Homesteading is an excellent safety net that can help to see you through hard times. Still, it’s also important to consider whether you need a safety net for your safety net. The idea of living off your land alone is a solid one, but still, things can go wrong and leave you struggling.
You could end up having your crops attacked by a disease or damage to your roof costing you a lot of money to repair. You should think about what you would do if you experienced an emergency or a string of bad luck, and how you would keep going.
Set Up A Safety Net for Your Homestead
Build Your Savings
When you’re trying to be self-sufficient, you shouldn’t need as much money as you did before. However, that doesn’t mean you need no money at all. You’re still likely to have to pay for things that you can’t grow, build or fix yourself. With this in mind, it makes sense to have savings that can come to your rescue when you need them.
Putting aside a little money every month, even if it’s only a very small amount, helps to build your savings so you can dip into them whenever it’s necessary. You never know when you might have to pay for an unexpected expense. Try looking at https://www.mint.com for tips on saving.
Spread the Costs
When you do have to pay for things, spending a lot of money at once isn’t always possible. Or you might find that you have issues with cash flow and you don’t always have the money you need at the very moment you need it. Having some kind of credit can help with this, allowing you to spread some costs or to put off paying for something until the end of the month.
Have a look at https://best.creditcard to see some examples of some of the credit cards you might be eligible for. If you need to build or repair your credit score, you can find cards that are designed to do just that.
Diversify Your Resources
Making sure you have a diverse number of resources to help you maintain your self-sufficient lifestyle is important. When something goes wrong with one crop that you’re growing, you should still have others that you can rely on instead. If you’re running a business or making money with your property in any way, try to think of a few different ways you can bring in income. If one of them fails, you should have others as backup.
Prepare for Emergencies
An emergency, from a hurricane to a house fire, could be a disaster for your homestead. Being prepared can help to make you more stable and ensure you can survive until things get back to normal. Do you have food and clean water in case you’re unable to leave? Do you have a backup generator to help you out if you lose your main power source? Being ready for anything can prevent emergencies from being worse than they need to be.
Set up a safety net for your homestead by thinking ahead. Consider your needs and what could go wrong to make sure things go right. Do you have a safety net in place for your homestead? Let me know your plans in the comment box below.
I’m a firm believer that if I can’t afford to pay cash for an emergency I CERTAINLY can’t afford to pay interest too. We haven’t had a credit card in years, and it’s surprising how many things that people think are emergencies turn out to be quite manageable with a little bit of creativity. Of course having savings is always useful!
I completely agree with the whole “pay cash only” thing! I haven’t had credit cards in years and I am so glad I don’t. Glad to hear that someone is as creative as I am with funding for emergencies!