<prompt> Human: I am 22 years old and my wife is 19 years old. We are looking to start moving forward awful early and Im sure there are a lot of things that we need to watch for and that well have need to learn. Im ready to stop renting and effectively throwing my money away and start building equity. I have a great start to my credit with 2 credit card accounts and a student loan account in perfect standing. Bear with me because there is a lot of information going through my head right now so Ill try to get it all down.Currently we make around 2,600 a month combined. I am due for a 45-50 cent raise in 3 months and my wife is looking into being a CNA shes certified already at the local hospital and taking a 4 raise in pay plus extra working nights and weekends. We dont have any money saved currently because my savings was depleted due to medical expenses. I figured up our money situation yesterday and if we cut back all of our excess spending we can hold back about 1,200 a month, and we may be able to do better than that by lowering our cable and phone plans some. So Ill factor 1,000 a month for anything that may pop up that we cannot avoid.My current plan is to buy a 1 acre chunk of land I found about 3 minutes from town for 7,000. The plan is to purchase the home and pay it off over the next 8 months or so and then purchase a doublewide to put on the lot. The lot is wooded and will take a lot of work, which is perfectly fine. I will personally chop down as many trees and pull up as many rootsstumps as I have to to make this work. I am also planning on digging as many ditches as I need to for utilities and digging out the hole for the septic tank as I can to save money, as well as laying the block foundation and for the doublewide because I know that is an extra 8,000 if they do it. Cable, gas, electric, and water lines are already through the road. We will have to install a septic tank on this lot whenever we move into the housing stage.Moving on to the housing stage I would like to pay off the property completely first and then start looking at doublewides. I was talking to a friend, who is a realtor, and she was telling me that if we own our property and it is in an area with the utilities, which it will be, we should be able to get a doublewide without a down payment, and since it is a doublewide and not a house we wont be required to have the extra insurance cost you would normally have for not having a down payment. Having our own property should also help us secure a lower interest rate.Im having a hard time finding what kind of prices Ill be looking at for getting the utilities run in and hooked up. Also septic prices seem to vary a lot as well. What kinds of costs will I be looking at that I may not know about that I need to plan for? Is there anything else that I might be able to do to make the installation of the home cheaper or more efficient?I realize Im making a very quick choice on something like this without savings and I may get a lot of people will probably tell me this but it is a decision we want to make and know that we can handle. We both have great job security and a wonderful family base to fall back on if we need help which we absolutely do not plan on doing and if it takes a little longer to take care of this that is okay. I am a hard worker and I will make sure this is taken care of and done right.  <response>: First, make sure the ground will perk for a septic system. If the water table is too high, youd have to use a septic mound. Costs will depend on on how hard it would be to dig, like if it was really rocky, etc. To get a good idea in your area, ask a septic system contractor for a typical price range. The utility companies will also give estimates if you call their contractor hotlines to ask if service is available in the area. Xcel energy was offering the first hundred feet free last year.About the double wide, definitely dont go with a new one. They depreciate like crazy. If you want something cost effective, go with a pole barn, then build it into a house. It would be cheaper per square foot than a trailer, and would hold its value MUCH better.Make sure you arent landlocked and have legal access to the property, and if its a dry area, make sure you get the water rights with the land.Good luck! 