Frugal Farming

5 Simple Ways to Save Money on the Farm

Farming is by no means the most lucrative business. Especially when your just getting started. In the last year we've learned some easy ways to save money that would be useful for any small farm or homestead.

1.) Major Purchases

Craigslist is your best friend.

This one is pretty obvious, buying tools and equipment used can be a a great way to save some cash. Check sites like Craigslist or your local classified ads to score some great deals. Just make sure you fully test out any piece of equipment before purchasing it and don't be afraid to haggle.

2.) Seeds & Garden Supplies

If you need garden supplies the best time of year to get them is fall. This includes seeds. Many seed packages will be on sale for less than half of their normal cost in the fall even though they can be used the following year as long as they are stored properly.

3.) Amending Your Soil

Bags of compost or composted manure can be pretty pricey but there are ways around paying for the store-bought bagged stuff. First of all you can compost all of your kitchen scraps and soiled animal bedding right in your own garden. If you still need some extra compost check with other local farms like horse barns which will often give you free or cheap manure as long as you haul it away yourself.

4.) Seed Starting

Though they're easy to use peat pots can be expensive and harvesting peat has caused long term damage to many of the worlds wetlands. So we recommend investing in reusable seed starting containers or if your working on a smaller scale making your own containers from newspaper or other free material.

A great way to get a quick return on your seed starting investment is to grow a few extra plants to sell which can bring in quite a bit of money for minimal effort.

5.) Mulch

Have friends that read the paper? Our cheap and easy method for beating the weeds is to mulch with a layer of newspaper following by a layer of old leaves or animal bedding. It helps us decrease the constant workload of weeding and its absolutely free, plus as it decays it adds nutrients to the soil.

Have any other ideas on how to save money on a small farm or homestead? Comment below we'd love to hear from you!