Make Money Homesteading: Money from Home

There are a multitude of ways to make money homesteading. It will take some time to determine which ones are best for you and your home, farm, or homestead situation.

First of all, think of all the things that you have to offer in the ways of gardening, construction, farming, skills, trades, or livestock.

With the rise of technology and the internet, there are endless opportunities for individuals to make a living without ever leaving their homestead.

Whether you have a small farm, a large garden, or just some extra space on your property, there are various ways to turn it into a profitable business.

“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.”

~Abraham Lincoln

MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING

Plus, consider other ways to make money from home,like sewing & mending, maintenance like lawn care, specialty skills like woodworking & repairs, watch & clock repairs, etc. This is our story:

As a stay-at-home mom in a single-income family, we sometimes needed extra money.

Consider raising animals, growing a garden, hunting, fishing, and preserving food while taking care of your family on your land.

We constantly search for ways to earn money. Some ideas are small, while others can provide significant income.

Some suggestions can be done from home, while others require leaving the house. The goal is to live a more self-sufficient and independent lifestyle on our land.

Living the simple life still costs money……..

“Money is not everything but it is right up there with air!!!” 

We have been a self-employed, homeschooling family for over 35 years, plus we ran a small log home company in western Wyoming.

Our family has tried all these money-making ideas while living on our homestead and doing the usual homesteading activities.

First, it’s important to create a plan for your ideas and actions for your homestead.

Having a Homestead Seasonal Planner is ideal. Remember “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan” as valuable advice.

Let’s start looking at how to create, fund, and maintain your homestead financial plan.

Saving is just as important as earning, so focus on both for better financial health!

Learn how to make money from your homestead while you live there!

Several years ago, we started a small start-up business in lawn care called The Lawn Rangers…….talk about on-the-job child training!

FAMILY BUSINESS IDEA:

Running a family business is a remarkable way to help instill responsibility, work ethics, finances, and social skills in your children while actually having a lot of fun!

We developed a multitude of wonderful relationships in our small community with our clients.

Super valuable experience all the way around!

This proved to be very valuable, as some of our children still have side jobs mowing; plus, they learned how to take care of properties, established lasting relationships with community residents, and made some money.

Earn Money Money from Livestock, Poultry and Animals

Raising Chickens

Raise chicks and laying hens for your family and sell your extra eggs.

When you order chicks or hatch eggs, consider ordering or hatching extras to sell.

Raising Dairy Goats

Raise and keep dairy goats or a milk cow for your family and sell your extra milk.

Raising Sheep

Consider raising sheep or goats and selling the lambs and kid goats.

Wool Production

Raise sheep or Angora goats for their wool. Specialty wool fiber can be a very lucrative business.

Dog Walking Service

Start a dog-walking service. This type of enterprise does not have a very large start-up cost.

Running a Boarding Kennel

Board pets while people are on vacation. This is a very necessary service that can be operated just about anywhere, even on a small piece of land.

Stock Dogs and Guard Dogs

• Raise stock dogs or livestock guard dogs and sell the puppies.

Ranchers and farmers keep livestock guard dogs to protect their sheep and goats.

Consider raising a beef cow.

Raising organic beef, pork, or lamb and selling shares of meat.

One or two animals can easily be raised on a small piece of ground or pasture.

You would need to provide the feed, water, protection, and fencing.

Selling Firewood

If you have an available source of wood, then selling firewood can be a great source of additional income. Also, consider splitting and stacking firewood for cash or trade.

Sewing and Mending

Start a sewing and mending service at home, or do your own sewing and repairs to save money.

Cooking and Catering

Launch a small catering business focused on your specialties, like desserts or bread.

Setup and Takedown Crew

Offer your services for setting up and taking down events and parties, fitting it into your homesteading schedule.

Kitchen Help

Provide kitchen assistance for large gatherings or events, scheduling around your homestead work.

In-Home Childcare

Offer childcare at home based on your homesteading schedule.

Advertise for Odd Jobs.

Ask neighbors, church members, or club members if they need help with jobs or chores for cash or trade.

Consider starting classes or a school for:

• Homesteading skills or experiences
• Cooking classes
• Animal husbandry
• Survival skills and experiences 
• Food Storage
• Food Preservation

Write an eBook and Sell it on Etsy

Write an eBook on your area of expertise, such as homesteading skills and lifestyle, candle making, handicrafts, soap making, animal care, gardening, and cooking skills.

Snow Removal Service

Create a Winter Time Snow Blowing and Snow Plowing Service.

Develop of Tree Trimming Service (we did this under The Lawn Rangers Family Business).

Tree Trimming

Offer a tree trimming service for the removal of fallen, dead, or diseased trees.

Certified Weed Spraying Service

Become a Certified Weed Sprayer and start a Weed Spraying business.

This is an ongoing need in all parts of our country. Consider working closely with your local conservation district on this.

Carpentry and Handyman

Offer your expertise in construction or carpentry work from income or trade.

Fence Building

Build a fence or make fencing parts such as buck sticks for buck-n-pole fences.

Farm and Homestead Chores for Neighbors for Cash or Trade

Offer to farm sit or homestead sit while the owners are away for cash or trade.

Hauling Hay

• Haul and Stack Hay for Cash or Trade.

Creative Income Ideas to Earn Income from your Land:

Short-Term or Long-Term Storage

Set up short-term or long-term RV storage, vehicle, snow machine, boat, or trailer storage.

You would need to offer a safe spot and could even build a 3-sided, covered shed.

Land Rental

Rent or lease your property for seminars or classes of some type.

Offer your property for temporary event hosting or for temporary construction projects.

Short-Term Rentals

Look into Earn Homestead Income through Vacation Rentals through VRBO and Airbnb

eBay or Etsy Account:

Open an eBay account and a PayPal account. Sell items that you no longer need.

You can run this extra business from home. This is a very user-friendly system.

Sell horseradish or flower bulbs on eBay.

Grow and sell horseradish on eBay. Use the Flat Rate Small Priority Boxes for shipping.

Sell kefir grains on eBay or Etsy.

Grow and sell milk kefir grains on eBay. Use the Flat Rate Small Priority Boxes or First Class for shipping.

Or, grow and sell water kefir grains on eBay. Use the Flat Rate Small Priority Box or First Class for shipping.

Sell Garlic Bulbs on eBay

Sell your garlic for both eating and planting on eBay. Use the Flat-Rate Small Priority Mailing Boxes to ship.

Note: You can order free USPS mailing supplies from the USPS.com website.

Rent, Lease, or Start a Business

Take Online Herbal Classes

Take on the Online Herbal Studies Program with Herbal Academy of New England and start a home business selling herbs.

Pasture for Horses and Livestock

Rent or lease pasture for payment or trade.  This is an excellent way to create some passive income if you have vacant fenced land or pastures. In our area, horses bring about $100 each per month without supplemental feeding.

Consider leasing pasture for cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. Your responsibility will be providing pasture, water, and adequate fencing. Research Craigslist to find pasture rates in your area.

Board Horses

Board Horses: Build paddocks and shelters for boarding horses.

Offering a barn, paddocks, riding arena, or trails for riding will increase the amount you can charge. Make sure to have a liability policy in place to cover you and your family. Also, have release forms for your clients to agree to and sign.

House Cleaning Business

Start a house cleaning business. This is an excellent way to make money homesteading, as you can work your own hours and schedule.

Rates in our area are about $15 to $25 per hour. Again, research your local newspaper or Craigslist for your local house cleaning rates.

Lawn Mowing Service

As mentioned above, we had started a family lawn-care business called The Lawn Rangers! We ran this business for several years and had a multitude of clients.

While my husband was building log homes and after homestead chores, the kids and I mowed and weeded a several lawns each week.

We limited our business to just mowing and weed eating, as this was the most profitable use of our time.

We ran one Husqvarna riding mower and 4 smaller push-type Hand Mowersplus had 2 weed eaters.

Our rule of thumb was one dollar a minute or $60 per hour. We provided all the equipment, labor, and fuel. Billings were sent out monthly.

The Lawn Rangers proved very cost-effective and lucrative with the added bonus of teaching and training our kids on how to work.

Our family developed many great business relationships as well as friendships with our clients. A family business offers many positive teaching and training opportunities!

Note on our family lawn care business:

Federal taxes benefit family businesses, making it a great reason to start a home business. Talk to your CPA. Yes, we do use an accountant. Good tax preparation is essential.

While we value the DIY approach, we prefer to handle tasks we feel confident in. Taxes are not one of them!

We have always run Husqvarna equipment, from Husqvarna chainsaws for our log home company to all Husqvarna mowers and Husqvarna weed eaters for The Lawn Rangers. Oh, I guess one of the kids liked his Stihl straight shaft string trimmer, but other than that one, it has been Husky’s all the way!!!

Market a Product from Home:

We have taken a great nutritional supplement for over 15 years called Body Balance from Life Force International.

Life Force is an international company that offers superior products that make a difference in daily living. Body Balance is a whole-food liquid nutritional food made from sea vegetation.

Body Balance has vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and essential fatty acids in a synergistic whole-food supplement.

This is a great company that pays well. Plus, you simply promote their products, and they drop-ship orders to your customers.

There is no inventory for you to buy or keep on hand. Plus, Life Force International has a 90-day empty bottle money-back guarantee. 

Earn an Income from your Garden:

Selling your homegrown vegetables, herbs, and flowers is an easy way to earn money while homesteading.

Gardening: Research your growing climate, soil condition, and local weather patterns.

Selling Greens

Start by planning and growing a small garden. Growing lettuces and greens is super easy and super nutritious, plus you can sell extra at your local farmers market or truck stand.

Selling Seedlings

Growing seedlings to sell. Start them indoors with a Jump Start. Grow Light

Selling Herbs for Profit

Grow Herbs and Sell at Local Farmer’s Market

Fresh and Dried Flowers

Grow and Sell Fresh Flowers: I grew statice flowers and dried them on the stems. I sold them at a local gift shop.

Gardening Services

Offer your services to plant, weed, and harvest in other people’s gardens for money.

Mobile Chipping Service: Provide a mobile service to chip branches and yard waste.

Buy a chipper/shredder and shred mulch on-site. And, then mulch for other people.

Grow and Sell Vegetable Plants

Build or buy a small Greenhouse and start seedlings. Contact your local NRSC Office about cost-sharing programs.

We were able to find a 50/50 Cost Share Program for our  Greenhouse.

Go to the Library and Check out Gardening Books or buy your own. Plan a Garden, plant your garden and market extra produce

Here are my favorite Go-To Homestead / Gardening Books:

The Original Manual for Living off the Land & Doing It Yourself

You will discover many ideas that will help your homestead life prosper with ways to make money homesteading!

The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook

The Self Sufficient Gardner by John Seymour

Learn to Freeze and Can Garden Produce

Home Canning saves Money!

• Freeze Your Own Garden Produce: Fresh To Freezer
• Make your own compost…….Rustic Compost Crock

Saving Income Ideas

Some ways to save money are as simple as learning to take care of your health. Research natural remedies that can help with maintaining your family’s overall health.

Household Budget Ideas and Credit Card:

Budgeting

Create a Budget—Develop a simple budget of earnings and expenditures. Simply make two columns on a sheet of paper titled “Income” and “Expenditures.”

Savings Funds

Build a “rainy day” savings account for an emergency fund.

This is vitally important. Most Americans do not have at least $500 on hand in a savings account. Being self-sufficient means taking care of yourself. Having a “rainy day” savings account is so important. Start building that today!

Online Cashback Offers

Sign up for Ebates Cash Back. I just got $29.50 from things that I normally purchase online. This is a great way to get some cash back from normal everyday online purchases! Ebates simply sends you a check once you earn points!

Use Smart Coupons and all types of coupons when possible, but only buy those items that you really need!!

Household Insurance Saving Tips: 

Insurance

Revisit all insurance policies and shop around for the best rates and deals.

Combine all policies, such as homeowner’s, auto, and PULP, with one carrier for multi-policy discounts. A PULP is a personal umbrella liability policy.

Combining all policies, including a PULP, can actually be less expensive with multi-policy discounts than just having one auto policy or one homeowner’s policy.

Make sure all your policies are up-to-date. This is asset protection. Your simple lifestyle needs protection, too!!!

Health Coverage

Review Healthcare Coverage: Consider membership-type plans. We are members of Christian Healthcare Ministries.

The membership fees are extremely affordable compared to normal health insurance. Plus, CHM offers a referral program called “Bring-A-Friend.”

When you tell a friend about CHM and they join, you receive a premium holiday, which means CHM waives one month’s membership cost for your family.

Create a Blog or Online Business in Your Area of Expertise:

First: ⇒ You must secure your domain name and website hosting service. I highly recommend Lyrical Host.

This company is superb, and their website is super easy to navigate, especially for all us older people!!!

The younger generation just seems born knowing everything about the tech world, websites, and blogging!!! 

So, set up a new hosting service with Lyrical Host and decide which hosting plan is most affordable and best fits your needs.

I would recommend that you get the site monitoring and privacy package if you are able. This offers extra needed protection for your new website.

Learn More at How to Start a Blog!

MAKE MONEY BLOGGING AT ANY LEVEL for $27

I bought this eBook from A Modern Homestead, and it has been a lifesaver.

I have printed this manual so I have a hard copy to refer to when I need a review. Victoria has spelled everything out in such a thorough format.

Final Thought on Making Money Homesteading

The homestead lifestyle is rewarding, but you need a good plan to create, build, and maintain it. You might want to keep your current job while you develop your homestead or find ways to earn money from your land or farm.

All the best to you as you explore ways to earn a steady income and create your dream life!

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