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This article came across the misc.consumers.frugal.living news group. It suggests a unique way to live frugally. Stump farms are a thing of the past since logging companies now replant their cuts. But I thought the article would provide some fodder for the thought process.
I think shelter is the most costly expense for most of us. Keeping a roof over your head can be an enormous problem for the really poverty stricken. (I've been there!) As much bad press as trailers receive, they are often the most economical way to get a roof over your head. I've known a lot of young couples who have lived in trailers while building their home over a long period, to avoid mortgages, or to save up for a down on a house. Personally, I have more respect for the young folks who use the trailer method to become home owners than I do for their friends who spend their money on renting a nice apt. with pool and jacuzzi.
An old, battered single wide trailer parked in the middle of a stump farm kept my family out of public housing and allowed me to end up the owner of a very nice piece of property.... many years and buckets of sweat later. (A stump farm was land that had been logged, leaving a sea of stumps, some 3 feet tall. The lumber companies used to just cut and sell the land. Now days, they replant. Stump farms were desolate looking. It would take years to pull all the stumps for pastures and fields, but the land was cheap.)
Older trailers go cheap in my area. Often people give them away once they've finished the house they were building. Trailers are surprisingly easy to work on. The floors are usually bad on old ones, but they're not hard to replace with plywood. As one poster mentioned, their plumbing is weird...the parts are made specially for trailers and are hard to find. I got around that by ripping out most of the plumbing, over the years, and replacing it with standard fittings. I knew nothing about plumbing, but read books from the library and had good advice at my local hardware store. Plastic pipes are easy enough for anyone to work with.
I once had a URL (but it's dead now) that was a how-to by a fellow in New England who took an old trailer and remodelled it. He ended up with a super-insulated 600 sq ft. home for about $6,000. It's an interesting story. I admire people who can take something crummy and make it into something nice. We used to call it ingenuity.