Food: You need to provide completely for yourself. So this means having land to provide your own crops and livestock. This can take many acres as you would want a range of cattle, pigs, sheep and horses. You would also want to have room for a coup for your chickens. These I would believe are the core animals for living a self sufficient life.

Home: The home should be able to be fully powered on its own and heated. This requires solar panels or windmills to generate power to run the appliances in the house. You would also want a wood stove and solar heater to help in the winters.

Money: While you can cover what you eat and where you live at the end of the day you will need money for taxes, children and other expenses that come up like medical. You need a job that allows you to work from home and be your own boss. These are not easy to find and require a lot of work to get there. Most people who live a self sufficient life work as farmers.

For me when the question is asked how to live a self sufficient life it boils down to just those three categories. Food, Shelter and Finances. If you can figure out a way to be completely independent and manage those three things you have earned the right to call yourself 100% self sufficient.

There are many ways to heat a house in the winter without cranking up the heat and paying more for your electrical bill. Here are two ways to build a self sufficient house that will be heated without the dependency of your electrical bill.

The first option in my opinion is the best option and that is to install wood stove. Wood stoves are the simplest solution to building a self sufficient home and heating it as it requires no power whatsoever. All you need is wood and a match and you can heat up a house all winter long without paying a dime. If you do not have wood around your house you can buy wood in bulk and have it delivered. It is still cheaper to build a self sufficient house heated with a wood stove then having to pay month after month of expensive heating bills.

The second option gets more costly then the first option and that means installing a solar heater for your house when you have it built. A solar heater does cost more upfront when you have your self sufficient home built but will pay for itself in a period of ten years. If you plan on living in your home for a long time then it is a great investment and after ten years you can kiss your heating bills goodbye for good.

The first step on the journey to building a self sufficient house is lowering your consumption of energy. If your goal is to generate energy on your property through devices like solar or wind you need to take a hard look at how you are currently using the energy in your house and lower it greatly.

Here is a checklist of things you can do as the first step towards building a self sufficient house:

Replace all light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent light bulbs use less energy and will lower your over use of energy.

Install zones in your house for your heat and air conditioning. This will allow you to control where you spend the most time in your house and only heat those areas. Why heat rooms you don’t use? All it does it waste energy. Conserve your use and it will lower your bills.

Turn off all unused electrical appliances and get in the habit of unplugging anything and everything possible. Some electrical items still pull power when plugged in for example a coffee maker or microwave. Only use the power you need.

The last step to getting your house ready to be a more self sufficient house is to take a look at all of your appliances and ensure that they are energy efficient. If not, consider replacing them. New appliances can pay for themselves in the energy they do not burn within a one year period.

If you have a goal to create a self sufficient house then start now by cutting your dependency on large amounts of energy and work to lower your consumption.

Part two on how to build a self sufficient house is continued here.