If you live off the land then you don't need much income, and the income you get from selling your surplus can be sufficient. Take a trip through rural America

If you live off the land then you don't need much income, and the income you get from selling your surplus can be sufficient. Take a trip through rural America sometime and look around. You'll see lots of very poor-looking households, but if you look carefully you might notice that they keep chickens and have a garden, and larger properties have more in the way of animals. Many are dirt poor, but they live off the land, and can afford to be dirt poor. Not romanticizing it or anything -- the homesteadies I know are not into being dirt poor, but they are into being more independent and living off the land so as to stretch their savings.