Can I become a DIY Diva?

I've been doing reading and watching things that make me want to be more self sufficient.  Or at least less reliant on commercial items that are lower in quality and more expensive than I can make on my own.  I'm using several blogs and websites to help in this.  I've been DIYing laundry detergent for over two years now.  I have gone through several different recipes, but I've settled on this one for quite some time.  I'll write a blog about that on another day.

I watched season 1 of Alaska: The Last Frontier.  It's about the Kilcher family, who homesteads outside of Homer, Alaska.  They grow, raise and hunt all their food.  They split wood to heat their homes all winter.  And they have no plumbing.  Now I don't want to be that off the grid, but I want to be more responsible for creating my own food.

Recently I came across an article on Facebook.  It discusses the likelihood of weather impacting and raising our food costs.  My family is committed to eliminating our debt and so we live on a pretty tight budget.  My husband didn't get very good student loans.  He graduated about 3.5 years ago and we just paid off his loans!!!  With that said, we want to knock out my student loans next and then we'd love pay off our home in less than 20 years.

My first big project is my garden.  Which leads to another minor project, rain barrels, and a major endeavor....canning!

I was discussing rain barrels with my favorite blogger, Becky over at Week99er.  We were discussing options and ways to do this on a budget.  People often use large 55 gallon drums to make these.  But I wanted something that I could lift the lid off.  So she was helping brain storm ways to do this.  The cheapest I found the drums for was $15 each. Becky suggested I check Instructables.com where I found this tutorial.

I did a search at my favorite local handyman's store where I found 32 gallon garbage cans on sale for $7.99!  Nearly half the price of the drums and given that they aren't bright blue, they won't stand out so much.  And I don't have to do a lot of work to get the lid to open!  Winner, winner, Chicken dinner!!!  My little one helped me fill them with snow when we got home.   Spigots will come later.  For now, we're keeping it simple.