One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1504 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 Quit Caffeine Days 2,3,4, and 5

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 5, 2013 · 12 Comments

Every time I tried to sit down to give you an update on how I was doing in my efforts to stop drinking 20 cups of tea a day {and ultimately quit caffeine}, I got a little teary eyed and then would go write about something else.

The truth is, it has been hard! On Day 1 I had a headache but was optimistic. Then on days 2 and 3 I totally crashed and probably experienced some of the biggest headaches of my life. No matter how much ibuprofen I gobbled up, nothing helped. It was horrible. I was super cranky and all I wanted to do was sleep.

But then, on day 4 I didn’t get a headache, and I started to smarten up. I finally started realizing that I still needed to drink 20 cups of SOMETHING each day to replace the tea I had been so used to drinking so I wouldn’t get dehydrated. Days 1 -3 I tried drinking warm water, water with a wee bit of lemon juice and even smoothies. But it seemed like a chore. Like I was forcing myself to drink. It didn’t taste like the warm tea I have been used to all these years and it was BORING.

And then The Girl Who Think She’s a Bird bought me one of those fancy Camelbak water bottles and suddenly drinking water was fun again.

In just 4 short days I went from drinking 20 cups of tea a day to down to just one.

And today, I haven’t had any caffeine at all. Nada. Zilch. None.

2 days with no headaches. I think I’ve got this in the bag!

Keeping my fingers crossed,

Mavis

P.S. If you are wondering if why I am trying to stop drinking tea/caffeine, it’s because of my Crappy British Teeth.

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Canning 101 – Pickled Corn Relish

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 5, 2013 · 9 Comments

My neighbor Hulda and I decided to try our hands at pickled corn relish this year. It turned out awesome, and I think they will make such great hostess gifts if we can hang on to a few until the holidays.

This corn relish is perfect to top weenies with.

Ingredients

10 cups fresh whole kernel corn {about 16-20 ears of corn}
2-1/2 cups diced red peppers
2-1/2 cups diced green peppers
2-1/2 cups chopped celery
1-1/4 cups chopped onion
1-3/4 cups sugar
5 cups white vinegar
2-1/2 tbsp. canning salt
2-1/2 tsp. celery seed
2-1/2 tbsp. dry mustard
1-1/4 tsp. tumeric

Directions

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.

Husk the corn and pick off as much of the corn silk as you can. Cut the kernels off of the cob. It will come off in strips and chunks, but don’t worry about breaking it up, it will all get broken up as you process it.

Combine the red peppers, green peppers, celery, onions, sugar, vinegar, canning salt, and celery seed into a large pot. Bring the mixture to a boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the mustard and tumeric and simmer for another 5 minutes. Now add the corn to the hot mixture, stir to mix. Allow to simmer another 5 minutes.

Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/2 inch of tops. After you have packed the corn mixture into the jar, add a ladle of the liquid part of the mixture over the top {careful to still leave a 1/2″ head space}. 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 1/2 pints and pints for 15 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. 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?

Find my Full List of Canning Recipes HERE

Looking for a few more awesome canning recipes? Check out Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Amazon has it currently in stock and ready to ship.

Need a canner? I used the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack. And if you need a tool kit, I use one similar to this one.

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.

Square Foot Gardening is Easy

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 5, 2013 · 9 Comments

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in the garden pulling up spent plants and weeding the garden boxes.Even though the day time temps have been pretty warm here {mid 70’s} the mornings have been kind of chilly and it’s already starting to feel like fall.

Which is sort of weird for this time of year. It almost makes me think we’re going to have a long and cold winter {which I wouldn’t mind actually, as long as we get snow}.

I ended up planting 5 squares with Valentine Mesclun Lettuce and another 5 squares with Green Arrow Peas for a late fall harvest. Next week I think I’ll plant a few beets in the square foot garden.

If you haven’t started your fall garden yet, be sure and read my post on Fall Vegetables and you’ll be able to find out what I’m planting in my garden this fall.

If you don’t grow kale already, you might want to consider it. Kale is one of the easiest plants on the planet to grow. Seriously, if you’ve never grown anything before, you should be able to grow kale! 😉

And Swiss chard too! Yep, that stuff is easy peasy to grow.

In addition to the Swiss Chard, kale, strawberries, celery, tomatoes, and beets we have growing in our square foot garden, we also have cucumbers starting to appear! We had to replant cucumber seeds a few times because of the evil slugs, but ever since I sprinkled down some Sluggo, I haven’t had a problem. Note to self: put Sluggo on the garden supply list for next year.

Have you ever grown a square foot garden before? Did you like it? Would you do it again?

~Mavis

Read more about my adventures in Square Foot Gardening. Are you thinking about putting together a Square foot garden? See the how I built a square foot garden grid HERE.

For more information, check out All New Square Foot Gardening. It is an amazon bestseller and the author, Mel Bartholomew is basically the king of square foot gardening.

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.

Mondays with Mavis – How to Feed Your Family for $100 a Month

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 5, 2013 · 3 Comments

This week was pretty slow around here. I didn’t buy much because I’ve been home baking cookies and putting a few meals away for later in the week when I’m gone on our Epic Road Trip to St. Jude. We’ve also been eating from our garden and using items we purchased last week so I really didn’t need to buy much.

Here are the things I picked up:

Albertsons $11.99

Note to self: Never go shopping when you are craving sugar because you might just come home with a giant tub of licorice and eat 25 pieces on the way home from the store. 😉 Ha!

Fred Meyer – $5.43

I needed some unsweetened coconut and sliced almonds for my homemade Honey and Almond Granola recipe. I’ve been in love with Bob’s Red Mill unsweetened coconut for awhile now and it’s the only stuff I’ll buy.

Fred Meyer $5.18

Moooooo!

And last but not least, here’s what I picked up from Mr. Produce Guy last week for free. 🙂

~Mavis

How about YOU? How did you do this week? Any cool deals in your area?

Total Spent This Week $22.60

Total Spent This Year $1,431.95 – It’s official, I’m over for the year!

Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $893.99 {I bought a Meyer Lemon Tree, Rhubarb crowns, 6 Fruit Trees , 16 yards of soil}, Walla Walla Onions and 90 pounds of seed potatoes. Plus, supplies to make my own potting soil. I also picked up a boatload of heirloom tomato plants at the Seattle Tilth sale.

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.