$21 Functioning, Frugal, Portable & Custom Guinea Pig Home Tour

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It’s so easy to put activities and adventures on hold when life is trying, but our family is currently discovering that it doesn’t have to be that way. We’re a family of 4 who lives on an extremely small budget and our aim is to show others that creativity, resourcefulness, and an open mind can often save the day as it has for us many times. In this particular post we will share how we were able to facilitate our daughter’s interest in guinea pigs on a very small budget.

We demonstrate that our method resulted in a functioning, frugal, portable and custom home for our little Melody using $21. This would not be possible utilizing the conventional way of buying all the supplies at the pet store.

Materials

♻️1.5 heat treated pallets ($9) - can usually be found FREE in your local craigslist or buy/sell/trade group OR sometimes your local co-op like ours ours (Ace Hardware) where we bought our 3 pallets from the back and drove them home bungee corded to the top of our minivan in anticipation of this project however we were actually left with 1.5 pallets for more projects!)

♻️1 Wood or improvised siding panel (Free) - we used a sheet of wood we found under the master bed of our 5th wheel

💲1 Roll Hardware Wire Mesh ($12) - also purchased at our co-op with enough material left over for another project or two. I also want to add here that at this point of shopping one of the well-meaning employees very confidently recommended wire mesh flooring in the construction of this enclosure but luckily we already knew that it wouldn’t be appropriate for keeping a guinea pig so we saved ourselves from treating painful guinea feet and money there as well. Doing your research can save you a lot.

♻️Lots of 1 1/4” screws (Free) - These wood drywall screws we’re going to be thrown away so they were salvaged from a trash pile of a job site Zac was on.

Total Material Cost = $21

Tools

Hammer
Skillsaw
Nail puller
Impact drill
Speed square
Measuring device

Total tool cost = $0 because we already had these tools

💰Total Project Cost = $21💰

Please keep in mind that this particular project is to house 1 guinea pig during the day in any reasonably level place of the yard but it can be customized to suit different needs! We currently bring her into our RV at night because it’s a bit chilly in Colorado at this time of year but next winter we plan to modify her home for winter use.

I really love the makeshift “latches” that Zac created here because it’s secure enough to keep her from running away into a busy road yet easy enough for the kiddos to twist them open and access her freely.

Inside our fence is where we feel the most secure in placing her home because of the two barriers any potential predator would need to cross in order to access or harm her. Another cool modification for the future would be to add a closeable cat access for our cat to visit Melody since our cat Lucy has also decided to adopt Melody as her guinea-kitten.

If this post can offset even one or two dollars from the material costs of this project ($21) then I will adjust the total project cost in this post or the comments. We’re so lucky to exist in a beautiful day/age where this is possible.

Thank you so much for reading along, commenting, following, up voting and resteeming ✌️💜 ♻️@houseofzaaa is a FREE project diary of ideas found around our frugal house on wheels ♻️

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