Strategies for Self Sufficient Living

Discover > Self Sufficiency > Strategies for Self Sufficient Living

In a modernized digital age, self-sufficient living might seem a step back into an old laidback world. Most would probably think that it would be impossible or such a difficult feat to achieve. We have grown dependent on modern technology and got accustomed to a comfortable and convenient lifestyle the digital age has brought us. Fortunately, choosing to be self reliant or self sufficient can take on different forms for each person. You can grow your own food, provide your own energy, you can homeschool your kids, repair and sew things, be your own barber, raise some animals, or be a beekeeper among other things. The level of how self-sufficient you want to be solely depends on you.

In general, self-sufficient living entails the state of a person or family requiring little or no help or interaction from others. It implies being able to provide and fulfill one’s own needs with your own resources. It is living a simple and debt-free lifestyle and having a stable mindset of being able to face challenges and figuring out how to solve them. It is a state of mind, becoming independent and being passionate about living a simpler way of life. 

Achieving a self-sufficient lifestyle does not happen in an instant. It is a progression and a long process. It takes time. You might need to learn some infrastructure building, acquire some skills, reassessing and shifting priorities and a fundamental change of perspective. It takes some research, a lot of planning and a lot of trial and error to get it going smoothly. The transition that comes with trying to accomplish self-sufficiency involves a mental approach that will make you confront your fears and uncertainties. Hence, having a strong determination and commitment is vital to its success.

Here are some tips and strategies that you need to learn and adapt to help you along the way on your road to self-sufficiency:

Be Frugal

Learn to forgo luxuries. Identify whether an item that you’ve been eyeing to buy is a want or a need. Resist the urge to buy the newly released smartphone, or a new car even if yours is more than 10 years old already but still in good running condition. Learn to control buying on impulse especially if you have a credit card. Learn to live below your means. 

Being frugal or thrifty does not necessitate being cheap. It simply implies that you must prioritize the things that are most important to you. Be aware of your spending patterns and make the intentional decision to spend less money on items that are not essential to you. To various people, frugality might imply different things. You are the only one who can determine where you will spend your hard-earned money in a way that will benefit you.

When buying things, cheap is not always best. Being cheap is simply choosing the lowest-priced item without consideration to quality. When you need to purchase things, make sure they are of high quality and durable enough to last you for a long time. Those with warranties would be best too. It will allow you to save more in the end, than having to repeatedly buy a cheaper one that will only last for a short while. 

When living a frugal lifestyle it is critical to look at the positives. The sacrifices that come along with living frugally may be difficult when you are just starting. But remember that these little sacrifices add up to bigger benefits and rewards in the long run. You are simply giving up on some things to enjoy and give priority to the ones that really matter to you. To get a sense of how it feels, you may need to try a few things, make modifications along the way, and weigh things out.  Like simply letting go of eating out every weekend or buying new clothes for quite some time in place of saving up for a vacation. Try it out with an open mind and see what works best for you. Making a commitment to live a frugal lifestyle will enable you to practice financial discipline. 

Go With The Seasons

Be flexible to change with the season. Let the season dictate what food you put on your table. Plan your meals according to what is fresh and in season. Going with the season means an abundant fresh supply of produce which also implies they are affordable and cheaper as compared to out-of-season products. If you want to gorge on a particular favorite all year round, you might want to stock on it while it is in season. Preserve or freeze some of it to enjoy all throughout the year.

If you have home-based livelihoods, let the season guide your projects. Gardening, growing or beekeeping during warm months. Sewing, crafting, indoor gardening, soap or candle making and others more during winter months.

Eliminate Debt

During these times, having debts or loans to pay is a normal thing every other family faces. Eliminating your debts should be one of the first things you need to do or work on if you want to achieve a self-sufficient life. If you are already in debt or have loans to settle, make a payoff plan. Create a budget and allocate extra for the loans that you need to resolve. Moving forward, if you can, stop using your credit card or save it for emergency use. Reassess where you are spending your money every month and eliminate the unnecessary expenses. You might have to cancel some subscription services, walking more to save up on fuel, cooking your own food and avoiding eating out, forgoing your daily latte or doing your own nails. 

When going grocery shopping, make a schedule and a list. Schedule it as such that you won’t have to go back and forth to the store frequently. Stick to your list and resist buying on impulse. Build an emergency fund. In life, stuff happens beyond our control. Having an emergency fund will prevent you from having to turn to credit cards or loans.

Liberating yourself from this financial hurdle does not happen overnight. But as you go along and stick to your budget and pay off plan, you will eventually learn to conform to your monetary goals, control unnecessary spending, and eventually achieve financial freedom. 

Learn To Live Simply 

Reorganizing your life and unloading things that you don’t necessarily need is liberating. Being able to live simply is one of the most important things to becoming self-sufficient. To live simply implies not being updated with the latest trends of gadgets or electronics. Same goes for clothing, shopping and eating out. Your money will not be wasted on things that you don’t really need. To live simply is needing less. And needing less means spending less. Living a simple lifestyle will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Take a good look at your surroundings. Downsize if there is a need to let go of many things. All the stuff around you is a reflection of a lifestyle that you currently have and might need to escape. Don’t overwhelm yourself all at once though. Declutter a drawer or a closet at a time. Let go of the things that you haven’t used for at least 6 months to a year. Knowing that you only have what you need is liberating. Less is more. When we downsize, a genuine feeling of freedom is often felt from getting rid of all that useless clutter. And we begin to find fulfillment and happiness from small and simple things that really matter. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Also known as the 3R principle or waste hierarchy all around the world. Several programs and initiatives have been carried out with this principle to promote and achieve waste minimization. It is the principle of reducing waste, reusing and recycling products and resources to reduce the amount of waste generated and improve overall waste management. Incorporating its principles into your daily activities will help you live a successful sustainable life. 

The notion of reducing starts with an evaluation of what you are using and what is is being used for. Simply said, reducing implies choosing to utilize items that will help decrease the quantity of waste created. There is less need to recycle and reuse when there is less waste.  Choosing to use a multi-purpose item is essential to reduction. The purchase of one implies you don’t need to use two.  Thereby reducing the amount of production as well as packaging materials to be used. Assess and make sure that the item you want and will consume actually addresses a need in your life. Make it a point to practice reducing waste in your daily life as well. Like printing on both sides of the paper, avoid using disposable plates and utensils, using electronic mail instead of paper mail, using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins, using items with refills, and purchasing multi-purpose items.

Learning to reuse items or repurpose them to be used differently from what they are intended for to address another need is also important. Reuse involves repeated use of items or parts which still have usable aspects. For those items that are still usable but have no need for, you can sell or donate them. 

Recycling means transforming waste into something that can be used as a resource or shaped into a new item. A certain item can be recycled depending on its capability of recovering qualities it had in its original state. Recycling can help prevent the waste of potentially valuable resources. At the same time lower the use of new raw materials, energy consumption, air and water pollution. To begin with, we must choose to consume or use items made with environmentally friendly recyclable materials.

The 3Rs all contribute to a reduction in the quantity of resources we consume and waste we generate. A small modification in your daily routine to minimize waste may help conserve natural resources, contribute to sustainable living, and make the world a healthier place to live.  Applying the principles of 3R promotes resource efficiency which is one of the important aspects in achieving a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Create A Homestead

It is also possible to create some type of homestead where you can grow something right where you are living to cultivate self-sufficiency. Whether you own some land or you have a balcony or some space, there are ways where you can grow some of your own food.  If you have bigger land, you can produce a variety of crops and even raise livestock or cattle. You can always take little steps toward your own version of a homestead no matter where you are, whether you live in a tiny apartment or have a thousand acres of property.

Homesteading may be done in a variety of ways. It is characterized by growing your own food, food preservation, small-scale textile and craft manufacturing, constructing and making things, and keeping livestock among others. It is a self-sufficient way of living.

Creating a homestead enables you to apply self-sufficient practices and ways of living. It changes your identity from being merely a consumer to a producer. It allows you to supply and produce the products and services that you often buy and pay for. It is developing a strong state of mind and physical perseverance to provide for your own needs. 

Connect With Like-Minded People

Being self-reliant does not mean you have to go about it alone. Nor does it mean that you will never need anything from anyone else. A community or group of like-minded individuals can be instrumental in your transition into this lifestyle. They can help guide you, share learning experiences, and can help you avoid mistakes in areas that are new to you through shared wisdom. A community can help motivate you, support you, and provide assistance whenever you need it all throughout your journey. 

Connecting with like-minded people allows you to develop support for local business in your community. There will be occasions when your homestead will not be able to meet all of your needs. It will be beneficial to have relationships with local producers, farmers, and other homesteads during these times. A community allows the recreation of barter and trade systems as well as the chance to work with others to build and support more sustainable homesteads. Fostering your relationships with your local community will help strengthen local food production and help improve the local economy.

Communities can also be found online. You can take classes, join online forums, and discover Facebook groups with similar interests. Making friends or connecting with people who share the same passion for this kind of lifestyle will make your self-sufficient journey easier. 

Act Now & Don't Be Afraid To Fail

One of the things that you need to adapt if you want to become self-sufficient is learning to act right away. The point of being self-sufficient revolves around doing things for yourself and for your family. Therefore you need to make use of your time efficiently and make things happen. We may come up with a variety of reasons, such as lack of space, not enough time, or insufficient resources, and so on. The fact is that you can always find a way to do anything if you truly want to. You may set out a few minutes, or perhaps an hour, each day to work on your project or whatever you want to achieve. You can always find ways to make it work as long as you put your mind to it.

on’t be afraid to fail, don’t stop trying. In every endeavor, success does not happen overnight. Every failure is a learning experience, it should not hinder you from trying again. Embrace failure and keep at it until you get it to work. Not giving up makes all the difference between success and failure. 

There is no comprehensive roadmap to self-sufficiency. This journey will take a long time and a great deal of effort. It entails a never-ending process of learning, acquiring new abilities, trial and error, and pushing the limits of what is possible. And it all begins with a shift in thinking and implementing it into your everyday life. Taking little efforts in the direction of a simpler and healthier self-sufficient living is already a start in the right direction. It is progress. Even the smallest things have a big influence. Every step forward is a step toward success no matter how small the feat.

Living a self-sufficient lifestyle is more than just you and me. It involves a bigger picture that promotes sustainability and impacts the environment, the plants, animals, and the whole planet. 

Learn to enjoy your journey, make it an adventure. Pursuing a self-sufficient lifestyle will make you realize that the best things in life do not come from money and possessions but in experiences, relationships, and connections.

Don’t forget to check out our all in one guide for homesteading, farming and ranching in Texas.D