Let’s answer this right now. No, at least not at first. In fact, homesteading will cost you money. A lot of money. I talked about how much money you need for homesteading here. But that is a conservative estimate and definitely not all encompassing. In the first year we were on our homestead we exhausted our emergency fund four separate times. We have spent thousands of dollars on our goats between vet bills and general care, fencing, etc. So can homesteading save you money? No.
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Why Homestead Then?
Homesteading is not necessarily about saving money. Sure, there are somethings that we have saved a ton of money on. We no longer buy eggs because our chickens have solved that problem. We don’t have to buy chicken at the grocery store because we butcher our own. We don’t buy milk from the store unless we run out. I am able to grow most of our own lettuce for our bearded dragons which by itself saves us $15 a week. But when you look at the $100/month we have saved by how much we have spent? We are solidly in the red.
Spend More To Make More?
Because the farm is an LLC, which I highly recommend you do, we are able to write off a lot for taxes. That being said, last year’s return was eye opening. We spent over $3,000 in vet bills and another $5,000 on feed. That was only in six months. This year we are on par to double that. That doesn’t include the well pump that went out, or the water heater. Or all the fencing and structures for the goats and chickens.
But homesteading is not about saving money. It’s about living off the land, having livestock, learning new skills, and being self sufficient. Of course homesteading means different things for different people.
Can Homesteading Save You Money?
Once you get your homestead set up, you may find that will start saving money here and there. When you put your garden in, you can spend a lot of money between irrigation, soil, hoses, and more. But once that garden is producing and you are reaping the benefits of fresh fruits and veggies? You will break even. Especially, when you can all that delicious produce! The following year, provided all your supplies are in good shape, you will probably save money.
Since I can, I save money by preserving that harvest in jars. The initial set up of canning equipment, jars, and produce makes that first year a loss. But I can normally buy bushels of green beans, corn, tomatoes, etc and can them and save hundreds of dollars a year on those items. Again, the savings come later.
What I have found is that homesteading is a long term goal and commitment. You are probably not going to save money your first or your second year. If you are starting your homestead from the ground up, you will probably not see a positive until year five. But it really depends on your goals. If you want your homestead completely self sufficient but you are starting from scratch, it will take time. If you came into a property that has fencing, a barn, and garden. You are probably already ahead of the game.
If you are already saving money on your homestead, I would love to hear from you!
My name is Leigh and I am the owner of Steel Raven Farms. I am also the mom of two wonderful boys, wife to a pretty nifty man for the last 15 years and paramedic to boot. We want to bring you along on our crazy journey of Homesteading and all that entails!
It costs to get anything started. How well you treat that investment will determine how long before it pays itself off, if ever.
Exactly! Once started, my canning saves me on average $6,000/yr, depending on what the garden produces. But if we treat our garden tools well? We may break even in year 5 lol!
All good points! There are things you can’t really quantify – like the education you get your first few years. If you were paying a local college or a university for the lessons learned, you would have spent a lot more and not come away with any of the infrastructure you’ve created. Establishing the foundation is always the most expensive part – and there are so many forms of capital besides money. As you’ve said, once you’ve laid the foundation, you start to break even and then capitalize monetarily. Before then, you’re reaping harvests on many, many levels. So, yeah, hard to quantify. 🙂
You are absolutely right. It’s not just the money aspect. The skills you learn are invaluable as well. Once you have that foundation, the sky is the limit
This is such a good question and I appreciate your answer. I do think that homesteading can help you save money eventually, but not always and definitely not early on. It takes time, money, and a lot of trial-and-error to set up systems that really work. Even then, as you mentioned, you have feed bills, etc. It’s important to keep the goal in mind and operate from a values-based position!
The key word being eventually. Plus it doesn’t help that the cost of goods is sky rocketing