Your Lifestyle?

[plight79]

I am a homesteader wannabe. I plan on living as simply and sustainably by taking small steps to reach my goal. I grew up on a dairy farm and due to a snowboarding injury, ended up back on the farm to help lower my expenses. I work in vaccine development research and long to live off my own small farm. I am an outdoors addict. I have always fantasized about living on a housebus or in a yurt, but I am not really crunchy...although I am absolutely in love with dreadlocks.

I am a single 30-year-old and I recently rescued an abused pitbull (my second one...first one passed away last spring

) I have a massive garden and just started up with chickens. I would love goats and sheep eventually.

 

[Boyd]

Ok, here's my stab at this

I've got two sons from my first marriage (one natural and one adopted) and in addition, I have 4 foster daughters and 1 grand baby under one roof. By nature we are pretty thrifty. We frequent the Goodwill resale shops in our area and that's where I buy 90% of my clothes. I buy brand names there ... Jeans from 3$ and dress shirts at $2... All the flannel shirts, I want for a buck etc etc. Of course my kids aren't quite as thrifty so once a month we all pack up into a 15 seat van and go to the mall so the boys and girls can get SOMETHING that is the latest fashion. Most of the time I

when the girls hit some stores.

Since 94 or 95 I've run a computer business with the focus on repair/upgrade and networking. I got my degree in 97/98 school year and have always worked this on my own, never for anyone else. Needing health insurance I couldn't afford I put my business on part time status and took a job in a shop. I was what we all called a warehouse ape. Any monkey can pull a lever right? Well I eventually worked myself up to a management level before everything tanked.

I've been unemployed for a year now, the computer business still going, but it makes just enough for unemployment to be negated. Wife's contract with a county contractor has been up since March and pickings are slim in Michigan so she's been without a check also. If I hadn't prepped properly I'd be in a hurt, but honestly I was ready for this.

My two oldest daughters are finishing high school this year, both of them own their own cars free and clear. Me and the wife both have enough cars to qualify us as a used car lots in most cities... luckily I live in Gaines... Population of 366 souls

Our garden this year was 40x80 and much of it was ruined by the unusually wet weather. All my seed starts died... so ended up at the greenhouse. We had more fruits and veggies harvested than I can remember, but it was all used up!!!! None went to waste but none made my jars

This year its going to be much bigger.. Looking to do meaties in the spring and fall and harvest our own chicken, and also set up a colony setting of rabbits on the hillside east of the garage. Trying to cut down on our store bought meat usage.

We probably live pretty frugal, but the only debt I have is a small CC, my mortgage and what I pay for utilities. Both the CC and Mortage should be paid off by the time I die....................

 

[19Dawn76]

I married at 19, went to nursing school at 26, worked for 4 years then had my son at 30. When i realized I didn t want to leave him and go back to work we made some MAJOR changes in our lives. We now live in a house my grandparents built that my father kindly gave us so we would not have to worry about a house payment. I had to give up my sports car and now drive a Honda. This house is really old and to keep from going into debt we have to remodle one room at a time. My son has to to PT, OT and speech 3x a week and if he ever starts talking i have decided to go back to work. We re not really strapped for money but I can tell that the stress of being the only bread winner sometimes makes my husband a little worried. I am thinking about putting in a pig pen and raising our own pork. We fatten a cow every year and put it in the freezer. I plan on doing alot of canning this summer cause I found my grandmas canning supplies in an old shed in the back of the property ( and my grandpas still ). I used to buy ALL name brand clothing but now I reallly don t care what the tag says as long as it s comfortable. For the forat time in a 13 year marriage my husbands shoes and clothes are more expensive than mine. My parents live next door and are raising my sisters 2 girls along with our help. We have an eagles nest in the back pasture. The eagles have lived there since I was 9. Ummm I think that s all. Kinda boring now that i am really thinking about it. I read alot and collect Harmony Garden pieces from the Lord Byron series. OK so thats not exciting either. I saw Don King once while we were in Tunica.

 

[srhcth]

We live on 10 acres - I drive a minivan and the DH drives a pick up. They will both be paid for in about 5 months (what a relief a DH has been laid off since June from contruction). We have two beautiful kids - a six yr old boy and three yr old girl. I work full time. We do wear brand name clothing if we can find it at the thrift store other wise it is store brand clothing for us. I have recently learned how to coupon shop and can now actually feed the family with in our budget. We have two cows, one cat, four dogs, eight muscovy ducks, 15 or so guinea and 8 chickens with 50 chicks coming the week of Feb. 8th.

Our house is small with no basement or garage but there is more love in these four walls then I could ever ask for and in the end that is really all that matters.

 

[australorpchick]

DH & I both have our AA degrees. We both work. Hubby works about 3 miles away and I work 35 miles away. We moved from our hometown of San Diego to New Braunfels, because we couldn't take the crowds any more. We have a sizeable house in an HOA subdivision (it sounded great, before I wanted chickens) and my chickens live about 10 minutes away at a friends place. Last year, we were able to purchase 5 acres about 30 minutes from our house. We want to stall building our house until the kids graduate. It's going to be a long 4 years. I'm crossing my fingers that we can find a equally-sized home on acreage in our town for something we can afford and move to soon. We looked at a house today, size was right, acreage was right, price was right, location was right, but there were just too many projects that would need to done. Plus, it really didn't have the feeling of "home".

We've got 3 cars. DH drives the truck and the Suburban is mine, but it was cheaper to get a used commuter car with a car payment, then it was to fill up the gas tank, just to go to work. DH and I don't buy much clothing for ourselves, but when we do it's usually on sale, from an outlet store or Ross. My kids wear namebrands, but it's secondhand off Ebay. We give them the choice of a few new brandname clothes or a bunch of secondhand Ebay stuff and they'd rather have a bigger wardrobe.

We started out wanting 2 chickens, which immediately became 4 and is now 18+. We're slowly trying to become more self sufficient. The girls & I canned some jam for the first time tonight! We have a small garden, would love to be able to grow more of our own food, but I don't think mentally, that we're quite ready for that. When we move, we hope to have a much larger garden, many more coops and cisterns.

 

[redhen]

Just getting by here..
Foster parents and hubbys a sheet metal worker. He'll be getting laid off this month sometime when the jobs done...

Hopefully they'll have more work for him soon...
I drive an 2005 minivan (hopefully paid off this year!)
Hubbys drives 1998 escort..

and he has an older truck that we only put on the road in the summer for doing chores and hauling things..
We are trying to be more SS..... But sadly, we dont have a big yard.. so we are limited on what we can do/raise.....but we are able to have a medium sized garden.. so that will help with food bills.
I'll be getting some quail again this spring for meat and maybe even some cornish x's for meat birds also..
I plan on getting some berry bushes this spring... (blackberry and blueberry)..and i also want to plant a couple apple trees. We planted a couple Rubarb plants and several strawberry plants last spring...so those will make some good pies and jams come this spring/summer.

We might get a meat hog to raise and have for meat.... (we'll just keep him with our pet PBPs outside in their pen until slaughter time....) ..
We are trying topay off all our bills.. slowly..a little every month..but we're making an effort..
I also want to learn how to can foods..(need to buy a canner)....
We are not fancy people at all..We dont dress to impress in name brand clothes..clean and comfy and sensible work for us.
Our house in always a work in progress

... Just finishing up with the new wallpaper and painting our kitchen cabinets...then its on to a new floor in our living room, whenever we can get up the money to get it done.. ... (it seems like by the time we get one project finally done..we need to start again...its never ending..

)
So... were trying to survive..

 

[tonini3059]

I'm 23 and my husband is 26. We live on 27 acres. We are both college graduates. I have a degree in Nuclear Medicine, and am thinking about going back for nursing, and he has a degree in ecology and evolution. We are getting by, but would have more money if we stop buying birds on impulse. We have way too many ducks but they are so cute and addicting it is hard to stop! We are not very self sufficient we do raise our own meat birds and this year tried turkeys we buy most of our stuff.

 

[CoopCrazy]

I'm a 27 yr old single gay dad, trying to raise my two adopted boys( 7and 4) as best I can.. Just moved back to the family " farm" where my boys and I can save money and they can have room to run on three acres... I work as a Manager at a local hotel and dont make nearly enough money , but we get by..
Would love to wear name brand clothes but can't afford them anymore (cant afford any new clothes LOL)..
Raising chickens for eggs .. Starting my cages/tractors for spring to raise Cronish X, BBB Turkeys, Pekin ducks and Cali/New Zealand rabbits for meat ..Planning pig pen and possibly working with nerighbor on beef cow...Plan to not buy ANY meat from the store by New Years this year...
We have a huge garden growing the basics corn, green beans , watermelons, tomatoes etc...
Would love to eventually live off the grid but for now will settle for growing ,making, and raising what I can..

 

[TwinMommy2009]

Thanks everyone for your replies!!! Anyone else??

 

[Goose and Fig]

We're transplanted homesteaders. My DH & I grew up in opposite sides of Cleveland. He's an artist/carpenter, I'm a geologist/carpenter's apprentice. We combined our talents and started a green furniture company. We demo old barns and scour the country for metal we can use. I love it- but we haven't had alot of money to advertise. He moves houses during the week to pay the bills.

We took the plunge 3 years ago when we packed up the 4 kids and dogs, left our jobs and family, and moved to the middle of nowhere. Started from scratch. We now have a huge garden, a few alpacas, and 40 acres of woods & creeks ETA: almost forgot our 100 chickens! Thought it was a given! Our neighbors call us the "crazy hippies" or the "yankees". But if you saw us cruising in my dh's 1973 International with our Carhartts on you'd never know we weren't locals.

I love the simple life, being eco-conscious, and learning as we go- but I'd KILL for a Trader Joes!!!!!!!!! If I had the money I'd open an Eastern European-style restaurant or a NY/Cleveland style deli and teach these people something about real food! It's the one thing I took for granted being in the city.