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There are a lot of things to do to create a self-sufficient life. The first few, however, will set you up for long-term success. These three things are a foundation you can build everything else on for your self-sufficient life: create a spending plan, do things yourself, and plant a garden. Here’s why and how.

Why these three?

A spending plan is essential. It starts by taking an honest look at where you spend your money now, and making a plan to spend differently to support your self-sufficient goals.

Starting to do things yourself builds necessary skills and gives you confidence to tackle bigger things. Start by changing your own oil in your vehicle, as an example. Soon, you’ll tackle replacing that bumper or tearing down the engine to replace the head gasket.

Planting a garden gives the dual benefit of helping reduce spending for food and building DIY skills. It also builds patience. Once the plants are in the ground, you’ve got to wait for the fruits of your labors. And, I might add, the home-grown produce tastes so much better than store-bought.

Create a Spending Plan

Notice I didn’t say “budget.” Budgets get a bad reputation because they feel limiting; it feels restrictive to put hard limits on what you can spend. A spending plan, by contrast, is an intentional look at how you intend to spend the monetary resources you have. If a category of expense costs more this month, some other category will have to fund the difference. Our plan has four categories (adapted from Ramit Sethi’s book “I Will Teach You to be Rich.”

• Long-term Savings (saving for a rainy day and/or goals, like a vacation)
• Retirement (saving for retirement)
• Fixed Expenses (things we have to pay for)
• Guilt-free Spending (everything else)

That’s it. No long payee-by-payee, this is how much goes to who, overcomplicated crud. Just paying ourselves first, meeting our commitments, and having something leftover to live a little with.

Start by looking back over your expenses for the past month or so. If you don’t have a good way to do that, start today by cataloging what you actually spend for a month.

“But I’m overextended! What do I do?” Simple, not easy. Pack your own lunch; don’t go out. Make your own coffee, for goodness’ sake. Coffee alone can save $4-$10 a day, 5 days a week. That’s $20-$50/week, or $80-$200 a month!

Do It Yourself

Pick something small you’ve never done before, especially if you’ve paid someone else to do (or make) it, and do it yourself. It’s a huge confidence boost to succeed at something new. Here are a few ideas:

• Change your own oil
• Plant tomatoes in a pot on the patio
• Make a cutting board for the kitchen
• Make a loaf of bread

Plant a Garden

You don’t need a lot of space to do this. Start with a couple of pots on the patio or deck. Tomatoes or basil (or both) can be a great beginning. Add a little store-bought mozzarella and you have a great caprese salad.

If you have space and want to go bigger, a victory garden is a good (although big) step. Victory gardens were home gardens during World War II that would support your family’s vegetable needs without needing to rely on the grocery stores. This left infrastructure and bigger farms free to do what was necessary to support the war effort. An internet search for “victory garden” will turn up a lot of ideas.

You can start all of these things today, and they will get you going on your path to self-sufficiency very quickly.