Can I ask does anyone live completely self sufficiently? Is this realisitic

[WigglyWormy]

We currently grow our own vegetables, have chickens for eggs and meat and have some pigs for meat. We exchange some of the pigs for lamb and beef with a local farmer. We have a real desire to become even more self sufficient but this would mean DH going part time, we currently spend about £75 a week on food as the above covers about half our meals. We have the land to expand what we do and could even sell locally at farmers markets etc. We don't want to be 'farmers' though, we want to have a small holding and sell meat/ veg to the local community or exchange it for other goods/ services. On top of this we want to become even more self sufficient. We have a wood chip heating system going in this summer so we can use our own wood and would like to cut our food ill down to just non-food essentials like toilet roll, etc. Has anyone succeeded in going this far with it?

[JudysPriest]

This is my dream. If I won the lottery I would build some houses with land and do an exchange of goods/services for rent. I knit and would have my own sheep for wool. We would have some veg and animals.

I am very envious of your current set up, good luck with taking it further.

[TucsonGirl]

Tom and Barbara did it.

[WastingMyYoungYears]

Tucson.

[lacktoastandtolerance]

It depends a lot on what you define as self-sufficiency, and how much you're willing to sacrifie. Hugh F-W has said in the past he would never go self-sufficient because he likes drinking burgundy too much.

Where do you draw the line? Do you have to grow all animal feed, for instance? Because if you buy it in you are technically not self-sufficient.

If your DH can go part time and you save enough to live how you want to then go for it. Work should always be built around the life you want to live, rather than the other way around.

We heated our house this winter pretty much only with wood we collected. Still on gas for hot water because we don't have the money or space at the moment to switch to anything else. Rearing chickens and pigs for meat are my next plans. We're not self-sufficient in veg by any stretch, but we will get closer over the next few years.

Spend time learning about wild food too, if you haven't already. Wild garlic, for example, grows in abundance during the period of spring when there is not a lot of food growing in the garden.

The freezer is your friend. Get a big one. But learn other methods of preserving too - drying, salting, smoking etc., as you'll have to generate much less electricity that way

John Seymour books are worth reading if you haven't already, although I find him a bit idealistic sometimes.

My personal view is that complete self-sufficiency is unrealistic for most people. Trading products and services is a good thing to do, and will help.

Create what you can, swap what you can and what you do buy, buy carefully and conscientiously. By saving money on food, fuel etc. you might find you can spend more money on better, more ethical products elsewhere.

Have fun, and try not to take it too seriously.

[DoJo]

Toilet roll is non-essential if you subscribe to the view that reuseable is just as good (I personally DO NOT, but it depends how far you are prepared to go to live your dream!). I saw an interesting programme where they built two drop toilets in their back garden, used one for six months then the other while the 'night soil' was breaking down enough to be used for fertiliser - would you be up for that level of commitment?

[lacktoastandtolerance]

By the way, don't read the opening of my post as critical in any way - any form of step towards self-sufficiency, even if it's just growing your own basil, is a great thing. I don't think I could ever be self-sufficient, for many reasons: time, emotional investment, oranges and much more. Our view and method is to pick and choose.

We choose not to pay for the majority of our heating costs - we spent £70 on fuel over the winter in total, for all heating and hot water - but it was a lot of effort. Was it worth it? Maybe not in a £ per hour view, but the satisfaction of relaxing on the sofa in front of a fire we had 'gathered' was great.

Be careful about who you talk to - there are some real fanatics out there, and personally I think they put a lot of people off because they're too overbearing. There are some near me who definitely fall into that category. Do what's important to you. Encourage others gently. Don't preach.

[lacktoastandtolerance]

DoJo - that's a thunderbox www.thunderboxes2go.co.uk/

If you're going to install one of those remember you have to use them in the winter too

[Philoslothy]

We are close to self sufficiency but will never go the whole way. We drive cars for example, although my eldest sons traded sailing lessons for driving lessons.

We do however have our own wood and solar power. We have chickens, sheep goats and pigs. Considering a few cows. I trade horseriding lessons for other goods. We also have friends who use the swimming pool in return for babysitting.

I make some clothes but we will always buy.

[trufflesnout]

I don't understand how you have half the weeks meals covered and are still spending £75 pw on a food shop. So if you didn't have your current set up, you'd be spending approx £150 pw on food? Apols for intrusion if you are feeding small army of children

[glasgowstevenagain]

Great stuff - interesting...
but your monthly food costs are 600!

[LaurieFairyCake]

Cut down your food costs

Do you have an orchard?

[WigglyWormy]

Sorry should clarify the £75 was supposed to food et al - so includes all toiletries, clothing, bits and bobs that aren't bills - ie. if we go out and about on average we spend about £75 per week on all shoppin including nappies, clothes, luxuries, etc.

lacktoast this is my thinking trade working hours or quality of life. We spend so much quality time together doing what we do so far and really enjoy it.

Laurie we have some pear trees - not much else so far!

[GreenPetal94]

It's obviously possible to be self sufficient if you can grow food, have a water source and some shelter. But I think the question is how much of the modern life you want to stand back from.

You are posting on an internet forum so presumably hoping to keep paying for a broadband connection and/or a mobile contract.

Do you enjoy spending money on clothes, alcohol, restaurants, entertainment? Or do you actually want homemade clothes? a very simple life?

I think you have to decide how you want to live and then self-sufficiency could become natural.

For me it didn't.

[newfavouritething]

You can if you make your own rules about when you are self-sufficient. To ditch all power, consumer goods and food/feed will never be possible. You being happy with your own level of self-sufficiency is totally achievable.

[newfavouritething]

Remember most animal movements need to be done electronically now, and I don't think it will be too far in the future before SFP & RLR forms will be too - don't go ditching the broadband just yet

[manicinsomniac]

I doubt it. I've spent time with people in pretty remote tribal villages in the Amazon and even they aren't completely self sufficient.

Genuine question to OP or anyone else - why would you want to be? There is so much help and support out there from things, amenities and people - why aspire to do everything self sufficiently?

[settingsitting]

There must be blogs etc on this.
I used to read some books about it back in the 70s and 80s. It was a hard life even then.

[GarlicJulyKit]

I know two couples who do it. It's fantastically hard work; non-stop. Also, they do have to use money for things like postage, travel and coffee. They sell stuff they make to get funds for that. And they're reliant on the NHS.

I know a 90-year-old farmer whose family was self-sufficient through childhood until around WW2. It was more of a community self-sufficiency, though, which evidently works better as individuals can specialise. With WW2 it became necessary to use imported fuels, metals, etc and he ended up getting rich.

[maninawomansworld]

If you know what you're doing then you can feed an average family (growing veg, rearing some meat, eggs etc) with 5 acres but you have to really know your stuff and not waste a square inch of it.

If you want to coppice trees and the like for fuel then obviously you need more.

We spend approx. £30 per week in the supermarket which includes the toiletries and the like and also a few treats that we just can't produce but apart from that are self sufficient on the food front.

We have animals, grow crops, I have an orchard for apples and make some cider too!

We also have a wood chip boiler to heat the house and grow all our own fuel, we have fast growing trees harvested on a 10 year rotation which gives enough fuel for us about 8 times over so we've excess to sell.

[settingsitting]

Do you have children op?

[magoria]

Exchanging I understand however if you want to sell your produce won't there be a whole raft of rules and regulations that come with it?

[WigglyWormy]

manina your description of your life is pretty much spot on witwhatI would like from ours.

settingsetting yes we have 2 children, boys aged 1 and 3 yrs.

[MotherOfChickens]

Not self sufficient but have 1/2 acre which we grow veg, have an orchard and keep chickens on, just for eggs as we are vegetarian. It is satisfying but incredibly hard work and weekends are taken up with keeping on top of it at this time of year.

I would say it's easier to do when children are young however as a parent to a teenager who wants taxiing around everywhere due to living in the countryside as public transport is limited it would be far from easy.

[settingsitting]

Probably lovely for young children. Not for older ones.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I have a client who is pretty much there. He has his own bore hole, has sheep, pigs, cattle and chickens and grows veg. He built his own sustainable house with walls made of straw bales he had harvested from his land so they are about 2 feet thick, heat is from ground source and wood burning stove to heat water. He developed a whole 'thunder box' system that is in the house with sealed composting in the cellar. He has a windmill for electric.
He has just shy of 100 cattle and sells the excess to any for the few things he needs that he can't make himself.