How do people afford this?

[Relleoms]

@My3acrehomestead , I hope you did not feel like we were attacking you. I'm actually glad you pointed out the fact that Dave Ramsey has been at both ends of the debt spectrum. Thank you.

X2

 

[My3acrehomestead]

No,I’m not offended at all..If I’m wrong I’m more then willing to admit that I’m in the wrong.. Sweet of you thank you.

 

[HoopyFrood]

This is a LONG thread - and a very interesting one. I don't know if the OP is still following this, apologies that I haven't read the whole thread. But it's a straightforward question, and my wife and I are living it out one answer. So I'll offer that for posterity.

Agreed with everyone saying it's all about priorities. I wish I had decided to start homesteading at 20 instead of at 40. You physically bounce back so much easier then. If you value independence, free time, and the ability to prioritize what you do, then you can start homesteading (with or without animals) at any time. Why not young? If you don't care about financial "success" or consumerist goodies, you don't NEED much money. You will need food and shelter anyway so try to develop cottage industry income streams along those efforts you'll already be doing.

But if you do like we did and launch a "successful" career as a young person... then in midlife if you decide that corporate American is not right for you, then you can quit your job, sell everything, cash out your retirement, buy a small piece of land and get to work homesteading. I like to call it "early retirement" We are not trying to drain all our savings, of course. This is the start of our third year and it will be our first year where we'll try to NOT pull anything out of savings. Not counting our "mortgage" (more on that below) the pair of us live VERY comfortably on a budget of about $18k/yr. Our goal is to drive that to $12k/yr or less in the next four years.

There have been many successful homesteaders that established their place "part time." So you can split your time between homestead work and income work. Very doable, very sensible, but will probably take a long timeline (say ~10 years or more).

Regardless of your exact approach there are some good rules of thumb other's have mentioned that we follow:

• Avoid extravagances: we are hugely committed to enjoying life, so under no circumstances read that to mean "Don't have fun." But how many cars does a person need? Does a person always have to have the newest iPhone? How many "gadgets" are ACTUALLY needed?
• Avoid debt: We currently have one - and only one!! - item of debt: our "mortgage." It's in quotes because we borrowed the money from our family. Borrowing is a tool and can be used to great advantage (how do you think the mega rich get richer? They know how to use debt - usually unscrupulously). However using debt wisely is a HUGE and rather complicated topic, so a rule of "no debt" is not going to steer you wrong. It might make things a little harder than they strictly need to be for a little while, but you'll get where you want to go!
• Grow your own food: Not only is this going to greatly improve your health, it will shield you from some (much?) of the uncertainty that comes with our highly modernized civilization. Since we're still learning we're prioritizing our growing by what costs the most at grocery store and what we use the most of.
• Stop eating highly processed "food": Would a foodstuff on offer at the store be recognizable as food to someone at the turn of the last century? If not, you might want to give it a miss. These items are not nutritious (in fact they are very likely damaging to your health), and they are EXPENSIVE. Soda and anything in the "snack" aisle... Once you spend time away from them it becomes hard to even see them as food.
• CONSIDER foregoing animals and animal products. Not being preachy, this is just food for thought. If I had it to do over again I would not have raised chickens. A funny thing to say on BYC, I know! We dearly love our girls and I wouldn't trade them for anything. But they have been a constant source of work and worry. Our life would be 50% less complicated without them. We originally had visions of having our own dairy goats originally. Now we laugh at the idea. No WAY. Many successful homesteaders have made a "no animal" policy, and doing so has been a great boon for them. Many become vegans as well. They may be vegans for several reasons, but the most important reason for THIS topic is: they can grow almost ALL their food themselves and they DON'T have to care for the animals that would provide animal products. Full disclosure: we are aspiring vegetarians, but we are NOT there yet, to say nothing of veganism. But we eat very little meat and almost no dairy, which has a big, direct impact on the bottom line! We do eat a LOT of eggs though... luckily we know a LOT of people that raise chickens

Good luck, everyone!!

 

[Cryss]

This is a LONG thread - and a very interesting one. I don't know if the OP is still following this, apologies that I haven't read the whole thread. But it's a straightforward question, and my wife and I are living it out one answer. So I'll offer that for posterity.

Agreed with everyone saying it's all about priorities. I wish I had decided to start homesteading at 20 instead of at 40. You physically bounce back so much easier then. If you value independence, free time, and the ability to prioritize what you do, then you can start homesteading (with or without animals) at any time. Why not young? If you don't care about financial "success" or consumerist goodies, you don't NEED much money. You will need food and shelter anyway so try to develop cottage industry income streams along those efforts you'll already be doing.

But if you do like we did and launch a "successful" career as a young person... then in midlife if you decide that corporate American is not right for you, then you can quit your job, sell everything, cash out your retirement, buy a small piece of land and get to work homesteading. I like to call it "early retirement" We are not trying to drain all our savings, of course. This is the start of our third year and it will be our first year where we'll try to NOT pull anything out of savings. Not counting our "mortgage" (more on that below) the pair of us live VERY comfortably on a budget of about $18k/yr. Our goal is to drive that to $12k/yr or less in the next four years.

There have been many successful homesteaders that established their place "part time." So you can split your time between homestead work and income work. Very doable, very sensible, but will probably take a long timeline (say ~10 years or more).

Regardless of your exact approach there are some good rules of thumb other's have mentioned that we follow:

• Avoid extravagances: we are hugely committed to enjoying life, so under no circumstances read that to mean "Don't have fun." But how many cars does a person need? Does a person always have to have the newest iPhone? How many "gadgets" are ACTUALLY needed?
• Avoid debt: We currently have one - and only one!! - item of debt: our "mortgage." It's in quotes because we borrowed the money from our family. Borrowing is a tool and can be used to great advantage (how do you think the mega rich get richer? They know how to use debt - usually unscrupulously). However using debt wisely is a HUGE and rather complicated topic, so a rule of "no debt" is not going to steer you wrong. It might make things a little harder than they strictly need to be for a little while, but you'll get where you want to go!
• Grow your own food: Not only is this going to greatly improve your health, it will shield you from some (much?) of the uncertainty that comes with our highly modernized civilization. Since we're still learning we're prioritizing our growing by what costs the most at grocery store and what we use the most of.
• Stop eating highly processed "food": Would a foodstuff on offer at the store be recognizable as food to someone at the turn of the last century? If not, you might want to give it a miss. These items are not nutritious (in fact they are very likely damaging to your health), and they are EXPENSIVE. Soda and anything in the "snack" aisle... Once you spend time away from them it becomes hard to even see them as food.
• CONSIDER foregoing animals and animal products. Not being preachy, this is just food for thought. If I had it to do over again I would not have raised chickens. A funny thing to say on BYC, I know! We dearly love our girls and I wouldn't trade them for anything. But they have been a constant source of work and worry. Our life would be 50% less complicated without them. We originally had visions of having our own dairy goats originally. Now we laugh at the idea. No WAY. Many successful homesteaders have made a "no animal" policy, and doing so has been a great boon for them. Many become vegans as well. They may be vegans for several reasons, but the most important reason for THIS topic is: they can grow almost ALL their food themselves and they DON'T have to care for the animals that would provide animal products. Full disclosure: we are aspiring vegetarians, but we are NOT there yet, to say nothing of veganism. But we eat very little meat and almost no dairy, which has a big, direct impact on the bottom line! We do eat a LOT of eggs though... luckily we know a LOT of people that raise chickens

Good luck, everyone!!

I started a garden at age 59. Water bath canning at 63. Just got my first flock of chickens at 66. Oh, and my first egg at 67(yesterday.) Wanna start pressure canning this summer. Never too late, but BOY HOWDY, wish I'd started 30-40 years ago!

 

[HoopyFrood]

I started a garden at age 59. Water bath canning at 63. Just got my first flock of chickens at 66. Oh, and my first egg at 67(yesterday.) Wanna start pressure canning this summer. Never too late, but BOY HOWDY, wish I'd started 30-40 years ago!

I'm certainly thankful I didn't start any later!

But that's wonderful stuff! It really is never too late. I don't ever want to stop learning! Congratulations on your first egg!!

Good luck with the pressure canning! We're probably a season or two away from that. This year's big challenges will (hopefully) be processing a full harvest (canning/freezing) and then cold storage like root cellaring... but we don't have a root cellar! So that's a fun riddle to be working on

 

[Cryss]

I'm certainly thankful I didn't start any later!

But that's wonderful stuff! It really is never too late. I don't ever want to stop learning! Congratulations on your first egg!!

Good luck with the pressure canning! We're probably a season or two away from that. This year's big challenges will (hopefully) be processing a full harvest (canning/freezing) and then cold storage like root cellaring... but we don't have a root cellar! So that's a fun riddle to be working on

Wish I had a root cellar too. I do freezing and dehydrating as well as canning. Good luck this year!

 

[HoopyFrood]

Wish I had a root cellar too. I do freezing and dehydrating as well as canning. Good luck this year!

And good luck to you! I forgot, we have a dehydrator, too. Didn't use it last season for a couple reasons. Hope to get back to that, too. I'm hoping to build a little farmstand where we can sell excess veggies and dried herbs!

 

[Cryss]

Dried veggies n fruits come in handy. I powder kale, add it to casseroles n meatloaf. No one knows they ate kale
Make dehydrated soup fixens. Comes in handy.

 

[moomoodiddy]

This is a LONG thread - and a very interesting one. I don't know if the OP is still following this, apologies that I haven't read the whole thread. But it's a straightforward question, and my wife and I are living it out one answer. So I'll offer that for posterity.

Agreed with everyone saying it's all about priorities. I wish I had decided to start homesteading at 20 instead of at 40. You physically bounce back so much easier then. If you value independence, free time, and the ability to prioritize what you do, then you can start homesteading (with or without animals) at any time. Why not young? If you don't care about financial "success" or consumerist goodies, you don't NEED much money. You will need food and shelter anyway so try to develop cottage industry income streams along those efforts you'll already be doing.

But if you do like we did and launch a "successful" career as a young person... then in midlife if you decide that corporate American is not right for you, then you can quit your job, sell everything, cash out your retirement, buy a small piece of land and get to work homesteading. I like to call it "early retirement" We are not trying to drain all our savings, of course. This is the start of our third year and it will be our first year where we'll try to NOT pull anything out of savings. Not counting our "mortgage" (more on that below) the pair of us live VERY comfortably on a budget of about $18k/yr. Our goal is to drive that to $12k/yr or less in the next four years.

There have been many successful homesteaders that established their place "part time." So you can split your time between homestead work and income work. Very doable, very sensible, but will probably take a long timeline (say ~10 years or more).

Regardless of your exact approach there are some good rules of thumb other's have mentioned that we follow:

• Avoid extravagances: we are hugely committed to enjoying life, so under no circumstances read that to mean "Don't have fun." But how many cars does a person need? Does a person always have to have the newest iPhone? How many "gadgets" are ACTUALLY needed?
• Avoid debt: We currently have one - and only one!! - item of debt: our "mortgage." It's in quotes because we borrowed the money from our family. Borrowing is a tool and can be used to great advantage (how do you think the mega rich get richer? They know how to use debt - usually unscrupulously). However using debt wisely is a HUGE and rather complicated topic, so a rule of "no debt" is not going to steer you wrong. It might make things a little harder than they strictly need to be for a little while, but you'll get where you want to go!
• Grow your own food: Not only is this going to greatly improve your health, it will shield you from some (much?) of the uncertainty that comes with our highly modernized civilization. Since we're still learning we're prioritizing our growing by what costs the most at grocery store and what we use the most of.
• Stop eating highly processed "food": Would a foodstuff on offer at the store be recognizable as food to someone at the turn of the last century? If not, you might want to give it a miss. These items are not nutritious (in fact they are very likely damaging to your health), and they are EXPENSIVE. Soda and anything in the "snack" aisle... Once you spend time away from them it becomes hard to even see them as food.
• CONSIDER foregoing animals and animal products. Not being preachy, this is just food for thought. If I had it to do over again I would not have raised chickens. A funny thing to say on BYC, I know! We dearly love our girls and I wouldn't trade them for anything. But they have been a constant source of work and worry. Our life would be 50% less complicated without them. We originally had visions of having our own dairy goats originally. Now we laugh at the idea. No WAY. Many successful homesteaders have made a "no animal" policy, and doing so has been a great boon for them. Many become vegans as well. They may be vegans for several reasons, but the most important reason for THIS topic is: they can grow almost ALL their food themselves and they DON'T have to care for the animals that would provide animal products. Full disclosure: we are aspiring vegetarians, but we are NOT there yet, to say nothing of veganism. But we eat very little meat and almost no dairy, which has a big, direct impact on the bottom line! We do eat a LOT of eggs though... luckily we know a LOT of people that raise chickens

Good luck, everyone!!

Hey OP here and first of all I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to share some of your life knowledge. I definitely read each and every one of these posts and take them to heart. I am grateful to be blessed with this passion of farming and self sustainability that most do not discover until later. As of right now I am trying to get through college for security reasons, but I know that I want to eventually open my own business. Little by little I am discovering myself and ways to become the person I want to be. Thanks again yall and keep the advice coming!

 

[lazy gardener]

Dried veggies n fruits come in handy. I powder kale, add it to casseroles n meatloaf. No one knows they ate kale
Make dehydrated soup fixens. Comes in handy.

Care to share any of the details about your dehydrated soup fixin's??? I have just started dehydrating, but not yet proficient at it. I put some kale, chard, and parsley in the freezer, all in the same bag, w/o blanching it. It has been great to just break off a chunk of those mixed greens and toss them into my soup pot. They have tasted very fresh, even w/o blanching.