How to Build a Sukkah on Less than $100

Before I begin, let me just say “SIT IN IT”, COMMERCIAL JUDAISM!

So I was strolling around the Home Depot looking for long wooden planks and boards of wood for our very first Sukkah together. How exciting! Suddenly I hear the electric boogaloo playing in four-part harmony. It was my wife calling.

“Itamar, why for you are building a Sukkah from wood? We need to feed our 90 lb golden retriever! Please try to spend under $100 on the Sukkah.”

“Challenge accepted!” I said, and threw my phone back in my pocket.

Okay, so a Sukkah for under $100 …

I had already measured the balcony inside-of-railing to inside-of-railing, so I had exact measurements.

Home Depot Logo

Home Depot Logo

Here’s what I used:

  • Nine 10ft PVC Pipes
    • $11.25
  • PVC Pipe Cutter
    • $11.00
  • 15ft x 12ft Light-colored canvas (who likes to sit in a room with dark-blue walls?!)
    • $26.95
  • 100 Zip-ties
    • $6.75
  • About 7 stocks of corn (minus the corn) – NOT from Sukkah Expo!

    • $15

GRAND TOTAL: $70.95

Holy crap! We didn’t even reach the 3/4 mark of my max budget yet! Would this anger the gods of commercial Judaism? Shall I decorate the sukkah with hundred dollar bills to make up for my thriftiness? Is it less kosher? What if I had a rabbi watch as I slaughtered the Sukkah? Then would it be more kosher?

Because I’m pretty sure the minimum for a Sukkah at sukkah expos is at least quintuple what I spent.

Let me help you compare prices, and maybe you can decide for yourself:

MINIMUM IS over $400 at http://www.sukkahdepot.com/English/

THESE OPPORTUNISTS SELL A SUKKAH FOR OVER $1200 (WITHOUT SCHACH!) http://www.sukkahoutlet.com/ez-sukkah.html

MINIMUM SUKKAH: $389 http://www.judaicany.com/sukkahs.shtml

Sukkah below is for demonstrative purposes only. Do not ingest orally.

Sukkah

Sukkah

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Itamar Kestenbaum

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02

10 2009
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