Looking for ways to live more self-sufficiently? We've brought together the best tips and advice from real-life survivalists, preppers, homesteaders and off-grid aficionados to help you take the first steps towards an independent lifestyle. From changing perspectives and saving money to utilising natural resources, you'll be surprised by what you can accomplish when you strike out on your own.

If you’re in a rush to become self-sufficient and grow your own food, off-grid experts Art and Mary of Living Off Grid say there’s no need to wait until the ideal conditions arrive. They’ve been known to plant vegetables like kale, radishes and lettuce two months early, wrapping the raised beds in plastic to create a modified greenhouse effect and fend off frost.

Another vegetable growing hack that Art and Mary have shared on their blog, placing trays of seedlings in a warm room at night under grow lights can help speed up the cultivation process. You’d never know that these trays of thriving sunflowers, sprouts and mixed greens were planted just four days before this image was taken!

For Art and Mary, installing rainwater tanks was a vital step towards living independently. The couple have four tanks, which can hold 1,000 gallons of rainwater between them. Water is collected from the roof of their home and can be used to water their garden and produce on hot, dry days.

Art and Mary say that living off-grid doesn't mean you have to sacrifice the conveniences technology offers. Although their home is solar-powered, they still have a conventional washing machine that gets used around three to five times a week, although they do prefer to dry their laundry on a traditional washing line. At the end of the day, it’s all about what works best for you.

It's important to do certain tasks at the right time of the year if you don’t want to waste time and energy. For example, when it comes to cutting firewood, Art and Mary make sure to stock up on wood in the wintertime ready for the next winter, as it's easier to split when frozen. Whether it’s chopping firewood or making other preparations, a month-by-month plan will help you get ahead.

Not everyone has the means to grow their own food. To save money and ensure you have plenty of supplies in the pantry, Carolyn and Josh from the Homesteading Family suggest buying food in bulk. For example, rather than buying small portions of beef each week, why not save yourself a pretty penny and purchase larger cuts that will last you longer? The couple recommend using a pressure canner to store your surplus meat safely. 

Carolyn and Josh are big advocates of homemade cleaning products, and you can make your own with just a few ingredients and a couple of reusable bottles – it’s a great way to save money, plus it saves on plastic, helping you create a greener home too. Watch Carolyn’s demonstration for making a general cleaning solution on the Homesteading Family’s YouTube channel.

One of Carolyn and Josh’s helpful gardening tips for self-sufficient living is to make your own compost. Not only are individual bags of compost or soil expensive, but most of them have also been sterilised. Making your own will give you the best quality product – simply add old leaves, grass cuttings and fruit and veg waste to a large bin and wait 12-18 months to use.

The Homesteading Family believes that building up a long-term food supply is vital if you want to extend the time between supermarket trips to once a month or even once every few months. You can increase the shelf life of your food by pickling and preserving produce, leaving it ready to enjoy in the future. It'll save you time and money in the long run, give you greater food security and reduce your food waste significantly.

Carolyn says that getting away from the supermarket mentality was one of her biggest challenges when the family first embarked on their homesteading lifestyle. Instead of thinking about what she fancies eating each day, she has to let the natural growing cycle dictate what the family eats, building up a supply of storable and seasonal foods in the pantry.

As an active prepper, Samantha Biggers shares advice on preparing for disasters on her website, Backdoor Survival. One of her nuggets of wisdom is to stock up on necessities now, even ones that are likely to remain readily available. If unforeseen circumstances strike, you never know how it will affect the supply chain.

Another of Samantha’s tips is to raise quail instead of chickens. Not only do their eggs taste almost identical, but quail need much less space to roam than chickens do. Plus, they’re quiet, easy to raise and don’t eat as much. Win-win!

If you’re looking to become self-reliant, Samantha suggests getting used to using less water. From taking shorter showers to installing a water butt to collect rainwater from your drainpipe, there are tons of easy but impactful ways to minimise water usage around the home.

Whether you’re out on a long trek, facing a hurricane or simply searching for ways to be more self-sufficient, Samantha recommends getting hold of a solar phone charger. Not only do they prevent you from having to depend on mains electricity but they’re also eco-friendly.

Instead of stocking up on costly bottles at the shops, why not brew your own beer? Here, Samantha uses hop pellets to create a pale ale. Although it can take a while, it’s a great way of saving money, plus you won't even have to leave the house.

North Idaho off-gridder Nikki Mulder says that most household devices leak some kind of standby power, even when you’re not using them. To save money, she suggests unplugging anything that you’re not using, or at the very least use a smart plug, surge protector or timer to prevent phantom power loss.

Although Nikki has solar power, she often cooks on her log-burner to save energy. Plus, she points out, it can also be used to heat water for hot drinks too. For those of us who still use mains electricity, it’s a brilliant way to gradually reduce our dependence on the grid.

Whether you’re want to live in an off-grid home or you simply want to know you could be self-sufficient if you needed to be, Nikki recommends going powerless for a trial weekend. She advises: "Flip the main breaker of your house to 'off' and live life as though you WERE off-grid... You would be surprised at what you can live without."

With many of us dependent on supermarkets, essentials like toilet paper are among the first things to run out if disaster strikes. Nikki suggests investing in a travel bidet. Not only is it great for freshening up while camping or on road trips but as Nikki explains: "It’s also perfect for those times when mass hysteria prevails over common sense and the world’s toilet paper supply goes extinct."

According to Nikki, once you start experimenting with living more self-sufficiently, you’ll quickly discover a new way of thinking. Instead of focusing on the things you’re missing out on, it’s important to look at the positives. After all, there’s nothing like reading, eating and playing board games by candle or lantern light!

For Jeff and Rose Burkinshaw, utilising the natural resources around their remote plot is vital. Living entirely off-grid in the wilderness of Canada with their five children, they grow their own food, forage and hunt animals such as moose and birds – all of which they document on their website and YouTube channel.

Living off the land doesn’t mean going without your favourite foods – the family makes their own goat's cheese, parmesan and even homemade cheddar! Whether you’re producing your own milk or not, making your own cheese is a great way to save money while stocking up on food supplies.

Keeping bees – and therefore generating your own honey and protecting these essential pollinators – is a brilliant way to add some sweetness to your diet without spending a penny. With an extended family of 10,000 hardworking bees, the Burkinshaws have a home that, in their words, "literally flows with milk and honey".

Avoiding too many supermarket trips depends on having an expansive food storage system. The Burkinshaw family uses a root cellar to bury vegetables and crops underground for use throughout the year. This prevents produce from freezing during the winter, while also ensuring it stays cool during the summer.

Jeff and Rose's five children play a big part in the family’s survivalist lifestyle, so it's important to them to pass on key skills to help the next generation be self-reliant too. For this off-grid family, that means learning how to hunt at the age of 10 and learning how to weld at the age of 12.

According to Canadian blogger and survivalist Shawn James, preserving meat is a great way to make sure your food stocks last – just one of the self-reliant skills he shares on his YouTube channel and website. Preservation is a priority when the weather starts to get warmer to prevent his meat supplies from spoiling, but it's also a good idea if you’re just trying to cut down on trips to the supermarket.

As far as Shawn is concerned, self-sufficiency isn’t just about generating your own food – it also includes harvesting your own building materials. He built his own log cabin from scratch, using resources he collected himself from the forest. Shown here in the initial stages of construction, the completed cabin features rustic handmade furniture created by Shawn's own hand.

As someone who lives the survivalist lifestyle full-time, Shawn recommends taking small steps towards self-sufficiency, rather than changing everything at once. After all, you don’t want to completely overhaul your way of living and realise partway through that it’s not for you. Instead, try cutting out certain modern conveniences to get a sense of what life could be like without them in order to fully assess what lifestyle will work best for you.

After months of quiet and solitude, it can be easy to sink into low moods – something that Shawn has experienced all too well during the harsh Canadian winters. To help deal with this, Shawn finds it helps to focus on the small things in nature, rather than being overwhelmed by the bigger picture.

Self-sufficiency requires a lot of new skills, so don’t be afraid to jump in and learn something new. Shawn spent a lot of time learning traditional skills like woodworking before building his log cabin. With a good dose of determination and the right attitude, a self-reliant lifestyle might be more achievable than you think!