For me, it is being off-grid. No $300 bi-monthly water/sewer bills (that's base charge w/o using any water). $7k - 10k in property taxes yearly. Huge heating and cooling costs for large living spaces.
I do not especially like tiny houses on wheels, but I think I could live comfortably in an 800sf small house on a rural piece of land.
I can you that the amortized cost of a septic system could easily work out to $300 bi-monthly over a decade or two. Managing your own sewer is not trivial or inexpensive.
For me, the tank plus installation was almost $10k CAD, and then the septic field itself would probably run between $30k and $50k CAD. So to be generous we could say $50k total for the full install. So that's about 8 years at $300 bimonthly just to pay it off. And you'll need to get it pumped every 3-4 years depending on tank size (a couple hundred bucks). And the field won't last forever, so in about 25-30 years probably looking at major repairs or even replacement of the field.
Then we get to the well... Also not inexpensive to install... But varies a lot depending on bedrock depth, etc. But probably $20k to install. And then you'll probably want water filtration... because do you trust your neighbour's septic systems? :-)
My water bill in the city would more than pay off the well in 10 years, including all the power to run the pump (not much) wells should last for many years with just the pump replaced every 20 years. Likewise septic is cheaper than city sewer over 10 years. Of course my city lot doesn't have a place to put either ( I want a safe non polluting system, compromise that and it works out)
My overall point is... let's dispense with the libertarian yeoman self-sufficient fantasy: if you want to save money, live in the place where economies of scale have been achieved... towns. People have been doing it this way since the neolithic.
Should you really like nature and having space and big gardens and farming and the like, then be prepared to pay for it.
Lots of tiny house owners don’t have septic, I’ve seen use composting toilets as a common option as well as incinerating toilets. Definitely more work, but way more appealing then storing tons of waste in an underground tank.
Not sure how they fare long term, but the septic isn’t the only option if you don’t have sewer available.
I do not especially like tiny houses on wheels, but I think I could live comfortably in an 800sf small house on a rural piece of land.