Save like Nana Did. Be a producer.

Thank you to everyone for commenting on the mending and repairing post.  I hope that we can all build our "fixing things" pantry and work on our skills.

I have posted lots over the years about being a producer and not just a consumer.   It is such a big subject and the benefits are endless.   Being a producer means you are less dependant on outside forces,  you have a potential side gig if you need it (if you are not making money from what you are producing already.)  You can potentially trade too.   Since money you save is not taxed saving money always nets you more than earning it.   For a long time we had The Vicky Challenge where we tallied up our savings during the week to see the actual "income" that came as a result of our efforts.  It was mind boggling.  I did this for several years and added up my yearly savings.  They amounted to a good income.   I will give an example...  I can remember making sausage rolls.   I would note the current cost of sausage rolls in the bakery and figure out how many I made less the cost of ingredients.   I made 25 large sausage rolls x $5 each less my ingredients...  = about $100 in front!  One hundred dollars added to the home economy just like that.  Also for about an hours work.  That is pretty good money for an hour!   There are just endless things that we can produce ourselves whether it is our own morning coffee,  packed lunches or home cooked meals...   Big or small it all counts!  

Nana was a producer.  She came from a long line of producers too.  Both my Nana's made flower wreaths and arrangements as young women as their first income.  They both sewed beautifully.   These were skills that were worked on over many years.   I often hear people say they are not artistic, not crafty, not a good sewer...  as if you wake up one morning and you are good at anything.   Almost all skills and most people have to work really hard to become really good at anything.   The Bible says that any person who works hard enough on a skill can become sought after by even Kings and Queens.   Fine skills are always highly prized.   There is a huge value in becoming good at something as you will always be needed!  Imagine... in hard times how the person who can fix shoes,  mend clothes, cut hair,  fix machinery, grow food,  knit garments,  make wine,  preserve food ... whatever... will be needed. 

Baking is a skill Nana mastered and she was famous for her sponge cakes and cream kisses (and more!)  The miracle of taking some flour, sugar and eggs and making something spectacular for pennies still amazes me.    Like the power of a day of cooking where your empty fridge is filled with meals and snacks for the coming week.  When you are out and about notice the prices of things.    Notice a birthday cake can cost a fortune yet cost so little to make.    I know that Chloe's beautiful cakes would be so expensive in the shops.  Imagine what she will save over the years making them!  Imagine what she could charge for them if she needed a side gig?  Skills are worth building!

If you take up jeans,  rather than getting them hemmed by a tailor,  count the savings...  each thing you take on adds to the home economy.   In the city I knew people who paid $300 to get the windows cleaned.   I would rather pay myself to do them!  Holy cow!   Very often I hear someone say they need to find more money but they are paying someone to wash the dog.   So why not just wash your own dog and find that money?   I can say with confidence Nana never had anyone wash the dog.   She would have died laughing on that one.  She never paid anyone to wash the windows.   If life was just too busy she would wash one window and another day she might get another one done.   That is how Mum has managed windows.  I do it too,  I wash the kitchen window and the lounge room  much more often than the rest simply because they are the most noticeable!  We have it in our minds that things have to be all done in one day but they don't.   Lots of big jobs can be tackled bit by bit.  That is how I painted my last home.  I painted something every week until I had painted the whole house!

Nana made many of her baby clothes, linens and clothes for the children as they grew.  She was always knitting or crocheting something.   Many of her gifts were hand made.  She spun wool and used natural dyes.... these skills were one of her passions when I was in my teens.   She made the most beautiful things.   You already know she mended and repaired things.   Revived stained garments.  Polished shoes so they looked as good a new.    I have really noticed this one...   on the farm we wear leather boots.   The difference, looking after the leather makes,  is incredible.  Most shoes cleaned up look wonderful and last longer.   Because our weather is changing I need to get my boots out and waterproof them and polish them.   

Before we left the city I was producing some things.   Baking,  jams, crafts (especially cards),  painting furniture (I would find chests of drawers and dressing tables on the side of the road, paint them up and sell them) and I was growing herbs.    Once we moved to the farm I began to work on producing more.   So now I am a producer of eggs and I can produce chickens too between my incubator and broody hens.  I figure both of these are very valuable.   I am producing a lot of preserves of different kinds between the dehydrator and freeze drier.   I constantly try and figure out more ways we can be self reliant and produce things.    Nana did it out of necessity and continued on.  We might need to do it out of necessity too and it is much easier to become a producer before you depend on it.   It is better to develop a circle of trusted people that help each other,  trade and share skills before you might depend on them as well.   

I wish I could ask Nan and Pa many more things.  What was it like to be a teenager during the Great Depression?  How did they manage on rations and get through the Second World War years?  I know a few things though,  I know family and friends helped each other,  I know they worked incredibly hard and I know they produced all they could themselves.   The didn't waste things.  It all takes me back to scriptures that never age... looking well to the ways of our household,  being watchful, prudent and industrious!  

What are you producing?  What would you like to be producing?  I would love to hear your goals and what you are already doing.  Investing time and money into becoming a producer will really pay off.   Many of my investments have been quite inexpensive.   It was a few hundred dollars to begin incubating eggs and rearing chicks.   The rest was my time and effort.   But now at any given time I am 21 days from a batch of chicks!  I am about to get out my essential oils and make up some germ defence rollers and some of my sore throat and sleep blends.   I will do a few spares to have on hand for a gift or to trade... that something else I can produce that I just thought of!   xxx