A better question: "how can I build a grubstake without a lot of money?"(homesteading) ("How can I get started without a grubstake?")(Cover Story)(Brief Article)

How do you get started without a grubstake?

There are ways to do this and Countryside often runs articles about how individuals have managed. Rent with option to buy. Work for a farmer (sometimes a small dependency house is included as part of your wages). Contract sale (owner financing). Caretaking of a property (same as working for a farmer).

Problem is, these kinds of opportunities are few and far between and they favor the prepared: those with time to wait, those with specialized skills, and those with "connections"--relatives, friends, etc. who hear of deals. The vast majority of us modern home-steaders will have to be more conventional than this--which means you need savings, grubstake, nest egg, etc. In fact, you need money to make any small business succeed (and if you want your farmstead to support you, it had better be run as a business).

Perhaps the question should be rephrased to: "How can I build a grubstake when I don't earn a lot of money?"

It's not easy, but the hardest part is getting into the habit of saving. I suggest you check out the book, The Richest Man in Babylon by John S. Classen. This is a short, easy-to-read book with very practical advice on personal money management. It covers everything from curing a lean purse, to getting out of debt, to managing a sudden windfall. Excellent advice--simple, too. In fact, it's so simple that a lot of people will scoff at it and make all kinds of excuses about how their particular situation is somehow "different".

It works, however. Even with the most meager of beginnings.

My family did it. It was really tough and we are still scrimping and saving, but we have five acres with house, barn, and livestock. You can too.

The main thrust is that you need to save no less than 10% of your gross (before tax) income before you pay anything else. Then you live on the remaining 90%. Even if you only earn minimum wage, you can do this and actually get by.

Let's say you work full time and earn minimum wage in a factory. That adds up to about $11,000 a year. Ten percent of this is $1,100. This means you want to put about $25 a week in the bank. Now, find that $25.

If you habitually buy your lunch, that can add up to $4.00 per day. Brown bag for about $1.50 a day and you save $12.50 a week. Put that money in the bank and you're halfway to your goal.

If you're in the habit of buying a can of soda out of the machine every day, that's as much as 60 cents. Buy store brand soda for 25 cents a can and you save $2.75 a week. Same goes for gum, coffee, candy, baubles, trinkets and other "innocent" 49-cent items.

If you smoke a pack of cigarettes every day (at $2.00/pack), you're literally burning up over $700 a year! That's nearly 3/4 of your goal right there!

Your goal is to put $25 in the bank every week. It's easier to save $25 a week than it is to save $100 a month. Adds up the same but somehow you don't miss $25 as much. Don't ask why.

Anyway, a year after you start this plan you will have over $1,000. What do you do now? Spend it? Certainly not. Make an appointment and discuss your goals with your banker. (Don't be shy. They won't laugh. It's their job to help you; they get paid to help people save and grow. Take advantage of this service.) Put your savings into a high growth plan, perhaps a mutual fund. Leave it there and add to your savings account as before. Next year, take your money and add to the mutual fund. Keep on going. At the end of five years you will have over $5,000 plus interest. Not a bad sum for your efforts.

What if you are lucky enough to be a two adult household? Does Mom stay at home with the children? That's all well and good; but it isn't bringing you any closer to your dream to have land if only one person is responsible for earning all the money--unless, of course, you're rich, which would render this article moot anyway. Bottom line: Mom should have at least a part time job.

The idea is that you continue to live on Dad's salary while you pocket Mom's. A 20-hour per week job paying $5.50/hr. adds up to $5,720 per year. OK, so taxes etc. take up a whopping third of this, but that's still $3,775. In three years you will have $11,325. If you keep at this for five years, it adds up to a tidy sum of $ 18,875 not including interest.

Looks like a grubstake to me...

I am a great advocate of women having at least a part time job for a variety of reasons. To be sure, your family needs the money, but more importantly, Mom, you need the employment history, independent credit history, etc. Even though you may feel personally fulfilled as the domestic partner in your home, things can change overnight, and, unfortunately, a part-time grocery clerk is vastly more employable than a full-time mom. That's not going to change until society changes its views on the value of domestic work (which is fuel for a great many debates).

Anyway, the whole point is to urge the reader to begin a savings plan. Do not be distracted by this or that "need ". Find ways to get around spending your savings like extending payments on loans if necessary, but you must begin saving. If you're able to, join your company's credit union and have the money deducted from your pay-check. If you don't see it you won't miss it, and in a few short years you'll be able to put that down payment on your own piece of the dream.

RELATED ARTICLE: Regularity is the secret to success

Could you save $1,000 in the next year?

"No way!"

Could you save $83.33 in the next month?

"I doubt it."

Could you save $2.75 this week?

Could you save $2.75 today?

"Sure, I could handle that!"

If you can do it today, you can do it tomorrow, and the next day...

And after 365 days that $2.75 will become $1,003.75.