For a while now, I’ve been wanting to do a round-up of other frugal homesteading blogs that I enjoy learning from. While I’ll admit that every single blog mentioned here aren’t solely about homesteading, the included post absolutely is. And their other content still offers value and serves as a great resource for natural living!
If you are just starting out on your homestead journey and want to do it as frugally as possible, you’re going to love this collection of tips and ideas. Hopefully you will find some small steps worth taking toward your goal of a frugal homesteading lifestyle.
Saving money and being good stewards of what we have available is important to us here on our own homestead. If we were to buy all of our lumber, livestock feed, garden fertilizer, seeds, etc., then farming would get expensive very fast. So, sometimes, we have to come up with creative ways to do things.
Why Frugal Homesteading is Important
We don’t choose the simple life with the intention of dropping a lot of cash. Isn’t part of the point to not have to worry so much about money when we choose to source things from our own land? New and aspiring homesteaders don’t expect sticker shock to happen when they start searching for animals, how to grow their own food, structural materials, and the like. But unfortunately, it does.
This is why it’s important to remember:
- Not everything has to be bought new
- Not every animal has to be top of the line in terms of pedigree if it’s only going to become food
- You can make your own healthy, natural products
- You can repurpose so many more things than you might realize
The only rule in doing these frugal practices is that you do your best in implementing them. I always appreciate reading posts like these from some of the best homesteading blogs. They offer great ideas for homestead living and can really help offset some of the costs. So scroll on through these awesome blogs, and be sure to save and share any ideas that speak to you.
Frugal Homesteading: Structures
When building a homestead, much time is spent planning and building structures. Whether it’s a barn, shed, raised bed, greenhouse, chicken tractor… the list goes on. There are so many things that need to be built. These featured posts offer some great ideas on building necessary structures in a frugal way.
Build A Straw Bale Cold Frame
The Reid Homestead teaches you how to make a simple DIY straw bale cold frame using old windows, to either harden off your plant starts or to extend your growing season. Straw can be reused in so many ways, and makes a cold frame much cheaper to build.
Build an Off-Grid Water Pump from Recycled Materials
Kowalski Mountain built an off-grid water pump system that can be used on both a stationary water system and a portable water system on their homestead. A working water pump is a must if you want to supply water to your livestock and gardens using a natural water source on your property. It can be used for harvested rainwater as well!
Build A Greenhouse from Recycled Materials
Life Full and Frugal shares a tour of her greenhouse made from recycled materials. Sourcing lumber and windows from building sites or trash dumps makes building a greenhouse from scratch much more affordable.
Frugal Homesteading: Gardening
Gardening is an integral part of maintaining a homestead. But the cost of building raised beds and sourcing compost and mulch can add up quicker than you think. If your goal in growing your own food is to save money, sometimes you have to get a little creative.
Build A Log-Style Raised Bed
Practical Self Reliance teaches how to build a raised bed out of logs for completely free! That’s a pretty great deal, right? Beyond saving money, log raised beds also work with the natural soil ecosystem to help buffer moisture levels and promote natural fungal activity in the soil.
Get As Many Calories As Possible From Your Garden
Whether you are planning on starting your first urban garden as a pastime or simply growing food to support a small family on a spacious garden, then it goes without saying that calorie intensive farming ought to be at the top of your list. Green Oklahoma shares how to make sure you’re getting the most calories per foot out of your backyard garden.
Forage For Food in Your Own Yard
There are tons of benefits to foraging, and you can do it in your own backyard! Foraging is sustainable, it makes you more self-sufficient, it has tons of health benefits, it gets you out into nature, and it may even reduce your grocery bill. A Productive Household shares 9 ways to forage in your own yard.
Regrow Foods From Kitchen Scraps
The Soccer Mom Blog shares this valuable post on 15 foods you can easily regrow from kitchen scraps. There are minimal supplies needed, and it’s a great way to stretch your food budget. Plus, it’s fun! There’s something very satisfying about turning something that would have gone into the trash or compost bin into whole, healthy food. And free food, at that!
Frugal Homesteading: Home & Kitchen
The home is the heart of any family farm. It’s where everything that we’ve worked so hard for finally comes together. Finding ways to cook frugally and reduce kitchen waste is an important component of homesteading. Using things like essential oils and fresh herbs helps create a natural home for not much money.
Use Kitchen Scraps and Reduce Food Waste
Scratch Made Confessions wrote an awesome post on a topic I’m quite passionate about, and that’s how to reduce food waste. When you’re putting so much energy into growing and sourcing your own food, finding ways to make the most of it becomes a major goal.
Save Money Burning Wood
If you want to save money on utility bills, heating your home with wood is one of the best things you can do. It’s also a great way to make use of the natural resources around you. Heart’s Content Farmhouse shares some ways to start saving money burning wood and get the cozy lifestyle going.
Make Your Own Home Deodorizer
This DIY Lemon and Rosemary Deodorizer from Plant Based on a Budget is an inexpensive way to make use of your rosemary bush and repurpose leftover lemon peels. Homesteading involves a lot of composting, animals, and food preservation. Which means, having a go-to deodorizer is just plain handy.
Make Your Own Soothing Salve
This dandelion salve recipe from Tulips and Twill is a summer must-have! Natural remedies like this homemade salve are simple DIYs that any home herbalist can create. It’s a great way to soothe achy joints, reduce itching, and soothe dry skin.
Frugal Homesteading: Farm Animals & Creatures
Caring for animals is arguably the most expensive part of homesteading. It can be hard to figure out how to live a frugal lifestyle while having farm animals and creatures. So finding sustainable ways to raise them is a good thing.
Farm animals are also a great way to make a little bit of side income during your homesteading journey. Read on for suggestions and tips from more frugal homesteading blogs.
Start A Beekeeping Business
The idea of keeping bees is intriguing to many people. Not only can you make extra money for your homestead, but it allows you to produce special products like honey, beeswax, and more. Carolina Honeybees shares all about How to Start A Beekeeping Business and how you can incorporate it into your normal life on the homestead.
Find Ways To Save Money on Chicken Feed
There are many benefits to raising chickens and it’s often the first farm animal to be added to a new homestead. But, it can be an expensive endeavor depending on your setup.
The reality is, feeding your chickens doesn’t have to break the bank. The Peasant’s Daughter outlines 25 ways you can cut down on chicken feeding costs.
Learn From Others’ Mistakes Before Making Decisions
I published a post about mistakes we made during our first year of cow ownership. Maybe you own a cow, maybe you don’t, but it’s always a good idea to do research online and learn from other homesteaders’ mistakes. It may save you a lot of money and heartache down the road!
Other Frugal Homesteading Tips
There are so many more things that help with homesteading frugally. Things like bartering goods at the local farmer’s market, no longer using consumable products like paper towels, and shopping for items at the thrift store.
I also encourage you to meet regularly with the community in your own rural area. Other frugal moms and dads can provide treasure troves of ideas that you may have never thought of.
Want to start your own homesteading blog and make a side income while living the homesteading dream? I highly recommend the Create Your Blog Dream course created by Lisa Bass from Farmhouse on Boone. Lisa also wrote the forward for the free Homestead Anywhere ebook that I contributed to. I’d love to send it you a copy! Just enter your email address below:
I encourage you to follow some of the frugal homesteading blogs listed here on their social media platforms. Especially if you like seeing things like real food recipes, simple living ideas, and urban homestead inspiration on your feed!
You can also read more frugal homesteading blogs from Growing Dawn:
Flourish & Reap The Benefits of Vertical Gardening
Best Food Dehydrator Under $100: A Review
Homesteading Without Land: How To Start
How To Plan A Small Vegetable Garden for Beginners
So many great ideas here! I especially love that you emphasize that not everything has to be bought new and to repurpose items.
These are such great Frugal Tips that any Homesteader would want to know about!
Great post! It’s always good to be mindful of cost…especially nowadays!
This post has such great and useful information, thank you so much for sharing!! As we are soon going to start homesteading and we are definetely on a tight budget, i’ll use many of these tips 🙂
I love this! And hoping to expand my little “urban homestead” into the future. Love the tips!
So much experience in your post. We’re hoping to move into a homestead in the new year and start a new life. I’m interested in the beekeeping and my wife is into the cow idea. We already have urban chickens and will definitely want to expand it as the years go on and give our kids a rich upbringing
I’m Fascinated with The idea of homesteading, but it’s always seemed so overwhelming. Really enjoyed the post. I could get into this!