One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1320 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.

Easy Crock Pot Vegetarian Chili Recipe

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 3, 2014 · 4 Comments

One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Lisa sent me the recipe for her favorite Vegetarian Chili and I thought I would give it a try. I don’t know about you, but our family LOVES chili. Plus I would pretty much marry my crock pot if I could, because it’s practically one the greatest time savers out there.

Thanks Lisa, we loved it!

Ingredients

2 cans kidney beans {undrained}
1 can northern white beans {undrained}

1 can black beans {undrained}

1 can corn {undrained}

1 can tomatoes {undrained}

1 diced green bell pepper {or whatever color you have on hand}

1 diced onion

1 packet of chili seasoning { I used 2 tbs. homemade taco mix}

a bit of vinegar {I used 1 teaspoon}

Directions

Toss it all in the crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with corn bread and banjo music.

Yee-Haw!

~Mavis

Looking for more slow cooker recipes? Check out Crock-Pot Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes. Amazon has it currently in stock.

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How To Find the Best Deals at Costco

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 3, 2014 · 10 Comments

Did you know there is actually a way to decode the pricing at Costco?! I stumbled on to this little decoding gem on King5.com {a Seattle news station} a while back, and thought it was so cool I just had to share.

It all basically comes down to paying attention to the cents part of the pricing. The amount of pennies on the price tag will let you know exactly what kind of deal you are getting.

Prices ending in .99 are full price items. {That doesn’t necessarily mean they are a bad deal, it just means that it is the standard set price for Costco to sell the item.}

Prices ending in .97 indicates a deal decided by the manager. So, this price might vary from location to location.

Prices ending in .49 or .79 mean the item is a manufacturer’s special. The price is lower than Costco would typically sell it for, because the manufacturer has set the price so that they can test it out at Costco.

Prices ending in .00 means the item is about to go. These are probably the best deals you are going to find on that item, and once they are gone, they are gone. The manager wants those items out of the store.

A price card with an asterisk {*} means the item has been both discounted and discontinued. It’s an indication that this is your LAST chance at that deal.

This is totally going to change how I look at prices at Costco. Did you already know this? Has it changed the way you shop at Costco?

~Mavis

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Winter Gardening in the Pacific Northwest

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 3, 2014 · 13 Comments

Yesterday I finally finished digging up all the dirt from last years pumpkin patch. It was a HUGE job and I am glad to have that monkey off my back let me tell you.

Do you see that nice, fat mound of dirt all piled up perfectly {thank you OCD} next to the greenhouse? Well I have a secret. I’m going to plant something really cool there. It’s so cool I’ve been dreaming about it since last summer in fact. I’m keeping my lips sealed for a little longer though.

Later today I plan on planting some seeds in the empty greenhouse pots. There are 4 of them and I still don’t know what to plant in them. I’m planning on planting some bush variety tomato plants in the black pots in front of the greenhouse later this spring {If I can exercise some extreme patience that is}.

Inside the greenhouse the stock tanks full of lettuce are coming along.

This one was planted late last fall and the lettuce is almost ready to harvest.

Check out the lettuce we have growing in pots. I’ll be harvesting this stuff later this week.

Have you checked on your herbs lately? Just outside the greenhouse we have oregano, purple sage, thyme and rosemary growing. Oh, and some chives too. If you’ve never planted chives before, you’ve got to give it a go. Chives are a perennial herb up here in Washington and I can pretty much harvest them 10 out of 12 months a year. They’re awesome.

That’s what’s happening in my backyard garden, how is yours coming along?

~Mavis

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How to Feed Your Family for $100 a Month – Week 5 of 52

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 3, 2014 · 16 Comments

Costco $36.92

I don’t know how it happened but I drove by Costco and it was calling my name. Seriously, does that every happen to you? Ha! Anywho, I splurged and loaded up on some tasty croissants, Kashi bars, Black Forest ham, eggs for Lucy the spoiled Puggle, bananas and a big bin of salad mix. Oh, and I almost forgot, MEYER LEMONS!!

With groceries like that, I almost feel normal.

Panera – Free with Christmas Gift Card

I can’t believe I haven’t spent it all on the you pick 2 tomato soup and tuna sandwich combo.

Local Produce Market $3.37

Fuji apples and avocados. Yum Yum.

Albertsons $5.58

No, I have not given up on getting our milk delivered. There was a snafu with my credit card. Maybe you heard, 10 gazillion people had their credit card info compromised and now everybody and their brother is getting a new credit card in the mail. Unfortunately I forgot to upload my new card to my milk order and had to run out and buy milk. BOOO!

Oh well, I’ll get the cool milk again next week.

How did you do spending wise this week? Buy any cool food for the Super Bowl?

~Mavis

Total Spent This Week $45.87
Total Spent This Year $148.09 {Yikes!}
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $0

Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.

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.