Frugal Ideas for Any Homestead Part II

The other day I told you all about how Scott and I graduated and while I am still pretty excited the less fun parts have started to sink in. We will probably need to buy a second vehicle in the near future, student loan payments will be do soon, and we're trying to build a house and start a business. Yikes.

So after moping about are impending financial crisis (just kidding I hope) I decided to kick off our new year by revisiting our most popular post, Frugal Ideas for Any Homestead. Everyone seemed to like the last one but we've learned a lot since then so I made a part two! These 25 frugal tips are things that we have used or hope to use on our homestead in the next year. 

Home

Install solar panels or a wind turbine. Even if you can only afford a small system producing some of your own electricity is better than none.

If this isn't a possibility try to cut down on your electricity. Monitor your meter for a normal month and then challenge yourself and your family to lower that number in the following months.

Install a wood stove in your home and if you have access cut and split your own fire wood. Even in New Hampshire when we didn't have a woodlot we were allowed to get a permit and take downed wood off the National Forest.

Redeem recyclables such as aluminum cans. In many places you will get some money for them and it's good for the planet. 

Make your own cleaning supplies. Many great recipes can be found at Mother Earth Living.

Buy in bulk. We make our own bread and sometimes pasta and crackers so it’s now much cheaper for us to buy 20 lb bags of flour. Hopefully soon we’ll find a good source of wheat berries and grind our own fresh flour.

Animals

Get creative with water and feed dishes. Our rabbits use old small pots we picked up cheap at yard sales. They are metal, easy to clean, and long lasting.

Consider co-habitating certain animals. When we didn’t have money to build a duck coop they took up residence with our chickens. Though I wouldn’t recommend it for small coop and run sizes because they enjoy their separate spaces it has worked fine for us.

Also when building use whatever materials you have on hand even if it doesn’t look perfect. For our first coop we used old fence wooden fence panels, for the second T1-11 sheets that were from an old building, now are chickens are residing in our hoop house until we build a log chicken coop while clearing trees at our site.

Look into finding free or cheap sources of wood chips or shaving for animal bedding and/or garden mulch from people with sawmills or if you’re lucky like us you’re local hardware store. 

In the fall ask around for old decorative pumpkins, squash, and gourds which many livestock will eat. 

Check with local breweries to see if they give away their spent grain. While it shouldn’t be an animals whole diet it can supplement a large part.

Talk to your local feed store and see if they give away or sell at a discount ripped bags of grain.

Raise mealworms to feed your poultry.

For more ways to lesson feed costs check out this article from Grit. Reading it has changed our feeding program and we hope to implement more ideas from it in the coming year.

Garden & Orchard

Save your seeds. With many varieties it can be really simple and easy. Try one or two varieties to start with and build up each year. We are working on this ourselves.

Grow mushrooms in less desirable or wooded land. Mushrooms can be sold to bring in extra income or supplement your family’s food if your love mushrooms as much as we do.

Eat weeds. Many weeds like purslane and sorel are delicious additions to any salad. 

Forage for other free food. Wild strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries can be found and easily identified. You can also learn to identify things like ramps, fiddleheads, morels, wild onions and asparagus.

If you have limited garden space consider planting some of the most expensive things your family uses like growing herbs as opposed to sweet corn. 

Likewise the first fruit trees your family plants should be fruits that your family eats the most of and/or fruits that are hard to get cheaply in your area. 

If you’re going to plant flowers plant edible ones or ones that can be used for herbal remedies like nasturtiums, sunflowers, johnny jump ups, and tiger lilies.

Personal

Make your own soap. It’s cost effective, healthy, and fun. It also makes great gifts.

Learn how to make and use herbal remedies. I am not saying you should forgo modern medicine but it’s nice to know how to make stress relieving teas or tinctures to speed up recovery from the common cold or potentially avoid needing to go to the doctor.

Cut down on the amount of clothing to buy. Learn to mend small tears and replace buttons. When you need new clothing try thrift stores or local clothing swaps. You can even organize one with friends. 

If you liked this post check out our Frugal Ideas for Any Homestead and our Frugal Farming post. Also let us know what frugal ideas you use. We love hearing from readers.