Using Photos without iCloud library

I have an iPhone 5, an iPad mini and an iMac. My question is dealing with my photos. I have digital photography dating back to 2001. I do not want to have to pay to have all that in the "Cloud Library". I want to be able to take pictures with my iPhone or iPad and have them not only in my photo stream but in my iMac's Photos app. If I delete my camera roll, they will be deleted in my photo stream but I don't want to permanently delete them from my Photo library in Photos. In iPhoto, you used to have monthly photo stream files that saved your pics even if you deleted them from your photo stream. I have a Time Capsule that backs up my iMac everyday so I don't need to save these photos in the cloud as they are already backed up on the TC. Any suggestions on how to manage photos without using the Cloud Library?