Anyone homestead without a job?
 

I don't mean without working, I mean not having to drive to work each day, whether that's from selling excess from your homestead, or having a small business. How long do you think it would take to be able to homestead without an outside job? And how to go about it?

Sort of. I work for myself online. It's work, but it's not exactly a job.

All I do is gardening, raise chickens, etc. The place is paid for, and I have some money saved up. I do some bartering from time to time, but just small stuff. My bills are light bill, phone, satellite TV, real estate taxes, homeowners and automobile insurance all together are about $400 a month. I'm living the life I dream of.

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We are actually living on what we raise and grow too. Our place is small (just 6 acres); but everything we own is paid for. Our monthly bills (electricity, phone, isp for computer), insurance bills (homestead plus automobile insurance), kerosene re-fill for winter months (quite expensive now) & purchase of square-bailed hay each year for wintering our goats is what takes our income. (Social Security under $1,000 per month.)

It gets hard at times; but we manage ok. If I can manage to rennovate our 4 acres of grazing pasture, we will save the money presently needed for hay.

A large garden with 2 large deep freezes and processing our own home-raised goat and chicken meat is what sustaines us.

We own our own business, welding shop which is on our place, and have done that solely since 1986. Times get hard and then they get easy. We raised 2 boys this way. We raise just about everything we eat and recycle about everything we use. It is the only way of life we know and love it. We still make payments on house and pickup too. Like I say, some months we don't make any money, struggle to pay bills, but the next month, things may turn around.........you never know around here. You just learn to go with the flow!!!

I haven't had a "job" since I was 21.

I'm 42.

The way to go about it is to condition yourself and family to doing without the trappings so crucial to the shallow lives of the Jones's. Commit to growing your own, and providing your own, in every way you possibly can.
Scrap metals and general demolition/salvage work have been very good to me, as has firewood sales, occasional horseshoeing and running heavy equipment every now and then.

Full disclosure - my husband works off the farm.

We can, and have, lived on my income as a market farmer. Our mortgage is small, vehicles are paid, etc.

Heh, I've been homesteading without a job since October of last year (laid off). And before that I was working one day a week since August. I've been trying to figure out a way to make money independent of working for someone else since jobs have been hard to come by. I've been watching the raw milk debate here in Wisconsin. I've figured it out before even milking 3 cows I'd be able to make out all right if I could sell directly to the consumer. The market for vegetables is pretty soft around here. My bills are really low (under 320 bucks per month for everything except food and gas) so I don't need to make much.

Neither my hubby or I have a job that we have to drive to. We walk to our woodworking shop about 100ft from our back door. Up until 2007 hubby worked out but we decided that we would rather do without than have him working away from home. Some people thought that it would be the end of our marriage but I think it's saved it since hubby has become much easier to live with since he's no longer stressed out from work. He feels like he's retired and he's only 42.

I want to start market gardening this year to raise a bit more cash since we would like to be able to save some.

We are debt-free except for our mortgage and have been since the end of 2009. It's a great feeling after 15 years of living beyond our means to living just slightly below our means.

We also sell some beef a couple of times a year, eggs and hay.

I quit the only half real job 14 years ago. I worked, skimped, and saved, to get everything paid for before hand. Since then, I've had a small income from mineral interests that usually pay for the taxes, and one or two small bills. A few days a month of handyman type work would see me through. Last two years, I started a new business, and I can work about half the time from home, getting the best income I've ever had (some courthouses have their real estate records online, and I can access them from home).

GF is currently working off the place... she want's better infrastructure than my scrounging can provide... so she works to bring in the extras she wants...

I have lived in the past, without working at all during the year (for someone else). Made just enough to cover the property taxes, and a few bucks a week for storebought groceries.

Like Forerunner said... it can be done if you eliminate luxuries and temper your wants and needs... if you have any vices, it's mighty difficultsome.

I work from the house in a small 1 man woodworking shop. I live very simple and have no debt. My bills are low (but the prop. taxes are somewhat high). I'm able to build or repair most things myself. I've been self employed most of my life.

Lucky777, I am looking for the same thing as you. The income from the farm increases every year, but not near fast enough. The corperate world I work in is wearing me down faster than the farm/homestead can pick me up. No advice, if I could at this point I would. I would like to hear from others also, I have a 3 year old, so I need ins. That is my biggest obstical.

I do, now lol, course im retired

very interesting thread, i am also wishing i could bring in a bit more without leaving much. some tell me this is just a joke, but yet i see some of you doing it. i have been an artist for many years, and have never seen it soooo bad, so my income is lacking big-time. luckily, i work at a hunting lodge for 2 months out of the year, a mile from home. its very long hard days/work, but pays amazingly well, and is similar to my working a part time penny-anny job (all that's available here) thru the year.

working from home making enough to feed the animals and pay one-two bills per month would be really great. now to find a way to do that!!

i try to evaluate how we spend our money, but i think it may be more difficult being 'too close' to it. since our move i find boxes, big ones, filled with stuff we moved, stored, and now brought into the house, and i think 'geesh, i haven't even looked for this junk, forgot we had it, and still see no need for it, yet we moved it all over!!' its so easy to loose sight like this with how you spend money too--you just have always done it and forget you can change things. and then DH has differnet ways to see what we 'need' and then i have my own ideas--he think we need dish tv (i HATE it) but i need hi speed internet.

if we could spend less, without causing issues, that would be about as much help as increasing our income.

I do part time jobs here and there and have my online biz.

DH manages the ranch we live on.
In exchange, he not only gets a paycheck, but also free housing, use/possession of all of the outbuildings (chicken coop, barn, etc.) free pasture for the horses, vet care for our horses (they're "employees"), company pickup that we can also use for personal, like hauling kids to 4H, etc.

We also have our own land that we're slowly but surely building our own place on. Until then, this works out quite well.
It's a good in-between. :)

If your place is bought and payed for, meaning you owe nothing on it, then you have a purty good chance of being able to live off of it without too much of a outside job. I don't farm on a major scale to make money. But I do drive a school bus that pays my utility bills and my wifes luxeries (cell phones and internet) we're basically trying to live off the land. We're growing our own vegetables and harvesting wild meats to help ease the grocery bill. Hopefully this year we will also grow extra and do the farmers market thing. But my extra's maybe going to help some in-laws out since they are having a hard time.

My business was at the end of my driveway, auto repair shop built on my property. I did this for years while my 2 kids were small and we had a lot of advantages. Business was very good but it was get big or get out. I had another mechanic working with me and a tow truck. Closed down and went to work for corporate America. I had freedom but couldn't afford health insurance any longer and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I wouldn't have a business to sell and surely couldn't save much for a retirement. Decades of physical labor had taken it's toll on my body and self employment offered no security.

We bought our farm in 1985 and my husband worked independently doing gardening for people during the season and was home in the winter. I groomed dogs at home year round. We did this for ten years until the bank was paid off. After that my husband cut back how much gardening he did for others and concentrated on growing to sell vegetables from the farm. Two years ago he stopped gardening for others altogether.

I sold antiques for awhile but that and the dog grooming petered out. For almost three years I baby sat and lost that job 2 1/2 years ago. We managed to sell enough garlic and goat meat to pay property tax $50 a month , telephone $30 a month,power $50 a month, internet $50 a month and about $80 a month for staples from the store such as flour, oil, honey toilet paper, washing liquid. shampoo, soap,a little grain for the goats,gas for the power saw, dog and cat food and that was about it.I figure we need between $250 and $300 a month to live our life style. Although our income last year was only $2400 for the year and we were quite comfortable.Anything we earn above what we need we save. The government gives us a GST refund every three months of $42 and we use it to support a child in Haiti through Compassion Canada. HST is the Goods and Sevice Tax we pay in Nova Scotia on all goods and services. Low income people get the tax rebate.

We don't have a vehicle, life or house insurance. The house is not insurable because of the wood stoves and my husband isn't insurable because he has one kidney which causes high blood pressure.Health care in Canada is paid for in that GST tax on everything but waiting to see a doctor can take weeks to months.Medicine is not paid for. So we are proactive and try hard to stay well. So far it is working.

The secret to living cheap is to get your place paid for and grow most of your food for you and your animals.Also teach children the value of work and that they don't need things to be happy. We raised five kids with $5,000 a year income. Every one grew up working and are responsible citizens. Out of five four are frugal. One is rich now but also realizes riches ar not important and at middle age is now getting rid of things. I also have a frugal grand daughter although she grew up in a rich home. All the kids know how to survive on little if need be. All the others work and have good incomes but are not interested in materialism.

We recycle-reuse and don't spend money for anything we can make ourselves if making it is cheaper than buying it. Sometimes buying is cheaper.

I can't see giving the government income tax either as we recently found out our politicians have mis- appropiated thousands of tax payer dollars. That is a nice way of saying they were living high and stealing funds while the average guy tightened their belt to survive. So we never make enough money to pay taxes. There are always deductions if you look for them.

My husband always says; " It isn't how much you make that is important; it is what you don't spend that counts."

Yes, I've been doing it for decades. I detest commuting. Many baskets and hats give us flexibility to adapt when the economy changes and time to develop opportunities. Things we do or have done over the years include:

Inventing things
Manufacturing said items
Sales of said manufactured items
Programming
Publishing newsletters, magazines and books
Mapping
Illustrations
Photography
Portraits
Maple Syruping
Timber
Firewood
Farming (major current - primarily pastured pork)
and homesteading.

I put homesteading on that list because by homesteading we figure we save $30,000 a year. That is then money that does not get taxed which saves the taxes on that money as well. Ben Franklin was not quite right: a penny saved is 1.3 cents saved.

This totally depends on too many factors to enumerate. Start with:
How much debt do you have now?
Do you already have land and if not how much will it cost to buy?
Beware of local zoning and other regulations - check before you buy.
What will the taxes be?
What other expenses will you have?
How frugally can you live?
What skills and resources do you have how?
What skills do you need to?

Make a plan, prioritize, cut your expenses to the bone, focus, focus, focus. Make it happen step by step. It takes time like any other major venture.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

If you're in an area that'll support it starting a CSA will get you working at home. It works for me. I grow garden for 40 garden shares, I have a dozen hens that lay green and brown eggs, I'll raise turkeys and geese for the holidays, 2-3 pigs to sell quarters of, dairy goats for milk and dairy products, beehives for honey/beeswax and alpacas for spinning wool. Between all my little ventures I pay all the bills, mortgage, etc and raise two kids.

I have to hire about 100hrs of work but I probably put in about 3000hrs a year. My 8yr is a huge help and the baby is learning how to feed chickens. It's not a bad deal really if you don't mind the only social life being with your customers and kids. I personally love it!

This thread and others mean a lot to me just seeing others much further along on the journey I am only beginning. No debt (including mortgage), provide for yourself, cut all the crap out of your life...how much money does one need....not much

I don't mean to sound stupid but what is a "CSA"?

CSA= Community Supported Agriculture

You(the farmer) grow the stuff and people pay you for a portion usually weekly/monthly or one lump sum up front and they get baskets of veggies weekly or so. So a CSA of 40 will get the harvest for the week split evenly 40 ways.

If the tomatoes do good they get alot of tomatoes if the potatoes do bad they don't get many. Reduces the risk for the farmer and gives the customer more bang for their buck usually.

I'm currently working up my homesteading to support my family full time. I’m under the belief that you need to be diversified when participating in small scale farming and that the farmer himself needs to where many hats.

My family has done custom haying for over 30 years in our area plus selling our own hay, up until this year we were able to sale each bale as soon as it came out of the baler of our place this year though in are area the price of hay is down and with people selling stock because of the economy a lot less customers. A couple years ago we add goats to the farm and sale them as for meat and pets this has expanded this year in that we were able to purchase full blood South African Boers, to sale as breeding, show, market, and meat in the future.

For the last two years I have raised pigs and put in an average of 2 acres into a garden as I build up customers for these two they each expand a little along the way and for about the last 6 years I have sold chicken eggs off our place.

So in all we do 4 or 5 items and we define these and get better well be adding more to it and hopefully picking up some more help for around the place.

loving this thread. imrose really has some great points, i also do not care to add to the govt's cash, as its not used properly and the rest of us suffer for it. i no longer think voting is worth it, as i do not count. they do as they please, and usually behind our backs. so not adding to their funds is a super plan!

i wish we could do more to support ourselves, but so far, i am milking goats. since moving to this property, we'll have much better ground for growing veggies and some fruit trees, and i've got an order in for 2 baby pigs to raise as well. we do hunt, and have been building up our cattle herd for several years. our last house was in an area that honestly grew nothing but weeds, so the gardening will be a big plus for us. also learning preserving and cheese making.

i am also reading plenty on simply doing with less. i look at where i am right now, and things are going well. i do not see anything i am in need of, much less want. i am more than content with what i am doing, who i am, where i am. i am trying to make more simple meals, eat more whole foods, etc. which in turn make my family healthier. i think much of this is all tied together--eat junk, feel poorly, make bad choices....or, eat well, think clearly, move more, feel good.

and the closer i stay home, the better off i am too. sometimes just not going somewhere saves plenty by eliminating impulse buys.

Hillside - How much land does it take you to grow 40 shares? And how long is your CSA season?

Thanks!

I do it without a single job___ its actually with tens of thousands of jobs of people working for companies listed on the stock markets.

The return I get from successfully gambling on the stock of publically traded companies pays my bills and purchases the bulk items and toilet paper I cannot produce here and finances my occasional dates and vacations with just a few hours each day online while the markets are open and a few hours research at night after the markets close.

The beauty of being a smaller investor with frugal lifestyle preference is that I can live comfortably off the smaller return of safer investments and when I do risk a portion of my portfolio in higher risk investments, if I do well its a windfall to me . If I lose my shirt on the high risk gamble , I still got my BVD longhandles and bean pot based in the low risk sector as I go to the garden or tinkering shop to putter around and plan my next high risk gamble as my low risk low return investments and homeplace provide for my frugal basic requirements and slowly rebuild any high risk losses that became tax deductions instead of taxable income.

Husband and grown son (who also lives in a house on the farm) have a small electrical business and they work basically from here (and their two vans and a used bucket truck)....

I write for a statewide agricultural newspaper, two articles per month, meaning I go off the farm part of two days a month to interview folks for those articles.

I sell farm fresh eggs "from happy chickens," goat milk soap, hand quilted baby, lap and couch quilts, homemade jellies, dried herbs, and anything else I can produce here on the farm.

Daughter-in-law and son built a small greenhouse this winter and will be selling bedding plants. Daughter-in-law and I are expanding to have a pretty nice size market garden this year to hopefully sell from the farm and at our county's local farmer's market...

This past year has been ROUGH ROUGH ROUGH. But we're trying to do everything we can to keep afloat.

Although this is the farm I grew up on (15 acres) we are making payments on it and it won't be completely paid for for about three and a half more years. I am 57 and husband is 65.

My advice to ANYONE is to get some land, pay for it, and NEVER EVER mortgage it for any reason. Good luck!

My husband and I retired several years ago. Since then we have lived on several sources of income: Pension from his previous job, international consulting for a few years, software design contracts, investments made before and after retirement which pay regular small amounts, custom farming, selling lambs and hay from the farm.

We have optimized the lamb income from our 11 acre farm by having a high health status flock of very productive ewes. We advertise in appropriate journals and maintain a customer and inquiry database. Our current year's crop of about 40 saleable ewe lambs was sold with a deposit before they were born and next year's crop will probably be pre-sold as well. Each year we have requests for more breeding rams than we are willing to sell.

Having income from different sources has kept us going through dips in the economy, the BSE crisis in farming, and a personal health crisis.

One thing that has been important is to maintain relationships at a high level of integrity. We don't sell more than we can deliver. As the big farms in our area have been divided into small holdings, my husband has become "the old guy who still farms." There is a much bigger request for his services than we can deliver, so he only deals with those customers who have the same integrity in return. Reputation is a big factor in the farming community.

Everyone's life is different and so are their definitions of crap. Not much changes quickly when all of the paid for stuff starts wearing out. Property taxes never go down or away. Houses start falling apart the day they are built. Insurance is another fixed expense if you want it.

I am a real estate appraiser and work from home. I do have to go out a day or two a week, but the majority of the work is done at home. Once we sell this house and build a smaller home we would be able to live on just my income. But because we want to be totally debt free in 5 years DH will be keeping his job. He also likes a lot of toys and unnecessary stuff, so he will probably be keeping it longer!

Absolutely. But as many wise people on these boards have stated, cutting $500/month of excess out of your life is same exact thing as bringing home an additional $500/month as far as the bottom line is concerned.

Of what you mention above, only taxes and house maintenance can be considered mandatory. Equipment maintenance and insurance are entirely optional expenditures. No you wont be growing too much food with your barehands but simple high quality hand tools could probably be maintained extremely cheaply for a very long time.

I'd love to hear what some people here spend per year on the "essentials" - Taxes, food, and shelter (not including mortgages). Everything after that is optional and we each have to make our own decision about what is worth earning money for and what isn't.

Health insurance is NOT optional. A cursory search will turn up a multitude of threads where people thought they could live without it and discovered that was a BIG mistake. :(

actually, savings is even *better* than income, since you have to pay tax on the income before you can spend it.

if your marginal tax rate is 15%, you need to earn $588 to have $500 left after taxes to spend. [formula: $500 / (1-0.15) ]

25% marginal rate, you need to earn $666. (hmmm, those of a apocalyptic persuasion might just find that interesting!)

--sgl

This has been an encouraging thread to read.

While my wife is employed full time outside the home, I made killer money selling on ebay. The down turn in the economy has slashed sales. Before the economy cratered, we were looking towards the goal of her staying home too. (Yes, business was that good.)

My only thoughts are:

Get and stay out of debt.
Start small.
Cut your spending.
Remember, if there is a will, there is a way.

Best wishes!

On the surface it looks to be the same thing, but the concept of bring home pay is real important here. Give this a thought. I am self employed, and pay my taxes in quarterly payments. The "good" part of doing this is that it brings you face to face with the reality of how much you really lose to the various governments who have their sweaty little paws in your pocket. The bad part is that I gave 42 cents of every dollar I made last year to the Feds, state and local taxes. So, I actually need to earn $863 dollars to cover that $500/month excess. Now, I'm nobody special, and my figures apply to most workin' folk. But, it easier to forget how much you really earn and lose to taxes, if you only look at the pile of case on the table when you cash the paycheck.

I may have used the wrong term but by "bring home" i meant after taxes.

42%...thats rough. But using your example the next step in my mind is equating that $863 dollars per month to hours worked. If you earn $20/hour it takes 43.15 hours to earn $863. The question to answer then is the shiny new pickup truck worth 43.15 hours per month of your life? And then lets add up in insurance and maintenance cost!

Actually 42% is about average(maybe a little high). Its just that they break it up into different columns and most people round down and ect, ect.
And after you pay that 42% You get taxed when you spend it on Sales taxes, ect, ect. The true # for taxes Americans pay is over 55% and growing.

That is the plan my husband and I are following. We have an acton plan, so that when we retire we will be able to live off of our homestead, and the savings we have accumulated. A large part of this plan involves having everything paid for in full: property, home, and water/power needs. We didn't want any bills aside from taxes, medical, and shopping for what we are unable to grow ourselves (food and clothing). Keeping the expenses down to a bare minimum was the main goal, so our funds would last.

It is possible to do, and each step towards that goal puts a bigger smile on our faces and more determination for gaining the next step towards the goal. We don't want to feel as though we are giving up all comforts in our older years, so there are a lot of plans we have for our personal comfort, and ability to age in place. We are planning on a single floor only, with wide doors in care we are ever in wheelchairs or using walkers. The interior will be open plan, again for access, including the bathrooms. We don't want to have to make expensive additions or adapt our home after the fact, so we have planned for it from the start.

A greenhouse with raised beds will give us fresh fruits and vegetables even if we are unable to work a traditional garden. Chickens are easy to care for, providing us with meat and eggs. Wind and solar power means no utility bills which can be crippling for the elderly if medical expenses rise as they often do. And until we are no longer able, we can raise our own pork and beef. When we can no longer do that we will scale back to what we are able to manage. The biggest and most important thing in all of this is the plan. Planning for our old age before we actually are old will save us many dear dollars in the time we will least be able to afford them. The last thing we want is to end up being forced to move into a nursing home type facility because we can't live at home anymore.

Selling online, and still moving from NM to TX. Wife works at a non-profit ministry outside the home, but it is only 12 minutes away.

Being debt free IS a major source of freedom. Driving old reliable vehicles, Mazda's in our case, that are paid for can really save a lot. Only keep liability because they are so old. One is a 1990, one is a 1999. Also have a 1993 S-10 blazer with 225k miles. It is a 4x4.

Pay ~$11/mo in term life insurance. for $150k coverage. Since we have no mortgage, that is sufficient.

$70/ mo cell phone/texting plans, and $100/mo cable/sat TV and tivo and sports channels, etc are all 'carp' in my opinion.

New clothes, disney vacations and other entertainments are also a poor use of not just money, but your time.

And now I'm about to get meddlin', but online games from neopets to facebook, to, gasp, yes even farmville, are unwise uses of your limited time. I am not immune, I spend more time online reading this forum and maintaining my sales stock than I really have to.

Before moving, I was able to spend a majority o fmy time at my homestead in the mountains of NM.