Thanks for the recommendation
@haypug16 ! I will check that out. Winter is a perfect time to read up and plan for spring.
In thinking through my "2028 Freedom Plan", I tried to map out all the main areas where it would be good to increase our self-sufficiency. From there, I made a list of things under that concept that I'd like to learn. My goal was to pick a few to learn each year. Developing a working plan that we were implementing throughout the year really helped with the 'boring middle part' where we just set our financial contributions and then had nothing to do but wait. I always like MMM’s mantra that FI is a muscle and a mindset that is more than just money.
Here's the rough plan:
Housing• Get an energy audit. Learn to weatherize the house for winter.
• Develop a house maintenance list and make sure we are doing our quarterly tasks.
• We bought an older house that needs a lot of cosmetic work--so learn how to do as much of it as possible.
• Repair small issues where we can—mostly, trying to figure it out before we just automatically call a professional.
• Slowly replacing disposable products with permanent ones. I’d like to be plastic-free by 2025.
Food• Grow a garden with enough variety and amount to cover a good portion of our needs.
• Learn to can, dry, or preserve the various foods that we grow.
• Learn to save seeds so that we don’t have to continually buy new seeds or plants each year.
• Gradually learn to cook/bake as much of our food as possible so we’re not relying on convenience or prepackaged food.
Health• Learn basic first aid and CPR.
• Discover more natural health remedies.
• Learn to meditate.
• Get a bike and learn basic maintenance.
• Go down to one car in retirement, so using the bus for other chores/social activities would be a good practice to establish now. Currently, I only take it to work.
• Invest regular time to spend getting to know our neighbors and time with our family and friends.
• Find at least two non-profits that we’d like to volunteer with that we already know we’d enjoy.