How To Start A Homestead With No Money - Homesteading for women (2024)

Dreaming of owning a homestead but your flat broke? I feel your pain, and I’ve been in that situation more times than I care to admit. Read on my friend and I’ll give you some ideas on how to start a homestead with no money in your pocket.

If you’re like most Americans these days, trying to pay all the bills, holding down more than one job to do that, while taking care of your family financially can be a challenge.

Your real dream is to live out in the country on your own homestead. But how can you start a homestead with NO MONEY?

My Homestead Story…just a little bit of it.

I’ll tell you a little bit about how we bought our first farm, with over 100 acres. At the time we had just lost everything, out first business went bust. We were young and stupid and made some really bad choices. Which left us without a home, a car, just the stuff we took with us.

We moved to the city, man was that a rude awakening for this little flower child. I think I was in shock most of the time. We rented an old house on the edge of the city so Mr. B could ride his bike, yep his bicycle to work. He worked as a locksmith for a bank. And we could really have been on food stamps with his income, but I’m too proud for that.

I won’t go on about it, but after we had lived there for close to 6 months we were able to buy an old car from a friend pretty cheap. All the while I was plotting how I was going to get us out of the mess we were in. Guess what I came up with?

Crickets!! Yes, we had an old garage that was next to the house we rented and we started tinkering around with raising bugs. It was working, and before long Mr. B had enough to start selling to some local pet shops on the weekends. That started our empire… In the city… in a rented house.

Before long we had enough money to put down on a farm. But our credit was bad, so we bought the farm on a contract, you don’t have to have a bank loan, the person that owns the land is the banker.

The man hadn’t advertised that he would sell it that way. But after we asked him and he talked to us about our situation. He had a lawyer draw up a contract for 15 years. That was the best thing we have ever done, buying that 100 acres was a game changer for us.

So see, you just have to think outside of the box.

You might also like to read:
Free Urban Homestead Management Printables
13 Easy Steps To Start You Own Backyard Homestead No Matter Where You Live Now
Homestead for beginners- 7 Easy Tips To Success

Here’s some ideas if you are flat broke but still want to buy a homestead.

• See if you can buy land on a contract for no down payment of a low down payment.
• Look for land that is not with a realtor, drive around the area you want to live and look for new for sale signs. (that’s how we found our farm, on a Sunday drive)
• Buy one or two acres at first in the area that you want to live.
• Maybe rent a place in that area you want to buy land, then you can really figure out where you want to live full time, checking out the area over time.
• Buy the land first then add a trailer, then you can build your home later on, when the land is paid for or when your income is better.

There are many ways to get started and you don’t have to be rich to buy land. Think outside the box.

Getting Your First Animals For Little or No Money For Your Homestead

My advice is to keep the animals to a minimum at first, you want to clear the land first. Maybe get a goat, that will be like hiring 5 men. Those fools can clean up an area of brush in no time. You can read about my goats here.

Be sure you have proper cages before going out and buying animals. Trust me on this one! I’ve done it, and still do it. Haha, don’t kid yourself, we all do it, when someone wants to give you a nice pair of animals for free. Then you find a place for them.

Getting animals for your homestead isn’t hard or expensive if you look around, it’s the fencing and feed that is expensive.

If you get a little creative, then you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to start a homestead with no money. Been there, done that!

Pin it for later!