See how you can take an expensive hobby and start living like a frugal homesteader with these money-saving homesteading tips.
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Money Saving Tips For Homesteaders
So last week we talked about taking control of your finances so you can build your homestead dreams without the loom of the Money Monster.
One of the things that came out of our budget meetings was a bit of a competition like how much can we sell in a yard sale this month compared to last, or how much cheaper can the grocery shop become, how many weeks can we do on the Store Cupboard Challenge, oh and how much can we save this month from reducing bills and costs.
Having a homestead, even one in the suburbs is a great proofing ground to test your self-sufficient and frugal living skills. Today I want to give your creativity food for thought on these homestead money-saving ideas.
Save Seeds
Now I had to put this one first because this is one of the bigger ongoing costs to a gardener or a homesteader. Saving seeds is very low cost and you don’t need a bunch of fancy tools if you release worries about maintaining varietal purity or trying to keep the same variety and stop cross-pollination with other varieties you are growing.
Learn more about seed saving in this post.
Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies
Reusable spray bottles, simple ingredients you can buy in bulk like white vinegar and distilled water make great cleaning products for many surfaces.
You can also up the DIY cleaning supplies by making your own dusters and cleaning cloths from old t-shirts and old towels. I remember a number of jersey cotton underpants becoming cleaning rags in my childhood. I’m not likely to forget helping granny clean the brass with what used to be granddad’s skivvies! Run your old clothing and towels that are going to become cleaning rags through the washer on a hot cycle and dry them first. You can sew them up to make them pretty if you like. Who says cleaning supplies need to be dull?
Learn how to make your own beeswax furniture polish in this post.
Switch To Reusable
Ok, I’m not talking about totally going paper-product free here although I know at least one person listening ditched the toilet paper and went reusable during 2020. If you did, please let me know how the switch went. I would love to know, bog roll is expensive yo!
Replacing disposable products with washable, reusable not only helps your wallet but the environment too. I made pretty reusable un-paper towels with old towels and cute printed cotton fabric that I had in my fabric stash. They work great for spills and I can wash them on a hot wash to keep them clean. Cloth napkins are super easy to make and you can make them from old sheets. Thrift stores and charity shops have bed linen usually at a fraction of the cost of tableware and you can make so many of them! Your limit is your imagination. Homemade, reusable products don’t need to be boring! I made my husband handkerchiefs with embroidered designs and sayings on them that I did by hand.
Make Your Own Laundry Soap
I’ve done this a few times, making my own laundry soap I mean, not climbing in the appliances at the laundromat 😀
I actually quite enjoy making laundry soap. It just takes a bit of time! I prefer powder laundry detergent, maybe it was how I was raised. But I’ve made my own liquid laundry detergent too, 5 gallons of it!
These a lot of information out there on DIY laundry detergent and laundry soap, even fabric softener. I think most homesteaders make their own at some point. If you have why not share your favorite laundry soap recipe in the Facebook group?
Learn more about making laundry soap in this post.
In-Ground Garden
Raised beds can be expensive to build and make although you totally could use reclaimed lumber if you can be sure it’s free from heavy metals and other nasties, or just opt for rocks or bricks the cheapest garden is one you grow straight in the ground. Dig out the weeds to clear the growing area and get growing!
DIY Fertilizer
Ditch the commercial organic fertilizer if you are reducing the costs and make your own! Comfrey makes an amazing liquid fertilizer you can pile the leaves and stems in a bucket with a hole in it at the bottom and weigh them down with leaves. Place another container to collect the liquid that you then dilute into a watering can. Or you can put the leaves in a bucket of water to break down over a few weeks then dilute into a watering can. Other great fertilizers you can make at home are seaweed if you are near the coast, banana skins, compost tea and you can totally put all the weeds out of the garden into a lidded bucket of water for a couple of weeks to make what I like to call gardener’s revenge fertilizer.
Compost
Composting is the best way to build your soil! Compost as much as you can and use it in the garden to help feed your plants throughout the growing season.
Learn how to start composting in this post.
Preserve Food
Thousands of tons of food are wasted every year in the US and Europe. Don’t let your harvest go to waste! Learn to can, freeze or dehydrate your harvest so you can enjoy it later in the year. We made a lot of blackberry jam when we had a bumper harvest last year and are able to share it with friends and family to enjoy as well as ourselves which is great because we don’t have blackberries this year! Same for peaches, there was a bumper year on the peaches 3 years ago and we canned like crazy! We had laundry baskets filled with peaches from one tree! We even were giving them away! But the last 3 years have been minimal to no harvests, but at least we have been able to enjoy canned peaches!
Canning meals like stew or soup has actually been life-changing here. When canning season is on, we do a massive batch of what we call farmer’s soup but also stews they make the ultimate fast dinners on busy work nights because you just empty the contents into a pan, bring up to boil, and simmer for 10 mins. Enough time to bang a couple of spuds in the microwave for a quick jacket potato or make a cheese toastie to go with the soup. Homemade comfort food, from scratch, will have a higher nutrient level than a commercially made, canned equivalent from the grocery store.
Learn more about preserving food in this post.
Cook From Scratch
Cooking from scratch is way cheaper than eating out, it’s healthier too with less additive, sugar, and salt. I now batch cook from scratch to make meals for the week and make a meal plan and a grocery list.
Learn more about cooking from scratch in this post.
Store Cupboard Challenge
Maybe this is one for me to share in the Facebook group for you to join in on. If you haven’t heard of the store cupboard challenge here’s how it works. You go through the whole pantry and kitchen cupboards and write down all the food you have, including that in the fridge and freezer. You are then challenged to not shop at the grocery store but to make meals only from ingredients that you have in the house already.
This is way easier now there are websites you can type in ingredients you have to search and it gives you recipes that use those ingredients. But it helps to not only use up old ingredients but save you money from going to the grocery store.
My stepson and I recently reorganized our pantry and once we got everything out of there and onto the kitchen table, the counters and even on the bench and chairs, my stepson could see that we really don’t need to go to the grocery store for a while! The money I saved from doing the store cupboard challenge was significant and the most I’ve been able to do it for so far was 4 weeks.
Change How You Shop
Cooking from scratch, meal planning and a grocery list (only buy it if it’s on the list!) will start to make a difference in your grocery bill. As does where you shop. The grocery store nearest to me is great for fresh veggies and fruit but is really, really expensive. Another grocery store near me has a bunch of coupons and is great for that but the choice in produce isn’t as good as the other store and finally, there’s another store that is cheaper but has a limited choice in variety and brands but has a way better selection of bulk buy ingredients and fresh produce.
I also check out the salvage stores for their grocery bargains. I picked up a 25 lb sack of quick cook oats from a salvage store for like $20 a year ago. The oats are still good and I have them every week for breakfast or occasionally cookies.
Buying in bulk ends up saving money if the bulk food can be stored properly and used.
Thrifting & Repurposing
Repurposing and reusing are a solid foundation for any homesteader. Like this old glass door became a cold frame.
Old clothes can become a quilt or a cleaning rag, sheets can become napkins, towels can become un-paper towels, old toothbrushes can be part of your shoe cleaning kit or part of your general cleaning tools. They’re great for getting around the back of sink taps and faucets and grout or used to clean brass and even jewelry. Breaking down a shed in the yard? Can you repurpose the wood to make something else like a bench, a chair, or even a chicken coop? I’ve seen furniture being converted into rabbit hutches, quail coops, and even chicken coops. I’ve also seen an old cabinet be converted into a solar oven, another become an office or a hide-away craft room. I’m looking for a cabinet or wardrobe to turn into a seed drying cupboard with racks and screens!
Paper grocery bags can be saved to use as sheet mulch to block weeds or shredded and added to the compost heap, yogurt pots can become plant starter containers, make your own biodegradable seed starter pots from newspaper, use old food jars to store seeds in. The list to reusing and repurposing really is endless so get creative!
What’s your best money-saving homestead tip? Let me know in the Facebook group
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