do you buy ahead?

[bornthrifty]

we hope to be self sufficient someday on a little farm,
we are paying our bills, and aren't ready to move for a few years,(because of job)
bracing for the future where we will walk away from decent job in order to move further out where land is cheaper,( but jobs will be fewer) we are thinking about buying some equitpment now,(while we have work)

we already bought our truck,
but now I am thinking about getting a utility trailer(trailer necessary because out truck came with a nice matching topper, which limits it's usefulness to us in some ways)
maybe some sort of gator or 4 wheeler
and maybe even a small tractor, (however my brother has a lot of farm equiptment that he collects and loans out to farmers...so really I should look to him later for the bigger equiptment)

we can store the stuff at out house now, and the stuff will be useful now, and look like toys to others, I guess it just feels sort of funny to keep buying ahead for someday...

 

[patandchickens]

The thing about sinking money into a 4wheeler or tractor is that if circumstances should change unpredictably and you end up short of money but *not* on a small farm, you will have mostly wasted that money (don't count on being able to resell for what you paid, maybe not anything like whatcha paid if something unfortunate should happen to them in the meantime). You are extremely unlikely to NEED a 4wheeler/gator btw; indeed even if you buy a homestead type property you may very well not need to own a tractor of any sort. If you DO, prices for used equipment will probably remain comparable (to value of dollar) to what they are now, so no great advantage of buying now.

The utility trailer, I dunno, if you have realistic use for it NOW then maybe it makes sense but otherwise I'd put it in the same category as the above.

The only exception I'd say would be if you could get one of these things pretty-literally for FREE. Not "50% off, it's a super deal, only $1000" but actually FREE. In that case you have nothing to lose and a good deal to potentially gain.

A better plan might be to squirrel away any fenceposts and fencing material and tin roofing/siding that might happen to come your way in a free or near-free way. That stuff is pretty much ALWAYS useful, to you or to others, no matter where you end up; and again, if it was free or virtually free (like "$5 for a 50-foot roll of 2x4 fencing") then you have lots to gain and nothing to lose.

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[bornthrifty]

good point on the sort of stuff to squirrel away,

jsut want to mention, the only trailer or anything of that sort I would pick up would be one's almost for free, or actually for free,

 

[freemotion]

I agree. When I wanted land, I also looked at catalogs and online for equipment. I really wanted a gator with attachments, etc. Now that I am here, I find that unnecessary. I enjoy working with hand tools and can hire out most big jobs MUCH more cheaply than owning and maintaining larger equipment. My goals are along the lines of self sufficiency, though, and not to farm for a living.

Even a truck. If I pay $50 each time I need a truck, it is still cheaper than making payments and repairs, etc., over the course of a year. Still want a truck, but practicality keeps me from buying one. I do live in an area where things are fairly close, though.

It is amazing what you can put in the backseat of a car....Mya spent 6-7 hours there, and Ginger created chaos at traffic lights by sticking her head up in the window suddenly and baa'ing! Turkeys and small goats fit in dog crates. Bales of straw are bagged with lawn and leaf bags, two per bale, one in each direction. I've put 750 lbs of barley in my car for a 600 mile trip when I found it cheaply a few states away while on a trip.

Save your money, pay down the mortgage, but buy up bargains that you can resell if needed and don't depreciate. Get some good kitchen and gardening hand tools if you must! Canning jars!

 

[k0xxx]

Patandchickens and freemotion hit the nail on the head. As for gardening tools and canning supplies, etc., buying things that you can learn to use now is a good idea. Learn the skills and you can take them anywhere that life takes you, farm or otherwise.

 

[bibliophile birds]

i mostly agree with the others: buying now is probably not your best idea. you could put the money you'd be spending to buy now in a short term cd or something and get a nice chunk of interest for your trouble.

where i disagree is on the UTV (all-terrain utility vehicle). ours has been pretty handy over the years. but i think it really depends on what you'll be doing on your land and how accessible everything is. there are parts of our farm we'd never get any other vehicle into. and the Gator does a lot less damage to the pastures than i do driving my car around in them.

the biggest word of warning, however, is DO NOT get a Gator. we're on our 3rd (my granddad likes them so he just keeps rebuying). they tear up pretty easily, especially the flimsy front body panels. and they aren't as powerful as some of the others, like the Kawasaki Mule or the Polaris Ranger. those can be more expensive, but they seem to hold up longer than the Gators and seem to be just better overall.

 

[cjparker]

When we were preparing to move, we hit the semi-rural yard sales, looking for hand tools for gardening and repairs. We found quite a few really good tools in the $1-10 price range. We cleaned tehm up and then stored them away until the Big Move came about.

I don't know how far you're moving but we moved 1000 miles. We had to restrict ourselves to small stuff that was reasonably portable.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Instead of squirreling away items, I'd squirrel away money! Keep it in the bank so you have access to it if you need it, but aren't tempted to just go spend it (like if you stored it in a jar or something ). If there's an emergency, you can tap into the fund. If not, it just keeps growing and then when you do move you have a good fund for purchasing things!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Instead of squirreling away items, I'd squirrel away money! Keep it in the bank so you have access to it if you need it, but aren't tempted to just go spend it (like if you stored it in a jar or something ). If there's an emergency, you can tap into the fund. If not, it just keeps growing and then when you do move you have a good fund for purchasing things!

Agreed. Some farms do not need ATVs, ours does not absolutely need it, we had it anyway. I would save the money, have a nice svings acct, pay off the mortgage, and then when you do move, assess then what you need, and buy then.

 

[freemotion]

What we needed most when we finally found a property with proper zoning for animals was a big chunk of money to build a small barn and to clear some land. We had savings to do that.

I'd still look for smaller bargains, like free or cheap canning jars, very good deals on smaller items and like said, focus on learning skills. It does take some time to ramp up the skills and it can be very stressful if you have to learn them all at once. Processing a large garden all at once....well, if you learn a few items at a time, it will go much more smoothly with a lot less waste. I started with herbs in an apartment and am so glad I did. I learned things like....oregano is ready in the spring and early summer and sage can be harvested right into fall. I can get two cuttings of scallions, spring and fall, and some throughout the summer but I do better letting it go to seed in the summer for more new growth. I like some herbs frozen, some fermented, some dried, depending on what I am doing with it. This took 2-3 years to learn. You have lots to do still!