How Much Money We Made on Our 5 Acre Homestead (2024)
For the past few years, I've shared openly about our progress in making money from our homestead.
I don't do this to brag -- but rather in hopes of inspiring others that - like us - have a hard time in their ability to grow more of their own food because they don't have a lot of extra money to buy animals, build infrastructure, etc.
That was our main goal initially. We just wanted to make a little money to be able to grow MORE food for our own family without my husband having to work extra hours off farm. We were ready to say goodbye to the grocery store!
I honestly wasn't sure what was possible considering we only had 5 acres to work with, limited start up money, and even MORE limited time while I balanced running a homestead & business ventures with raising and schooling 5 (now 7!) kids...
But several years in now... after a lot of trial and error, hard work, and consistent success, I can confidently say it's ABSOLUTELY possible to make a lot of money from homesteads of any size, location, and even time limitations!
Our homestead not only makes enough money annually to cover all it's own costs (meaning the cost of homegrown food for our own consumption doesn't come our of our family's personal budget), but it also makes enough to continue improving our property, upgrading tools, etc.
Remember, it doesn't happen over night! This is year 3 of really being strategic and intentional with running our own business. This last year, we focused on 3-4 main enterprises for the majority of our income streams.
Quick disclaimer:
These numbers are approximately TOTAL REVENUE. Not profit. Though each of these individual enterprises is profitable, that's a breakdown for another post.
INCOME STREAM #1:
Meat Chickens
We raised a total of 400 meat chickens to sell this year (plus another 100 for our own freezer). We primarily sell meat chicken direct-to-consumer as whole birds but did experiment with a CSA this year as well.
Our birds this year averaged between 5.25-5.5 lbs. Most were sold for $5.25/lb (some early orders had $4.75/lb pricing).
This total also includes reservations for 2025 chickens (approx. $2,000 of the total).
Total Revenue for 2024: $12,532.51
For more on raising meat chicken for profit from your small homestead - including how to price, find customers, and legal considerations — check out my online class HERE.
INCOME STREAM #2:
On Farm Events
I'm actually a little disappointed at this total.... I dropped the ball on some events this year due to pregnancy fatigue -- but thankfully we still had a handful of great events that were so much fun and allowed us to connect more with out local community/customer base. I'd love to make this a main source of income next year and have some great ideas/marketing strategies to get there.
Here's a breakdown of the events we hosted this year and how much they individually made:
Women's Spring Gathering - $1,225
Fall Homesteader's Gathering - $835
Pressure Canning Class - $810
Meat Chickens Workshop 1 - $760
Meat Chickens Workshop 2 - $280
Total Revenue for 2024: $3,910
INCOME STREAM #3:
Chicken Butchering
This was a newer side hustle for us, but it's been a long time coming. People have asked us for years to offer chicken butchering and after doing a few small batches for friend's in 2023, we finally decided we were ready for it!
We processed one day a week - almost every Friday from June through October. We ended up processing just over 1000 birds for other people (plus our own 500). We initially priced this service at $4 for each whole bird and $7 for parted out birds but upped to whole birds to $5/each near the end of the season after getting a better look at the numbers.
This enterprise has been a great way to not only leverage tools, skills, and infrastructure we already have (our processing equipment) but also to work together as a family and involve the kids (who also got paid for their efforts!) I also love how this allowed us to meet a ton of other local people into homesteading.
Total Revenue for 2024: $3,950
OTHER MISC. INCOME:
I wouldn't call these core enterprises, but they did give us a nice bonus/boost this year.
#1 - COMFREY ROOTS
I have sold comfrey root cuttings for a few years now and it's a great way to make money without much upfront costs (as long as you have the plants established already!)
Total Revenue for 2024: $2,250
#2 - LGD PUPPIES
This wasn't necessarily a income stream I was leading the way on but we did have a litter of puppies that ended up making us a decent amount.
Total Revenue for 2024: $1,100
That's all of what I call our "on homestead income". But we do have one more category that is a big part of our homestead funds... and that's digital income.
INCOME STREAM #4:
Online Income
This is a really general category for what is actually nearly a dozen different income streams that are all digital/online based.
I'm not going to break down each by number but to give an idea of some of my online income streams there is:
Affiliate sales
Brand partnerships/collaborations
Freelance writing
Digital products (ebooks, courses, etc.)
The Intentional Homesteading membership
And several others
I'm incredibly grateful for the ability to use the internet as a small, rural homestead to amplify our homestead income!
Total Revenue for 2024: $35,266.42
GRAND TOTAL
for our 5 Acre Homestead
Income in 2024:
(approximately... this won't be finalized until my accountant looks over numbers at tax time!)
$59,008.93
You guys. How exciting is that!?
Sure, I missed our goal of doubling our 2023 income (which was just over $36,000).. but as a mom to 7, just doing this part time, I’m very proud of our family for our progress.
Learning to monetize our homestead has been a huge blessing that not only allows us to grow MORE food, but allows my husbands to work less off the farm.
If this is your goal too — in next week’s post I’ll be sharing 5 Things to Do NOW to Build a Profitable Homestead in 2025!
