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How to save BIG on fuel when you live in the country

Fuel, fuel, fuel.

Money, money, money.

When you live in the country, fuel flies out the window faster than a cheetah on steroids. Just driving to the grocery store blows through your husbands morning wages. Drive an hour to the doctors office. Drive an hour in the other direction to Costco. Drive to school. Drive to soccer practice. Drive, drive, drive. And don’t you dare let it get under a quarter of a tank because you might not have enough fuel to make it back into town!

Okay okay sorry! I got all riled up and couldn’t help myself. And maybe I exaggerated A LITTLE BIT. But seriously, we go through a lot of fuel.

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So naturally, I have thought of plenty of ideas to save on fuel since we moved to the farm. We have tried to implement all the obvious ones to the best of our abilities like:

carpool whenever possible
plan ahead so you can run all your errands in the same trip to town
store extra food so you can go awhile without running to the store
Live without some things for awhile (like new clothes)
don’t go out to eat except special occasions
take care of your car and drive “nicely” so your fuel mileage is okay
catch rides with other people

But I wanted MORE. There has to be better ways to save money on fuel right?

Well it turns out there are. Insert smiley face here!

There are two ways that we have found to save BIG on fuel while living out in the country.

Sign up for amazon prime

Amazon prime is quite possibly the best Christmas present I have ever received. Okay, now that I think about it, Farmer bought me a car a few years ago and actually pulled off the surprise …. that was the best Christmas present ever… but amazon prime is a close second!

Here is why:

Amazon prime has FREE 2 day shipping … did you get that? FREE!!!
You can find almost ANYTHING on amazon. It’s crazy what they have on there! I have purchased clothes, gardening supplies, cleaning products, food, toys, deodorant, toilet paper, and a million other things, from my computer, in my living room.
I can order everything I need FROM HOME, in my pajamas, any time of day or night. I don’t have to make myself look presentable, load up four kids, drive half an hour, unload four kids, struggle through a store with a toddler and a baby, tell them all “no they can’t have candy” 10 times, load them all back in the car, fuel up at the gas station, drive another half an hour home, unload four kids and the groceries, and then take a shower because of how sweaty that made me. I just get to relax in my living room with crazy bed head ….. ahh
With amazon prime, I can even be a procrastinator. For example, I purchased my ENTIRE Christmas for my family of six on amazon prime last year 1 week before Christmas. AND IT GOT HERE ON TIME!
Amazon prime includes a huge list of free movies, tv shows, books, and music. We no longer drive to the library to rent movies, or buy the $5 ones from Walmart. Now we choose a new movie every time we watch one, from the couch, in our living room.

So now that you know how awesome it is, can you see how much fuel that would save you? The only time I have to go to the store since becoming a member, is to get perishable things like bananas and milk from the grocery store. I almost never have to drive to the city for clothes, gifts, toothpaste, homeschool supplies, diapers, formula, or any of the other things that sneak up on me and force me to go shopping.

With access to thousands of free movies, we no longer buy them at the store, or drive to the movie theater. We can watch a new movie anytime we like for free. Of course it’s not new releases, but it’s still an enormous list of movies. That saves fuel and money.

So let’s run the numbers here ….. If you get amazon prime through my link RIGHT HERE it costs $99. The nearest Walmart to my house is 45 miles. Taking into consideration the car I drive (suburban) and the price of fuel right now where I live ($2.95 a gallon) it costs me about $17 roundtrip. We call that “going to town”. Before I got amazon prime I went about once a week. The nearest Costco to my house is 75 miles. That costs me about $26.50 and we call that “going to big town”. Reading that makes me feel a little silly, but yes that’s what we call it. Before amazon prime, I went about once a month.

Since purchasing amazon prime, I no longer go to “Big town” to shop, and I only go “to town” about once a month for shopping. All perishable items I purchase at our small local grocery store that is 10 miles away. So by eliminating those trips, I cut back our fuel costs by $318 (for big town) and $612 (for town).

That’s a grand total of $930. Minus $99 for an amazon prime membership = $831 saved on fuel each year.

And that doesn’t take into consideration the holiday season. I would have made several extra trips for Christmas gifts.

Now if that doesn’t make you want an amazon prime membership, then I don’t know what will. CLICK HERE to purchase your membership for $99, or keep reading for the second thing I do to save BIG on fuel, living in the country.

2. Get a fuel tank on your property

You have to do this the right way or it won’t save you much. Here is what you must do:

Check to see if you need permits in your county
Get a large fuel tank, not a small one. I recommend 1000 gallons.
Shop around for the best rates and who delivers to your area.
Fill it up when prices are low. Generally fuel prices are the lowest in the winter.

So here is the deal … It’s A LOT of money up front, but it you do it right, it can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars on fuel each year. It will pay for itself pretty quick. You have to do your homework though, and shop around for someone that will deliver it to you. Also, when you are ordering that much fuel, a few pennies difference per gallon will make a big difference. Let’s look at some numbers here …

1000 gallons of fuel x $2.50 = $2,500

1000 gallons of fuel x $3.00 = $3,000

So if fuel prices are $2.50 in the winter and $3.00 in the summer, and you purchase all of your fuel in the winter, you just saved $500 on fuel for the year.

That all depends on you watching fuel prices though, because if you don’t pay attention and you buy all of your fuel when it’s at top dollar, then you will be losing $500 not saving it.

The other thing that is nice about a fuel tank is when you buy that much fuel at a time, they give you a discounted price. It’s just like food. If you buy it in bulk, it’s usually cheaper.

And as an extra bonus, you have a fuel tank on your property! You no longer need to run into town to fill up. You have it right there ready for cars, lawn mowers, four wheelers, etc.

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As I said before, paying for fuel is not my favorite thing. If I can figure any way to save money on it, I will.

So if I discover any other way to save money on fuel, I promise to pass it your way. In the meantime, start shopping for fuel tanks and purchase your amazon prime membership by clicking RIGHT HERE and you will be on your way to saving hundreds or thousands of dollars on fuel.

Do you have any suggestions? Even little ideas to save money on fuel? Please leave a comment with your idea. I appreciate it! And so does everyone else reading this post.

If you are interested in saving money, don’t miss my post sharing How we saved $230,000 in 7 years.

Then CLICK HERE to see how we are building our own home and saving thousands.

~Farmer’s Wife

Farmhouse Garden Preserving The Harvest Recipes, Let's Eat!

Melt in your mouth, nutty chocolate zucchini bread

Zucchini is just one of those plants that sneaks up on you and then pelts you with an abundance of produce one after another. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you have to figure out what to do with all that zucchini. You can only leave bags full of zucchini on your neighbors porch so many times before they aren’t going to want to be your neighbors anymore.

So let me present you with another option that is so much better than making enemies out of your neighbors.

Let me present … melt in your mouth, nutty chocolate zucchini bread.

Now you are probably wondering why I said this was a new way to PRESERVE zucchini. It is, it’s just in bread form. And nutty chocolate zucchini bread is soooo much better after it’s been frozen. It’s like all the flavors melt together and the bread is magically more moist. Moister? More moister? Moist is such a funny word, who cares how I write it. The point is, this bread is way better after it’s been frozen, and it gives you a new and better way to preserve all that zucchini sitting on your counter right now. The recipe calls for 3 cups of shredded zucchini, sometimes I even put in 4 and it’s still delicious.

As a bonus, it’s the perfect thing to have on hand for when you need to take a gift to someone, or when you have surprise guests.

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So here is the recipe, and then down below I will tell you how to freeze it and what to do with it when you are ready to eat it.

Once you have your nutty chocolate zucchini bread cooked to perfection, you need to let it cool completely. Unless you are eating it fresh, in which case I highly recommend eating it while it is still slightly warm.

Lay out two pieces of aluminum foil.

Set your bread in the middle and wrap it up, one foil at a time.

Then put the whole thing in a gallon freezer Ziploc bag, label it, and stick it in the freezer.

The double layer of aluminum foil plus Ziploc bag will help prevent freezer burn. It will also keep the moisture in while it’s thawing, which is what makes this bread so much better after it’s been frozen.

When you are ready to eat your bread or to give it away, just take it out of the freezer about 2 hours before you will need it. Remove it from the Ziploc bag and open the foil just a little bit. You are basically just giving it a vent so that it doesn’t get soggy. You want moist bread, not soggy bread. All I do is open up the top about an inch, so I can peak down in and see the bread.

Leave it on the counter until you are ready to devour this melt in your mouth treat.

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Each year I try to make 20 loaves to put in the freezer, and we always use them all. The hardest part is not eating them right after I make them. I’d say about half of them don’t make it to the freezer. We just can’t resist it when the whole house smells like chocolate. It’s nice that the recipe makes two loaves so we can freeze one and eat the other!

Try it, you will love it!

If you like to preserve things, check out How to make watermelon chips RIGHT HERE.

How to can incredible raspberries in 4 easy steps RIGHT HERE.

Happy preserving!

~Farmer’s Wife

Farmhouse Garden Gardening How To's

Things I wish I knew before I started a garden

Ever wish you could do things over again? Of course you do, you’re human. Doesn’t everyone wish that from time to time?

I love my garden, but every once in awhile, I wish I could start all over and implement the things I know now.

Lucky for me, we are building a new home, so I DO get to start over. I get a clean slate, just a brush patch full of virgin soil and 6 foot tall weeds to work with. I am so excited!

So, as I have been thinking about what I will do with my brand new garden, I came up with a little list of things I wish I knew before I started the garden I have now.

You can start a garden for free. You do not need to spend a whole bunch of money to have a beautiful garden. Some of the gardens I think are the prettiest, are just rows and rows of plants. There aren’t a bunch of garden decorations and archways. It’s just beautiful plants loaded with fruits and vegetables.

I also believe that you can find ways to add those beautiful, but usually expensive, additions to your garden too. When we take the time to look, we have found so many useful things for free, from railroad ties, to tarp, to left over gravel. Check out this cucumber trellis we built for free from materials destined for the dump. When we don’t take the time to look, we always end up spending more money than we planned.

You can even find free plants if you are willing to look. You can get starts from friends, you can go to the nurseries at the end of the season, you can find wild things that grow in your area and transplant them. At the very least, you can start everything from seed and it will cost you like ten bucks.

When I design my new garden, I am going to keep it super simple this time. And I am going to do my best to find everything I can for free.

2. How to lay it out so it works for me. In my current garden, I have a big long row of grow boxes that are all various sizes. I actually do like the way it looks, all long and skinny, like it goes on forever and ever. But I have learned some difficult lessons that I can’t fix without tearing things out.

Large square grow boxes are silly because you now have to put pathways through them in order to pick the veggies in the middle. I would much rather have a long skinny grow box that I can reach in from all sides and not have to step on my churned soil.

I didn’t need nearly as many pathways as I put in. I could have done one or two super long grow boxes instead of 8 smaller ones with pathways in between. I wasted a lot of precious garden space by adding pathways where I didn’t need them.

Water has been a very tricky thing with my long and skinny garden because I am constantly dragging the hose back and forth. In the future, I will take the time to bury pipes so that I have more places to access water. It will save a lot of time and work.

Also my compost pile is across the lawn. What was I thinking? When I find a zucchini that successfully hid from me until it was the size of a baseball bat, I have to drag that heavy baseball bat across the lawn to toss it in the compost. If I am being totally honest here, that almost never happens. Instead of walking it across the lawn, I usually toss it off to the side and it sits in the middle of my pathway. Not a good system.

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3. Plant extra. My goodness it has taken me a long time to finally plant enough. For years, I told myself I would take care of the gophers, and I would make sure my kids don’t pull any of the plants up, and I would be diligent with the weeds and pests. Every single year, I would plant what I thought we needed. And every year, several of my plants would get wiped out by one of the reasons above. I would stress and worry about it because I couldn’t handle losing food that we needed, to a stupid gopher that wreaked havoc on an entire grow box in one morning.

If I could just remember that planting way more than you need will take the stress away of losing some plants, I would have saved myself a lot of prematurely gray hairs.

4. Which plants produce enough food to make them worth growing. I actually sat down and did the math on that one this spring. It blew me away what some plants were worth. A tomato, for example, can produce $50-$150 worth of fruit. It takes up a lot of space but that’s a lot of money coming out of a ten cent seed!

On the other end, romaine lettuce only produces about $2 worth of salad for each plant. It might not even be worth it to grow when you can drive down to the store and get one for the same price.

If I had known what each plants saves me from the beginning, I would have filled my garden with different plants. Now I know better.

If you would like to see the complete list of how much money each plant saves me in my garden, just subscribe to The Real Farmhouse and you will have it waiting in your inbox.

5. There are things you can do to make it way easier on yourself. I love to garden, but that doesn’t mean that I have the time or the desire to spend 5 hours a day in the garden. Over the years I have discovered some huge time savers. Before I implemented these, I was spending way too much time trying to get things to grow because I didn’t know how to make it easier on myself. Here are a few of the big ones.

Mulch– it reduced my weeding time by 75% or more. When I mulch properly, I only weed my garden boxes 2 or 3 times a year. If you would like to read more about how I do that, CLICK HERE.
Use a drip system or soaker hoses. A sprinkler does quite a bit of damage to your garden and plants. Lots of plants hate getting sprayed, especially tomatoes, and they will not grow well. Sprinklers splash mud all over the leaves and produce, creating more work for you. Also, they encourage weeds to grow in a huge circle around your garden, creating way more weeding for you. A soaker hose gives water only where you put it, it doesn’t splash anything, and it’s not spraying any leaves.
Invest in the right equipment. There are a few small things you can buy that will make a big difference. Good, sturdy tools are one of them. I have a nice shovel that has lasted many many years. I also have a cheap shovel that lasted two years before the handle got weak and broke off. Buy nice tools A good pair of gloves makes weeding large or pokey weeds much more enjoyable, and you will get it done quicker with no blisters on your hands. I bought dollar store gloves every year for five years. Then I bought THESE GLOVES and they have lasted two seasons already, and they have no holes!

Something to transport garden material. This depends on the size of your garden. If you have a small garden, a bucket might be enough to move dirt, rocks, and weeds. If you have a larger garden, I suggest getting a cart on wheels LIKE THIS ONE because wheelbarrows really do a number on your back after awhile. This “gorilla cart” dumps too so you don’t have to hoist anything up when it’s full of 50 lbs of dirt. And $60 is a small price to pay for a pain-free back. For a really big garden like mine (3000 square feet) you will use and love a trailer of some sort. We bought THIS ONE that hooks up to the back of our four wheeler about three years ago. It’s small but sturdy. I use it for everything. We move dirt, compost, weeds, rocks, straw bales, etc. I even use it to take the kids down to grandmas house in. It has been well worth the money and has saved me a ton of time and effort. *affiliate links included

6. And finally, quit making it such a big deal! That was to me by the way. I wish I knew from the start that gardening doesn’t have to be all or nothing. But then I guess that’s more of a personality flaw than anything. I struggle with doing things a little at a time. Once I decide to do something, I usually blow it way out of proportion and devote every waking hour to it for a little while and then get burnt out.

“Moderation in all things” applies to gardening too. I don’t have to plant 3000 square feet EVERY year. I don’t have to try ten new plants EVERY year. I don’t have to sell produce EVERY year. I need to be more realistic with what I can do sometimes, and quit stressing out when I can’t have a huge, beautiful, weed free garden, that makes money every dang year!

It’s okay to just have one tomato plant, and it’s okay to have an off year. It would have saved me a lot of stress if I had got that through my head early on. I am still very much working on this one, and I assume that it will be something I have to work on for many years. Baby steps right?

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Now, I am sure that not everyone will have the same problems as I do, but if by some chance you do, then I hope this post was very helpful. Sometimes it helps me just to write these things down so I really take the time to think about them.

I am so excited for my new garden, that I am planning it a year in advance. I already have a sketch of what I think I want, and I am paying attention to things I want to do differently.

Is anyone else starting from scratch? Maybe you are moving too, or maybe you are preparing to start your first garden. I would love to hear about it. What do you wish you had known before you started a garden? What are your plans for your first garden?

Good Luck on your adventure!

~Farmer’s Wife

Family Life Farmhouse Life Uncategorized

How to be your own general contractor and build your dream home for a fraction of the price

I firmly believe that everyone should have the possibility of having the home of their dreams.

For some people that’s a tiny home, for others it’s a cabin in the woods, for others it’s a mansion on the beach. Whatever your dream is for a home, I think you should be able to make it happen!

For Farmer and I, that dream home was a farmhouse in the country. It has four bedrooms, a big open great room with vaulted ceilings, a rock fireplace in the center, and a huge wall of windows overlooking our land.

Do you know what our home appraises for?

Roughly $500,000.

That number was unattainable for a family like ours, unless we wanted to go into some serious debt.

Does this sound familiar?

Well, I have a secret …. actually, I have A LOT of secrets. And I want to share them with you! So sit back and get comfortable, because “a mountain of information” is an understatement for this blog post! Keep reading to learn how to be your own general contractor, the #1 way to save thousands on your dream home, how to find people to hire that you can trust, and how to negotiate ALL of your prices down ….. politely.

Farmer and I have figured out how to build our dream home for a fraction of the price

and when I say fraction, I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper.

Here is how you do it:

Be your own general contractor
Plan and plan and plan before you start building anything
Go shopping…. for EVERYTHING
Buy your supplies separate from your labor … sometimes
Give yourself plenty of time
Learn how to negotiate prices
Hire the right people

I don’t want to scare you off before you even consider what I am saying. So let me give you a little background information about Farmer and I.

Farmer is 30 years old and I am 25. We have four kids ages 6, 4, 2, and 9 months. Neither of us have a college degree. Farmer started working on the family farm after a year and a half of college. He has no construction experience, although he is really good at figuring things out.

I was fresh out of high school when we got married. I went to one semester of college to play basketball, and then we moved back to be on the farm and raise our family. I have no construction experience, unless you count holding the hammer and nails for my dad.

We are regular people, with big dreams, and no construction knowledge. But everyone THINKS you need to know all the in’s and out’s of construction in order to be your own general contractor. That’s just not true. And I am living proof of that. I am our general contractor. And I have figured out ways to save thousands of dollars by doing what a general contractor does, which is schedule, shop, and plan. To be your own general contractor you don’t even have to pick up a hammer! Except maybe to hand it to your framer.

Here is what you DO need in order to be your own general contractor:

None of the things listed above require you to build a wall or wire a light bulb right? If you are willing to learn and research what you don’t know, you will be able to quickly make up for your lack of knowledge. And if you DO have experience with any aspect of building a house, that’s just going to make you a step ahead. Give yourself a round of applause and move on to the next step.

Communicating is a huge part of being your own GC. You have to make phone calls, write emails, and talk to people about each job you need done and the supplies you will need. There are people out there who would love to help you, as long as you are willing to talk to them.

I am guessing about half of you reading this already know how to shop for a good deal. If you are like me, and you’re not a huge fan of shopping, you can still learn the tricks and at least pretend to like it while you shop for materials. This has actually been the most exciting part for me. I will tell you all about the deals I have found, and how I got them in just a second ….

You are going to need to pay attention to what is going on with your new home, and what the people working on it are doing. Basically you’re a glorified babysitter, but your entire dream home depends on how closely you watch “the kids”. No pressure.

One last thing to consider. Are you capable of firing someone if they needed to be let go? It’s a very real possibility when you are managing so many people. Think about it.

There is one thing that will save you more money than anything else you do when building your own home.

Planning.

Most people decide to build a house, and immediately start looking for a general contractor. How can you hire someone to build a house, when you haven’t even decided what you want? I’m not talking like what style of home you want, or what colors you want throughout. I mean what kind of flooring do you want in the laundry room, how many outlets do you need in the kitchen, what style of shower head are you putting in the master bath?

If you go meet with a general contractor before you have made every little decision, you are asking a complete stranger to give you an estimate on a general idea of what you like. How can he quote you an accurate price? He can’t! So instead, he is going to be forced to quote you high in order to give himself a cushion when you decide you want hard wood floors instead of linoleum.

It’s the same thing when you are your own GC. You are trying to hire someone to draw up your house plans, someone to lay your flooring, someone to wire your house, etc. How can they quote you a good price if you don’t know how many outlets you want and where you want them?

It will also require more time if you haven’t made these decisions. And time is money. Especially when you’re getting charged by the hour to meet with your house designer.

The other HUGE advantage that planning has, is that you know months in advance what you need to buy for the house. If you go shopping at home depot and they are having a one day clearance sale on all appliances but you don’t know what fridge you want, you have to let that money saving opportunity pass. If you had made the decision before hand, you could have had your dream fridge for half the price. And Home Depot will hold it for you for a few months until you need it too!

Planning ahead is the #1 way we have saved money building our own home.

The art of shopping. How to compare and negotiate prices when building your own home.

Like I said earlier, shopping has been the most exciting part of building our own home. It’s not because I like to shop. It’s because when you “shop hard”, you know when you’re getting a killer deal. And when you find something you need for 75% off, how can you not be ecstatic??

For example:

I knew exactly how much tile we needed for our bathroom…. because I PLANNED AHEAD remember …. so when I spotted some BRAND NEW tile on craigslist, I knew it was the right color, style, and amount of tile that we needed. The guy was asking $200 for it, still in the boxes. Now I have learned that on craigslist, you NEVER offer full price. People selling on craigslist put what they HOPE to get, usually not their bottom line. So I offered the guy $100 and he said yes! So a few days later I went to pick it up. After I loaded my car, I drove over to the flooring supply store. They had the exact same tile, in the exact same boxes. It would have cost me $700 to buy the tile there! I just saved $600 on tile because I planned ahead and shopped for it.

Almost every price you find, is negotiable. You just have to know how to ask for it in a way that they will take you seriously. If you were buying from a supplier, you wouldn’t just offer half price. They would think you were crazy. But they will listen if you tell them why you like working with them, why you have chosen them over every other company, and then tell them you only budgeted a certain amount for their product. Can they do it for that? Some of them will say yes and you will save some money. A hundred dollars here, and two hundred dollars there, ads up quickly.

Numbers 4 and 5 are pretty self explanatory

4. Buy your supplies separate from your labor … sometimes

At limes it’s cheaper to buy your own supplies and then hire someone to do the work. If you shop hard, you will know when it’s a better deal.

5. Give yourself plenty of time

Similar to planning ahead …. giving yourself time to shop, time to compare, and time to find the best prices will save a lot of money. You won’t be rushed to “just pay whatever it costs and get it done”. You will also be able to walk away from purchases when they are not a good deal because you won’t need that material right that second.

How to haggle down prices …. politely

There really is an art to haggling. Different situations call for different techniques. Once you figure out how to do it the right way, you will never pay full price for anything again.

Today I haggled a price on tile from $2.50 all the way down to $1. I just bought all the tile we need for our bathroom, brand new from the store, for $35.

This particular store has a clearance section that is quite large. I know from experience that they want their clearance items moved out quickly. They have yet to refuse an offer that I have made because they want to see this stuff gone. But I wouldn’t have known that if I didn’t do my homework. I would have never saved over 60% if I just walked into the store and paid the asking price.

I could go on and on about ways to save money by negotiating prices, because we have already saved thousands by doing just that! Like when we saved $800 on house plans, $400 on greenhouse windows, and $200 on our driveway entrance. Or how about when we saved $925 on our septic design and over $1500 on the installation.

A big chunk of these savings have been from knowing HOW to ask for lower prices. And I am just dying to write it all down!!!

Hiring the right people couldn’t be more important than when you’re being your own general contractor. The last thing you want to deal with is someone who takes advantage of you or does a less than stellar job. But how do you do that when you don’t know what a stellar job looks like? Here is where learning comes back into play.

As the general contractor of your home you need to educate yourself on what your subs should and should not be doing. The best way to do that is to make friends with people. Sounds easy right?

It is for the most part! One of your greatest assets will be finding a few people that you trust to help you out when you don’t know a “take-off” from a “blue print”. Long before you start building, you should be looking out for these types of people.

Do you have a good friend who has built a house in the last few years?
Does anyone in your neighborhood do construction for a living?
Do you have any relatives that have special trade experience?

Start a list of people that could answer questions for you when they come up. It’s going to happen a lot so you might want more than one or two acquaintances on this list. If you are having a hard time filling that paper, don’t worry, there are other ways to solve this problem they just take a little longer.

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The second solution is to make more phone calls and talk to everyone you can.

When I first started calling around about septic systems, I didn’t even know what I should be asking. I was nervous and stressed out dialing that number. I know I sounded like a complete idiot when I had to ask what the words he was saying to me meant. But he calmly explained it to me all over again with simpler terms. By the second phone call, I was feeling a little better. I had written down everything the first guy said and now I knew a few septic terms like “pressure system” and “reserve” and “test holes” and “chamber”.

Don’t worry, I will gladly explain what they all mean to you too!

Anyways, my second phone call was slightly less terrifying. By the third, I knew exactly what questions to ask, and I understood what they were saying to me. Then phone calls 4, 5, 6, and so on were much more productive.

Once I had talked to a few people, and knew what was going on, it was easier to tell which people were trying to help me and which people were impatient with me and didn’t want to deal with someone that didn’t know anything.

I was able to narrow it down to a few designers, call them again, and make a decision based on the service they had already provided to me which was teaching me about septic systems.

When I finally hired our guy, I was thrilled with our choice because I had done my homework, and made sure to hire someone who was going to be honest and up front.

And you know what? I ended up saving a few extra hundred dollars because this guy corrected someone else’s mistake for free.

So you bet I am happy with who we hired!

So now that you have a little taste of HOW to be your own general contractor, I just want to tell you WHY you should.

Let me hit you with another one.

If you general contract your own home and save $100,000 your net worth goes up by that much

If you make $100,000 at work, you save less then $10,000

would you rather have $100,000 of tax free money, or $10,000 to pay taxes on?

Let’s break it down even further ….

The average American saves less than 10% of their income

If you make $20 an hour, only $2 is going to savings for every hour of work you do.

Every time you save $16 on your house, you’re making up for an ENTIRE day of work.

Be your own general contractor and save 12,500 days of working!

These numbers have helped me look at being our own general contractor from a whole different direction. When I put in the time and research it takes to find the best deals, I am not just saving $5 here and $20 there. I am saving my husband hours and hours of work. Now instead of only caring about the big savings, I care about saving those 2 little dollars.

How many hours of work would you save by being your own general contractor?

I also want to tell you that over the past two years I have rented at least 20 books from the library about building your own house. Only one of them was worth buying and that book is “The Owner Builder Book” by Mark A Smith. I still use it almost every single day for a reference and a guide. It has everything in it that you need to build your home from how to get a loan, to what insurance you need. It walks you through the whole process and even includes specific things like what questions to ask your sub contractors, sample contracts, and lists of what you need to do and when. I can’t recommend this book enough if you are building your own home. CLICK HERE to buy or learn more about that book. *affiliate link

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So here is the deal. My head is chucked full of all this new information and I want to share it!

I want to tell you every time I learn a new secret or a new trick.

I want to tell you how to plan your home so you can save more.

I want to tell you how to read the building permits that seem to be written in a different language.

I want to tell you what stores have the best deals and the best service.

I want to tell you exactly what questions to ask the septic designer.

I want to tell you what a good price for cement is.

I want to tell you what things you can DIY and what things you need to hire a professional for.

I want to tell you how to save thousands on lumber.

I want to hold your hand through the entire building process so you can build your dream home too and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It doesn’t take a construction genius, it just takes someone who is willing to make it happen.

You want your dream home more than anyone else in this world. You care about it more, and you will do whatever it takes to shave off $200,000

Your just like me!

On August 12, the website will launch. Sign up now, and you will receive my article what you MUST do before building your dream home, so that you can be preparing for this awesome adventure.

**** website has launched CLICK HERE to visit Farmhouse From Scratch, how to build your own custom dream home for a fraction of the price.

This is not your average website guys, this is teaching you a legitimate way that you can be hundreds of thousands of dollars richer, and it’s absolutely free to sign up! Most owner builders save between 15-50% on their house. I know a guy personally that saved over $100,000. Is that worth it to you? That’s up to $250,000 on my home. What’s 50% off of your dream home?

So all you have to do to start getting all this FREE information that will save you crazy money is CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE

ATTENTION all Real Farmhouse subscribers! This is NOT the same subscription as my farming/gardening/homesteading blog. If you want to be subscribed to the new house blog you need to click on the link above.

Let’s start saving money! Woo hoo!

~Farmer’s Wife

Farmhouse Garden Preserving The Harvest

How to make watermelon chips

I would have never thought to dehydrate watermelon in a million years. My mom actually told me about it and said it was her new favorite thing to dry. But, come on, watermelon? It’s like 100% water.

Which is exactly why it turns out so good! It’s like candy. Healthy candy that you can eat handfuls of and not feel guilty about!

Plus, it’s so easy, it only took me 10 minutes last night to fill my dehydrator.

Before I tell you how to make them though, we need to chat DEHYDRATORS.

They are not all created equal. I have used my fair share of dehydrators and each one has been very different. Currently I am using three different “old fashioned” ones that were given to me by three different people. They all look like this, more or less.

I call them old fashioned not because they are old (one is actually brand new) but because the design and functionality of the new ones are a MILLION TIMES BETTER!

The Excaliber 3926TB will be the FIRST thing I buy as soon as we are done building our new house and have a few pennies to spare.

Even though I don’t own one myself, I have used a friends and I need to tell you the difference real quick ….

The Excaliber has 9 removable trays so you can put big stuff in as well as small stuff. (Example: big bowl of bread dough needing to rise, extra thick jerky, large flowers, etc.)
The Excaliber has the motor and fan in the back so it dries more evenly, and doesn’t get damaged when stuff drips on it while drying.
The Excaliber has a timer. If you have ever dried food before you know how inconvenient it is to have to get up in the middle of the night to shut it off.
The Excaliber has square trays instead of round ones! When drying fruit leather there is nothing more annoying than having to cut strips out of a circle with a hole in the middle.
The Excaliber has a 5-10 year warranty depending on which one you buy.
The Excaliber is way quieter then others that I have used.

If you are serious about drying, don’t waste your money. Get an Excaliber and you WILL NOT be disappointed. If you’re still unsure, just read the reviews. They are overwhelmingly positive because everyone knows it’s the best dryer out there.

The Excaliber 3926TB with 9 trays and a timer is $248.98 if you click on THIS LINK. It will easily pay for itself in one season of drying if you use it regularly.

If that seems like too big of a chunk to bite off then check out the Excaliber 3900 which does NOT have a timer. It’s $198.86 if you CLICK HERE.

Okay, let’s get back to the good stuff!

Cut your watermelon. Chop the whole thing in half, flip it over, and slice it in a grid pattern. This makes it way easier to get your chips all the same size.
Grab a “spear” and cut it into 1/2 inch thick pieces. It doesn’t have to be exact guys, this is not a science class. Just remember, the more uniform your pieces are the better. You want them all to be done at the same time.
Fill your dehydrator trays so the watermelon chunks aren’t touching each other.
Turn your dehydrator on to 135 degrees F and check your watch. Yep, that only took 10 minutes right?!?!

Now forget about it for awhile … it takes a REALLY LONG time to dry because of the high water content. But it is SOOOO worth it! Mine took about 15 hours to dry to my liking.

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Another awesome thing is that this is a perfect way to use your over-ripe watermelons. You know, the ones you cut into and they are sweet but so ripe you can’t handle the texture? Yep, now you don’t have to toss them in the compost pile.