A woman has revealed how she saves over $400 USD (approx £320) a month by creating a homestead – preserving, growing, and rearing her own food.
Thirty-two-year-old Hannah Terrlizzi first decided to take on the self-sufficiency lifestyle two years ago, because she was tired of wasting money on a broken food system.
The mum-of-one now lives off the land as much as possible – joined by husband Nick, 31, their daughter, two-year-old Vienna, and her grandmother Shirley, 87, as well as 50 chickens, four ducks, and a host of bunnies.
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They’ll soon be adding turkeys, goats, and sheep to the mix.
Hannah says this has been a “dream” and realised she can’t see herself returning to “normality”.
“We started because we realised that we felt the American food system was failing us,” Hannah, from Massachusetts, US, told What’s The Jam.
“We [now] preserve our own food because it helps us save some money or enjoy things throughout the year when I make things in batches.
“But homesteading isn’t about totally inundating yourself to the point of exhaustion.
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“We’ve been operating this homestead for two years but we’ve been ‘kitchen homesteaders’ for about seven.
“It’s about taking steps to the lifestyle you want and trying to create a better and healthier life for your family.
“I wanted to learn to sew, cook, be a good homemaker, have animals.
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“So this has just always been my dream – but now that I have my daughter, I see how just how important it is too.”
The family creates their own sauces, snacks, and cleaning supplies through home-grown and home-made components – something Hannah has always longed to do.
She said: “We have a flock of about 50 chickens and four ducks which we raise organically and free-ranged.
“We use them for their eggs and next year will be adding Cornish cross-meat chickens.
“We also raise bunnies for breeding and selling.
“Right now we’re also hatching out some more duck eggs (Indian runner ducks) to add to our flock, as well as some turkeys.
“In the early summer, we will be adding goats and sheep, which we will kid and milk next spring!
“Our goal is to can our produce and also some organic produce from the grocery store [and] we hope to add a freeze dryer by next year.”
The family has also cut down their spending substantially.
She explained: “We save so much money and each year we get better and better at this, but it’s a balancing act.
“Getting backyard chickens doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily ‘save money’ on no longer needing to buy eggs at the store.
“We make money because our flock is large enough to sell our eggs.
“But the choice to make as much as possible at home is what I truly think saves us the most.
“Whether it’s staples we use like bread or tortillas or mayonnaise.
“Or even cleaning products.
“We are so in love with this life and we look forward to growing in the future, too.
“Each year we expand our wheelhouse and what we’re able to do so I don’t see us ever going backward at this point and doing less.”
Even though her way of life is different from the norm, Hannah says people have been supportive of her frugal way of living, despite common misconceptions about the lifestyle.
She added: “Perhaps sometimes we’re met with a misunderstanding of why we’re trying to ‘work so hard’ when we can just buy at the store.
“We still utilise the grocery store – we just choose real food, real ingredients, and stay away from processed or chemical-ridden foods.
“I think many homesteaders have the all-or-nothing mentality and I just don’t have that.”
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