How I save on the homestead
Living a home-centered life helps to save, offset, and funnel money in different ways. Here’s where I notice ways to save.
Choosing a lifestyle focused on growing or raising your own food, building community, and relying less on commercially-produced goods comes with its own costs, but it also comes with savings. When we save in some ways, I feel better about funneling part or all of that savings into efforts that help us bring better food into our home, build infrastructure (fencing, coops, etc.), and save for “the next thing.”
Moving dollars toward locally-produced whole foods magnifies the economic impact. According to the American Independent Business Alliance, almost half of local purchases recirculate within the community and “small independent retailers return more than three times as much money per dollar of sales to the local economy than chain competitors.” I also believe that prioritizing locally-grown, whole food options in our home has a cascading effect. Not only does it give us the opportunity to support small farms in our community, it directly impacts our health now and in the future. It’s an investment. According to the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, “The whole-foods, plant-based dietary pattern has been shown to prevent and reverse multiple chronic medical conditions. It involves eating high-fiber, low-fat foods and minimizes animal-based products and processed foods.”
The other area that I mentioned we’ll funnel money to is infrastructure. You may remember the horror experience we had with our chickens over the summer, which happened due to excessive water pooling in the run. (Crazy that we’re in a drought now just a few months later!) Our makeshift temporary fix has worked well keeping water out of their area, but this winter we need to make a proper retaining wall and likely some sort of French drain system. We’re also getting more animals next year (more on that soon), so we’ll need to build a structure for them. Those projects help sustain the systems we have in place and future systems that feed our family.
I also mentioned funneling savings toward “the next thing.” For us, this means the next most important thing on our list. It doesn’t necessarily mean that when there’s excess money, we immediately purchase the next thing. I use an informal earmarking system. Anything in excess of the cost of the next thing gets earmarked for the next-next thing, and so on.
When the next thing doesn’t cost anything, that’s even better. Earlier this year “the next thing” was building a shelter for our pigs in advance of us bringing them here. That structure didn’t cost anything. Let’s start with that and look at other ways I see us saving around the homestead:
Scout free material. We chatted with our local feed store about their excess pallets. Some they have to return to the manufacturer, but others they had in a pile and offered them to us for free. Another customer in the store heard our conversation and suggested we visit a local furniture store if we needed extra pallets, so that could be an option for you too. We used the pallets to build an A-frame shelter for the pigs. We have a county email listserv where people post things for free or for sale. A few years ago, someone was getting rid of tin roof pieces for free. My husband and I drove out on a gorgeous country road, picked up the metal roof pieces, and stored them. Those now shelter the pigs. I originally wanted to use the metal to make part of the quail cottage roof, but after we cut the metal, it was too sharp on the edges of their cottage to use. I ended up using asphalt shingles that the original owners of our house left behind, so another free thing.
Re-purpose strategically. When we first moved into our house nearly a decade ago, I had no education about gardening or growing anything. One of things we wanted to do in our first year was plant arborvitae along the back property line. I had liked the idea of how they formed a natural privacy wall. At the time, the hundred acres behind us were used for timber, but we knew that wouldn’t always be the case. I planted 45 arborvitae along the property line. As I was planting I learned that deer love to eat aborvitae. The thought of going through all of the effort of planting them only to have them eaten up by deer made me sick. My husband ran out and brought home a huge role of fencing and landscape stakes. While I planted the trees, he made cages and staked them in. It was exhausting and a huge unexpected expense. Now most of those trees are taller than me and strong enough to endure some deer browsing, so I’ve been removing the cages and stakes. All of the pig fencing is held up by those stakes, and I’ve re-purposed the cages to protect our fruit trees and bushes, plus provide trellises in the garden.
I needed to purchase electric poultry netting the first winter that the quail spent in the high tunnel. The only option I could find locally was 400’ of netting even though I only needed enough to surround a 16’ x 16’ structure. We’ve used that netting for 3 years now, but only seasonally. I re-purposed it this year to act as a double fence around the pigs while they’re small. Now that they’re bigger, and we’re approaching the first day of winter, I’ll move the fence back to guard the quail for the winter. (Next year, after the quail are back in their coop, we’ll use that same fence for the next livestock.)
Don’t underestimate leaves. Many gardeners will tell you about the benefits of leaf mulch, and national campaigns like No Mow May spread the word about leaves providing important pollinator habitat. Leaves can also be food. I attended a session about feeding pigs for free at the Organic Growers School this year led by Perma Pastures Farm. The presentation cited “oak hay” as a free source of food for pigs: gathering oak leaves and using it as feed, or letting pigs forage under oaks. Leaves can also be bedding. I’ve never purchased bedding for our quail. I keep their run full of leaves year-round. I seasonally remove the leaves, which get packed with their droppings, and compost it next to the garden. Since their droppings are high in nitrogen, I use the composted bedding as mulch for garlic, lettuces, and kales.
Save, swap, and share seeds. I always let a few plants go to seed. I’m always amazed how a single lettuce or broccoli plant produces hundreds of seeds. When I find a particular plant that I like, or have a high-producing plant in a season, I choose it to go to seed. With many seed packets hitting the $4 or $5 mark, producing your own seed can save a lot of money over time. I also love swapping seeds with friends when they find plants they love too.
Start from seed. I can’t imagine how much money I’ve saved starting everything from seed. Not only the cost of the individual seedlings, but starting from seed gives you the opportunity to decide when you want seedlings ready to transplant. You don’t need to wait for what’s in stock, so you can use your time the way that it works for you. There’s a high value in that. Yes, there’s the cost of soil, trays, and grow lights (if you use them), but it’s virtually nothing in comparison to the cost of buying hundreds of seedlings. On the topic of grow lights: You don’t need them. I purchased LED shop lights at Lowe’s a few years ago and I set them on a timer above the trays. Three nice things about this: You can re-purpose the lights for other projects, you don’t need to worry about UV damage (particularly if you’re setting up seedling starts in an area where you spend a lot of time), and the cost savings is significant.
Soil blocks in lieu of seedling containers. I mentioned how much I love using a soil block maker in my gift guide for gardeners. I still use seedling containers, but my go-to method is creating trays of soil blocks. It does reduce how much I can start in a space (about 36 seedlings compared to a 72-cell tray), however, starting a few 72-cell trays mean that I have to pot up 144+ seedlings. Using the soil block maker means I don’t have the expense of all the plastic seedling containers, the labor, and I can let the seedlings mature longer in one space before transplanting them directly outside.
Trade. A few years ago, a local farm borrowed my spare incubator. Last summer when I had a big loss of quail, I was able to get hatching eggs from their farm. We also swap and borrow tools with friends. We’ve loaned our power washer out several times. In return, we’ve borrowed a carpet steam cleaner, tractor, and many other tools. I also trade our excess garden goodies and eggs with friends who don’t have chickens and then I take home treats they grow that I don’t.
Dehydrate and preserve. I’ve shared many times about our dehydrator. From preserving nutrients in our own food to making our own dog treats, the dehydrator has a job year-round. We use a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator and, as of this writing, Excalibur is offering 25 percent off their classic dehydrators and drying sheets.
Create sustaining systems. We have reliable systems in place that let us go away for 4 days at a time without the need for petsitter visits. That changed when we got pigs. I decided that since the pigs are only here temporarily that I’d prefer having the expense of animal care visits. Currently pet care costs $25 per visit. Having reliable animal feed and water systems translates to significant long-term savings.
I’m always interested in more ways to save in the garden and with our animals. Let me know how you’re saving.