DOES HOMESTEADING SAVE YOU MONEY? – PANTRY CHAT #41
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I used to spend $50-60 a week for groceries when I was working. I was buying package meals or frozen meals as I was working 10-12 hours a day/6-7 days a week. Since retiring I shop once a month and I have a hard time spending more than $150-175 a month. I have changed to making almost everything from scratch. I’m even starting to can fresh vegetables and making my own jams. The food tastes so much better!! I started doing this because of watching your channel. So thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!
my 6 hens are paying for their food and provide me with what i need.
I set up my grow light station in the house for starting seeds. I washed my seed trays and inserts so I am ready to start seeds. I will be starting some seed in a couple weeks. I am in Zone 4 in Wisconsin. The snow is melting so I am hopeful for an early spring. We bought a 6×8 greenhouse to help grow even more things from seed.
OMG I'm in NYS And I have a lots growing in my basement…collards, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers squashes, cucumber, egg plant…OMG got a bit carried away, hope I can keep it all alive till my growhouse is up and ready .. going to record a video and post what all I been doing since end if Jan.on my channel: meghanshomestead…hope you guys get started soon…I had to do something so I stop feeling like I wanna hang myself…lol
Southern indiana.. we are starting our seeds..😘
I am in West Tennessee. Just got my carrot seeds and English sweet peas in the ground. Hard to determine the best time to plant because as you know, it'll be 60 one day and 30 the next. Trial and error! Lol
I'm waiting for plants to become available for head lettuce, cabbage, and cauliflower. I did start some organic cabbage, carrots, and tomatoes fermenting, so I'm super excited to get those ready to eat to help my MIL with a newly diagnosis of auto-immune problem. Super excited!!! Thanks for all the information!! Homestead still growing and flourishing 😁
Good morning Homesteading Family. Your comments regarding saving money in the foods you consume was excellent advice. We relay on our gardens to can veggies for the winter months. Yes, "some labor required".
Getting physical in the garden keeps me healthy and I have my canning down to a good system. Yes, we also glean from neighbors fruit trees or extra garden produce. Your advice about doing your homework is the KEY.
Plan out your strategy and budget and look for the hidden costs. Keeping a yearly journal will show you how you did the prior year and what needs tweaking. Great topic! Also pay attention to any friends/neighbors who are doing this kind of thing. I just LOVE laying hens, but they usually don't save me money…
What animals would you suggest on 3 acres? Besides chickens, of course😋!
I waited three years to have dirt spread out in my yard because I live in the deep South. I had 17 dump truck loads of mulch dumped off at my house almost 2 years ago. Has turned into the most fertile soil. Because I did not have to weed out anything and the dirt is crumbly soft. In a matter of two hours I had planted an entire garden without even needing a tiller. Just had a garden hoe. I planted everything on February 15. Some plants I have not seen come up yet, but some have come up really nice so far. Wondering if the armadillos will ruin my garden or maybe my husband because now he is talking about renting a bobcat to push the dirt. Still upset that he killed 23 avocado trees that I had planted. He does not realize he killed my plants. He does know he killed my melons a few years ago. I thought I was going to have thousands of melons. I am wondering if I’m ever going to eat fresh fruit in my yard or vegetables. It’s bad when someone works against you.
Can I supplement protein for my chickens by giving them meat scraps?
Putting starts into the sunroom grow-tent we build last week! We have a special black tent for a growlight to get starts going early. I'm actually working on planting while I watch this video! I'm in southern Missouri but our weather is more like northern Missouri because we're in the mountain foothills.
What kills me about homesteading, is the cost to get on a piece of decent land & get it started. Something I've been working towards for almost a decade now.
As far as spring gardening goes. Yes, I could have started back in Jan in So Cal this yr. Unfortunately my free compost isn't done braking down. I refuse to buy any this yr. So, I will be starting probably closer to your time. With that said, bc it was unseasonably warm this winter. I couldn't get a decent winter crop, either. 🤞 the harvest will still be plentiful. 🙏🙏🙏
Even boxed food from the grocery store is cheaper than eating out! Cooking at home saves so much money, especially from scratch. My meals average $1-3 per serving which is many times less expensive than from a restaurant.
As far as animals and gardening goes, I agree that it depends, but I also think it's important to not be perfectionistic. We don't have to start with free range, organic, fermented foods chickens. It is still better quality to start with, say, non-gmo feed (not organic) and will still save you money. We don't have to start our gardens with the most pristine soil and build giant raised beds. The startup infrastructure is going to be the biggest investment, so I recommend starting small and trying to be thrifty. It cannot be perfect right out of the gate. One example of this in our home is with chickens. I started chickens and they started laying well before I thought they would, and we did not have any nest boxes ready. I could have run to the store and spent lots of money on premade nest boxes. I agree that the metal nest boxes would be a great investment in the long run. However, I don't know if I'll even have chickens in 10 years. I'm just getting my feet wet, so I decided to see if I could rig a large diaper box into a nest box and it worked perfectly. I even separated it into two nests using a cardboard piece as a divider.
What a gorgeous gift,,,,I was talking to someone, I always push, grow your own, you grow grass in your yard,,,why not grow something to eat in that yard
The turkeys around here in the Silver Valley sure are acting like it’s spring. Fingers crossed it’s an early spring
You two are the cutest couple. Love you guys!
Regarding canning: the first time I canned, I used my mother's canner. At that time, the canner was at least 60 years old. (I am now 60 and it's at least 15 years older than I am.) I had replaced the gasket, but everything else was original. In my inexperience, I had used too little water. The pressure release button blew. It didn't explode. It didn't damage anything. Really, it was the best thing. It showed me what a canner failure looks like and took away my fear. We replaced the pressure release button and it's still good. I still use that canner today.😄
In Ontario Canada zone 5a colder than 5b, still a lot of snow! Just tapped the maples, and am starting my peppers and flowers now indoors. Xo great info love your videos God Bless ☕💕
We just bought a (future) homestead -20 acres. Your videos have been so incredibly helpful! Thank you both for taking time to teach the "next generation."
I canned my first chicken broth today, using my pressure canner for the first time and I will be ready to label my jars. I'm noticing your jars behind you that have the blackboard paint(?) and chalk(?)
Does the paint wear off when you wash it or how do you relabel it?
Do you/have you ever butchered ducks? Our experience is that it's not easy, but we need to cull and are looking for advice and even good recipes for cooking duck.
First, you guys are adorable. Love your videos! We garden and have chickens, turkey, ducks and rabbits for eggs and meat. The rabbits are by far the least investment as far as time/feed/infrastructure. When you figure 1 doe will have 6-11 kits in a litter and a 30 day gestation, that's a lot of meat at little cost. Our older boys (11 & 13) are learning about tanning hides and will be doing that with our rabbit pelts to earn money.
I originally got chickens for their “litter” for fertilizer. It is also nice to have eggs. When there was an egg recall a few years ago, I knew eggs from my girls were safe. Besides saving $ you get peace of mind knowing where your food is coming from.
This is my very first year attempting to grow our own food!! I live in the south and have seeds started inside!! I am super excited!!!
Loved the vid! Thank you for the info!
Our garden is brimming with cabbage, tomatoes, strawberries, pumpkin, onions, zucchini right now here in New Zealand, have planted peach trees and raspberry plants hope they will start to produce next spring (summer here) we save money doing this because we use what we have, buy second hand, make do or do without, just canned several relishes/pickles this morning cost me nothing but time, make great gifts. getting chickens in the spring, we had them afew years ago so I'm looking forward to getting back into it
Looking forward to those canning horror stories where a friend of a friends aunts neighbour blew up her kitchen and there were carrots were stuck into the ceiling.
I found that I am saving money with buying or growing my own food and preserving it. My canners I bought on sale and my jars are all used and found off of Kijiji for a fraction of the cost. I scan for sales on bulk veggies and meat weekly.
Thank you!!
Since starting to watch your channel, I have developed many different strategies to save money/have better quality. I don't have a "homestead" per se, but I do follow some of the practices that make sense for me. Time and money are often somewhat mutually exclusive. If you want to save money you often have to invest time. Making bread instead of buying, buying in bulk and canning, growing your own vegetables from seed. All of these take more time, but its time I enjoy so it's more than just saving money for me. Plus the quality is better. I hand make many gifts instead of buying them. Some things I have tried to make are not better quality so I will continue to buy them, but most are. For those things I buy, I buy in bulk or on sale and preserve by canning, freezing or dehydrating. I am still in the process of adding more and more to my skill and am very thankful for your channel, for instruction and inspiration. Thanks!
We heard frogs so it’s time to start seeds! We are thinking of moving to Idaho. Anyone got info on Spirit Lake, Idaho?
We have warm temps coming this week so we can do lettuce outside now. Still too early for hot weather lovers but, I have some ideas brewing.
How many childrens do you have ?
Hi Guy's hello from sunny South Africa, yes you read correctly South Africa, we are in our summer but where i live we don't get much of a winter the lowest our temp gets is 9 degrees Celsius that's about 48.2 Fahrenheit so pretty warm and our gardens almost never sleep. Enjoy the rest with your family as i am sure you will be busy, busy soon. regards Kerry
Is saving money why people get out of cities and go back to nature? No. Money is not why. Unless you are a shallow soul who has as their only focus, money.
It's still very winter here in Vermont but I have an attached greenhouse that I have started many things in. Nothing lifts my spirits like seeing seedlings and eventually plants in late winter, early spring. It is also the only way I can grow things like tomatoes without buying in all of the seedlings.
I am still under 3 feet of snow so no planting for me for a long time. Lol
I'm in South Carolina and have planted my potatoes, I have collards and turnips ready for harvest and new ones that are growing. I have radish, garlic and onions up as well.
I'm in northern Maine, we're still under about three feet of snow where I'm at…but I couldn't help starting some greens in little pots watching everyone getting started down south. 😛 I did start sterilizing supplies and cold stratifying some seeds though. Sooooon. Can't 'wait for Spring. One thing that any food grown and preserved at home has on store bought is climate impact. It's not shipped anywhere. It's not being wrapped up in plastics. You can knock down the carbon footprint of your meat animals and be sure they're being raised humanely. If it's only about money you can probably at least break even if you keep the quality comparable, but it's definitely about lot more for us here.
Hello Josh and Carolyn! Love watching your videos! I signed up for your live program that is coming soon. After I signed up it said something about a link coming in the email. Unfortunately I can’t get into my emails since I bought a new phone. When I transferred my information from the old phone to the new phone, none of my passwords work for the email addresses I have. So if you can send me that link in private message on Facebook, I’ll be able to participate. If that’s not possible, please remove me so that someone else can sign up in my place. Thank you.
P.S. If anyone knows how to help me with this….. (I’m computer illiterate basically. So keep any help very simple. 😁)
I'm waiting on new soil for our hoop house then I'll be planting greens. Yay! Dandelions are blooming and the wild plum trees.
Y'all (Yes I'm in Texas) are soooo amazing. I love how you put this all in perspective. Yes, I dream of a dairy cow, but just can't justify it for my husband and I. Love the video, it is full of factual analysis and information. Learning every day and I appreciate all you put out there. Thanks, keep it up!!! Please!!!
I love & live in Alaska! No starts until middle of March. LOL
Just wondering how you earn money when your on the homestead fulltime?
I have started some seeds, but we have been hit with a curve ball. We have to move in about a week. The rental we are in needs a complete renovation, so i have no idea if i will have a growing area that has sun.😰 God knows i am a gardener, so hopfully it works out.
I have onions started from seed. My first time…
I'm wondering if you grow some of your animal feed and if so what?
It is going to be in the mid 80's this week in So Cal. All of my brassicas are bolting. Booooo.
East side of Idaho and under 3 ft of snow, definitely not gardening! Lol. I think homesteading in general has a huge upfront cost. People don't consider fencing, animal housing, garden box material, and animal purchase, etc at first. Once all that's established, then cost of apple to apple comparison can be more equivalent.
Im in Western Australia, we are coming to the tail end of summer, so its still too hot to plant anything. We are backwards here, too hot in summer to grow, but we can grow all through winter. I even grow eggplant, zucchini’s, even capsicum and tomatoes in winter 😂 it hard to fathom the kind of winters some places in the world get, our lowest temp we might get is around 4 degrees Celsius, and i feel i might freeze to death when its that cold 😂
Excellent chat…great tips! Really appreciate it. We are in Juneau, Alaska and are just starting to get our seeds together and think about garden layout. But we can’t wait to get to it! 😃 Really enjoy all your videos. We’ve been eating Cortido for a few months now (thanks to you) and we love it!