While it is easy to rack up a credit card bill while adding on to your home; adding on to the debt for the farm is even easier.
Last year was our "start up year" for the farm and farm store. There were a lot of big purchases that needed to be made. The retail portion of the farm was one of the many areas that a decent amount of money was spent.
So this year with a lot of the big purchases behind us, we are rerouting our budget and
making a plan.
Here are the steps we used and you can too for even a basic house hold yearly budget or if you have a farm yourself.
Try a simple list method with 3 categories:
The first category is absolute NEEDS.
What you actually need to get through this next year that will help dramatically with running the home or farm.
Our lists includes having another water line added and electricity to our farm store.
The second category is LITTLE TO NO MONEY NEEDED.
What projects can you get done that may cost very little but will help in day to day chores.
We also add in anything that will make the farm appearance get even better.
Our list includes anywhere from painting fences to making a new goat paddock, to plowing up a bigger garden and planting more pumpkin seeds.
The third category is a WISH LIST
While you may try to convince yourself or others that you may need these items to do a better job, it's actually a want. These items can usually wait until you have some kind of cash after the above two categories are taken care of.
Our list includes some extra play structure, expanding fencing and a new 4 wheeler or side by side.
These above steps will definitely help keep you in line when tossing around ideas on spending more money.
We have watched a lot of videos and done a ton of research. It seems that most people that start a farm have farm debt. Some of the people on videos we've watched have retired and are doing this with a big nest egg to support them until the business takes off. This is not our case.
We started literally from the ground up, which required us to incur some debt. Also because of a personal want in life, we give back regularly by hosting free activity days. This is a debt that we are happy to take on. Make sure every spending choice makes sense.
Carefully planning out a project will also help to ensure that you are not racking up a bill on too many materials or buying more livestock than you are ready for.
For instance we would like to get an incubator for our quail but first we need to really plan out an even better housing and egg roll away ramp. Make a list of project materials and then go on to purchase the right amount.
If you just take a round about guess you could end up with a lot of extra materials, which then need to be stored and then may end up getting covered in snow or rain and be ruined.
(we've learned our lesson)
Keep your lists reachable.
Take a wall calendar and plan out the months, how long a project can take and in which months they need to be done by.
Keep into consideration the weather.
Here in Michigan we usually try this: Try to get any outside jobs done in the spring and fall.
Any indoor jobs we do in the winter or the mid day heat of the summer.
Once again hopefully all of this information helped someone out there plan for their awesome yearly improvements.
What's on your lists for this year? Wilson Wonders
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