A self-sufficiency plan is a road map to freedom and quality of life. There is no freedom like the freedom of being able to provide for yourself and your family without being totally dependent on others. It is important to recognize that becoming self-sufficient is ongoing, not something you can do in a few months. However, by being committed to continuing to work on it, you will have the satisfaction of achieving goals along the way. Let’s create a plan for your journey in 5 steps.

Your self-sufficiency plan can look very different from others. While it might be more important for one to focus on providing their own food by planting a garden and raising chickens, another might feel it is more important to be “off the grid” with alternative energy sources. Or, you might be someone who wants the whole shebang – completely self-sufficient. Regardless of where you stand, getting started can be a daunting task. Fear not – we are here to help you!

Location and Money

Before I outline the steps to the self-sufficiency plan, a word about where you are at right now. Physical location and financial health will play a large role in how self-sufficient you can be. For example, if you live in an apartment in the city vs. 3 acres of land in the country. Are you debt-free or do you have things to pay off?

For some, the first steps to becoming more self-sufficient might be to move to a more appropriate location or reduce/eliminate debt. If this is you, your journey will be a bit longer, but there are ways you can be more self-sufficient right where you are at. On the other hand, maybe you want to stay in an apartment in the city and just want to grow some food in containers on your patio. Good for you!

Steps to Creating a Self-Sufficiency Plan

Step 1: Make a goal list of the aspects of self-sufficiency that you want to work toward.

Do you want to grow your own food? Do you want to have livestock, such as chickens, to provide protein sources as well? What about working – no traditional job, or full/part-time outside the home? Would you ideally live in town or on an acreage/farm? Do you want to be able to provide nearly everything (including items like soap and detergents) or just a few things? How about utilities – do you want to have your own sources of water, electricity and heat? Make this a list of what you want.

Step 2: Prioritize your goal list.

When prioritizing this list, you should consider putting items that would be easier to achieve for you in a shorter amount of time toward the top, followed by items that might be harder, but still beneficial toward bottom. In this way, you can achieve a certain level of self-sufficiency faster. Many will put providing their own food toward top. It is one of the main ways people become more self-sufficient. And fortunately, it isn’t hard to learn how to grow a garden.

Step 3: Take the top priority goal and get specific.

Now, you will take the first item and break it down. This will help you research and plan how you are going to achieve this goal. The best way to show you how to do this is by using an example.

Maybe your top item was to grow your own food.  What will the garden size be? Producing your own food only during the warmer months would be a different garden size than also producing food to preserve for the winter.

Where will your garden be?

Specify what you want to grow. I started out small the first year and grew a “salsa” garden – onions, tomatoes and peppers. I have added to the garden each year, and now have an asparagus patch and several other vegetables. Last year, we added a blackberry and a raspberry bush.

How will you grow your garden – will you start seeds yourself or get plants from a local greenhouse? Or some of each? Will you grow some of it indoors – like herbs?

Do you want to start composting to fertilize your garden for free?

What tools and other supplies do you need to obtain to get started?

If you want to preserve your food, you would need to add that here, also. Maybe you need to learn about preserving food.  This could be at the bottom of your specific list on this topic, because while your garden is growing, you can learn about and obtain supplies for preserving your delicious, nutritious food.

Step 4: Get to work! 

Research that top item where needed and get down to the nitty gritty.  Obtain needed supplies and get going. You are working toward the freedom of being self-sufficient! It’s great to have a self-sufficiency plan and lists, but completely fruitless if you don’t do something. Get your hands dirty and get to work.

Step 5: Once that first goal is going pretty well, move to the second and tackle it in the same manner.

Working on your goal list one at a time will allow your mind to focus and will keep you from feeling overwhelmed. You also have your goals written down and out of your head, so the stress of trying to remember everything should be minimal while you focus on one aspect of your self-sufficiency plan.

Over time, you will be able to look back and see how far you have come on your journey. You will have developed a sense of pride, satisfaction and confidence in your abilities to provide for yourself and your family. And more importantly, your self-sufficiency plan will have given you more freedom to really live. So get started – you won’t get anywhere by staying put.  Remember, I am here for you – let us know how we can help!