How to Make Money Homesteading (Instead of Emptying Your Wallet)
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“How to Make Money Homesteading So You Can Enjoy a Secure, Self-Sufficient Life” is a new book by Tim Young, author of The Accidental Farmers: An urban couple, a rural calling and a dream of farming in harmony with nature. Tim and his wife, Liz, farmed at Nature’s Harmony Farm in Elberton, Georgia.
One of the most memorable passages in the book (to me) is where Tim discusses the role of money in our lives:
I suspect what we really want is not money. Rather, we simply desire increased freedom…the ability to do more of what we want, when we want, without our time (labor) being controlled by someone else. And since most of use were born into a world centered on money, we seem to believe the path to this increased freedom is having more of it.
He goes on to discuss ways to reduce our expenses, which to my mind is a common sense choice for most of us who wish to have greater financial freedom.
Pros About How to Make Money Homesteading
- Suggestions for Reducing Expenses and Eliminating Debt
- Many, many ideas for income streams – from those that require larger acreage to those that can be done in a small home or apartment
- Interviews with real homesteaders are various stages in their homesteading journeys
- Personalized Homestead Entrepreneurial Life Plan Template to help your organize your homestead income making ideas
Each of the 18 interviews includes the following questions/information:
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- Name
- Location
- If you left a “real job” prior to breaking away to become more self-sufficient, what was it?
- Homestead/Farm Highlights
- What inspired (or scared) you into pursuing a more self-sufficient lifestyle?
- What were your criteria when looking for land? how did you make your choice?
- What are your income streams now?
- Why did you choose these income streams?
- How did you acquire the knowledge/skill to generate income this way?
- If starting over again on the path to self-sufficiency, what would you do differently?
- If relevant, what do you miss about city/urban life…you know, the “real” world?
- Finally, what advice do you have for someone considering leaving a “real job” to become more self-sufficient?
This information can help readers to see if a similar option may work for them in their area/circumstances.
Cons About How to Make Money Homesteading
I’m always a fan of photos, so I would love to see the small black and white images replaced by color, but that doesn’t significantly impact the utility of the book. I was also hoping to see more interviewees who were making a full time income off their homesteads. Instead, most are still working full time away from home. Hard numbers would be great, too, although I realize most people would be uncomfortable sharing that information. There’s a better breakdown of potential hourly wages from various homesteading income sources in The Weekend Homesteader.
To Summarize: If you’re stumped for ideas for possible revenue streams to fund your homesteading dreams, this book is chock full of possibilities.
You may also enjoy:
- Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less)
- The Weekend Homesteader
- The Encyclopedia of Country Living – Endless Homestead Inspiration
Originally published in 2014, updated n 2017. This post originally included a giveaway, which has now expired.
This book looks like a great source for ideas on potential income streams.
I have been working to build a homestead for myself and my children. Life has been hard since my husband left us, and I started with some vegetable beds, then got some chickens. I have faced hardship after hardship, most of my backyard is shaded a good deal of the day, so I had to get rid of my laundry-lines to be able to put in vegetable beds, I am facing having the city confiscate my birds because one of my neighbors has been on vacation for almost a month now and I can’t have him sign the slip the city sent saying that he doesn’t mind me having chickens if he isn’t home.
I had two dairy goats for several months, I couldn’t find anything either direction on them in the city code, and one of my neighbors (three houses down) saw them one day and called the police. they were nice enough to give me a week to move them instead of just taking them away, so now they’re at my mothers house and I go to my mothers twice a day to milk them. I had to prove to the woman at animal control that I could not find the law on the city’s website by showing her. The only livestock animals they talk about are chickens (which require a permit) and that large animals such as cows and horses are forbidden to reside within city limits. Well, she printed off the law and sent me a copy later, but she was very surprised to find that after over an hour of combing the city’s website, even her searches couldn’t find it.
Even a well kept vegetable bed is not allowed in the front lawn where I live, but I have managed to get 8 6×4 raised beds set up in the sunny areas of my backyard.
It has been hard to do while holding a full-time job and trying to raise two children alone, but this is the life I want for my boys. When my husband left us when the baby was four months old, this was over six months ago, I decided that I needed to go back the the life I knew. I have greatly missed caring for animals and sticking my hands in the dirt, and for the longest time I thought I couldn’t do it living in town, but bit by bit I am making it work, and my autumn crops of beans, broccoli and greens did very well.
I would love to be able to make a living off my small farm, or maybe be able to find a place out in the country where I can make a living off a larger farm so that I can be there for my children and give them the life I have always wanted to be able to give them. Not a life filled with the newest bit of tech or the best video games, but a life of fulfillment. Knowing where their food comes from, and the pride of looking around and knowing that they helped build this.
I try to raise as much food as possible and I can and dehydrate. I also sell some handmade items online for some extra income. I think this book would be really helpful and I would love to win a copy.
I am not a homesteader. But I want to be. My aim in life is to get out of the rat race, so I am currently focussing on making enough money for that. So if once I get there, I could read this book and become a little knowledgeable and a little more self sufficient, that would be a huge bonus.
I sell some of my “excess” produce and hand made goods at the local farmer’s market, garage sale sites, and etsy for extra money.
Would love to have this book in learning about how to be more efficient and make more money.
would love this book. freedom to do more of what I enjoy is exactly my dream.
I raise chickens, next year will be bees, make my own soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and more. I would love to read this book, to keep discovering and doing!
Wow, what a cool book. I would love to know more about this. We currently live in town but have a mini homestead going as much as the rules allow. I would love to learn how to support ourselves at this! thank you!!
You have to think seasonally for money making projects….right now it’s wreath making, along with knitted and crochet items!
Dream of being back on a farm; but have been unable to work since 92.’
I am a stay at home mom and hope to someday have a small homestead. Right not we live in the suburbs where I have a small garden in front of my house, but no animals. I’d love to be able to make any income at all from my homestead, so I’d love to read the book!
This would be a great resource for my husband and I. We are moving from the city to a farm and our plan is to work at making a living on the farm. 🙂
My husband and I are just getting started and about to have our first child. Having a self sufficient homestead is our dream. Hopefully we can find a way to make it work someday. 🙂
Looks like a great book!
I recently became unemployed after 45 years in the work force. I would like to be able to stay home and have some form of income other than a years worth of unemployment. I have been cutting osts in the food area and canning and I just love it! Winning this book would really help me with ideas that I crave to learn.
Thank you and God bless.
I’m from a small town where I grew up in a family where we had a huge garden, canned our own food, raised chickens, pigs, had all the venison in the freezer and all the jerky, made our own seems like everything. I now live in an area where I cant have the huge garden and I don’t hunt….so I make my own laundry detergent, cleaning sprays, soaps, lotions etc….and go to craft fairs and the such and sell them. I also am taking herbalism classes and learning how to make tinctures and just general healing with wild crafting and Chinese herbs! I can everything I can get my hands on from my small garden to the local farm stands. I also involve my son in all my endeavors! He knows a lot and he’s only 12! As a single Mom I would love to read this book and expand on new ideas to make us more efficient and more money in the years to come! God willing!
This is something I’m working towards. It sounds like this book would be a valuable resource for me and my family.
interested in this topic
Oh my goshhh…! This is amazing! By 2017 I hope to be married and starting a homestead, but we’re kinda at a loss to what we’d do about money, since we’d be living in the middle of nowhere, and he doesn’t want to be working away from home. This is absolutely perfect – I’d use this book to pieces. (if that’s a phrase lol)