Self Sufficient Household Saves Thousands

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I have saved hundreds of dollars, and will save thousands more, by making the decision to run our household as self sufficiently as possible. The main area I have learned to save in is food. I had chickens, when I was living in the country and always have enough food for them to last for six months. This means plenty of eggs. I found a local supplier of organic wheat, so I bought my own hand mill, and mill my own flour. The kids love it! It's so much better for us than bought flour, as the wheat lasts forever, but once ground, it has a poor shelf life in supermarkets. I also grow wheatgrass and have a hand juicer for it, which means plenty of green goodness. It just makes more sense to hand produce our food and eat natural things. It's amazing how we automatically buy electrical appliances, which cost money and inevitably break and need to be replaced, but not for us any more. It's fun, and a little eccentric to be doing things ourselves, but we're all pretty into it. I find great specials on legumes in my local supermarket, as they have a low turnover of these dried foods, and I can store several months' worth in a big plastic box I also found on special. My family and friends were happy to give me seeds for growing vegies, and I recently found an old bread tray on which I plan to line and dry our own food on the roof (you need the food to dry at 50 degrees Celsius or higher for good drying). Fruit puree makes great dried 'roll-ups' which can be kept in plastic bags in the pantry. I have also arranged to get several crates of fruit from my local fruiterer to make marmalades and preserves. I have found heaps of sites on Google on the subject of self sufficient living. By putting things in place to be able to run without external food sources and power, we find ourselves eating more wholesome foods and spend much less on each and every meal, plus the kids are entertained with helping and learning more life skills. There are some things (such as the grain mill) which are an initial outlay, but they will pay for themselves in several months and, as we are doing more things manually, there is no need for costly exercising memberships or apparatus. All in all, a much healthier and happier way to live!