One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1231 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

How to Control Potato Beetles {Bugs}

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 27, 2014 · 7 Comments

I love getting mail from my readers. Lately I’ve been getting a lot of gardening questions, and most of them are really common problems, so rather than responding to each email, I thought I would share my response, in case there are more of you out there having the same problem {or even better, some more seasoned gardeners than me who can share some tips in the comments section}.

Sue asked,

Planted potatoes last year and spent most of days picking off potato bugs, saw your idea on potato towers and will try this year. Do you have any ideas on how to control potato bugs? Any advice on them will be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks

Bugs are a pain in the you know what when it comes to gardening. Actually, I shouldn’t say that, because some of them are down right awesome, but the ones that want to eat your food before you do, they, well, “bug” me.

I am not a huge fan of chemicals. One, because chemicals are not great for you. And two, because I am too frugal to want to spend good money on something that can be prevented or dealt with another way. So, my suggestion is to start with prevention. Companion planting will help to deter them from ever settling in because the smell of the companion plants repel the beetles. You’ll want to integrate these plants {a variety or just one} in between the rows of your potatoes in order for them to be protective:

Horseradish
Bush Beans
Catnip {put these in small pots around your potatoes, because they are like mint and will take over}
Cilantro
Sweet Allysum
Fennel
Cosmos
Coriander
Tansy
Marigolds

Another way to prevent them is to use light row covers on your taters from start to finish. That will keep a barrier between the enemy and your harvest {actually, they don’t typically want the potato, they want the leaves, which just ruins the plant and the potato in the end}.

If you do notice them, try introducing natural predators to the area. Ladybugs will eat the larvae and destroy them. Ladybugs must be introduced when the problem already exists, and not as prevention, though, because ladybugs will leave an area if it doesn’t have an immediate food source. While the ladybugs are fighting the problem, you will have to continue to pick them off by hand. I personally find pinching them off of the plant kind of therapeutic.

If you really want to throw some sort of something onto the plants to stop the bugs, try diatomaceous earth. It’s a non-toxic powder that you can dust on the leaves to repel the bugs. I have not personally used it, but I know a couple of people who swear by it.

I hope that helps, and if any of YOU have some tips for Sue, make sure to leave them in the comments below.

~Mavis

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Cranberry Coconut Breakfast Cookies

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 27, 2014 · 16 Comments

How can you say no to a breakfast cookie? Oatmeal, bananas, cranberries, coconut… those are all breakfast foods, right? Cookies for breakfast? Heck yeah I’ll take two! 😉

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups oats {I used quick}
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium mixing bowl, combine oats, coconut, salt, pecans, and cranberries. Mix in bananas, oil, agave nectar and vanilla and sit until well combined.

Using a 2 tablespoon cookie dough scoop, scoop balls of dough on to a cookie sheet. Press dough down slightly and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy.

*Makes 2 dozen cookies

Looking to get your cookie fix? Check out more Cookie Recipes.

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Possessions: How Many Do You Think You Have?

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 26, 2014 · 23 Comments

There seems to be a growing trend lately in people paring down their possessions in an effort to simplify and minimalism. Maybe it was the recession {Or maybe it’s always been there and I am just slow on the uptake? Totally possible.}, but lots of people seem to be tired of the rat race, where stuff owns them and not the other way around. Have you noticed this?

In addition to owning less, I’ve seen “tiny” houses more and more in a lot of my magazines and articles I stumble onto. I have to admit, I kind of like the idea of simplifying life. Stuff takes time to organize and maintain. Don’t get me wrong, some stuff–the stuff that really gets used and enhances life is awesome, but how much is enough? A couple of days ago, I found this article in the New York Times about a woman, Dee Williams, who sold her 3 bedroom home in Portland, built herself a TINY 84 square feet house {which is parked in the backyard of a friend} and pared down all of her personal belongings to 305. 305 items! Mind blown.

Her decision to change her life so drastically came after she received a diagnosis of congestive heart failure {don’t it always seem to go that you don’t make the bravest, boldest decisions until you’re faced with your own humanity?}. A 30 year mortgage seemed like a waste of time and resources to her, so after reading an article about tiny houses, she set out to build one for herself. The house runs on solar power, doesn’t have running water, a fridge or stove, but does have a propane one burner to cook on {this is totally the extreme of paring down, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it}. Now 10 years later, she’s written a book, detailing her experience.

Ms. William’s tiny house obviously is doable because she is just one woman. It would be pretty darn miserable to do this with a family, but still, it does beg the question, how much stuff do we really need to be happy? Any minimalists out there who have a count on their belongings?

~Mavis

The Big tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir

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Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 26, 2014 · 46 Comments

I picked up a few stalks of rhubarb this morning and thought you might be harvesting rhubarb as well, so I am reposting this recipe for Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam. The recipe came from from Food in Jars, and let me tell you Bob, it’s flippin’ delicious.

Here is the freakin’ awesome recipe:

Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam

I picked a few stalks of rhubarb this morning and thought you might be harvesting rhubarb as well, so I am reposting this recipe for Vanilla-Rhubarb Jam. The recipe came from from Food in Jars, and let me tell you Bob, it’s flippin’ delicious.

Author Mavis Butterfield

Ingredients

10 cups of chopped rhubarb
5 cups sugar
1 cup Earl Grey tea
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
1 lemon juiced {about 3 tablespoons}
1/2 tsp butter
pinch of salt
1 box pectin {I used Ball Pectin}

Instructions

Bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.
Place the chopped rhubarb, sugar and tea into a 4-qt. saucepan and bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until the rhubarb is tender {about 5 minutes}.
Add the vanilla bean, lemon and salt to the pot and let it bubble gently for about ten minutes.
Slowly stir the pectin prepared rhubarb mixture. Add butter to reduce foaming {optional but I always do it}. Bring to full rolling boil {a boil that doesn’t stop bubbling when stirred} on high heat, stirring constantly.
Ladle immediately into prepared jars {I used pint-sized jars}, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in a canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely.

Recipe Notes

After the jars have cooled, check the seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.

Looking for a few more canning recipes?

Search my Full List of Canning Recipes

Want to start canning, but don’t know where to start? Here’s a guide to help you get started.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.