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Self-Sufficiency Skills For 2025
14
items With economic hardship coming down the pipe, now is a good time to get to work on making yourself more self-sufficient and durable. Save money, learn DIY skills and take care of yourself!
Sections
4
Grow Your Own Food
Do It Yourself Handy Skills
Turn Your Hobbies into Money Savers
Mutual Aid Ideas For Your Community
Grow Your Own Food
Food and water are your most basic necessities, and you can't be self sufficient if you can't supply them for yourself.
To grow a years supply of food is a lot of hard work, and it takes a lot of knowledge. This book is a great primer.
The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year, No Matter Where You Live|Paperback
It isn't that expensive to buy seeds, but why bother when you can collect and save them? Cultivating your own heirlooms and saving the seeds is a valuable skill and saves you money in the long run. You are cutting costs without sacrificing your garde...
Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, 2nd Edition|Paperback
You can grow food even in a small space. If you live in a small apartment, consider starting a container garden for vegetables and herbs. You won't be able to feed yourself 100% of the time without going to the store, but you can definitely cut your ...
The Vegetable Container Gardening Guide: How to Grow Food in a Container Garden
Do It Yourself Handy Skills
Everything breaks, and everything needs fixing. Your shelter and your transportation can both be costly to pay other people to fix- save money by learning how to do it yourself.
I cannot tell you how many times we've had to fix our plumbing when the pipes burst during the winter. We wound up replacing literally everything in our water system one year, after our kitchen turned into the Niagara Falls. It was expensive to pay s...
Plumbing for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide to Home Plumbing (Keep Your Home's Plumbing System Works Safely Information Sinks Bathtubs)
The basics of do-it-yourself home repair. This lays the groundwork for you to build on with more specialized knowledge later on.
Popular Mechanics How To Fix Anything: Essential Home Repairs Anyone Can Do
Home cleaning supplies eat up way more money than you'd think. Not to mention, half of them are environmentally toxic and not great for either pets or children to be around. Why not try substituting homemade cleaners instead? A little white vinegar a...
Environmentally friendly ingredients for DIY cleaning recipes
Turn Your Hobbies into Money Savers
Can you work a needle and thread? Can you cook? Do you know how to make pickles or jam? If you use these skills for giving gifts and destressing in your down time, ramp that up! These are money saving skills that can save your bacon on hard times.
Learning how to sew is fantastic. It's really fun to run to the thrift store, pick up fabric or old clothing and turn them into something new- and being able to fix torn shirts and pants is a game changer.
Sewing for Beginners Handy Pocket Guide: All the Basics; Tips & Techniques|Paperback
Preserving food to store in your pantry is a seriously underrated skill. Even if you can't garden, you can make preserves out of vegetables and fruits you buy at the store. It's a great way to stock up! It's a really fun hobby, and making your own pr...
The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving: Over 300 Recipes to Use Year-Round|Paperback
Hobbies like knitting and crocheting cost money to get started. Yarn can be very expensive, and you need to buy quite a bit of it to make a decent sized project. To save money, use this simple trick: Find old knit sweaters and other clothing items at...
Recycling Yarn from Second-Hand Sweaters
Fermented foods are incredibly nutritious, very tasty, and super fun to make. This book is a great primer for everything from dill pickles to sauerkraut, from sourdough bread to homemade yoghurt, and even kombucha! A fun hobby, and a great way to sto...
Fermenting: Recipes & Preparation
Mutual Aid Ideas For Your Community
While this list is labeled ‘self’ sufficiency skills, it's important to note that humans are social creatures. Cooperation is our super power, and it has enabled our survival since time immemorial. Leaning on each other is an absolute must in order t...
This map provides links to various mutual aid networks that exist across the United States, and even some in Canada. Use it to find your nearest network to link up with local people who you can work with.
Mutual Aid Hub
Working class solidarity is a vital part of building an active, sustainable network. Food is the centerpiece of life; it forms the basis of culture and community, as one of the most vital needs for basic survival and as a point of connection for enti...
Nourishing Resistance: Stories of Food, Protest, and Mutual Aid
If there aren't any mutual aid networks near where you live, then it might be time to start creating one for yourself. This guide helps you lay the groundwork for precisely that, starting with your close friends and neighbors and building from there.
How to start a mutual aid network
The Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit was created during the COVID-19 Pandemic, but the basic tenets laid out in it are useable in any crisis. It's free to have on hand!
Mutual Aid 101: Toolkit