The Costs of Making it Happen

As you most likely know I’ve started building my own tiny house in the back of a FedEx truck I adoringly call the Make it Happen Wagon. I’ve decided to follow the pattern set by Thoreau in Walden This blog post is to give a brief accounting of my total costs excluding time.

$4,000 Initial cost for FedEx truck: I bought it out of Bentonville, AR because it’s the headquarters of Walmart and you can find these kinds of trucks for about 1-2K cheaper. I got the ticket out there for about $50 (long story, but I have a friend…) and I didn’t have to pay for gas because I helped a buddy move back to Utah and he paid for the gas.

$500 Repairs: I had to fix a head gasket YIKES! RIGHT?!! but it didn’t cost nearly what I thought it would so we’re chill there.

$1,000 Base: My receipts actually only came to $896 but i’m factoring in gas at about $100 a tank, and other things that perhaps I forgot to document. The bulk of this amount comes from things like insulation ($180), sheet metal ($100), paint, stain, reclaimed wood pallets, finished 5-layer plywood($235), tools, screws, safety glasses, kneepads, etc…. pretty much basic building material stuff. Because I’m not finished this number will probably increase, but I’m pretty sure we are close to being finished with this building phase.

If you’re interested what I think about money, check out my blog post about it: Money