4 Ways Busy People Can Start Homesteading on a Budget

I don’t know about your life, but mine is busy.  When I think about homesteading, I tend to imagine lush gardens and flourishing fruit trees and sprawling yards full of livestock… things I don’t have time or energy to care for (not to mention, the money to buy or maintain).  But the reality is that homesteading isn’t about living the country dream; it’s about independence and self-sufficiency.  And independence can be achieved a little at a time, even on a budget. 

Here are four ways you can start homesteading without investing a lot of time, money, or energy.

1.     Grow Your Own Herbs

Let’s face it: growing vegetables can be more time-consuming than they’re worth.  Not to mention, the amount of energy and resources (monetary or otherwise) that you pour into a vegetable garden doesn’t always provide a great return on your investment.  You may spend $20 on soil and seeds… and only grow a handful of tomatoes whose total value equals $5 or less.  For the novice gardener dreaming of a bountiful harvest, this can be disheartening.  I know that when I first tried to start my vegetable garden, the whole venture left me feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.

Herbs, on the other hand, are much easier and more practical to grow, especially if you have a busy schedule.  Obviously, you still need to put in the time and effort to care for them.  But they tend to be forgiving and can handle short periods of neglect.  Additionally, this is where you’ll see a decent return on your financial investment.  Next time you’re in the grocery store, go to the produce section and take a look at price tags on the herbs.  Yikes!  For the same price or less, you can buy seedlings of the same variety and continually harvest whatever you need whenever you need it.  That makes growing herbs worth the little time and money they require.

In my own garden, I’ve trenched out a ditch for my herb garden along my front porch.  Our roof doesn’t have gutters, so any rain or dew that collects on the roof drips onto the garden.  As someone with a notoriously brown thumb, I’m grateful for the added help in keeping my garden watered!

2.     Start Your Own Compost

Do you cook with fresh vegetables?  Do you eat eggs for breakfast or drink coffee in the mornings?  Do you mow your lawn or rake leaves from your yard?  Then you already have all the ingredients necessary to start a compost bin.  Veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, and lawn clippings all make great additions to a backyard compost bin.

Compost is FREE!  So for the busy homesteader on a budget, compost can be one of the most important resources you can develop.  You don’t need any fancy bins (though if you have small children, pets, or local vermin, you might want to consider using a BPA-free plastic bin with a latching lid to hold your compost).  All you need is organic material.

There are some considerations and restrictions to note, though.  For example, meat or dairy products should never be added to a compost pile, nor should any manure from an omnivore or carnivore (including cats or dogs).  You’ll also what to consider your ratio of “green” and “brown” materials in order to develop a healthy compost.  But with a little research and minimal time, you’ll get the hang of it.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you could branch out from standard composts to a DIY black soldier fly bin.  But that venture would require its own post.

3.     Make Your Own Broth with Veggie Scraps

This one is both super easy and super frugal.  Instead of composting your veggie scraps, you can turn them into delicious broth for soups.  Whenever you prepare vegetables, save the scraps (carrot peels, garlic skins, onion skins, tomato cores, parsley stems, etc.), and set them aside in a gallon bag and stick it in your freezer.  When the bag is full, dump its contents into a large pot and add some water with a dash of salt.  Bring the mix to a boil and allow to simmer for several hours.  When it’s as strong as you like it, take it off the heat and allow to cool.  Strain and pour into freezer-safe jars and freeze the broth (or store in the fridge and use within a week).

In my experience, this broth serves as a great base for other soups or for adding some extra flavor and nutrients to rice or quinoa.  However, it tends to be fairly bland, especially if you go easy on the salt.  If you want a stronger or more flavorful broth, consider adding more garlic or onion skins or even adding some dried herbs to the mix before you simmer it.

You should also note that some vegetables don’t do well for making veggie broth.  Potatoes tend to make the broth cloudy, and zucchini and other squashes tend to make it bitter.

4.     Bake Your Own Bread

I know what you’re thinking: I don’t have time for that!  But what if I told you that baking your own bread—particularly home-fermented sourdough bread—involves more waiting than actual work? 

Even culturing a starter—a tricky venture with which I’ve had mixed success—requires mostly waiting.  In fact, that is part of why I struggled with it: I would forget to feed and stir it at the appropriate times between the waits!

Once the starter is developed, though, it is pretty easy to manage—provided that you keep it in the fridge instead of on your countertop.  I typically feed my starter once a week and bake with the fed discard.  I like to use a blend of flours in mine (unbleached white, whole wheat, rye, and spelt), but plain white flour works just fine.

On bread-making day, I feed my starter first thing in the morning and give it a few hours to get happy and bubbly; in the meantime, I can work on something else (while I’m waiting).  Once the starter is ready to use, I mix my starter, flour, and water and give it about twenty minutes to autolyze (waiting).  After that, I mix in the last of the water and some salt before I let it rest again for thirty minutes (waiting).  After thirty minutes, I perform several “stretches and folds,” then I let it rest again for another thirty minutes (waiting).  I repeat this step every thirty minutes for a couple of hours, then I leave it alone for a few hours to finish rising (waiting).  When the dough has doubled in size, I divide it into two loaves and place them in proofing bannetons; then, I cover them with tea towels and leave them in the fridge overnight (waiting).  The loaves are ready to bake any time the next day.

Do you notice a pattern here?  While there are a lot of steps to baking sourdough, the vast majority of the time spent is simply waiting. 

And boy, is it worth the wait!  Sourdough bread has a lovely, crispy outer crust, and a delightful, spongy, tangy inner crumb.  Once you have a taste of authentic sourdough, you won’t want to go back to store-bought bread.  Store-bought bread may be cheap, but it’s also loaded with added sugars and preservatives; sourdough, on the other hand, is simply flour, water, natural yeast, and salt. 

Additionally, sourdough is easier to digest (even for gluten-sensitive individuals!) because the fermentation process breaks down the nutrients in the flour so that they are easier for your body to absorb.  Talk about getting more bang for your buck!

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And there you have it—four ways that even busy people can begin homesteading on a budget.  With these simple steps, you can lower your grocery bill and gain a little more independence. 

Have another tip for the busy, frugal homesteader?  Let me know in the comments!