In recent years I have noticed a trend that more and more people want to get off the grid and get back to the basics. At the same time, many people would like to do that on a reasonable budget. This can be challenging to do when you are looking at purchasing land, building a home, and perhaps setting up a homestead. But if you are determined to save money then continuing reading to learn about 10 tips for building a cabin on a budget.

Searching the internet will bring up numerous options for building an inexpensive cabin. These ideas range from cabin kits, sheds, pallet construction, tiny homes, and even cabins built from shipping containers. I even have a post on Building an Off Grid Home.

All that being said, what I’ve always stressed is that whatever you decide to build, make sure that it will be comfortable for years to come. After all you have to establish a decent lifestyle if you are going to stick with this over the long haul. Consider the following 10 tips for...

Growing your own food has numerous advantages. Produce is fresh, easily available, taste better, and is guaranteed to be organic. Growing your own also enables you to take another step toward self sufficiency and sustainability. However, if you live in a challenging climate, you may need to utilize a greenhouse in order to take full advantage of the growing season. 

That said, commercial greenhouses can be expensive. Depending on the size, you can easily spend $10,000.  You can get around that by a DIY project. In this post, learn how to build a 600 square foot greenhouse for less than $5,000.

Advantages to a Greenhouse

#1 Longer Growing Season

This is the obvious first advantage to having a greenhouse. You can easily extend the growing season even if you live in a cold climate. I happen to live at 10,000 feet elevation in Colorado. Having a greenhouse allows me to extend my growing season by 3 months.

#2 Protection from Bad Weather

There is nothing more disheartening than...

In an earlier post I discussed how true self sufficiency is in fact impossible yet it is essential for our survival. I also discussed variations on the theme of self sufficiency such as green living, homesteading, living on the edge, and voluntary simplicity. But, I also discussed the fact that we now live in a very different world than our ancestors and that world poses many new challenges. And one of those challenges is our consumer society. You can read that post here.

I often think of my early childhood when I spent a lot of time on one or both of the working farms that were in the family. A lot of our meat for the year, as well as other things, came from the farm. I had a brother and two sisters and we often spent time on the farm working and helping with chores especially in the summer when we were out of school. We were often there helping our grandparents work the farm while our parents were at the day job earning the money that provided for our other needs. After all, you...

True self sufficiency is impossible-yet it is essential. In many ways self sufficiency is directly connected to sustainability. But again, true self sufficiency is also impossible to attain. So, how do we get around that?

When I was growing up in north Georgia and Tennessee, both of my grandparents had working farms. And I spent a lot of time on those farms when I was younger. We had horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, rabbits, a huge garden, and numerous fruit and nut trees. And for an added treat, we would often forage for berries, especially black berries, and go fishing for trout. I am sure that at some point in time in my childhood I actually ate store bought meat but is was so infrequent that I do not remember.

My point being is that self sufficiency was never anything we actually talked about. It was simply how we lived.

Now fast forward into our present time, when you mention self sufficiency in front of a group of people, I can almost guarantee that 10 different people will...

With modern technology, we have become accustomed to convenient, instant, on-demand communication. We have instant access to more knowledge and information than ever before. We use our smart phones to instantly communicate with someone on the other side of the planet.  But what would you do if the communications network went down? Furthermore, what would you do if the grid went down? Is it possible to communicate without the grid? The short answer is yes. Therefore, the purpose of this post is to introduce different forms of off grid communication.  

Why off grid communication is important

There is example after example of local weather events or disasters when the entire local grid went down. (I’ve had personal experience with this more than once. ) Thousands, if not millions of people were without basic services. Additionally, they had no ability to communicate with anyone. These situations is what has spurred the development of some of the off grid communication...

Just like anything else, many people talk about the off grid life and being self sufficient but never actually do anything about it.  Perhaps this is related to fearfulness or lack of knowledge. Most likely it is also related to not knowing where to start and the uncertainty of whether or not it is the right decision. 

Growing up with two working farms in the family certainly taught me a lot about self sufficiency. I truly was not something we talked about. It was simply the way we lived.  Despite my childhood experiences, nothing really prepared me for living completely off the grid. I committed to the idea and just did it without any forethought or planning.  This is more that most people would do.  So, if you are uncertain about this lifestyle then you should appreciate this discussion about ways to test drive the off grid life before you commit.

Living off the grid and being self sufficient is certainly a deviation from mainstream society....

In other posts I have talked briefly about finding other people that live off the grid and forming friendships with them. Interactions with these folks can be helpful in order to get an idea if off grid living is really for you and your family.  But, you may be asking “Who are the people that live off the grid?”

I have also discussed looking at your personal relationships and making certain that your partner is in agreement about living off the grid. This type of lifestyle is not for everyone so you absolutely need to be in agreement concerning this matter.  Make sure that everyone involved truly wants to live off the grid. 

That being said, let’s take a look at the type of people who actually  live off the grid.

The People Who Live Off the Grid

Many people who live off the grid tend to like their privacy. This of course makes it difficult to gather a lot of information concerning specific demographics.  However, by doing...