How I saved $3,000 annually on the homestead this year

With a few changes, I’m able to reduce our annual expenses by thousands of dollars, and potentially more.

We’ll use the money we save for investing in different ways.

Fermented chicken feed, homemade sourdough bread, and other homestead-ish practices generally surface as ways of saving money at home. I haven’t attempted fermented chicken feed (yet) and I’ve been in the practice of baking my own bread for almost 17 years. The recent changes I’ve made span regular household expenses to the homestead. My husband and I are looking at investing in new ways, and as a foodie I’ve been looking at more ways of diversifying our diet. I decided to cut some expenses, then we’ll use the money saved as the seed for investments and buying a variety of foods we don’t produce ourselves. That way the saved money will grow and pay us back both financially and healthfully.

In an earlier post about wallet-friendly DIY household cleaning products, I shared that over the past decade I’ve reduced our annual cleaning supply expenses by more than $200. Today I share about recent expense changes from the past few weeks and months. I’ll start the list with more home-focused expenses and work into livestock:

• Netflix. We were at the $15/month level. With other streaming services we already subscribe to, we noticed we used this one the least.
  Annual savings: $180

• At-home garbage pickup. Even thought we live on the cusp of a rural area that’s quickly becoming suburbanized, we don’t have a town service that picks up waste or recyclables. Generally, folks in our area haul their own trash and recyclables to centers around the county. We’ve paid for a private waste and recycle pickup service for a decade. This year we’re canceling that service and will instead haul our trash to local drop-offs.
  Annual savings: $672

• Cell phone. I took a few minutes to review our cell phone plans. We already have employer savings applied (ask your carrier if they offer employer, veteran, health care, or educator discounts) and the plans were already at the right level for our needs, but I noticed that we were paying for insurance on fairly old (by today’s standards) phones. $40 per month of unnecessary insurance.
  Annual savings: $480

• Mealworms. Our chickens are spoiled in many ways and one of those ways includes a daily treat of mealworms. In an earlier post I shared about the downsides of sourcing mealworms from outside the United States. The U.S.-based mealworms that I’ve been buying have increased in price and cost $20/lb. The girls would go through 2 lbs or more per month. Instead of a daily treat, they’re now only getting them on cold days, and half the portion that they used to get when they return to the coop on free ranging days. Even with the cold weather we’re having I’ve been able to reduce their treats to 1 lb per month.
  Annual savings: $240 (or more)

• Homemade yogurt. I mentioned in my last post that a Crock Pot yogurt recipe has transformed my breakfasts and snacks. I also use yogurt for dog treats and frozen Kong rewards. I was buying individual yogurt containers for about $1.79 each, approximately 5 per week, which is about $36 per month. Now I use part of the milk we’re already buying and making my own yogurt. In some recipes that call for milk I’ve been substituting most or all with yogurt, so it’s not requiring us to buy more milk.
  Annual savings: $432

• Homegrown pork. We’re 5 weeks away from thanking our first pigs for the land improvement and joy they’ve brought us over the past six months. I may organize a formal breakdown of their costs once final weights are measured next month, but for now at a high level, raising two hogs from acquisition to processing will produce finished pork at approximately $3 per pound. We’re paying about $10 per pound through local farms and we consume about 2 lbs per week. Raising our own pork will last us about 2 years. Given these numbers, we spend just over $1,000 annually on local pork, and we’ll consume about $300 annually of our own.
  Annual savings: $800

• Meat birds. Our forthcoming meat chickens may save us money too. We’ve never raised meat chickens before, so it’s unclear how much feed they’ll consume and what the actual cost will be. The breed that arrives next week will mature in 3 months and the finished flock should last a year or two given how often we eat chicken. Currently, I spend $45 per whole chicken (about 4-5 lb bird) from local farms and we have one (sometimes two) birds per month. I’m optimistic that our costs could be as much as 50% lower.
  Potential annual savings: $270

All of these annual savings combined come to approximately $3,074.

As I mentioned, the money saved will be invested. It also frees up capital to support local farms for products that we don’t raise ourselves. We’ll rely on regenerative farmers for beef, and we’re fortunate to have nearby farms raising lamb, rabbit, and even ostrich (which I love), and regional suppliers of coastal seafood and mountain trout. The money saved can help us support the great work of local farms and responsible fishing while at the same time increasing the diversity of our diets. According to Gut Microbiota for Health, a more diverse diet creates a greater diversity of microbiota, which improves immunity and well-being. Hopefully we’ll have some health-focused compounding benefits from the changes we’re making this year.