HOW MUCH MONEY do you need TO START HOMESTEADING?

how much money do you need to start homesteading this was a fantastic question that I got asked this week on the channel we're gonna answer that for you in today's episode of ask home-study the weekly show that we do here on the channel where we take one of the questions that one of you has left on the channel and we try to answer it in the best way that we can for you today's question comes from mark mark asks hashtag ask home-study what does it take to actually do homesteading and what kind of budget would you need to get started so Mark's wondering like what basic things do you have to spend the money on and how much money do you need for it and we're gonna try to answer that question for mark if you would like to get a question answered on our show leave a question in the comments section of our youtube channel with the hashtag ask home-study all one word and we may answer your question on an upcoming episode and I'm gonna include this on the podcast this week cuz I think it's such a good question I think the podcast audience would like to listen to it too if you're listening on the podcast just note we are filming on site we're not in the studio there's gonna be some birds tweeting and chickens clucking hopefully you enjoy that otherwise why would you be thinking about how I'm studying in the first place so mark I really want to approach this question with two different directions first off you want to know what you actually kind of need to get started and I'm gonna approach that as if it were bare-bones minimum because I'm assuming your question comes from the point of view of getting started mark actually gave me some additional information which I always love if you're gonna leave a question give me as much detail as you can he says him and his girlfriend are chasing the idea of doing homesteading once they're done with their agricultural education so I'm assuming that you're coming out of your agricultural education with a tight budget you want to know what are the things we have to get on our homestead and then how much money can we expect to spend on those we're gonna approach this with a bare-bones entry level you know what you have to spend money on and then I'm gonna talk about how to budget for projects as you go forward because there is a problem with this question you know chili out just stopped raining the problem with Mark's question is you know what kind of budget do I need to get started homesteading it depends it really depends on what you want to do so in the first part we're going to talk about your bare-bones minimum things that you need to actually get started and then we're going to talk about how to budget for the things that you actually want to do because I could tell you how much you need to budget to get started with a camel dairy but my guess is you're probably not planning on starting a camel dairy at least not right away maybe we'll convince you that eventually but uh you know that's further down the road so the first thing mark wants to know is what are the bare bone minimum things that you need to plan on having to start homesteading and the answer to that is probably less than you would expect by its strictest definition I personally think that homesteading is really just kind of living off of the land having a piece of land that provides you with some of life's basic essentials so that's food but that's also energy you know we need shelter we need water those are things you could be harvesting from your homestead you can homestead with very little land and you can homestead without buying that land so you do need access to a space but that could be an apartment balcony in my opinion if you turn your apartment balcony into a place where you're growing a small maybe a kitchen garden farm fresh farm fresh herbs maybe you're sprouting your nutrients who knows you could even fit a small depending on how big your balcony was maybe you couldn't throw a little teeny-tiny little beehive on the balcony I don't know think outside of the box so you only need a little bit of space but honestly if you're even looking to get started on a bigger scale you don't even need an acre you could do a lot of homesteading on half an acre or 1/4 acre depending on if you want to do plants or even lots of livestock there are a lot of different livestock options where you can start on minimal land so don't assume you need a hundred acres or even ten you could get started on a quarter acre or a half acre you don't have to buy that land we did an interview a long time ago with John Cisco vich who started a pastured poultry operation on other people's land I'm gonna play a short excerpt here from a whole entire pioneers only episode of home study you'll find this episode where I interviewed John sis Govich it's called running a profitable pastured poultry operation from your homestead or farm you will find that in the Pioneer library it's if you click in the Pioneer library you click on pioneers and then you click on videos you can search for John Cisco vich this will pop up if you're a pioneer and you can watch that whole whole interview it's a great interview but I'm just gonna play a little excerpt here and again give me a second here to get it queued up and we're going to just listen to a short excerpt right there you know properly I know this and that how did you create a business out of that brush your teeth every day because you'll do a lot of smiling yeah I I knew that I wanted to be in this area of the state it was a state I grew up in I can talk Connecticut you know it's my home state I knew that I wanted to move out of where I grew up but still be you know pretty local I went on Google Maps and looked for open fields and open fields with houses near them I printed up a one-pager one it has to be one eight and a half by eleven and then a business card of here's my model here's my requirements here's how it works for you here's how it works for me bullet points and that can lead back to a URL on your web page which we have from the bye trip of explaining it more doing some videos whatever you want once they're hooked they're hooked but that one pager is here make or break and I would do a very of things I drove around and knocked on doors I left those fliers in people's mailboxes I knocked on doors if there was somebody I thought was home I would drive around to where I saw open tracks and land and say hey I'm a chicken farmer all maestra infrastructure can be mobile I would like to operate on your grass you know your hay fields here let's have a chat and you know that took a variety from driving around knocking on door to door something year you know familiar or I went to town tax assessor's and planning and zoning and spent some time in the you know city halls or whatever of the various towns around here once I found that tract of land I would go to see Hall find who owned it what their name was and I would just you know stalk that person and fine if they didn't have a number or contact information on record you google anybody Google Austin in you know New Milford and you'll find something somewhere potentially if not you just go knock on their door but I found ways to you know just contact people and say hey here's my story this is what I want to do and because I was so passionate about it because I was so invested in that to have been apparent to who I was talking to I actually fielded several offers of people wanting to oh you can have this field you can have that field and I got to choose based off a proximity and lease situation where I wanted to operate the farm in the beginning he goes into detail on how he did this it's in one of the pioneers episodes of the podcast if your pioneer you can go to the Pioneer library and download that but basically what John did was he pitched to a lot of local landowners his plan to improve their property using chickens and movable infrastructure that would not be their permanent and he was vetting options there were multiple people saying please start a farm on my property and he was like no no no yes so if you're really driven and really creative and smart like my buddy John from farm marketing solutions he started publishing videos again by the way so go say hi to Johnny tell him you Austin sent you over there slam his channel today let's slam Johnny's channel like to cheer Johnny up anyway if you're like Johnny you don't need to spend money on land you can get access to land but if you can't afford some land then that's great I love owning the land because then all the improvements you make on the land are yours now how about infrastructure I'm sitting here in this really nice beautiful barn I got animals I got mini cows and camels and bunny rabbits and chickens and dogs and all kinds of things in this barn do you need to start your homestead with a barn no again bare bones starting off you know hit the ground running you can use things like chicken tractors to get you started and this is gonna be the John Cisco vichy sowed just because Johnny is so good at getting a farm started with no money no infrastructure all that stuff he's an ace at that make yourself a Johnson stove it's chicken tractor and raise yourself some chickens [Music] you can do it egg-laying chickens you can do meat chickens a Johnson Skov it's chicken tractor is gonna cost you around a hundred and sixty dollars in materials and probably a couple days unless you just try to tackle it all in one day and you're out you're running and you can go anywhere with that chicken tractor you can go on other people's land you can go on your own property and now you're started not into livestock then build yourself a couple raised beds and you know off and running you don't need a big fancy barn you don't need to spend a bunch of money on a big fancy barn small cheap infrastructure to get started and that can scale to larger livestock good day folks this is a great Judy coming from you you want to get into it real hardcore you want to go for things like cows watch Gregg Judy's channel Gregg Judy is awesome resource for pasturing large animals he does mostly cows but he also passed her sheep and goats and a bunch of other stuff Gregg Judy doesn't use barns he doesn't have dry Lots he doesn't have a lot of money in infrastructure you don't go out and buy a bunch of stuff you don't need an ATV you don't need a brand-new pickup you don't need a tractor you don't need a mower a rake baler all this stuff that just consumes capital that you could be using to buy these okay that's how we grew this herd was from other people's money he the leases people's land as lifetime leases he moves cows on to him and sheep on to him with a little bit of high-tensile perimeter fencing and then some of the semi-permanent stuff in the middle of the property he moves the animals quickly so he never needs to keep him in a barn they have trees and things to hide under and he has some Hardy animals that can you know handle the winter where he is so again depending on where you are in your climate things may be different but you can get away with it in a lot of places you could have animals outside and if you focus on things like meat animals even if you have a bad winter most your meat animals you could put in the freezer before winter not even worried about it so you don't need to spend a ton of money on a bar and you don't need to spend a ton of money on land what else it really big ticket items are there I am a big believer in spending money on good infrastructure good infrastructure makes a huge difference when you're homesteading back behind me here is a frost-free hydrant all winter long I can turn this on and I got water flowing all winter long that is so much better than hauling buckets so honestly whatever you do I would focus in the very beginning on spending money really on your infrastructure and things like water fencing the really important stuff for your animals everyday life that's where I'd focus my budget if you go and watch Gregg Judy's videos you will see that after he leases a farm he puts a high tensile perimeter fence up that way his animals can never escape and he will run water he'll put in a pond and then run water lines off of that pond this infrastructure is where you get the most bang for your buck high tensile fencing on your perimeter is way cheaper than more permanent heavy-duty fencing wow that was a camel sneeze and that was loud what was that high tensile perimeter fencing is much more bang for your buck than like putting up you know a wooden fence around your your little homestead area running water lines you know foot for foot is not too expensive but is an incredibly efficient way to run a homestead and in the beginning the more things you do that help improve your efficiencies the more you can do which means the more money you can save off food you're raising for yourself and the more money you can make as you grow have more products and you sell those products and now you have a better budget to spend on homesteading so don't spend a ton of money at the beginning on the land or on big like you know permanent infrastructure like the barn here instead get by with small semi-permanent movable cheap infrastructure fine animals that are more Hardy and put them in places where they can thrive without so much heavy-duty infrastructure to get yourself up and running think about doing meet animals where you can raise them I'm talking meat chickens meat pigs even like lamb or go where you can get them in the spring run them through spring summer fall and before winter put them in the freezer and take winters off to plan what you're gonna do next year to get yourself off the ground and running these are great ways to get started low budget low cost start saving some money maybe and start making a little bit as you start to sell products and then you can go bigger now let's talk about dollars and cents what do you actually need to consider for a budget how much money are you actually going to have to budget for certain things on your homestead specifically we're gonna talk about how to put together a budget for different endeavors but first it's time for the homestead ii camel train shoutout and today's shout-out is a really nice camel train shoutout from sarah and she wrote a very very nice letter to us so sarah says hello austin Kate I'd like to begin this email by first saying thank you from the bottom of my heart for being as amazing as you guys are and I truly mean that I have learned more about homesteading from your channel then I have from any other homesteading channel on YouTube you've inspired me and motivated me beyond measure you've helped me realize a dream that's been growing stronger and stronger inside me every single day for about five years now the possibility of having my very own homestead someday and I feel that someday is coming very soon like very very soon sarah is 37 years old and she is an Air Force veteran she serves that as a medtech in two tours of duty in Iraq during the height of the Iraq war so Sarah's been she's been in it after she was done in the military she went and she got her BA in biology she says sadly she didn't do anything with it but don't worry Sarah I think when you start homesteading you're gonna use a lot of what you learned in biology Sarah is currently unemployed and she says it's due to a service-connected disability rating for PTSD and a few other health issues so she decided to pursue an online degree for her master's in business administration says he didn't know why she was doing it but she figured why not couldn't hurt again if you start homesteading your mix of first off just being a like hard worker through tough stuff being you know going through what you've been through and then your biology knowledge mixed with like Business Administration I think it all played together nicely on the home step it sounds like a good resume for a homesteader she says I got to read this because they think Sarah's feelings here are the way a lot of people feel she says I want to become a homesteader so badly I can taste it I know it's what I want to do but I'm afraid I'm a 37 year old woman who lives alone and I don't foresee that changing though I don't have a crystal ball I want to be smart and responsible about this dream of mine I want to start slow and work up to what I know I can handle on my own I know I can do it I know I could be so happy as a homesteader but fear of the unknown has been paralyzing me for years now I'm ready to take a leap of faith and jump into the homesteading world I'm actively searching for property to begin my homesteading dream I currently live in northern new jersey but the rest of my family moved to Florida over the past few years so now I have to move to Florida too not thrilled about it but it's family so you got to do what you got to do man might be good who knows I'll give it a whirl yeah I'm with you I would not want to homestead in Florida Sarah but if you got family there there's a there's a lot to be said about having a good support circle especially if you are gonna go at it alone which people do we just interviewed Ariel in the podcast last week and she's out there in the mountains just homesteading all by herself in her tiny home so you can totally do it sarah has another goal she says in addition to become wanting to become a homesteader she wants to be as successful you - BRR like you guys are I admire the two of you so much have been subscribed to your channel for quite some time now and I recently became an annual pioneer and then she says though as of tonight I'm totally a loud and proud lifer lol I've watched you guys grow exponentially over all this time and I'm very proud of you truly you deserve all your victories and successes because you have blessed so many people such as myself with invaluable information and advice on homesteading Sarah I'm gonna get choked up with this this email this is so these kind words are really really nice to read please don't ever stop doing what you're doing you're all a true joy to watch and follow along with you're an absolute inspiration so Sarah she apologized he says I know it's not a short paragraph that you asked for sorry about that that's okay I'll read letters like that they could be five pages I've read them all day she says she doesn't have a homestead or business yet to talk about or a YouTube channel so nothing to plug right now but Sarah here's my thing when you start that YouTube channel you just give me a shout back out and we'll send the audience over to check out what you're doing we're gonna help you be a successful youtuber - it's like why we do this channel the letters and stories like that just that's why we started doing this way back when we started and Sarah's been following for a long time so we've been growing together Sarah and I want to hear about your homestead as it starts growing so at the end of this video we talked about our start home studying today course definitely dive into that it's gonna help you get started and especially with your worries it's going to help you learn to build at the speed that you want to build that so stay tuned that's at the end of this video we talked about that class so now let's get back into budgeting Sarah don't don't forget look out for your special one-of-a-kind home steady camel train t-shirt we're just about to sell our 80th camel train ticket as of recording this so if you'd like to join the camel train like Sarah get the t-shirt get the lifetime pioneer membership so all our bonus content all the home studying discounts everything we do for the pioneers our lives on Monday sera join us for the live show by the way you get all that one payment you're done for life and also you get your shout out so if you'd like to join click there to become a camel train member and there are only about 21 spots left we're about to sell our 80th tickets so jump on that train while there's still time let's get into budgeting food so mark you and your girlfriend are planning ahead good job so is good to plan especially when it comes to things like spending money on homestead and putting a budget together for that homestead how much money should you have to get started well like I said depending on what you're doing you can get out the gate pretty cheap if you want to start a pastured poultry operation like John says Kovich factoring around a hundred and sixty dollars in materials for ten bucks you can download Johnny's ebook right now and have the plans and how to build this we'll have a link in the description below if you're a home city pioneer you get a discount but either way you'll find a link in the description below for Johnny's book and then to order your actual chickens let's say you want to do if you want to do you know 50 meat chickens I think when you order them there's somewhere around a buck fifty per chick so you're looking at $75 there you're gonna be getting some other miscellaneous stuff John shows you how to make pretty reasonably priced feeders and waterers all in all averaging about six pounds each you know if you're buying them at the supermarket if you ask five or six bucks per pound you know that's a twenty five or thirty dollar chicken and you can probably profit five dollars per bird so you've made yourself 250 bucks you've almost paid for your your all your infrastructure that first batch if you do two batches you'll actually be profiting now you won't probably be profiting for the time investment but if you're doing this because it's something you want to do it's a hobby you want to have you're learning as you go then your time is kind of your investment your education and also what you're doing enjoying your time doing what you want to do so to get started there you go there's I mean if you have five hundred to a thousand dollars you could pretty much get started with chickens another great place to start would be rabbits we got heart to breeder rabbits for like $60 we put them in a stall in a barn but you could just as easily put them in a garage I mean these rabbits they don't have to be outside they do need some sunlight so having a window or some bright LEDs is helpful but these two rabbits went multiplied we now have like 30 rabbits in there that's tons of meat we're raising and we are doing this so far off of we've bought two bags of feed at $15 a bag that investment in the rabbits if you already have a shed or a garage or just a space you can keep them and not let them escape you could get started with rabbits doing meat rabbits for like 200 dollars in change and they're just they multiply like crazy they're very self-sufficient now doesn't always work that way things might go wrong but you know so for 500 bucks I mean you can get started doing a lot of things you could build a couple raised beds and plant a bunch of seeds for 500 bucks you know if you have 500 bucks you could start a lot of projects on the homestead for 500 bucks that could quickly kind of pay for themselves at least when it comes to your investment your initial investment if you keep that small if you don't go building a giant barn and buying you know 100 acres if you start small and keep it moving and lightweight it's easier to make that money back now how do you develop a actual budget for something bigger that you want to do let's say you want to start a camel dairy operation like we did you probably don't but maybe you want to get pigs and you want to do pastured pork or maybe you want to get dairy goats and it's a bigger expense and you're not sure how much expense is going to be you know needed my suggestion because so many variables can come into play here is just start with a guesstimate but start small don't launch your goat dairy operation with 10 dough's instead by 2 and learn as you go pay close attention to the dollars and cents that you're spending and then you'll know really good numbers how much the other eight are going to cost you you won't be able to start a business right away with just your two I look at my camel operation right now we launched our camel dairy but we only have one camel cow who's in milk I don't have a product to sell my family is drinking all that milk but I'm learning how much work how much money how much everything is needed for camels so instead of buying five of them and going bankrupt because I made a bunch of mistakes I'm learning on just the one cow and the one calf and then I'll be able to grow in the future with a lot more knowledge and a lot more ability so just have a guesstimate learn what the going rate for the animal is figure out your bare-bones minimum infrastructure to get by and then do it for a season pay close attention to your numbers and that way the next year you will have the answer as to how much you need in the budget to grow your operation start small grow slow you grow your homestead just like the best producers of food in the world fruit trees you start small like a tiny little apple seed and you grow into this giant tree with all these amazing apples this is a concept I talked about in our start home studying today course that course is now free for you to take at this is home study calm click the link right there you'll sign up to our email list I will ask you to fill out a survey it's just so I get to know who you are and what you want to learn the survey will take you a few minutes to fill out and then you get a free access to this entire course all about how to start home studying today we talk about everything you want to know how to get started right now how to find the right property for you how to do your first garden how to start your first livestock and how to grow like that apple tree for years and years and years to produce more and more and more totally free course click there to join the email list and fill out that survey and hopefully that course can help you mark and your girlfriend get started on your homestead and all of you who are listening or watching hopefully that course can help you as well if you would like to get a question answered on ask home study again all you have to do leave a question hashtag ask homestead e in the comment section of our youtube channel that's where I look for these questions and maybe yours will be the next question that we answer thanks for watching thanks for listening and we'll catch you in the next video slash podcast [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 63,825

Rating: 4.8561153 out of 5

Keywords: farm, farming, homesteading, homesteady, homesteaders, backyard farming

Id: Q00PTMW4xCw

Length: 28min 16sec (1696 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 15 2020