Being an adult is not easy. There are bills to be paid, chores to be done, and plans to be followed through with. And it gets even harder for parents. But one single mother decided to seize an opportunity to lower her expenses and never wants to go back. Michelle “MJ” Boyle claims to be able to live on just $75 per month despite being a mother and having responsibilities.
MJ lives in a rental home with her two children. Because she does have expenses to cover, she works double shifts and takes on multiple jobs to cover all of her responsibilities. Although she has a lot of challenges in her life, she doesn’t want them to stop her from living the best life possible with her children. And as a single mom, she wants to prove to her family that she can not only provide for her little ones but can be a role model to show them how to lead a good life.
One idea that helped MJ turn her life around was to change up her living arrangement. Because she was paying so much money to rent a home, she decided to bypass that by building her own home from the ground up. Her rental property in Sherwood, Oregon, cost her a staggering $1,600 per month. That bill, along with all of her other responsibilities were extremely challenging for MJ, so she decided that building her own home was the perfect solution.
MJ’s life changed after her divorce. Before that went through, she owned two homes, which she lost in the divorce proceedings. And because her children are growing up, they will be leaving for college soon, which costs a lot of money.
Because MJ wanted to give her children great college educations, she decided to switch up her living arrangement. This helped her cut down her monthly rental payment, so she could shovel more cash into her children’s college funds.
“My life has been a series of unfortunate events. I have been divorced twice. I have built two houses, and I lost the houses basically in the carnage of my divorces.”
By building her own home, MJ was able to lower her expenses. She even named her home “empty nest” given her current life circumstances.
MJ built a tiny home because it was cost-effective and perfect for her. Not only did she make a move that advanced her finances, but she was also able to put the money she saved toward her children’s college educations as well as her own retirement.
“I built my first house, this house, basically using cash and sponsorships to make sure that I have a paid-for nice, comfortable house when I retire. Now I’m building a few more tiny houses that I look forward to renting like on Airbnb or a try it tiny or other VRBO kind of platforms and create some income so, that’s next.”
Now, MJ claims she has been able to lower her expenses to just $75 per month. Good for her!