How do people afford this?

[chickendreams24]

These posts feel like a cozy sweater. Very humble. For myself, life has taught me to remain humble. Whenever I got too cocky, the universe put me back in my place. As others around us "went big" bigger homes etc. we remained in our first home. It's not large but more than enough room plus some extra. How much space do 2 people need! I'm not credit heavy etc. We paid off our home this year, an incredable accomplishment. We tend to comment to each other as we are on our 4 wheeler riding along our property, also not a ranch but enough, "not bad for a couple of sh"t bums!" We did ok. Sure I still have to work due to not of age quite yet but I see it is possible in my eventual near future. Hubby is in a trade where he is laid off sporadically throughout the year. It's a good feeling knowing that no institution is going to come and take our home away because things got too big and now we can't afford the payments. I sleep at night. Keeping chickies is expensive. Moreso than what I initially thought. They are very needy. The girls work (laying eggs) to help pay for their feed.
I'm still frilly and like sparkly things but I'm the stripped down version of me. I keep the stylish crap for work so I look the part but the second I get home I am my true self....right down to my muck boots. I can most likely be found in the coops cleaning up poop. I am at peace....this my friends is when you know you found the secret of life....attaining inner peace....

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I wish
1) we grow,forage and eat very little meat.
2) We bake. Our own bread ect.
3) I pay $5.00 a month on cleaning supplies. Vinegar, Baking Soda and blue dish soap.
4) We homeschool
5) We only buy toilet paper. I use cloth napkins,towels ect to clean, or use newspaper.
Animals
We free range. I go through little feed. Though they have access to feed 24/7 everyone would rather eat my landscaping.
I use hay from my field. I deep clean coops everyday, and put fresh hay in.
Our secret. Shhhh my husband's retired. I work from home most of the time. Even though I work. We try to keep a budget of less than $500.00 a month. If we can keep it around that. I can retire. Also we are putting most of my salary right now on major improvements. This way I hope by next spring I can retire. We try to live as self sufficient as we can. You can start small and really soon you can start to see your savings grow. We wanted out of Chicago when my husband hit 20 years and could retire. So we started killing bills one by one. No Cable. No eating out, movie night at home. With in that five years, we were able to save enough to make our dream come true. You have to make sacrifices and put hard work in. But if you want your dreams to come true, you have to work hard at it. I know you can do it!!!!!!

Amazing! I would love to hear more about all of that.

We are pretty good but not quite that good. Lol

 

[Akrnaf2]

Be smart!
Get a good education, and a good job, remmber to be happy in what you have, remember that if you have your health, a close family and good freinds you basically have EVERTHING!
And remember that money come AND go but time that passes WILL NEVER come back! So use your time smartly and try to have fun from it as much you can .

 

[Mama Runner]

I couldn't have said it better myself.


Amazing! I would love to hear more about all of that.

We are pretty good but not quite that good. Lol

What would you like to know?

 

[nminusyplusm]

It seems as though most of y'all commenting started out later in life being self-sufficient had a spouse to help them out. Is it realistic for a young single person to do this?

I didn't have a spouse to help me out at all, in fact I supported him while we were married and then he took me to the cleaners when we divorced. You can do it all on your own. I'd have been better off if I'd stayed single. But I had to work hard when I was young.

 

[moomoodiddy]

Be smart!
Get a good education, and a good job, remmber to be happy in what you have, remember that if you have your health, a close family and good freinds you basically have EVERTHING!
And remember that money come AND go but time that passes WILL NEVER come back! So use your time smartly and try to have fun from it as much you can .

What if education doesn't seem to fit into your long term plans?

 

[chickendreams24]

What would you like to know?

Everything! Lol okay how about more about your foraging?


Also my DH2B and I are in our 20s while we didn't get chickens until we we're together. We were both interested in homesteading and living frugally before we got together.

 

[dschoey]

Education and college are two different things. You will always need to be learning, but not always paying money to learn.
I was talking to a farmer friend once and asked him advice on the best time to plant corn. He picked up a handful of my dirt, squeezed it, and began to explain how it would look and feel when it was ready. I had years of college, he had none, but he still had quite an education. And his corn is still better.

 

[moomoodiddy]

Education and college are two different things. You will always need to be learning, but not always paying money to learn.
I was talking to a farmer friend once and asked him advice on the best time to plant corn. He picked up a handful of my dirt, squeezed it, and began to explain how it would look and feel when it was ready. I had years of college, he had none, but he still had quite an education. And his corn is still better.

I hate how the world has told my generation that we had to go to college in order to be successful in life, and people look down on you if you do not.

 

[Mama Runner]

For instance mushrooms!!! But you need to be careful. This was dinner Sunday. Wild mushroom soup. I made enough to freeze 25 gallon bags of soup.
This is one of our favorites. For 25 gallons of Soup It cost $2.38 only because I splurged and got some half and half cream. I like my mushroom soup creamy.
Mushrooms foraged and dried (free)
Wild Rice 1cup grown (free)
Broccoli grown (free)
Onions grown (free)
Garlic grown (free)
Celery grown (free)
Misc herbs grown ( free)
1/2 gallon half and half with coupon $2.39

That's 25 meals for $2.39.
Idea for money aka income. Dehydrate all ingredients and mix in food grade barrel. Package in quart bag sell at local farmers market or open a small she'd on your property.
Sell quart bag of dehydrated soup mix for $3.00-$5.00
Sell gallon for $8.00+$10.00
Or sell as prepper item on internet. Always think outside the box.

 

[PirateGirl]

Education and college are two different things. You will always need to be learning, but not always paying money to learn.
I was talking to a farmer friend once and asked him advice on the best time to plant corn. He picked up a handful of my dirt, squeezed it, and began to explain how it would look and feel when it was ready. I had years of college, he had none, but he still had quite an education. And his corn is still better.

This!
I have a college education and my husband doesn't. We surprise each other regularly with the things we know and the things we don't know and the things we know how to do and the things we don't know how to do. Life experience is the best teacher. You should learn something (good or bad) from every experience you have in life. It's ok to fail at something, you haven't truly failed unless you didn't learn a thing from the experience. Also it doesn't have to be your own experiences, every person you encounter in life has their own unique set of experiences and you can learn from them as well.

Have a dream.
Make a plan to achieve that dream.
Break it down into small achievable steps.
Work on/towards these steps daily until you reach your dream.

Tell others about your dreams. Get excited about your dreams. Others will be excited for you and others will question you, but you will get great feedback regularly about how to get where you want to.