In "The Waste-Not Plan: level 1" I outlined concepts like the grocery snowball and other ways to spend less on food and necessities, in order to be able to build a higher level of financial independence and resilience. Important concepts included budgeting, taking advantage of economy of scale, and reducing debt, in addition to helpful tips about reducing impulse spending. Titled "Spend Less," level 1 is all about reducing how much money you need to spend each week and turning more of your income into disposable income. Level 1 consists almost exclusively of steps that anyone can take, right where they are, even if they live in an apartment without an inch of ground to call their own.
It's all about finding gaps in your self-reliance and closing them any way you can. While Level 1 works wherever you are, even a studio apartment in the Bronx, level 2 may require a move or at least a creative solution like using a community garden or land sharing. I consider growing more than a taste of your own food, making good use of a wood stove, and entry-level animal husbandry like raising pigs and chickens all to be part of Level 2. If you've got a house in the right suburbs, you can probably get a lot of Level 2 under your belt right where you are: even a 20x30 garden can put a real dent in your produce budget, you can look into the legality of chickens, and you'll be shocked how much different a well-placed woodstove will make in your utilities (hint--those BTU's are not just useful for warming up the air!) Level 2 hardens you to interruptions in income or transportation, continues the work of reducing your monthly expenditures, and hopefully helps you build the skills of self-reliance necessary for Level 3.
So what does Level 2 of the waste-not plan look like? For me it has changed several times as I've moved from house to house. On a quarter acre in a quiet suburb, it looked like cooking, heating wash water and warming leftovers on a wood stove; growing two large gardens' worth of vegetables; and keeping a sow and a team of oxen on other peoples' property. On a 5 acre parcel that belonged to an employer, it looked like cheesemaking, first with milk from the dairy and then from our own cow; an expanded flock of chickens; plowing the garden with our own oxen; a new sow and boar, this time on the same property as the rest of the homestead; and another very large garden. Today, though we're on land we own, we're less self reliant than we've been in a long time, because the heifer isn't giving milk yet and the wood stove hasn't been installed (though the latter should change very soon and the former could change as early as fall if we can just find an AI tech). All three places it involved grinding grain, both corn and wheat, for flour; growing enough potatoes to not need to buy any (or substituting turnips in the case of potato crop failure); and reducing winter grocery spending to an absolute minimum.
Depending less is about having a plan B. It's about multiple sources of necessities, full utilization, and knowing what you can do without. It's about building skills you'll need for Level 3, while also saving money on essentials. It's about purchasing ingredients as close to raw materials as possible: plants instead of tomatoes, seeds instead of plants; masa instead of tortillas and field corn instead of masa; milk instead of cheese and a cow or goat instead of milk. It's about finding and utilizing opportunities to learn, and making some investment in learning: buying live chickens to slaughter yourself for dinner; buying a pork shoulder and a meat grinder and trying your hand at homemade sausage; joining an experienced friend for a fishing trip and cooking your catch over an open fire. Every new skill you gather is another step toward financial, personal and food independence, and if, like me, your goal is a self-sufficient homestead, every new skill you learn now will be one more thing you won't have to learn once you're on your new land: fewer mistakes to be made, shallower learning curve, better chance of long-term success and happiness. And even if you never have more than a suburban homestead, you'll be able to supply your family with delicious food without unnatural additives or any of the specific ingredients you personally prefer to avoid.
What do you, personally, need to do to arrive at Level 2 of the Waste-Not Plan? What changes can you make in your life today that would lead to more self-reliance, and what plans can you make to be able to accomplish even more in the future?
Level 2: Depend Less.
It's all about finding gaps in your self-reliance and closing them any way you can. While Level 1 works wherever you are, even a studio apartment in the Bronx, level 2 may require a move or at least a creative solution like using a community garden or land sharing. I consider growing more than a taste of your own food, making good use of a wood stove, and entry-level animal husbandry like raising pigs and chickens all to be part of Level 2. If you've got a house in the right suburbs, you can probably get a lot of Level 2 under your belt right where you are: even a 20x30 garden can put a real dent in your produce budget, you can look into the legality of chickens, and you'll be shocked how much different a well-placed woodstove will make in your utilities (hint--those BTU's are not just useful for warming up the air!) Level 2 hardens you to interruptions in income or transportation, continues the work of reducing your monthly expenditures, and hopefully helps you build the skills of self-reliance necessary for Level 3.
So what does Level 2 of the waste-not plan look like? For me it has changed several times as I've moved from house to house. On a quarter acre in a quiet suburb, it looked like cooking, heating wash water and warming leftovers on a wood stove; growing two large gardens' worth of vegetables; and keeping a sow and a team of oxen on other peoples' property. On a 5 acre parcel that belonged to an employer, it looked like cheesemaking, first with milk from the dairy and then from our own cow; an expanded flock of chickens; plowing the garden with our own oxen; a new sow and boar, this time on the same property as the rest of the homestead; and another very large garden. Today, though we're on land we own, we're less self reliant than we've been in a long time, because the heifer isn't giving milk yet and the wood stove hasn't been installed (though the latter should change very soon and the former could change as early as fall if we can just find an AI tech). All three places it involved grinding grain, both corn and wheat, for flour; growing enough potatoes to not need to buy any (or substituting turnips in the case of potato crop failure); and reducing winter grocery spending to an absolute minimum.
Depending less is about having a plan B. It's about multiple sources of necessities, full utilization, and knowing what you can do without. It's about building skills you'll need for Level 3, while also saving money on essentials. It's about purchasing ingredients as close to raw materials as possible: plants instead of tomatoes, seeds instead of plants; masa instead of tortillas and field corn instead of masa; milk instead of cheese and a cow or goat instead of milk. It's about finding and utilizing opportunities to learn, and making some investment in learning: buying live chickens to slaughter yourself for dinner; buying a pork shoulder and a meat grinder and trying your hand at homemade sausage; joining an experienced friend for a fishing trip and cooking your catch over an open fire. Every new skill you gather is another step toward financial, personal and food independence, and if, like me, your goal is a self-sufficient homestead, every new skill you learn now will be one more thing you won't have to learn once you're on your new land: fewer mistakes to be made, shallower learning curve, better chance of long-term success and happiness. And even if you never have more than a suburban homestead, you'll be able to supply your family with delicious food without unnatural additives or any of the specific ingredients you personally prefer to avoid.
What do you, personally, need to do to arrive at Level 2 of the Waste-Not Plan? What changes can you make in your life today that would lead to more self-reliance, and what plans can you make to be able to accomplish even more in the future?
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