8 Ways to Beat Inflation on the Homestead

We’ve all noticed prices creeping up for things we frequently purchase, especially in the gasoline and grocery categories. But last week when I went shopping at my small town grocery store, I noticed something different that made we wonder if inflation is headed to an entirely new level.

While price tags have been creeping up gradually, especially the past year or two, the price tags have always been accurate. This time, when I went to check out, I found that numerous items in my shopping cart rang up for more than the posted prices. My store has always been good about accurately labeling price tags. Organic bananas had a price tag of .79/lb., the same as when I last bought them a few weeks ago. But when the cashier rang them up, they were actually .99/lb, a 25% increase in just a couple weeks! This happened with multiple items in my cart.

Our local auto parts store has recently put up a sign on every aisle stating that the posted prices are no longer accurate. They cannot change the price tags fast enough to keep up with the price inflation.

Inflation is very real. It also isn’t that complicated. It happens when the amount of currency in circulation increases faster than goods and services are produced. In this case, people around the world were locked in their homes, not working and not producing, so the amount of goods and services decreased. At the same time, governments around the world created new money out of thin air and passed out stimulus checks. Here in the US, the currency supply approximately doubled while less was being produced. Now there is more currency, but less things available to buy, which drives up prices. It’s not surprising consumer price inflation is exploding.

Disclaimer: this page may contain affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Also, please note that I am not a financial adviser and this article is for educational purposes only, and not intended as financial advise.

 

About Inflation and How it Has Changed Over the Years

 

Normally inflation is calculated on a year over year basis. Last month’s CPI (consumer price index) of 8.6 meant that consumer prices have increased 8.6% from one year ago. But the way we calculate inflation has changed. Shadowstats uses the same methods they used to calculate inflation back in 1980 to come up with a more accurate inflation number of around 17%. This figure probably lines up a little closer to what we as consumers are actually experiencing in the costs of housing, groceries, energy and more.

Hyperinflation happens when inflation gets carried away. The definition of hyperinflation is prices increasing 50% month over month, not year over year. This can happen quite rapidly. As people realize that their currency is losing value, they begin to spend faster, trying to use the currency before it becomes worth less. The population loses faith in the currency and scrambles to spend it faster and faster, accelerating the inflation. Some recent examples of hyperinflation include Lebanon, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

You can research what happened in each of these countries to get a better idea of how to prepare (The Organic Prepper has writers from these countries who have personally experienced hyperinflation, so this a great place to start of you’d like to research more!). The ideas I am going to share today are geared toward homesteaders, since this is a homesteading website, and are based on many hours of research and listening to people who have been through hyperinflation.

 

Price Caps and Shortages

 

One way that our government is talking about mitigating the effects of inflation is to put price caps on certain items. A retailer can only sell a certain item for a certain price, and no more.

While it would be great to not have to pay as much for the things we need, messing with the free market makes a real mess. When your local gas station has to pay $5.00 per gallon for gas, and is told they cannot sell that gasoline for more than $5.00 per gallon, it’s impossible for them to make a profit. They still have all the expenses of operating their business and hiring employees. If they lose money with every gallon of gas they sell due to price caps, they cannot stay in business. Eventually, instead of $5.00 per gallon gas, there will be no gas.

Price caps can create massive shortages.

We see this throughout history, and yet governments still do it over and over again.

For this reason, major shortages go along with high inflation or hyperinflation, and are a big thing we need to prepare for.

 

Preparing for Inflation

 

Inflation is scary; and those who have experienced it say hyperinflation is a far worse scenario than a recession or depression. Due to the unique corner we have painted ourselves into, we may have to deal with both at the same time. Inflation of basic things we need like food and energy, paired with massive deflation in overvalued areas such as housing and the stock market.

But there are still many ways to prepare for inflation and come through it better than most. Understanding what is happening and learning from the past are an important start.

The following are some of the ways our family is preparing for inflation as homesteaders.

 

#1: Growing More Food

 

As homesteaders, our family already grows a lot of our food. But as a talked about earlier this year in my article about homestead planning, we’ve stepped it up a few notches this year. Those who have lived through hyperinflation usually say that food is one of the biggest issues they faced. If you can’t afford it at the store or shortages have made it unavailable, you have to grow it or wild harvest it yourself.

We made our garden bigger, planting more potatoes, winter squash and root crops for winter storage. We increased our potential meat supply by putting more lambs on our leased pasture this season and expanded our dry bean varieties. We are focusing more on growing proteins and lots of calories, versus all vegetables (although we grow lots of those too!).

Something else I talked about in that article was doing what works and not worrying about idealism. Just do what works to grow food. For example, I am all for no-till gardening, but the easiest way to get new ground ready for planting quickly this year was to till, plant a cover crop, and then till again before planting time.

If you are on a rental like me, or have to deal with an HOA, be sure to check out this article about how we grow 2/3 of our food on a rental property with numerous restrictions.

If at all possible, prepare for shortages and price inflation by stocking up on things you need for your garden, such as seeds, hoses, fencing, fertilizer and pest control.

 

#2: Buying Ahead in Bulk

 

No matter how much of your food you grow, there are probably things that you can’t or prefer not to grow yourself.

Some of the big things we buy include salt, oil, flour and other baking ingredients. All of these can be purchased in bulk, which is what we do with all the things we normally use a lot of. By buying in bulk, you can often get a much cheaper price than buying in small packages, you will get it at a cheaper price now versus six months from now when inflation has jacked up the price, and you will have it on your shelf when you need it. No worries about shortages!

We get most of our bulk foods from Azure Standard, a natural foods company that delivers to communities all across the US. Unlike other bulk stores, there are no membership fees, and shipping is free if you meet the Azure truck at your nearest drop point. My family has used Azure for more than 20 years, and I can’t recommend their company highly enough. You can find out more about Azure and how it all works here.

Azure has thousands of products and a variety of size options. For example, you can purchase organic popcorn in 40oz, 5lb, 10lb, 25lb or 50lb bags. They offer both conventional and organic products. If you want to save some money stocking your pantry with high quality foods you’ll definitely want to check Azure out!

 

#3 Animal Feed and Seed Saving

 

Something talked about by those who have experienced hyperinflation is that many homesteaders actually gave up homesteading. They were dependent on so many outside inputs, such as animal feed, seeds and fertilizer. When these things became unaffordable or unavailable, they simply couldn’t homestead any more.

Learn how to grow feed for your livestock, or keep stocked up as much as possible. We do both, growing as much as we can and storing as much as we have space for of the things we buy. Winter squash is a big one we grow and cook all year for our poultry and goats. Here are some more ideas. We also invested in a high quality scythe to cut hay, and regularly practice using it.

If you are a gardener, knowing how to successfully save seeds is vital! It’s important to understand which crops can cross with each other (for example, zucchini can cross with pumpkins, and kale, broccoli and cabbage can all cross with each other!) and how to prevent unwanted crossing. You’ll also need to learn how to overwinter biennial crops to get seeds from them, and how many plants you need to save seeds from to avoid inbreeding depression.

We have some free seed saving resources here, or you can check out our complete seed saving course for $35 right here!

Learn how to make fertilizer for your garden at home. Either stock up on pesticides or learn how to garden organically without them. We mostly do without pesticides in our organic garden, but do keep some organic neem oil on hand mainly for aphids in the greenhouses, along with a small sprayer.

 

 

#4 Side Hustles

A good side hustle can kill lots of birds with one stone.

It can give you extra income for prepping and stocking up on essentials like food.

A side hustle can provide extra income to save and get ahead financially, preparing for harder times ahead.

And finally, a good side hustle can provide you with a backup source of income should you lose your main job.

What makes a good side hustle? In my opinion, a good side hustle provides an essential good or service that people will always need even if they don’t have a lot of money to spend.

For example, I’ve had many, many side gigs over the years, everything from breeding tropical fish to painting pictures to selling homemade candy and jewelry at bazaars. But right now, I am focusing on growing my garden business to provide fresh, local fruits and vegetables to people in my neighborhood. This particular side hustle is more resilient than the others I mentioned because no matter what happens to the economy, people will always need to eat. And in the meantime, it is giving me a little extra cash to save and get my homestead set up better.

A good side hustle doesn’t have to be a tangible item you sell. Maybe you are good at building or repairing things. Think about what you are already good at or what you would like to learn.

#5 Purchase Things You Will Need Before You Need Them

If you can afford it, make a list of things you are going to need in the next few years and prioritize your list by the things you can’t do without. Between shortages and price increases, it’s hard to lose by buying things you need a little early.

Some Ideas to get you started:

• Shoes
• Clothing
• Coats, hats and gloves
• Parts for your car, oil, oil filters (and don’t wait till your tires are completely worn out before buying a new set!)
• Parts or replacements for anything you anticipate might break
• Wood if you have a stove
• Propane
• Garden seeds, hoses, sprinklers, fertilizer, etc.
• Essential food preservation supplies like canning lids and vinegar
• Over the counter medications and first aid supplies

This is just a handful of ideas to get you thinking. We keep a list of items like these we know will need in the next few years and whenever we have a little extra income we buy one of the items on this list.

 

#6 Utilities

A common theme in times of hyperinflation is that energy becomes less reliable. For example, Venezuelans talk of how the electricity might be on for a few hours then off for a few days. It didn’t completely go away, it just couldn’t be depended on like before.

I think it’s wise to prepare how you can for less reliable power in the near future. Think about how you would cook your food, maintain personal hygiene, water your garden, wash your dishes and light your home. Do you have clean water to drink if it one day doesn’t come out of the tap?

You can find a list of things to keep on hand to prepare for a power outage here.

We also have a list of power outage tips and tricks such as washing dishes and cooking without electricity which you can find here.

 

#7 Inflation Proof Savings

 

I have mentioned a few times that you should if possible save some money before inflation gets worse. But it’s important to keep in mind that cash or currency stored in a bank will lose value quickly during inflation. It’s already losing somewhere between 8.6% and 17% every single year depending on which inflation numbers you go with!

Keeping a cash emergency fund is still wise, but beyond that you might be better off using precious metals for savings. Although the price can fluctuate, gold and silver have been used for money for thousands of years. Unlike paper fiat currencies, which come and go throughout each century, precious metals have always retained value throughout good and bad times. They never go to zero. In fact, in a hyperinflationary environment, some Venezuelans have actually turned to using gold for every day purchases.

 

#8 Security

 

The final way to prepare for inflation that I want to talk about today is security. Unfortunately, crime tends to skyrocket in times of high inflation. We’ve already seen this here in the United States over the past year or two.

Take a walk around your home or property and make a list of ways you can make it less of a target and keep your family safe.

Here are just a few ideas to consider for improving your home security:

• Better locks
• Longer screws on your doorframe can make the door a little stronger
• Security cameras, game cameras or solar powered motion lights
• A guard dog
• Physical barriers such as fences, stronger doors, deadbolts and door bars
• Window bars or alarms
• Window film
• Tools to protect yourself should your home be invaded

Just like with #5, we add home security items to a list we can look at whenever we can spare the money to increase our preparedness. None of the other preparations on this list will help you if you cannot keep yourself and your family safe!

 

Do you have additional ideas on preparing for high or hyper inflation? Share in the comments!