Homesteaders are all about saving money and in today's episode I am going to share a ton of ways for you to do just that!
Homesteaders are all about saving money and in today's episode I am going to share a ton of ways for you to do just that!
Episode 20 - PP
Ways To Save Some Money On Your Farm or Homestead
Saving money is so important to homesteaders. We have to watch where every penny goes. In today’s episode I am going to share some great tips for saving money all over your property no matter how big or small it may be. Here we go…
Hi and welcome back to the Prepping Positively Podcast. I’m Annie and today we are talking about ways to save some money around your farm and homestead.
Now I don’t know about you, but we are always looking for ways to save even a few cents on our homestead. We cut back, use less, and reuse everything we can.
A great example of the biggest expense for my homestead is with our electric bill. We do not have the ability to use natural gas here in central Florida, so everything is tied to the grid for us. And let me tell you that our average electric bill is about $350.00 a month.
One of the ways we cut down on our electric usage includes using a wood stove in the winter to heat our home. The wood stove is warmer but does take a bit more work and you have to make sure you keep enough firewood on hand. However, the more work is worth the savings.
We try to keep insulated curtains on all the windows in the winter to help keep the cold outside. And instead of turning up the thermostat when we do have to use the furnace, we simply dress warmer or add another blanket.
We also love to use oil lamps and candles in the evenings when we really don’t need a lot of light. When we do use electric lights we make sure the bulbs are LED. And when we are not in a room it means the lights are off.
Outside we use solar lights everywhere and anywhere we can.
Ceiling fans are also used to keep the air moving when the AC isn’t required, as well as opening windows and doors to let the cooler air in, in fall.
Although you may not think about it, unused appliances and electronics do not need to be constantly plugged in. Unless it is an appliance like a stove or fridge that must stay on, we unplug them when we are not using them.
Because we are on a well, it is a huge part of electric usage. From irrigation to water for the animals, to our own usage in the house, we use a lot of water. To save on this area, we installed rain barrels and use the help of gravity to water the plants that are nearby.
The outdoor animals like the cats and dogs, also have water bowls under two of the barrels for their water.
Any water bowls for the pigs or cows or horses are mounted so they cannot be tipped over constantly, thus wasting water.
In our home, we turn the water off when we are not using it. We take shorter showers, wash the dishes by hand, and we fill the washing machine as full as possible.
Speaking of doing laundry, we use a clothesline all year to dry our clothes as long as the weather permits.
We keep our fridge and freezer filled as much as possible because the more you have in it the easier it is to stay cold, and longer. And speaking of food, we cut down on our electric range by cooking outside as much as possible.
But electric is not our only expense. Feed is the second biggest expense for us. We have 17 pigs, 3 cows, 2 horses, 30+ chickens, 7 ducks, over 20 barn cats, 2 dogs and a turkey. In the house we have 3 cats and 2 aquariums of fish. We can easily spend in excess of 500+ dollars every two weeks just buying feed.
So to cut down the feed bill, we grow fodder for the chickens and rabbits, grow alfalfa for the livestock, feed tons of scraps to the pigs and let just about everything graze and free range as much as possible.
Next year we will be growing our own hay to help cut feed costs even more. We also price shop. As long as the ingredients are healthy, we won’t hesitate to buy a cheaper brand of feed.
As far as gardening goes, we severely cut back our food bill by growing most of our own fruit, vegetables, and herbs here. We save our own seeds so that I do not ever have to purchase seeds from someone else. We also grow a few types of berries and tons of “foraged” food like plantain, Moringa trees, mushrooms, and dandelions.
We also grow year round thanks to our greenhouse we got for a really affordable price, and our indoor gardens.
We do all of the maintenance ourself instead of hiring someone else. That saves a ton of money for us. This includes fencing, buildings for the animals, painting and any upkeep-type jobs.
We don’t spend money on equipment rental, instead we exchange things with the neighbors for use of their equipment. I have traded Camphor trees for the use of a tractor recently.
The last way we save money is by reusing things. We make our own fence posts out of trees that are cut down, we have recycled used wood into raised beds, used milk crates for nesting boxes, used old metal roofing for roofs for our pigs and rabbits, and even added an office on the back of our home with walls made from hurricane proof glass sliding doors.
We save and reuse mason jars, plastic totes, even cardboard boxes for our new garden plots.
The whole point of saving money is not spending it. If you look around at what you have and think to yourself, “How can I use this elsewhere?” You may be surprised what you can come up with. Do what you can to save money in different ways on your property and see if you don’t notice what those simple actions can save you in the long run.
Well that’s all I have for you today. Remember to turn off those lights, and get creative in finding more ways to save some money. See ya next Monday.