Live Self Sufficient

If you have access to a spreadsheet application, you can create a budget that is easy to manage. Spreadsheets provide us with an opportunity to clearly see all of our income and expenses. With the help of a few spreadsheet tools, we can also create formulas that allow us to add and subtract figures to give us a better understanding of how we should manage our budget.

In order to start managing your budget with a spreadsheet, you will need to come up with an outline. This does not have to be difficult, just come up with a list of each of the bills you regularly pay. Place each of these bills in separate rows in the same column. As you pay these bills each month, you can make a note of their amount in the corresponding column.

It is also useful to come up with an average cost of each bill and place these amounts in a column of their own. This will allow you to compare the expected cost with the actual cost of the bill. If you notice that your bills for the month are higher than usual, you will know you need to tighten the reigns in other areas of your budget that are more flexible.

The more flexible areas of your budget can include things such as eating out, entertainment, and clothing. You can create a spending limit for each of these items. Each time you spend money on one of the items subtract it from the spending limit so you know how much money you have available.

We spend hundreds of dollars on groceries every month. For many of us, the money spent on groceries is one of our largest bills. This is especially true for those who have large families to feed. With the cost of groceries on the rise, finding new ways to save money on groceries is extremely important.

Sign up for the rewards card offered by your grocery store. Walk up and down the aisles and you will see plenty of sales on the items you need but you have to be a rewards card holder in order to be eligible to receive these discounts. It only takes a minute to sign up for these rewards cards and it will be worth your time to do so.

Using coupons is one of the easiest ways to save money on groceries. Unlike a rewards card, customers can use their coupons at any grocery store that accepts them (unless they are store specific coupons). Coupons are readily available in newspapers and several online sites.

Check out coupons.com. They have an option available to customers that stores coupons on grocery store rewards cards. Not all grocery stores participate in this program but several larger chains do. If you have a store in your area that participates in the program, start shopping there to save money on your groceries. All you have to do is visit the website and select the coupons you wish to use. When you head to the store to make your purchases, your savings will be deducted when your rewards card is swiped!

Many people who are looking to start enjoying their crop early begin to plant seeds in early spring. This allows the plant to grow quite a bit inside and later to be transplanted to a garden outdoors. This early jumpstart takes out the usual time where most people need to wait for the ground to no longer be frozen and the weather to improve before they can plant seeds. When you start indoors you do not have those worries as you can control the environment in which they grow.

All you need to start early is soil that drains well, small containers, an area that gets good sun indoors and some water. Nothing special and no different than what you would be doing outside when you go to plant seeds except by starting them inside in small containers you get that extra jumpstart and can shave weeks off of your first harvest. You can grow inside for many weeks before you transplant your plants outside into the garden. This will also help you ensure you have enough plants growing for what you need in the upcoming season by knowing how many seeds planted have started to grow you get more confidence in there survival when moved outside.

If you use peat pods they are very small and take very little room to store in a house. You can place them in a window sill and as soon as you see the first leaf unfold transplant them to a larger container. As soon as the soil is no longer frozen and the climate is ready for planting seeds you can transplant your already few weeks old plants outside.

When most of us think about what we eat in any given day it can range from some vegetables, some fruits, some bread and pastas and probably some kind of meat generally chicken or steak for dinner potentially eggs for breakfast. We wash this down with some milk and maybe some wine maybe even some Orange juice. Lets think about this for a second. Could you provide all of that for yourself. Maybe, maybe not of course depending on where you live. Bottom line is that you can provide most of that for yourself right now I bet.

For breakfast you had eggs, some bacon and orange juice. If you want to live self sufficient try to think about your eating and how it can be made self sufficient. Eggs. Build a chicken coup out back and get some chickens. You can spend a few dollars for chickens and have years worth of eggs for next to nothing. Orange juice. Do you live in a climate that would support oranges? If not still no worries. Buy oranges themselves not orange juice. Making your own orange juice from fresh oranges is much better for you and helps you take one more step to living self sufficiently. Now if you have room, get some pigs. Once a year have one slaughtered and have some bacon provided. Don’t have room for pigs? Go to a butcher shop and buy half a pig and have it cut up the way you want it. This will be much fresher and cheaper than buying at the grocery store.

The same concept I just applied to breakfast can be applied to any of your meals. If you want to eat self sufficiently you need to break down what you eat in any given today and think about where it comes from. Think if you could provide the entire thing yourself and if not, figure out how you can get closer to the root of anything. Keep trying to cut out the middle man and get to the source until you are able to create the source yourself.

If you are planting tomatoes in the garden you will also want to create your own tomato cages to help support the plants as they grow. The reason tomato cages are used is as they mature they become very top heavy with many arms growing off of the plant and then with the addition of the tomatoes themselves growing in, the top can start to pull the plant downward. The goal of the tomato cages is to support all of the upper body and the arms as the tomatoes grow in. This helps ensure you get a healthier crop and are very easy to build on your own. Once built, you can reuse your own tomato cages each year to save money and time.

• To get started in building your own tomato cages you need a wire mesh roll, wire cutters and pliers.
• Roll out two to four feet of mesh and clip it free from the rest of the roll
• Take the ends and using your pliers bend in the metal from each edge to connect the ends forming a circle out of the metal
• Now place a steak in the ground along the stem of your plant and hammer it gently into the ground
• Lower your circle of mesh around the plant
• Use string to secure the plant to the steak and the tomato cage as needed

These are very simple to create and each year you can store them off as they are or undo where you connected the tomato cages so that they lie flat and can be piled for easier storage.

Many apartment dwellers or home owners in the city battle over space when it comes to gardening and having room for their plants. Window boxes are an easy solution to this problem and in my opinion a must for anyone trying to live self sufficiently within the city limits.

Window boxes provide space where no space is naturally available. We all have windows in our houses now image if we could plant a handful of flowers or vegetables wherever we have those windows. It creates space where so many give up since they do not have any! You can grow tomato plants, peppers, and any herb you could want inside window boxes.

This tiny garden of its own can provide for you and help you cut down on your monthly grocery expenses by saving money on fresh produce and herbs within a few months. The window boxes also help someone interested in gardening but not quite ready to fully commit to large garden and is worried about the maintenance that comes with the territory. Window boxes are self contained and can be used one year and if it is decided it was too much hassle can be discarded without any evidence it was ever there. If you enjoyed the window box you can try adding a second one in the next season and so forth.

Too often people are deterred from trying to live self sufficient because they think it is only for those who live out of a community. Window boxes is another example of how anyone living anywhere can at least live a little self sufficient.

These days seems like the word organic can be found everywhere you look so only makes sense that now we have organic soil added to the pile. So what is organic soil exactly? Great question!

Organic soil is simply soil that has not had any nutrients added or chemicals provided except for those that are naturally available. Most of us have used Miracle Gro on their garden. Once you have used Miracle Gro you no longer have organic soil since you have enriched the dirt with unnatural ingredient. In the summer as you see your crops growing you also see bugs coming. This means use of pesticides to control your pests in the garden. This use of pesticides in the garden also will make your soil no longer organic.

If you are looking to create and maintain organic soil, here are a few things you want to keep in mind.

• Use of chemicals in your soil can damage and make the soil less healthy for your plants over a period of time.
• Use of chemicals creates overtime a dependence upon chemicals within your soil as you no longer allow natural process to take place.
• Organic Soil has higher levels of nutrients than those that are treated with supplements.
• Organic Soil produces healthy fruits and veggies that are always editable and do not result in chemicals leaking into our water supply.

One of the benefits of using organic soil is also that it is free compared to spending money on chemicals or nutrients and supplements to add to your garden. Finding healthy alternatives and natural solutions to common gardening concerns in the long run will provide a much healthier and happier garden for you to enjoy.

One of the best advantages of solar outdoor lights is that you can place them most anywhere and not worry about a plug or extension cord. Solar outdoor lights also helps you remain a little less on the grid and work toward living self sufficiently. The solar lights give you the freedom to do some creative landscaping around your house which will make your home look attractive, provide safety and best of all since you are using solar outdoor lights, it will cost you nothing on a monthly basis.

The only cost you will face with solar outdoor lights is the upfront initial purchase but even this you can find many cheap options. The best time of the year of course is fall going into winter when most places are looking to dump their inventory for summer and moving into winter supplies. Usually you can find great deals on packages for solar lights. Last year I picked up six packages of four light sets for under fifteen dollars. Like I said, sometimes you can find really good deals.

Once you have the lights you are expense free with the only exception is that you might need to replace the battery that holds the solar charge now and again but this is not often. So now that you have your solar outdoor lights what do you do with them?

Walkways: I like to use my solar outdoor lights around walkways both in the front and backyard. They are easy to drop in the dirt and usually the walkways do not get a good deal of lighting from the driveway. Since they are cordless they can be run away from the house and even down the driveway to the road and create a nice looking well lit look for your home.

Gardens: Gardens always look well lit up at night and nothing makes it easier than solar outdoor lights. If you are like me you have small and large gardens scattered about your property to round out the corners of your yard and to add appeal here and there. It would be a nightmare to try and run traditional lighting to all of these gardens but as long as your gardens get some daylight it is easy enough to plant a solar outdoor light and walk away.

The idea of living free of restraint and within your own control appeals to many and drives people to the woods to live self sufficient. No neighbors, no nine to five cube to work in, healthier food options and more exercise. There is a great deal to like when you live self sufficient. However, there are some drawbacks that many need to think about before they rush out to homesteading.

There are many things people living in a city take for granted and when they move out to the self sufficient lifestyle they get a sense of culture shock. Always keep in mind these three things when you are considering your move to a more self sufficient lifestyle.

You are an island: The things you hate about the neighborhood like loud neighbors, cars driving by and not having any space because everything is on top of you also provides a blanket of safety. When it snows your roads are cleared. When you lose power the electric company comes and fixes it. If you need help you only need to make a noise and neighbors would come running. When you move out to the middle of nowhere you need to not only create an environment that allows you to live self sufficient but understand the mentality that goes along with it. You are an island and need to be able to do everything on your own.

Power: Energy makes the world go round. When you live self sufficient you need to ensure your power is protected and you have backups if needed. You may use solar to heat your house but ensure you have a fireplace and a stack of wood available. You might use wind to power your household electrical items but ensure you have a few solar panels or a generator available in case something happens. If you are off the grid you want to ensure you have planned for backups and emergencies especially in areas which get heavy snow or harsh weather conditions.

Finances: Money in addition to power lets us get by each day. If you plan to go completely self sufficient you need to ensure you have a source of steady income which is reliable and avoids you going back to the daily grind. Learn to cut all excess from your budget and try to work all debts to nothing before making the leap. You don’t want to go through the motion of creating a dream and then run out of funding to live it.

If you are thinking about getting a chicken but not sure consider a bantam chicken. Now, they are not great producers of eggs, they are behind the norm, but they make great pets if that is what you are looking for.

Bantam chickens are motherly in nature and are cute to look at. They are very friendly and will get a long with any other chicken you put with it. They make a great first introduction to having a chicken as they are so easy to maintain and care for not to mention their temperament makes it simple.

If you are interested in learning more about getting your own bantam chicken, here is what you need to know about raising bantam chickens. Here are some links to help you read up on raising bantam chickens as well as where to purchase one and build a coup for.

Bantam Chickens Resources

Everything you need to know about a bantam chicken

Buying a bantam chicken

Building a chicken coup for a bantam chicken

More information about bantam chickens