Making Money on the Homestead

One of the reasons people choose to live a more self-reliant life and homestead is to get away from money. They don’t want their life to be focused solely on making money. The trouble with that is, you really can’t get completely away from needing some of that ol’ ‘trading paper.’ Some scoff at people who homestead and still buy things from the store but even the pioneers of old had to get supplies from the trading post!

Unless you are growing crops to sell off, raising livestock to sell, or have a foot in both worlds and hold down a day job, you will need money to buy the things you can’t produce: gasoline is a prime example of just one of the things you need money to buy. For most people, getting extra money is difficult anyway but even more so for the homesteader. Their days are generally spent working the homestead to produce and refine the things they need. Their chores are largely focused on the production and preservation of food for the family and livestock. That doesn’t leave much time to work a 40 hour work week.

There are numerous combinations of how the modern homesteader makes things work out but regardless if you homestead as a hobby or a lifestyle, there are many things you can do during your normal chores that will help bring in a little extra here and there. The key to making money on the homestead is to remember that you must have multiple streams. Those streams meld together to form the overall income.Just remember that you need to report that income when you file taxes in most cases. For some, getting past the idea of making all your money on one thing (such as a day job) can be a challenge.

The key to making money on the homestead is to remember that you must have multiple streams.

Of course, if you have chickens and end up with a surplus of eggs, sell them! Another thing you can do is if you have people who regularly get eggs from you, see if they would be willing to buy feed instead of giving you cash. A lady I once knew would trade 4 dozen eggs for a bag of feed in the summer, when egg production was really high. Her feed costs were lower in summer due to all the bugs and whatnot available for the chickens to feed on. She would store the feed in her little barn and when winter came, would almost have enough to get through the whole season. She may not have gotten monetary income from the exchange, but she also didn’t have to pay for feed in the winter. She made her chickens more self-sustaining! Income doesn’t always equate to cash money.

So besides selling your surplus on produce or eggs, what else can a homesteader do? Get creative! During those long winter months when you can’t work outside or your equipment is frozen up, consider making something you can sell. Repurposed items are highly popular. An example would be to make picture frames out of weathered barn wood. Chances are pretty good that if a barn is falling down, the current owners will happily let you tear it down and/or take whatever materials you want from it. They don’t have to mess with it and you just got a nice stock of materials needed to make items that can be sold to help you get fabric for making new clothes. All it cost you was some fuel and time. Pinterest has too many ideas to count on different things you can repurpose around the homestead and then sell as a decoration. And that is just one idea! Get creative!

One of my favorite things to do is to barter my skills in food cultivation and preservation for the things I need. Last summer, I traded my skills for smoking and canning fish in exchange for 6 large fillets of Sockeye salmon (my favorite!). They provided the jars, lids, and alder chips. I provided the brine ingredients, the smoker, the pressure canner, the electricity for the stove, and my skills, experience, and time. Normally, when this type of exchange is done here, people get half of what they produced. I personally feel that is very greedy and just not right as a general rule so was very happy with the 6 fillets that I could do whatever I wanted with. Those 6 fillets made for no less than a dozen meals for my husband and I (with a little for the pups, too)! That is a big deal! A day or work turned into a dozen meals? I would say that is a good trade.

What about teaching others your skills? It’s highly likely you have some kind of Parks and Recreation department that you may be able to offer classes through. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand the difference between a cooking fire and a heat fire that will last all night. Most people never even consider that there may be a difference; fire is fire, right? For those who have experience, the answer is a resounding “No!”

There are multiple other articles out there that give list upon list of things you can do to make money on your homestead but they don’t talk about how important it is to make sure you have more than one. They also don’t talk about things you can do by the season. In late winter/early spring, when you are sprouting your seeds, sprout extra and sell them! In fall, crochet hats and scarves to sell in winter. Make it part of your cycle, part of your everyday and soon enough, you will see the returns come in without feeling like you really went out of your way!

Want to read more about making money on the homestead? Consider one of these books!

Have ideas for ways to make money on the homestead? Chime in below and who knows – maybe you will inspire someone!