Homestead Living -Moving on with Life!

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Habits That Change When You Homestead
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Shop Less  When it comes to food staples,
clothing, and the day-to-day needs, homesteaders
tend to shop less frequently. At least, it sure
changed for us! We buy wheat berries in bulk and
grind our own flour. We buy 20 pound bags of
rolled oats and package that to last.
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Clothing Styles and Habits The kinds of clothing
we buy has drastically changed. More denim, less
rayon. Work boots instead of what looks good.
If I cant tromp through mud at any given time,
it likely has no place in my closet. Everything
has moved from fashion considerations to
practical applications. Will this keep me warm?
Will it last more than a year? Is it machine
washable (not on delicate, either)? Looks are a
distant second for us now. Sure, we want to look
good but more importantly, we want to be warm and
dry.
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Less Laundry  The average person would think you
would end up with even more laundry being a
homesteader. Nope. When Laundry consists of hand
washing everything or hanging them on the line to
dry or anything other than your standard
washing/drying system, you tend to wear things a
few days instead. Especially if you have to go to
the laundromat (VERY expensive here). Honestly,
other than socks and undies, is that
shirt really dirty after one day? Unless you are
cleaning out the chicken coop, not likely.
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Sleeping In  My husband and I are polar
opposites when it comes to morning time. He is
up, chipper, talkative and ready to face the day!
I, on the other hand, have been known to growl,
gnash teeth, and even snap at people who get too
close until after I have my shower and morning
coffee. At least half the cup. I also loved to
sleep in. It is the greatest gift ever given to
mankind.well besides the perfect pillow.
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Using Money for Everything  There is a certain
satisfaction to getting what you want and need by
way of bartering. Homesteaders tend to shy away
from using money as they get deeper and deeper
into the lifestyle. Many people see more value in
a few pints of freshly canned blueberry preserves
than they do 15 for some scrap wood they had
laying around. I know, it sounds a little crazy
but it is largely true!
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Having Elaborate Meals  We dont go out to eat
very often at all anymore. It is hard to justify
spending 100 on a dinner, no matter how nice,
when you could take that same money and buy
enough to make 20 meals (or more). OR you use
that 100 to build a place where you can grow
your own food that will last years!
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What you Consider Entertainment Used to be I
could spend literally 12-16 hour stretches on the
weekends playing online games. No joke. I would
sit here on my backside (which got bigger over
the years from all the sitting lol) every free
moment I had and be plugged in to some game or
another, completely immersed. I had more
interaction with people online than I did in the
real world. Before that, watching TV or reading
a book, maybe going for walks was my
entertainment. Even if I didnt have the blog, it
has pretty much all changed.  
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Buying Everything New  Touched on lightly above,
I dont know any homesteaders who rush out to buy
whatever they need brand new. Sure, there are
certain items that you kind of need to buy new
but those are pretty rare. Instead, they either
fix it, make it, or make do without it. You can
never really get away from needing to have and
use money but it is not the first route most
homesteaders take. In fact, it is usually the
last when all other options dry up.
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Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency.
It is characterized by home preservation of
foodstuffs and subsistence agriculture! It may
also involve the small scale production of
textiles and craftwork for household use or sale.
And, Homestead.org is a place to learn to
homestead and build a sane, earth-based lifestyle!