So the other day I was watching Flipside on Fuel TV, its a show about filming snowboarders. They had this one hippie snowboarder that lived in a Caboose in the wilderness of Canada, he showed us his shed were he makes biodesiel so he can power his generator and his Cummons. He also had his own private well for his water needs, with all of that he had very very little monthly payments. He was probably only paying for the land and the loan for the well. Pretty kool huh.
So I have been looking into it and it looks like good deal. You can get about 2-3 acres in the woods of Wyoming for about 40-50k (this is very rural). You can also get good desil generators for about 2k. Now all you have to find is a good caboose to transform into your houses. I found this site which sells some for about $10,000. They do need work to get them livable, you would probably want to take everything out and make a bathroom and a bedroom, you could do that with wood and panels, you would probably spend about 5k on fixing it up. Once done you could have something like this & this. Then pay the 10k for the well and your done. You have spent about 80k on your self efficient house. Thats a 450$ a month mortgage payment, but your mostly paying for the land and well. Plus that is all you will have to pay for, since you don’t have to buy gas, electric, or water.
Now why did I choose Wyoming? Because Wyoming has cheap land (not near Jackson) and they don’t have income tax, that there alone would save me more than 6k a month, and thats enough to pay the mortgage on the self efficient house. Here in Idaho im paying almost 8% if I make over 23k. That is 4k if I make 50,000…but what If I make 300,000 this year?? Hmmm. That would save me 24000 a year!
If I was to do that I would want to live a little bit closer to town, so I would probably paying more for the property, I would also want internet and cable so I would have a monthly payment there, but If I live in a caboose and made 20k a month, I would be able to spend 19k a month in real estate and high risk investments 
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self-SUFFICIENT
hmm interesting Jon
Cody – Its not sufficient, it doesn’t make it own energy and water.
Also speaking of self sufficient check out http://www.zerohouse.net/
Nomar – yeah I’m kinda like that
Some other things to look at, instead of a diesel generator, are solar panels and wind power so you don’t have to worry about making bio-diesel.
You would definently need satellite or pay to have a large line put in.
Austin, those things are kinda expensive though. Biodiesel is so cheap
Well it’s cheap if you can get free used oil and know how to process it or you have a plant near you that processes it and resells it. But for some people it’s more economical to make the investment in solar and wind power.
Good idea none the less you got me looking for cheap acreage and efficient housing.
No internet? Then that’s a no no for me
I thought it said SEO house
haha damn a caboose never even knew what that was till now
Saving all that money would be nice but I’m sure you wouldn’t have all the comfort you get in a regular house.
I’m not sure if its the same in the US, but here in the UK the really rural areas don’t always have access to hi speed internet.
James – I would have to be someone near high speed internet, so my land would be a bit more money..
Didn’t you say that it wouldn’t be plugged into the power grid and that you would get the power from a biodiesel generator? That would be self-sufficient because your not taking IN any power, it’s making its own. And heat would be…woodburning? That’s not plugged into a 3rd party utility either. If you’re getting your water from a private well (as most people in Wyoming do), then you’re not linked to a utility for that eitehr. I think your argument here was that the caboose supports itself right?
1 self-sufficient, self-sufficing, self-sustaining; adj.
able to provide for your own needs without help from others
self-suf·fi·cient (sĕlf’sə-fĭsh’ənt)
adj.
1. Able to provide for oneself without the help of others; independent.
If I let the caboose sit on its own, it wont make its own energy, I would have to make the biodesiel, make the fire, etc. I consider that efficient no sufficient.
ef·fi·cient
adj.
b. Exhibiting a high ratio of output to input.
However if the caboose has solar panels and a electric heater that it would be self -sufficient, because than I would have to interfere with its energy making. It would make its own energy than.
zerohouse = sufficient
caboose = efficient
I guess I could call it self-sufficient housing because the housing would be sufficient, but not the HOUSE. The house doesn’t make its own energy, I make the energy.
Do you already live in Wyoming? That price seems a little high for 3 acres. I have seen 60 acre spreads available for that price. I’d definitely be doing some shopping around. Either way Wyoming is beautiful country…good luck!
Personally I want to renovate an old missile silo!