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While this could be a shovel that your grandparents' shed, what I wanted to share was some concepts and practices that we have incorporated into our lives that have payback in many ways, yes even $$s.

Time! Not more hours in a day, which we all wish for once in a while, but gifting one's self time to obtain something. Today's world is so much more have now, pay later oriented which in essence sets one BACK, and doesn't help to build for not needing X, Y or $$. Using 'down' time for enriching plans, boning up on how to do a skill or channeling energy into $-LE$$ tasks. Sure crashing in front of the TV is often a relaxing reward at end of hectic day, but don't short yourself on the 'rush' you can get from designing your own (tiny?) house or finding a way to $la$h $$s from unnecessary spending. The old saying about the best way to save money is to move it from one pocket to another isn't too far off .

And learning to $pend to $ave is a valuable game too. If you are at the store, and can afford to spend a few extra $$s on items you use all the time, buy an extra one or two to have on hand. Dashes to the store to buy ONE or two items not only robs you of time you could enjoy otherwise, it co$t$ gas (unless you live in walking/biking distance which most homesteaders don't ).

This reminds me of another tool I have found to be very helpful - redundancy. An example from my life is that when we worked and lived in our new (mortgaged) house, I hardly ever used the dishwasher because half the time I was digging thru the dirty dishes to find and hand wash something that I needed right then. Running the dishwasher each day would have solved this, but would have wasted electricity, water and detergent. What has allowed me to have what I need and run the dishwasher full is buying more of daily use items - glasses, flat ware, cooking equipment etc. This has made my life easier at very little expense. 'His & her' shovels/hammers/brooms etc. (lol) not only make work faster, its very good to have a functioning one if the handle of one breaks, needs fixing etc.

If you have any 'helpful hints' along this line of thought, please reply and add them!