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:

2. I like to shoot – recreationally and for hunting
3. They are an important part of my security measures for protecting myself and my family
4. 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.

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.

As a new blogger I’m always trying to come up with ideas for some great content and ways to make my blog better but I’m not a very creative person.  Since I’m very aware of this shortcoming I have been reading a lot of books about blogging. One of the latest ones was “Your First $1K” by Mike Fishbein and in it he says that in order to become a better writer, you just need to write and publish.  You have to make yourself write something and publish it no matter how you feel about the quality of it.  I’m even struggling with writing this post since I don’t really have any advice to offer or anything of value for my readers.   I also struggled with my “about” page, since I find it very hard to talk about myself and to offer any sort of self-promotion.

Since I can’t think of any earth shattering topics with stellar content to provide you, I’m going to explain why I set up my blog and what I hope to offer. I recently shared a few goals that I have for here at home but they didn’t have anything to do with my blog, they were focused on what I want to accomplish on our little urban homestead.

My main goal is to share our experiences and the trials we go through regarding our pursuit of “freedom”.  By freedom, I simply mean being free from debt, free to choose what food we eat and where that food comes from and free to live our lives the way we want, no matter what is going on in the rest of the world by being prepared for whatever disaster my (or may not) strike.  Even though our ideal situation would be to live on a small farm in a rural area, we are “stuck” here in our subdivision for at least the next three years.  I used to think that we had to wait until we moved out to the country to start becoming better prepared and more self-sufficient, but then I realized that it doesn’t matter where you are, it’s best to take some sort of action to reach your goals now instead of waiting.  There is no perfect time.  Even though the three years (approximately) that we have left before I can retire from the U.S. Air Force will fly by, I plan on making the best of it by creating an urban farming wonderland on our small patch of ground here in the subdivision.

Again, my main goal with this blog is to share my experiences so you can learn from them and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes that I make along the way.  I also want to learn from you – I want to hear your experiences and hear how you’ve reached your preparedness or urban homesteading goals.   I hope that subdivision survival can become a very interactive sight with lots of lateral communication.  I think the best gift we can give each other is the sharing of ideas.

“Encouraging a more sustainable life that leads to personal freedom by exposure to new ideas, experiences, and real-life examples”