Too Poor to Homestead? Scarcity Mindset and How to Change It

Scarcity mindset is simply a belief that you’ll never attain what you want or desire. You’re not too poor to homestead! If homesteading is your desire, scarcity mindset can be a huge deterrent in achieving your dream. The good news is that you can change this mindset.

When I started homesteading in the suburbs of Denver I believed only people with money could homestead. I imagined what it would be like to own land, a barn, a greenhouse, a chicken coop, and have a huge field filled with produce and goats eating the weeds.

At the time we were in the full throttle of city living. Between work and our boys’ schools we rotated between three different suburbs of Denver, resulting in two hours of driving a day, assuming traffic wasn’t too bad. The desire to leave was great, but it was not an option at the time. We began to homestead smack dab in the middle of the suburbs.

When your lifestyle is immersed in a city, in our case, Denver, which statistically is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States, how does one begin to homestead? How in the world can anyone afford it when you’re already raking out the dough for gas, work clothes, cars, your children’s extracurricular activities, and food to feed your family? And if you’re strapped with a scarcity mindset, how do you begin to change mindset and therefore, behavior?

First, assess what you really want – before you assess the cost. 

So, what do you want as a homesteader? This was my current list at the time:

• Gluten free bread that my children could eat that did not taste like cardboard.
• Non-toxic cleaning products
• Community
• Fresh vegetables
• Hens….therefore eggs
• Land

Once you have assessed what you truly desire, begin to look at what you currently spend your money on – it is amazing how a change in mindset and goal setting can create money, even when you have debt forever looming in your life. I want to be brutally honest here in saying that we weren’t sitting debt free, nonchalantly picking out hens from a catalog for our suburban home. We had our share of debt in mortgage, car payments, medical debt and more. We were both raised with a scarcity mindset; we assumed there would never be enough, of anything.

Second, do not WAIT for the ideal homestead location – start NOW.

Starting now is key, because as your skills evolve in an environment that perhaps isn’t your ideal homestead space, you’ll be shocked at how your mindset, your community and your space will begin to evolve at a rapid speed – allowing you to find and secure your dream location. And who is to say, that the suburbs is not your dream location? If it is – you can make this work!

I’ll also say this – if you can figure out how to homestead in the suburbs in an environment less conducive or supportive to homesteading, you’ll develop mad skills because you’re negotiating a space and lifestyle that requires you to manage things in an environment not so welcoming.

How do you start?

Begin by setting goals, big and small. Don’t let scarcity mindset keep you from your dreams. It’s important to live in the moment – homestead now – beginning with small goals that will push you towards your big goals. A small goal becomes an action that helps define mindset.

Next, set a deadline for one or two of your small goals. Make it achievable.

My small goals were bread and non-toxic cleaners.  Store bought gluten free bread is not only expensive, it’s awful. Toxic cleaners are also not cheap – the irony right? Paying for toxins…the insanity. I was unsure of what was making my children’s allergies bad, so I wanted to eliminate all toxic cleaners in the house.

I began to search for information. Before I knew it, I had a crazy cheap non-toxic cleaner I could make in five minutes. I found a gluten free store bought bread mix that was palatable and one step forward towards my bigger goal of making my own bread from scratch. I bought a bread machine/maker. At the time I was overwhelmed with the idea of making bread completely on my own, so a bread maker was a small step in the right direction.

I started a mom’s group to address my community goal. This cost me nothing. There are quite a few avenues you can utilize for group creation. This is a different topic for another day, but I’m happy to write about this as well so leave a comment, if this is something you’d like to hear about!

How’d I achieve my fresh veggie goal? We bought a book called Square Foot Gardening. It’s designed for people trying to create a garden while maximizing your use of space.  I love the efficiency of this garden model and I still use it today. It is inexpensive and perfect for a suburban backyard.

Desires versus Needs

The big expense was the chicken coop. My husband loves to build and create structures, so he began to research blueprints and soon we had our dream chicken coop with a few adjustments. Our coop was around 1200 bucks – pretty expensive and absolutely not necessary – which allows me to state one more thing about scarcity mindset.  It is amazing what you can find money for when you previously assumed you didn’t have the money. Sometimes a desire, rather than a need, will find its way into reality. Never assume that your dream is impossible. Our dream chicken coop was happening, and it combined a need and a desire, which seemed rather extravagant for our scarcity mindset. It caused us to reflect on our mindset, our reality, and what our future might look like. We were beginning to shift to a mindset that told us desires and needs were both possible. Just look at that coop – it’s so beautiful.

A Dream in Progress is a Dream Happening in Real Time

Our big goal of land? We utilized the land we had, and we began, with confidence, to believe that our future reality would include a plot of land. Shift your mindset by watching small goals become reality. As small goals become action, your mindset naturally evolves. Have confidence that your dreams are achievable and start looking for ways to make it happen; patience is key here! A dream in progress is still a dream happening – let it unfold and enjoy the process. Find community to bounce ideas off of – our ability to talk to others and ask questions led us to finding out current plot of about two acres!

Interestingly, scarcity mindset is often what drives people to homestead. If you can grow your own food, your own meat and rely less on society, one assumes scarcity plays less of a role. Absolutely we can become more self-sufficient, but homesteading can be as expensive as living in a big city; it’s all about choices. Unravel your relationship with money and put it back together with a focus on what you hope to achieve and bring to fruition. It’s fascinating how your spending will change as you begin to reap rewards from homesteading. Many of us are raised believing we can never have what we need or want – we’re told….it’s just a pipe dream, you’ll never have the money! Money is mindset; the two evolve together. Scarcity mindset can change and eventually disappear; it can fuel your fire to get creative and find a way to create abundance. Look scarcity in the eye, unravel it, and recreate it into a land of plenty.