How did self sufficiency save you money last year?

[savingdogs]

The need to be frugal is driving my desire to be self sufficient.

I am wondering what saved you the most money last year in the way of being self sufficient.

I'll start it off by saying we moved to a house where a wood stove heats the home and the wood is harvested from weed trees on our own property. That was last year. We still pay electric bills but at least have cut back on our dependence on electricity.

For this year, we have learned to make our own laundry soap and bath soap and I'm dabbling in other household products. I like knowing what is in these products and not spending a fortune on a lot of junk, dye and filler and detergent.

What can you all come up with?

 

[freemotion]

Laundry soap and other homemade products saved a lot for sure. Homemade facial moisturizer...the best! I used high-end products before, and the homemade version holds up to those good ones. Deodorant....cheap! And bar soap, made from rendered suet and free fat trim from the butcher.

Since I have the land and a fenced pasture, the chickens have been very cheap for us. Selling a few eggs pays for out-of-pocket expenses, and free-ranging helps most of the year. Same with the dairy goat. She pays all her expenses, and probably helps defray the cost of the pet goats, too. We use every drop of her milk and use a lot more dairy than we used to. Yum.

Getting as creative as possible and making new projects from stuff scrounged or found or re-purposing another project is fun and frugal....and green!

I wear only classic and somewhat plain clothes and they last for years....but I start with good quality. I am wearing turtlenecks I bought 6-7 years ago...starting to mend them, but they look fine. I rotate my sneakers...street sneakers become barn sneakers then I buy a new pair for when I need to be presentable.

I no longer use coupons. I never find coupons that will really save me money and give me something that is healthy, so I no longer even look at the coupon flyers anymore. My grocery bill is quite low.

Don't forget the garden!

Oh, and BARTER has been amazing for us. Haircuts and electrical work, mostly. A little bulldozing. The use of a pick-up truck on occasion. Farm and pet sitting. The list goes on.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Well for one, we wouldn't be eating very much or very well, if we didn't grow and preserve our own food. Neither of us has an outside job. We are able to survive on what we grow and what little we sell. We make do, and do without. We don't go to the movies and very rarely do we eat out. Usually only if someone else pays for it
Our idea of going out for fun is to go fishing and hopefully bring home some dinner. Or hunting and hopefully bring home dinner
We also have no medical care, so we have learned to be carefull and to take good care of ourselves. It kind of goes hand in hand with eating well. We grow herbs and use them. I have many herbals and grew up using herbs.
We repair anything that we can possibly repair. We reuse things and re-purpose things. Sometimes things just need a good washing to be used again. We don't mind washing things.
We barter when we can. I got a great pair of shoes in exchange for a bag of zucchini, can't beat that!!
We are willing to work hard, when others aren't. So if someone says they have firewood available, all we have to do is to go and get, we go and get it.
At the end of spring last year, I cut and stacked all the timothy hay that had grown in patches all over the field. I am still feeding this hay to our rabbit. I also cut and stacked the dried wild mustard. The chickens and the rabbit love it as a treat.
We do all sorts of little things like that. In the end they add up. That $5 or 10 we didn't have to spend here or there, meant that we have been able to manage.

 

[Beekissed]

I think my list would be shorter if I described how it didn't save me money last year!

Almost every aspect of how I live has saved me money in one way or another. I'm always amazed at how cheaply I live compared to others I know.

I've saved on:

Fuel/electricity
Food
Household expenses
Clothing
Materials for farm projects
Animals
Entertainment
Exercise/fitness expenses
Auto expenses
Home Improvement
Animal feed
Work Expenses

 

[FarmerChick]

Reasons for SS for me are:

Love of my hands in dirt and owning livestock

frugal to save money for my cash vacations which I love

Be able to function in life if the SHTF and be able to survive easier



I save everywhere I can like most "normal" frugal folks....
and learning to do without spending money on junk items etc to spend on family vacations

 

[GardenWeasel]

I know I spent more than I saved last year but only because I am still building the foundation for more self sufficiency. So building a coop, buying my chicks, getting a powerful tiller and large riding mower, seeds, canning jars, pressure canner, etc... But we are eating more healthy and have great eggs that I don't pay farmer's market prices for. Managed to can a few things this year and was able to dry lots of cheap fruits and vegetables. So what I have learned this year will help in the years to come.

 

[user251]

for me it has been share cropping, we share crop with 2 other families, 1 right next door and the other is 5 miles away. it has saved me alot of cash in vegetable bills. we have 2 pigs and 2 cows on the other mans land that we are feeding out for meat. i have a flock of hens for eggs and meat but i end up giving the eggs to my elderly neighbors so im not making money or breaking even on the eggs but it is worth it (bread, cake, cinnimon rolls etc.). i have always heated with a Buck stove since we built the house so our winter heat bills are generally low, i get wood from tornado damage, construction sites and the like. in 10 years of burning wood ive only fell 3 trees that were on my land. oh and the score of a lifetime i made friends with another farmer who will GIVE me all the deer i want, he shoots it cleans it and i get it . i had to call him off the other day cause i dont have the room for more meat.

 

[hwillm1977]

I know I spent more than I saved last year but only because I am still building the foundation for more self sufficiency. So building a coop, buying my chicks, getting a powerful tiller and large riding mower, seeds, canning jars, pressure canner, etc... But we are eating more healthy and have great eggs that I don't pay farmer's market prices for. Managed to can a few things this year and was able to dry lots of cheap fruits and vegetables. So what I have learned this year will help in the years to come.

I'm just slightly behind where Gardenweasel is... just laying the foundation for my self sufficient journey. I have the materials for my coop, will build a greenhouse this spring too... building raised beds, learning to can and trying to find the supplies to do so without breaking the bank...

So for now I'm spending more than I'm saving, but within a few years I will have cut down my grocery, electricity, and heating bills (we also heat with wood, and bought a woodlot with 5 acres of maple trees).