The friends that I mentioned above actually used a decent sized storage shed as their house and built it on family property to save some money. The two of them made it into an actual house with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And I mean a lot. Her boyfriend's family helped pay for some of the supplies and I can't remember if they 'only' owed 60k total on the house or if that included all of the supplies.

I've been desperate to move out already but I don't want to screw my boyfriend and I over. I did find some cheaper land on Zillow that we could have bought, but neither of us have family that could help us buy supplies, and compared to the sizes of small homes where I live, it's just cheaper to buy.

That's just my own experience living where I do, though. I really do wish you the best of luck in finding/building a place that you can decorate or even make it uniquely yours. It's rough out there.