of your budget. Other things that are separate from housing would be to get rid of anything that isn't a need (like cable tv). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllll Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 .. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 I guess someone could lower their living standards a bit. Don't get a place at the top of your budget. Other things that are separate from housing would be to get rid of anything that isn't a need (like cable tv). I am more looking for things for people that have super low budgets but want a good neighborhood for their children, for example people going through school, single parents, people starting out with very low incomes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 We moved from the Midwest to the west coast so that we could make more money and pay off debt. We've gone from over $30,000 and over $700 in minimum payments to under $20,000 and less than $500 in minimum payments with another payment about to disappear. We hope to be debt free and move to the country in Indiana in 3 years. We don't go out to eat and we don't go on vacations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomtoCandJ Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Live in the country. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth S Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Another option is putting a mobile home on the land of a relative. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Have a roommate(s). My first husband and I lived with some interesting people and while I didn't have kids at the time, I wouldn't have had a problem having kids around them. It could be two families sharing a house. Or take on a tenant. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I have friends who moved from a rental to an RV and saved for a year, then bought a house. It was tight with two kids (I think maybe K and 2nd grade?) but they did it, and had a good time, too. They are in Washington state. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 In a few service apartments that we toured many years back, the property manager gets to stay for free. One of the property manager did say the pay wasn't high but since rent is free and there is no transport cost, his family actually could live comfortably. His wife and kids have free access to the service apartment's clubhouse (cable TV and wifi) and swimming pools too. The locations were all in decent school districts and work areas. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 While DH and I were in graduate school we lived in my father's garage. We were able to save up for a down payment on a house. :hurray: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjffkj Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My dream is to live at my parent's house for 2 years rent free in exchange I'd do all their cooking, cleaning, yard work, grocery shopping, etc. I'm pretty sure they would even be fine with that arrangement but my brother lives with them now and I couldn't live with him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalsummer Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 go smaller smaller. Some places make this difficult (I think here in MO there is a law that there has to be at least 1 bedroom for every 2 people), but still, you can rent a smaller older home for less than a larger newer apartment in the same nice suburb. Here in Lee's Summit, a relatively wealthy suburb of Kansas City, you can rent a small house or duplex, 2 bedrooms, for less than $600 if you look carefully. In the city (where crime rates are much much higher) $600 might get you a larger house, but who needs the room? Families used to be larger and live in smaller houses than today. We had a great house here with a sort of weird bedroom situation (sliding closet doors that connected the two bedrooms) that rented for $550 - a standalone house! Average 2 bedroom newish apartment is $750 or so here, so it was a good deal. Of course there's family, that's the big one (and time-honored, too). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 We opted to live about 30 minutes outside of a major city. We're in a small town and everything is cheaper. My school is 30 minutes away and I couldn't even move there and live so cheaply, including the budgeted gas and wear and tear on a car. The culture and activities are limited as well, but it works for this season of my life. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 We opted to live about 30 minutes outside of a major city. We're in a small town and everything is cheaper. My school is 30 minutes away and I couldn't even move there and live so cheaply, including the budgeted gas and wear and tear on a car. The culture and activities are limited as well, but it works for this season of my life. Wow, the stuff 30 min outside of our major city is the priciest place to live in the whole state. That tiny house in the $150K place is about that far - over half a mil. Most of the housing 30 min outside our city is $1 million +. We live closer to an hour away, and it's much more reasonable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 We opted to live about 30 minutes outside of a major city. We're in a small town and everything is cheaper. My school is 30 minutes away and I couldn't even move there and live so cheaply, including the budgeted gas and wear and tear on a car. The culture and activities are limited as well, but it works for this season of my life. This is what I did as well. Little town of 5,000 but close enough to the big university town. Along with that, the biggest benefit as far as housing goes was to *buy* a small, fixer-upper with a no-down USDA mortgage. My rent was 4x what my current mortgage is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 go smaller smaller. Some places make this difficult (I think here in MO there is a law that there has to be at least 1 bedroom for every 2 people), but still, you can rent a smaller older home for less than a larger newer apartment in the same nice suburb. Here in Lee's Summit, a relatively wealthy suburb of Kansas City, you can rent a small house or duplex, 2 bedrooms, for less than $600 if you look carefully. In the city (where crime rates are much much higher) $600 might get you a larger house, but who needs the room? Families used to be larger and live in smaller houses than today. We had a great house here with a sort of weird bedroom situation (sliding closet doors that connected the two bedrooms) that rented for $550 - a standalone house! Average 2 bedroom newish apartment is $750 or so here, so it was a good deal. Of course there's family, that's the big one (and time-honored, too). Is that a week or a month? The two bedroom unit next to me is $285 a week and while not in a bad area we are in that cheap just outside bad area. Eta to add. A unit is joined to the house next door, sometimes just 2, sometimes 5 or so. The are usually 500 to 600 square feet. Eta2. I think you guys usually have a monthly rent rather than weekly or fortnightly which is normal here that's all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 One family I know lives in a condo with an adult mentally impaired gentleman. He is now in his 50s or so and my friend has been sharing housing and caring for him even before he married and had 2 kids. I don't know if they get paid in addition to the housing or if it just the housing but it helps out both sides. My friend has nice and cheap/free housing and the gentleman gets to live in his own place/community instead of a group home. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 It's pretty much impossible to rent even a studio apartment for less than $1000 a month around here. I do know people in South Jersey who live in an RV at a campground for the season (usually April through October) then move into a rental in a shore town for the winter when rents are super cheap. It seems to work okay for them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Not homeschooling but I had a family who built a garage with an apartment over it on the parents property. The parents use the garage and the adult dd uses the apartment. They went 50/50 on building it. They have been living that way for years. Now that here parents are older, she is really close and can help them as needed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 One family I know lives in a condo with an adult mentally impaired gentleman. He is now in his 50s or so and my friend has been sharing housing and caring for him even before he married and had 2 kids. I don't know if they get paid in addition to the housing or if it just the housing but it helps out both sides. My friend has nice and cheap/free housing and the gentleman gets to live in his own place/community instead of a group home. I have a family member that does this as well. She is paid to take care of the person and I think it is all tax free. It is a hard job and a lot of work, she is responsible for the person 24/7 and can only take about a week off a year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Homeschooling was not a factor, but one relative (family of 5) took a live-in job nannying/running the household for a family (2 kids) where both parents were long-haul truckers. It was a tight squeeze, but it seemed to work for both families. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I had a few friends in LA who owned duplexes. They rented out the other half and in one case, their rent paid the entire mortgage. I haven't actually seen duplexes here in NC where I live, so I am not sure that would always work. However, I have seen houses with rental apartments/MIL suites one could rent out to help with expenses. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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