Monthly Archives: April 2016

My Top 5 Websites for Preparedness and Homesteading

Leave a reply

I’m always researching and trying to find new ways to become more prepared and more equipped to be an urban homesteader and just like most people nowadays I like to do much of my research on the internet.  While I enjoy reading books and magazines to gain knowledge, I also like to read about other people’s experiences and lessons learned.  One of the best ways to do this is by browsing discussion forums and Facebook groups.

The list I’ve compiled below consists of my 5 favorite websites (not all are discussion forums) that I frequently visit get information about homesteading, preparedness, guns, personal finance, etc.  On most of these sites I’m just a “lurker” I don’t really post much myself, I just read through what other people are posting and see what kind of problems they have and questions they are asking.

 

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com

1. The forums at www.homesteadingtoday.com are probably my #1 source of information regarding homesteading topics.  They have a number of sub forums that range from general homesteading, a large number of animal specific topics (rabbits, chickens, goats, etc.), sewing, plant propagation, survival and a lot more.  They literally cover homesteading from A-Z.

It is one of the friendliest and most helpful places you can go on the internet to ask questions.  Once you create an account on the page you have the ability to search through the forums for specific topics, and trust me, you can spend hours browsing through the information.

http://www.ar15.com

2.  Just like many preparedness minded individuals, I believe that the right to own firearms is one of the most important, yet threatened rights that we as Americans have.  I own guns for a few reasons:

  1. I like to shoot – recreationally and for hunting
  2. They are an important part of my security measures for protecting myself and my family
  3. Guns CAN be looked at as an investment.  Most nice firearms do not go down in value.

www.ar15.com is mainly about AR15’s (big shock, I know) but they also have a ton of sub forums about other guns, shooting events, ammunition reloading, survival topics and many general forums covering everything from fitness to investing.  One of my favorite areas of the site is the “Equipment Exchange”. This is an area that gives people a platform to sell just about anything, not just gun related stuff.  Anytime I have any gun or survival related items this is my go to because of the massive amount of members that are active on the site.

http://www.daveramsey.com

3.  Financial independence and becoming debt free is a subject that my family and I have devoted ourselves to over the last few years.  Without the teachings of financial expert Dave Ramsey, we would not have had the drive to tackle our car loans and consumer debt with the focused intensity that we did.  Even though all of our debt, with the exception of our mortgage is gone, I still visit www.daveramsey.com to browse his bookstore, read testimonials and articles and listen to his podcasts.

He also has a list of mortgage companies, financial advisors, insurance companies and other businesses that he endorses.  His teaching has helped millions of people change their lives by becoming debt free.

http://www.craigslist.org

4.  As I’ve mentioned in some of my previous blog posts, I like to buy “stuff” to resell for a profit.  www.craigslist.org is where I find most of the goods to support this habit.  Not only is it a good place to find things to resell, it’s an amazing place to buy items to use around the homestead.

Once you go there, find the state you live in then find the closest city to you.   The site is divided up into categories of goods such as sporting goods, books, cars, tools, toys, etc.  I’ve bought lawnmowers, tools, hunting equipment, coffee makers, books, furniture – just about anything you can think of is being sold on there at any time.

Even if you don’t need to stock up your garden shed, you might have a bunch of extra stuff that you want to get rid of.  Craigslist is very user friendly for sellers.  It only takes a few minutes to create an account and you are ready to sell.

http://www.facebook.com

5.  Facebook is one of the most versatile social media platforms available today.  The two main things I use www.facebook.com for are to:

  1. Learn from other people’s experiences, much like I do on forums
  2. Buy and sell goods

From your personal account you can search for “groups” of just about any interest you might have.  The majority of groups that I like are centered around homesteading.  Some of my favorites are:

  1. Regenerative Agriculture
  2. Halfway Homesteading
  3. Squarefoot Homesteaders
  4. Day by Day Becoming self sufficient

Many of these groups have lots of people posting throughout the day so you could spend hours just reading and learning but if you are pressed for time, most of the pages are searchable – you can just type in keywords of what you are looking for and find posts just related to what you want to read.

Also, most towns or communities have garage sale pages that people use to list stuff for sale.  Once you request access to the groups you can browse for bargains or post stuff of your own for sale.  In many ways these pages are easier to use than Craigslist.  One big drawback is they don’t have categories for the listings like Craigslist does, everything is listed together on the main page.  However, they usually have a search function so you can weed through the stuff you aren’t interested in.

Conclusion

With all the information out there on the internet it is easy to spend too much time researching and not enough time doing stuff.  So, just like with everything else, it’s important to not overthink things.  Gather some information then just go do it!  Remember though, learning from other’s experiences is important, but their situation might be completely different from yours, what works for them might not work for you.

Flipping Items on Craigslist/Ebay/Facebook Groups for Extra Income

2 Replies

In keeping with the theme of financial preparedness I would like to share some of my tips for buying and reselling items to make a little extra income.  For most of my life I’ve been intrigued by the thrill of buying something for a low price and selling it for a profit.  As a kid I had a number of side hustles I did to “enhance” my allowance money.  I used to by baseball card packs and sort out the rookies and other valuable cards and resell them for more than the whole pack cost to begin with.   In the 3rd grade two friends and I started a “trade box”.  We would buy packs of pens, pencils, posters (really anything we thought we could make money on) and sell them individually to other students.  That first year we made $24 before we got shutdown.  Back then the amounts were small but it triggered an entrepreneurial spirit inside of me that still gets me fired up today.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve branched out from baseball cards and school supplies to just about anything I think is a good deal and my target market has expanded from 8 year olds to just about anyone who is interested.  Some of my better finds include Hewlett Packard toner cartridges at a Goodwill store that i bought for $40 and sold for over $600 to a vintage shortwave radio that I bought for $5 at an estate sale and sold for $250.  Neither item by itself will pay for a mortgage but they were both certainly good for some extra spending money.

Where to Buy Stuff

My main source of items for resell come from Craigslist and local Facebook selling pages.  I don’t really have any particular items that I specialize in, I just look for unique and underpriced things that I know will bring more on EBay or a website that is dedicated to that particular type of item (hunting forums, gun forums, etc).  Some of my favorite items to resell are military surplus items, ammunition reloading equipment and hunting stuff.

Each day I average about an hour browsing Craigslist and my local Facebook groups looking for things to buy.  I generally start off with a couple of searches for “reloading” or  “military” then narrow my searches down for more specific items in each of those areas, for example, instead of “reloading” I might search for a few popular brands of reloading presses, (Dillon, RCBS, MEC) or some specific military terminology like “multicam” or “ocp” or “rucksack”.  If I don’t find anything that catches my eye, I will just move on and browse all of the for sale items.  If I’m short on time while I’m searching craigslist I will usually enter a maximum price that I’m willing to spend, this cuts down on all the things that are overpriced or out of my budget.

Determining How Much to Pay

If I see something interesting but don’t know anything about it, I’ll do some quick research on EBay or search for other similar items on Craigslist to see what everyone else is asking to determine if it’s worth my time to buy or not.  I usually try to double my money on items that are priced under $50.  For example, if I see some military uniforms that I know will bring $150 on EBay, I will try to get them for under $75.  On higher priced things I’m okay paying $150 for something that I know will bring $200 or so.

Once I find an item I’m interested in I have 2 approaches that I take depending on the price.  If it’s already priced low and I know I can make money on it, I will contact the buyer by whatever means they have put in their ad and ask when they are available for me to come buy it.  I’ve found that if I make it clear that I’m ready to buy without any haggling and I have cash in hand they will be more willing to meet up and make the sale sooner.

If the price is just so-so, or sort of high I will still contact the seller, preferably by phone, and let them know that I’m interested but would like to discuss the price.  I think many sellers are turned off by emails or texts asking to lower the price because it can be so informal, a phone call lets me be much more personable.  I also like to do all my price negotiations before I go look at the item.  This way I’m not wasting my time if I show up to look and they turn down my offer.

Where to Flip the Merchandise

Where I resell the items depend on the type of items I buy.  Most big, bulky items like lawnmowers, weed eaters or large appliances I tend to resell on Craigslist or the local Facebook groups.  Sometimes, all I have to do is some simple cleaning or light repairs and it’s ready to sell again.  I’ve found that good pictures and a well written description will help sell stuff a lot quicker than dark, out of focus pictures and no, or minimal information in the description.  I always try to describe the item as accurately and specifically as possible.  For example, if I’m selling a riding lawnmower I’ll mention how big the cutting deck is, how many horsepower the motor is, how many hours are on it, what condition the tires are in, basically anything that someone might have a question about.

For smaller, higher value items it’s hard to beat EBay for getting the best price.  Many people are scared of EBay because they think they will get scammed or get a negative feedback or they don’t want to pay the “high” seller fees.  I have personally never had a bad experience selling on EBay and I’ve got close to 800 positive feedbacks.  I’m not saying that it can’t happen, but I just follow the same rules that I mentioned earlier about good pictures and accurate, honest descriptions.

As far as the seller fees, I’m more than willing to pay 10% of the selling price to get worldwide marketing for my goods.  Recently I bought a like new military issue, multicam patterned backpack for $50 on Craigslist and sold it in 3 days on EBay for $200.  After all fees and shipping costs, I made a profit of $110.  If I had tried to sell it locally I might have been able to get $75 for it.

Just like with everything else we do in life, you have to take action and do something – get on Craigslist tonight and browse for items you are familiar with and try to find a good deal.  Take a few hours on a Saturday morning and go to your local thrift shop or hit up some garage sales.  I’m willing to bet that you can find something to resell for a profit.  Don’t be scared to negotiate prices, you never know if you don’t ask.

Budgeting 101

Leave a reply

This post is a follow up to my previous post about my 4 big areas to focus on when it comes to achieving freedom.  I feel that being debt free is the biggest thing you can do to give yourself the most freedom possible.  Owing other people money can be one of the biggest sources of stress and unhappiness in life and can have a big impact on everything that you do.

Our journey to pay off debt started many years ago and was extremely bumpy and had many false starts – we would get started and make a little headway but an “emergency” would always come up that would cause us to tap into the emergency fund and we would lose focus and usually end up falling completely falling off of our plan.  Most of these “emergencies” were not really emergencies and could have been planned for if we had been more aware and more focused.  Remember, Christmas and birthdays happen at the same time every single year!!

Once we finally became serious about paying off debt the biggest and most important thing that we did was to start living off of a budget.

The first time you sit down to do a budget it can be very intimidating and it can be easy to stop before you even start.  First and foremost, you and your spouse both have to be on board with budgeting.  If you can’t agree that you even need a budget, then you will never agree on what the budget should look like.  Even if you are single, it is vital that you understand the need to be on a budget.  Even if you feel that you are good with money go do some research – read some of the testimonials at www.daveramsey.com about how important a budget is and how it has changed the lives of people who are doing his total money makeover.  You have to convince yourself that it is important before you start, or you will never take it seriously!!!!

Next, do the budget before the paycheck is cashed or deposited.  If you wait until the next day or the next week, it is so easy to go to wal-mart or somewhere and spend some money that didn’t get included in the plan.  All of your money needs to be part of the budget!

When you do finally set down to write out the budget (together if you are married) make sure you plan for every possible thing that you will be spending money on during the pay period.  Even if its $4 for a Starbucks coffee or a few dollars for a mid-afternoon snack at work.  You’ll be surprised at how much money is left over at the end.  This is also a good exercise to look for ways that you can make lifestyle changes later on.

Once all upcoming expenses are accounted for, make a plan for the leftover money.  If you already have a small emergency fund in place (Dave Ramsey recommends a baby emergency fund of $1000) the extra money should go towards the debt with the smallest dollar amount (not the highest interest rate loan).  By paying towards the smallest dollar amount first it will let you gain a little momentum when you see the small debts start falling off the list.  Even if you are a math nerd and it hurts you to not pay extra on a high interest rate credit card just trust me, you might sacrifice a few dollars in interest payments early on, but the exhilaration of paying off a debt truly makes up for it.  If you were so great at math you wouldn’t be in debt in the first place!

Next, assign a role to EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR!!! Your budget should have a balance of 0!! If you accurately account for every expense on the budget it will honestly feel like you’ve gotten a raise, most of us don’t realize how much we spend on miscellaneous impulse purchases throughout the month.  If you are doing a debt snowball plan, then this leftover money should “mostly” go towards the first debt on the list (my next tip will cover some of the exceptions to this rule).  Do not wait to pay this extra towards the debt, do it as soon as you get paid, this eliminates to chance that you might spend it on some frivolous purchase that does not help you reach your financial goals.

Finally, don’t forget to include a category for spending money or entertainment.  Just because you are working hard to pay off debt doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun.  This can be a little tricky sometimes, if you are really focused and serious you might feel a little guilty about having some “fun” or “play around” money.  I’ve found that if you don’t allocate a little bit towards fun money you will get disgruntled eventually and slowly lose your focus and possibly fall off the wagon completely.

Of course you have to balance this out, don’t set aside an unreasonable amount for movies or comic books when you have a mountain of debt to pay off.  Continue to be frugal, your personal amount might be $50 a month, while someone with less debt or a higher income might set aside $100 a month.  Only you (and your spouse, if applicable) can determine what will work.

These tips are just a primer to get you started.  A budget is very personal, once you get started you will continue to tweak it to your unique situation and find what works for you.  There is no one size fits all when it comes to budgeting.  To this day we use a simple notebook and have one page for each pay period.  Everything is hand written and easily editable.  Even though we’ve been doing this for a few years we still have to make changes and corrections.  The most important step in budgeting is to just do something – just start and don’t get discouraged.  Your first few months WILL be painful and will not work right.  Just stick with it.

Feel free to add any tips or recommendations that you might have!!!

Four Areas of Personal Freedom and Self Sufficiency

Leave a reply

While everyone has their own ideas on what constitutes freedom and self-sufficiency, these are just 4 of the areas that I feel are important.  Many times we don’t know where to start on our journey to preparedness or we hold back for a number of reasons, such as not enough time, not enough money or we are trying to do more research on certain things.  All the tips listed below are just starting points and can be broken up into individual steps as you have the time and money.   Just remember, all journeys start with a single step.

Finances

One of the biggest and most important steps you can take towards self-sufficiency is becoming debt free.  Debt is like a cancer that invades every area of your life. The stress from being in debt and living paycheck to paycheck can affect how you perform at work, it can affect your relationships and your health.  When we made our final car payment it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders and it also felt like we got a raise in income.

Our plan of choice was Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball program – a plan that involves listing all of your debts from smallest amount to largest amount and paying the minimum payment on all but the smallest amount.  All the money you have left over in your budget goes to the debt with the smallest dollar amount.

In order to make the most of the debt snowball program you also need to have a budget.  If you don’t have a written budget that you follow, you will never know where all of your money is going.  If you don’t know where your money is going, then you won’t know how much money you are wasting.

A few tips for setting up a budget include:

  1. Both, husband and wife, need to do the budget together and agree on the plan
  2. Do the budget before the paycheck is cashed or deposited
  3. Be specific and include everything that you are spending money on
  4. Spend every dollar on paper.  Your budget “balance” should be $0 when you are done
  5. Don’t forget to include a category for spending money or entertainment

Raise your own food

No matter where you live you can find room for a small garden or at least a few pots for vegetables.  If you live in a house with a yard I’m willing to bet you have room for at least one 4’x4’ raised garden bed.

Some of the easiest garden plants to grow are:

  1. Lettuce
  2. Spinach
  3. Tomatoes
  4. Radishes
  5. Carrots

These 5 simple, easy to grow vegetables might not replace your entire pantry but they can supplement meals with a healthy salad every now and then.

In addition to gardening another great way to provide food for your family is by raising animals.  Even if you live in a subdivision with a fairly small yard like we do it is possible to raise chickens, quail and rabbits on a small scale.

Security

When most people think about security they think about guns and ammo.  While these are an important aspect of home security there are many more areas that are just as important.

  1. Security cameras
  2. Door locks
  3. Outside lighting
  4. Emergency plans (tornado, home invasion, blackout, bugout, etc)

Fitness

If you don’t take care of your body then all the stuff I’ve mentioned up to this point won’t really matter.  No matter what kind of shape you are in now, it’s never too late to start a physical fitness routine.  The most important thing is to just go do something.

  1. Go for a walk – bring your family along and turn it into an evening routine that you do every day after eating supper
  2. Get rid of your riding lawnmower and start push mowing your lawn
  3. Take your dog for a walk
  4. Download one of the many “Couch to 5K” running plans to your smartphone and start jogging
  5. Buy a cheap weigh set off of craigslist and start lifting in your garage

I hope everyone finds at least a few of these tips helpful and can use this as a primer to get started on a path towards personal freedom and liberty.  Check back in the coming days for more specific and detailed posts on each one of these areas.

If you have any questions for me or any tips you’d like to add please comment on this post.