Frugal Living & Self-Sufficiency Skills ~ Free Printable Checklist

"Take stock of the skills and knowledge you may need in a crisis. A working knowledge in areas such as gardening, food preparation, first aid, sewing, home repair, and auto maintenance will never be wasted. Acquiring those skills will help you confront adversity without panic..."

~ Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens

by Kathy Harrison

Frugal living and self-sufficiency go hand-in-hand in my eyes because a frugal lifestyle is one where you do most of the things in life yourself (which makes you quite self-sufficient)! And the more I contemplate these topics, I see that they are also entwined with preparedness!  Remember the post we shared this week where Melissa Norris wrote that "being prepared is a mixture of skills, knowledge, self-sufficiency, and good old-fashioned work"? Well...

With that being said, I think the common factor in all three of these prudent principles (frugal living, self-sufficiency and preparedness) is a knowledge of skills and not necessarily just a stockpile of stuff! While provisions are excellent and still quite necessary, they can be destroyed in different catastrophic events. However, old-fashioned skills remain with you and are an invaluable tool. They are the gift that keeps on giving so to speak.

In the practical preparedness book that I am currently gleaning (Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens), the author also states how skills are a blessing and shares a list of skills for independence. I would also consider them frugal living tools! I have included some of her ideas as well as some of my own in the following lists as something to aspire to. The printable version is shared at the bottom of the post should you like to add it to your preparedness binder.

Learn how to (and remember, if you can just learn HOW to do something, that is sometimes all that is necessary for a certain skill. It doesn't mean you are a slave to it for the rest of your life but the knowledge can be a blessing one day. It may be wise to document the procedures and place instructions that you will understand in your preparedness binder should a future need arise.):

• purify water and store water properly
• perform first aid and CPR
• garden (both autumn and summer seasons if possible)
• utilize cold storage techniques (root cellars and/or basement preservation knowledge)
• heat with wood 
• forage for wild food (learn to identify edible weeds and plants and make meals with them)
• cook from scratch
• cook meals outdoors (without propane)
• dutch oven cooking (this is an art in itself and is useful over a campfire)
• cook meals with solar energy (make or purchase solar cooker)
• wash and dry clothes without electricity
• can food (both water-bath canning and pressure canning)
• dehydrate food and herbs
• ferment foods (this is highly nutritious and a way to store food short-term without electricity)
• make your own basic dairy products (cheese, yogurt, butter, etc.)
• bake bread (sourdough would be even more nutritious and self-sustaining)
• cook from your pantry
• prepare a pantry (store food properly for long-term)
• live alternatively without appliances/electricity (aka back up appliance plans)
• grow, make, store and learn to use herbal medicines
• make your own cleaning products
• sew (eliminate paper products and make re-usable cloth counterparts, mend clothing, etc.)
• grow fruit trees
• make candles (preferably from beeswax or tallow -- something you harvest yourself)
• make soap
• save seeds
• propagate plants
• make your own bath and body products
• fish
• properly use essential oils
• hunt (large and small game)
• survive in the wilderness (set up shelter, a campfire, etc.)
• get out of debt/live within your means

If you have land, you can add these to your list:

• raise chickens for meat (and learn to butcher yourselves)
• raise laying hens
• raise and milk dairy cow/goats
• raise sheep for meat or wool
• raise beef (and learn to butcher yourself and render your own tallow, etc.) 
• tan hides 
• beekeeping (oh to harvest your own beeswax and honey!)
• harvest wood and keep stockpile

Extra credit crafts to learn:

• spinning
• weaving
• hooked rugs
• braided rugs
• quilting 
• crochet
• knitting
• embroidery
• woodworking
• flower drying/pressed flowers
• basketry
• distill herb and flower waters

I also included a peak into our pantry in this post as I consider pantry building a special skill as well! A pantry is a huge culmination of the old fashioned skills we are discussing! A pantry is more than canned goods in our home. It is a fermentation laboratory. It is full of dehydrated produce and herbs (both culinary and medicinal). It is our home apothecary filled with our handcrafted tinctures, tonics, herbal oils and salves. There are handmade cleaning products and sundries. It is full of homemade mixes and seasonings and even aging cheese. There are many skills that one can develop which increases the inventory of the pantry for pennies! In essence, the pantry is your own private grocery store of provisions making it a large part of self-sufficiency.

I am not suggesting to learn all these skills or to learn them overnight (but perhaps a yearly goal for some of the important ones). I have included a printable checklist for you to place in your preparedness binder as a record. I think it would be satisfying to check off the skills that would be valuable to your lifestyle and circumstances as you learn them. I also think it would be fun to see what you already know how to do right now and check them off! Do you have any to add?

I think it is also important to mention that you needn't learn all these skills yourself! Show the family your checklist and see who would be interested in learning each skill themselves. Then, take a trip to the library or your Back to Basics Living Bundle and begin learning! For instance, in our home, I am in charge of food preservation (pickling, canning, fermenting, drying, kefir-making, kombucha making and so forth). My daughter is involved with the animal husbandry, sourdough and cheese-making. My husband plants the fields and vegetable garden. The butchering of meat is a family affair and we all pitch in. Your family can be one team unit of self-sufficiency/frugal living experts as well! In fact, the larger your family, the larger your expertise can be!

"Although you can't purchase skills in things like first aid as easily as you can purchase a box of bandages, you can purchase or borrow books and take classes. In fact, I would consider a reference library an invaluable preparedness tool."

~ Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens

by Kathy Harrison

With all this being said, here are some of our favorite resources in these areas of frugal living, preparedness, self-sufficiency and pantry-building that I would like to share:

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emory

Storey's Basic Country Skills by John and Martha Storey

Just in Case ~ How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens by Kathy Harrison

The Self Sufficient Life by John Seymour

Reader's Digest: Back to the Basics



Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving



Country Crafts by Stephanie Donaldson



A Beginner's Guide to Medicinal Herbs by Rosemary Gladstar

         

Some helpful DVD's are:

Homesteading for Beginners Volume One

Homesteading for Beginners Volume Two

Homesteading for Beginners Volume Three

Homesteading for Beginners Volume Four

Do you have any more great resources to add to this list?

For your free printable SKILLS checklist, click the image link below!

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