Hot Tub Ownership on the Cheap

Have you ever thought about owning your own hot tub?  Spending $5k for the tub and another $3k getting the power and set up just right.  It never seemed worth it.  Plus the power bill would be taking a hit.  Then one day you find a better solution.  For me, I was at a street fair and a vendor had a hot tub in his booth.  I asked him about it and he said it was a Soft Tub.  The biggest feature was that it uses a regular household plug.  That's interesting.  Anything else?  Well how do you get a hot tub in your back yard?  In my case, we would need a crane to pick it up over the house and drop it down into the back yard.  No, not the Soft Tube.  The Soft Tub is round and designed to roll thru the front door and out the back door.  Brilliant!  How much is your display model?  $5K!?!  Oh my.  Back to my/your original dilemma.  So of course my next step was to look on Craigslist.  I quickly found a Soft Tub for sale and went over to take a look.  Everything looked good and I paid the $1000.  I had my van, so I rolled the tub to the van and by myself, picked up the tub and placed it on top of the van, by myself.  Yes, by myself.  I tied her down the best I could and took off down the freeway and over the bridge.  Now this is not just any bridge.  This bridge goes over the south bay with winds to 25 and 30 knots each afternoon.  I have a great rack on top of the van and I trust it completely.  The tie down, not so much.  We hit the bridge with this huge tub on the roof and it it blowing 24 on the bay.  I pray that the tub makes it across the bay and not in the bay.  We make it and I pull the tub off the roof.  I roll it up thru the front door and proudly call out, " Honey, I'm home!".  I roll past the family room and out to the back patio.  I pull out the hose and fill her up.  Then the heating unit is connected and we are ready to party.  I have now owned the tub for 2 years and I love it.  I was able to position the tub next to the window.  With the TV on and the speakers turned towards me, I can watch the game or just relax with the music.  It's a dream come true for me and if I can do it for $1k, you most likely can do it for less.

But that's not all. We recently converted to solar thru Solar City and are saving a bundle on powering the tub and our household needs.  If you have any thoughts of considering solar, now is the time.  For us, there was no charge for the panels and we are saving $100 per month on power.  Check it out.