My tiny home costs me £17 per month – I didn’t want to spend life chasing mortgage payments so built it for me & my cat
ARE you tired of paying expensive bills for your home each month?
Savvy Geoffrey Celard, 29, has revealed how he made a tiny, idyllic home for him and his cat - and he only pays £17 a month on bills.
Geoffrey returned to his home in southeast France in 2020 after backpacking in Colombia for six months.
He set about trying to find his own place, and realised that while he had been travelling, he had been quite content with a more simple way of living.
Speaking to Business Insider, he said: “I wanted my own safe place in the world, a little one that's not too expensive, where I could be free.”
He set about building his dream mini pad, which was to be the side of a small campervan.
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Geoffrey, who has a background in interior architecture, sought advice online for the construction.
While he did nearly all the work himself, he did get the help of an electrician and a plumber to build his electrical and water piping systems.
After a year of hard work, he moved into the pad with his cat in February 2022 and was delighted with the result.
Geoffrey said: “Even though it's a tiny house, the interiors feel spacious.
"I have a lot of windows, so I really don't feel locked inside. I feel like I'm living in nature.”
The finished wooden cabin is 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 14 feet high, and he sleeps in the loft space.
Outside there is an elevated front decking where he can soak up the sun and relax.
Geoffrey estimates that he spent £16,536 on the build, but now only has to pay £17 in bills each month, and £130 to rent the land.
He added: "We are connected to the house for the water and for electricity. It's very cheap because I don't use a lot of water, I don't use a lot of electricity — I heat with wood.”
He was inspired to make the cabin after struggling to live in a campervan due to it being cold having no electricity or water during winter.
The Frenchman does have days where he wishes he has more room, but this quickly dies when he visits larger houses.
He said: “Oh, there's a lot of space to clean. It's very difficult to heat, to warm. So I realised that nothing in the world is perfect.”
