A Start in Self Sufficiency
Self sufficiency is a great way to save money and create a fantastic sense of achievement. You may also generate a little additional income. This article will give you some tips on starting on the road to self sufficiency.
To begin you need to look at your reasons for wanting to take on a more self sufficient lifestyle. These could be a desire to leave the “rat race” or be more environmentally friendly, you may want to generate an additional income or simply be less dependent upon the global society in which we live.
So what do we mean by self sufficiency? Well, most of the people I speak to think of self sufficiency as generating your own power, growing your own food, and using as little commercial produce as possible. Of course complete self sufficiency is very hard in the world we live in. But there are many things you can do to put you on the right road such as:
1) Grow your own food – This can be done in anything from a window planter to a whole garden. You can save hundreds, by using fresh produce from your garden and have the added benefit of really tasty vegetables or fruit. I have personally grown carrots, beans, peas, parsnips, raspberries, plums and apples and with each of them I found the flavours 100% better than the store bought produce.
2) Generate power – this could be a simple solar cell to power a shed light or a complete solar and wind power system through which you could even sell power back to the national grid. Many companies around the world are offering the opportunity to sell them power and whilst the initial set up costs can be high, generating your own power could pay for itself in a short period of only a couple of years.
3) Use less – recycling maybe all the rage but do you actually go out of your way to use less? You will be surprised how much you can save by simply using less commercial produce such as over-packaged foods. When you buy many commercial produce you are paying a large amount just for the packaging.
4) Brew your own drinks – you can create some delicious drinks by following a simple method and brew nearly any kind of fruit or vegetable into an alcoholic drink. But be careful, I have made Blackberry and Plum wine at home from my own grown fruit (The first batch I made could have stripped paint!), after a little experimentation you will find the right process.
There are so many ways for you to become more self sufficient and using the above tips as a starting point you may even save enough money to reduce your hours at work; freeing up more time to spend on your new self sufficient lifestyle.
Thanks for reading.