Learning to Live on Less
The homesteading movement is taking shape in communities across the country. Many people are being inspired to live a simpler life while learning to be more self-sufficient. Many families are tired of the fast-paced lifestyle and are choosing to slow down and living on less.
We are one of those families!
For us, it’s all about making do with the resources we have and finding joy in being able to take care of ourselves. We’ve trimmed our budget, gone down to one income, consume less and are healthier and happier than we’ve ever been.
Here are a few things we did when we made the transition from a consumer-driven lifestyle to building a homestead where we learned to live on less:
We adopted a DIY lifestyle.
Learning to live on less is figuring out the difference between a want and a need. Before getting into the habit of running to a big box store to buy what we think we need we take a good look at what we have and how we can reuse or recycle what we already own.
We looked for ways to cut our grocery bill.
This was our biggest source of savings! Once we stopped buying processed food and started cooking from scratch, learned to can and grew our own food our health improved. We build our menus around what’s growing in the garden and what we have canned, preserved, frozen, brewed or fermented. I’ve gone from going grocery shopping once a week, to once a month, and only buy the few staples we need when they’re on sale.
We are no longer house poor.
Choosing to downsize from 2500 sq. ft. to 1200 sq. ft. house has saved us thousands of dollars each year. Gone are the huge energy bills, taxes, and insurance payments. Before we were living way beyond our means and now we live in a home, we can afford on just one income.
We use alternative energy.
Our homes heating and cooling costs were one of our major expenses. We have a heating unit, but the programmable thermostat is kept very low in the winter and high in the summer. We heat with wood in the winter to stay warm and close the blinds in the summer to keep the heat out. Just those couple changes in the way we heat and cool our home keep our energy bills low.
I was amazed at how just these few changes helped us live on less. I can’t imagine what our life would look like if we still lived in that huge house, struggling every month to make ends meet.
How would your life look if you made a few of the changes above?
Thanks for stopping by!
Tracy Lynn
P.S. Do you like what you are reading?
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We were like that, we had a mortgage and couldn’t pay all our bills. We spent one whole day discussing this fact and whether we should sell or not. We prayed and prayed and my husband decided that we would sell, get out of debt and rent until something else came up. We rented for 7 years before God blessed us with moving here, now we are trying to be as self sufficient as we can be and live off our land as much as possible. It certainly takes the stress out of life. We heat our home with wood and like you close the curtains when it is hot. We do use some airconditioning but we have solar panels which feed back into the system so we rarely pay an electricity bill. We don’t have a dryer and we hang our washing up to dry, even in winter. Thanks for this great post and great hints, we can always learn something from this. Blessings
Terri…we did the same thing. We sold our big house in the city and lived in a 5th wheel for two years until we could afford to add a house to our homestead. Best move we ever made!
Thanks Tracy for sharing this great post at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings
Just a question out of curiousity, How long does it take your clothes to dry out on a clothesline in the winter? Is it faster in the winter?
Thank you,
Shelly
If the air is dry and there is not a lot of moisture in the air it takes about 6 hours. On windy days it is a lot less. I try and watch the weather and plan wash day around the forecast.
Thank you very much for the reply. Im going to give it a try.
Great article. I am in the middle of trying to pay off debt as fast as I can as a single mom with one income. We are cutting everything that isn’t an absolute essential. The only expense that is not a fixed bill is our grocery bill. We have started a garden and this year I will be canning as much as I can produce. While the initial cost is more (for the canning jars)the overall cost will be lower. We are cooking more from scratch and I’m learning more everyday. But it is difficult to go from the typical American consumer lifestyle to spending less. The kids (16 and 6)understand a bit why we are not spending as much, but the peer pressure is hard for them. Their friends do not understand that we do not have cable or microwave snacks, but they devour the homemade cookies. But with the economy, I’ve seen people where I work start getting laid off and you never know who is next. So learning to live on less before we had to has helped. I’m not completely out of debt yet but I am a lot closer than I used to be.
Kudos to you…you are doing more justice to your kids than they will ever know. Someday they will thank you for it!
Simple living is no sacrifice. It puts you in touch with what really matters. We have been given much in just our health, home and family. What else matters?
I agree…nothing else does matter!
Thanks for sharing at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop! I really enjoyed reading this! Its something my husband and I are really trying to work on. 🙂
Amazing tips! Thanks so much for sharing! I’ll be sharing this post in my social media channels! 🙂
Hi Tracy, Once again, you echoed our hearts. Thanks for sharing this inspiration on the Art of Home-Making Mondays! 🙂
You are right…. little changes make a big difference… we have made many little changes and live on a small budget, but we do need to make more changes. 🙂 It is ongoing.
This is a great list Tracy. So many people just don’t want to do these things, yet they stress about being in debt. My husband and I are working our way there. It is great that you only have to buy things from the grocery store so infrequently.
My husband and I have been grappling with this very issue. We’ve been living in an apartment for seven years with no end in sight. We made the decision to go back to grad school, incurred much more student loan debt, and had a surprise baby all in a matter of two years! After graduating with our master’s degrees, my husband has had a terrible time getting back into his teaching career–the market really changed while we were in school. I love reading posts like this, because it encourages me to focus on the blessings and controlling the things I can control. Thanks for sharing!
Traci, Congrats on your move.. Living beyond our means [keeping up with the Jones’s] is not a fun life, for sure.
Hubby and I are both retired now..We have all of our bills paid off, [retirement checks are not as big as payroll checks.ha].We live as frugal as we can.. Our kids are grown and gone. I guess we don’t have to live this way.. But, I for one, totally enjoy our lives.. And why would we want to give our money to the grocery stores/utility companies, big houses, etc., when we don’t have to.
We have a big garden , fruit trees, berries, and we can and freeze for the winters.. I too, only grocery shop once a month, and now a days…it is getting to be more like every 6 wks.
Totally enjoyed your post.
Hi there, Stopping by from Frugal Friday. Great tips and the mot important is not being house poor. If you’re working for your a house you really can’t afford that’s a sure sign of trouble. Living a simple life is so much more fulfilling than buying stuff you don’t need.
We have adopted the same lifestyle, Tracy, and we have found that we are so much happier these days.
Thanks for encouraging your readers with these excellent tips and sage advice.
Blessings to you and yours.
Great advice! Actually, people should follow this advice all the time, even when they have money to spend. I have to be honest, I am a huge saver, but I also love to spend. So I constantly have to remind myself to fix things myself, not buy something when I don’t need it and so on. Great post, thanks!
LOVE this post, Tracy! We, too, are on this journey. It is a slow process, and it requires a lot of patience. One thing I am learning is that we didn’t get into our current situation overnight, and we won’t get out of it overnight, either. We need to allow ourselves a lot of grace on the journey, because it can be quite trying to wait. May God bless you, Tracy, and all your sweet readers, too! Thanks for the encouragement and the weekly link-up. 🙂
These are great tips – Raised our family on one income wasn’t easy but we figured it out without going in debt. Now I’m ready to downsize and get real basic, RV simple on land. This major move is about a year away but I can hardly wait.
When you can realized that what think we want just comes and goes like the seasons, then living simpler becomes a whole lot easier.
I found you on Stone Cottage Adventures. These are great tips. We also downsized our home to half the size. I still feel we have too much and am still purging items all the time.
I am constantly walking through my house and getting rid of things… there is something so freeing living without the constant clutter around me.
Lots of good advice! I hope to take steps in that direction myself in the near future. 🙂 I’ll look forward to learning from you… Pinning and tweeting! #FridayFrivolity
Your advice is very good. It’s amazing how many people hold on to expenses that are useless to them. The hardest part is truly deciding between want and need.