As I chop wood for the fire, my friends are out clubbing and eating in restaurants, but I’m looking forward to an evening in my tiny home, eating a meal I’ve prepared with one of my two pots on my little stove.
It may be a squeeze for my boyfriend Ollie and me, but our tiny home saves us thousands of pounds a year.
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I met Ollie in March 2019 on a night out with friends when we were both 20, and I was living with my mum Bev, 52, and dad Matthew, 53.
Three years later, I was working in a medical lab and Ollie was an agricultural mechanic, and I moved in with him and his dad Terry, 60, on their family farm in West Yorkshire.
Farm life
I loved farm life – I had two goats as pets and used their milk to make soap, which I sold at local markets, along with honey from my dad’s bees.
Ollie and I dreamed of turning my hobby into a full-time business and finding our own rural home, but with neither of us earning enough to cover the £1,000 a month to rent somewhere, it felt impossible.
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Then Terry made us an amazing offer – he suggested we rent some land from him for our goats and, as we were agricultural workers, we’d have planning permission to create a home on the land.
However, there were restrictions set by the local authority. It would have to be a very small home, no larger than 40 x 20ft, and it would be off-grid, with no mains electricity, water, gas or sewage pipes.
How could we live without a TV?
Undeterred, we used our £11,000 savings to buy a tiny house we found on Facebook. It has a bedroom and en-suite, plus minuscule kitchen and living room.
Our families were supportive, but friends thought we were mad.
Why would we want to spend our time chopping logs, and how could we live without a TV?
But our house was delivered by trailer, and in September 2023 we moved in.
Waking up that first morning, with the sun shining in and views of the moors, I was thrilled.
We did squabble as we adjusted to living in such a small, basic space together – we argued about whose turn it was to fetch wood or tidy up – but going for a stomp around the fields usually cleared the air!
Our only water source is rain collected in a tank, which we use for the shower and to flush the toilet.
It’s connected to a septic tank that Ollie dug into the ground, and we also filter the water to drink.
Six months after moving in, we got a generator, which we use for an hour a day to heat water for a shower and turn the lights on for our evening meal, otherwise we rely on solar lights.
I use my phone for accessing the internet, and we don’t have a TV, which I missed at first, but now I love reading books more.
We gather wood, whatever the weather, for the wood-burning stove and I have thick pyjamas and hot-water bottles for colder nights.
We don’t have a fridge and instead use a cool box to keep milk and butter fresh and buy food daily, often from farm shops.
A normal house would cost £12,000 a year just in rent. Instead, we pay £2,000 to Terry to rent the land
We do need to be careful with everything we buy. We have only a few cups and small saucepans, but the kitchen is full.
Our dining table only seats two, so we can’t have dinner parties – a friend did stay over once, but they had to sleep on the floor as the sofa wasn’t big enough.
Without the financial pressure of a mortgage or monthly utilities, we were able to quit our jobs in December 2023 and commit to our business, Herd & Hive, selling goat’s milk soap, raw honey and beeswax products.
A normal house would cost £12,000 a year just in rent.
Instead, we pay £2,000 to Terry to rent the land, and being in the lowest council tax band costs £1,000 a year.
With the cost of gas for the cooking hob and the generator factored in, we live on £8.86 a day, excluding food.
What I love most about living in a tiny house is the simplicity. No TV, no washing machine to load and unload – we use a launderette nearby – and peaceful fields around us.
It’s allowed us to follow our dreams. That’s worth the wood-chopping and cold showers any day.”
Visit Herdandhive.co.uk.
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BTW
- Up to 300,000 UK homes are off-grid. (Federation of Master Builders)
- The average tiny home costs between £12,000 and £15,000 to build. (University of Estate Management)
