One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1568 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 Make a Seed Bomb

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 6, 2013 · 26 Comments

Have you ever heard of seed bombs? Basically, they are balls made out of clay, compost, and seeds. They can be tossed anywhere you have a large area you’d like to cover with flowers, etc. Apparently, seed bombs were first used in the 70’s to “bomb” large vacant lots in New York City with flowers–they called it guerrilla gardening– awesome!

If you have a large area you would like to cover in flowers, but don’t want to take the time to scatter seeds, seed bombs might be the perfect solution. Plus, they are super duper easy and cheap to make.

You’ll need:

Clay {Crayola Air Dry Clay is a pretty cheap option}
Water
Seeds {flowers native to your area are the best choice so that they will require very little maintenance}
Compost
Large Flat Surface

Mix 5 parts clay with 1 part compost and 1 part seeds. Add a couple of drops of water {be careful not to add too much or it will be a gooey mess}. Roll and knead the mixture into a ball. After you have thoroughly mixed the dough, flatten it out and cut into pieces. Roll the smaller pieces into little balls. Now you have seed bombs. Toss them into your open area and do nothing but wait for them to grow. Easy Peasy.

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Small Towns in America – Steilacoom, Washington

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 6, 2013 · 24 Comments

Am I the only one who thinks there’s something so comforting about a small town? I love to imagine what life would be like living in one. It feels like life is immediately simpler {which, I am sure it is not, but at least as a visitor, it feels that way}.

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve visited the tiny town of Steilacoom, Washington twice. Both times it was so I could take the ferry to Anderson Island.

I LOVE this place!

There really isn’t much to do in Steilacoom, but I think that’s what I find so endearing about it. For instance, Bair Drug & Hardware. This little shop is no longer a pharmacy and hardware store, but instead a tiny restaurant and ice cream parlor filled with antiques from the past.

Locals and tourists alike stop by for breakfast or a milkshake. Bu imagine what it would have been like to shop here 50 or 75 years ago.

I had to resist the urge not to buy one of each of these.

Nothing is more American small town than hand-dipped ice cream. I know you can get it in the city, but it tastes different.

And the houses. Why is it that tiny towns have the best houses? Ones with character. I wouldn’t mind coming home to this every evening. I am sure there would be a fight for who got the room in the round tower.

Front porches. Why don’t houses have big front porches like this anymore?

Look at this one. I think it’s perfect. Boxwoods, window boxes, a stone wall. All that’s missing is the little white picket fence in the front yard.

Oh and let’s not forget the wagon shop. Now days it’s a museum.

There is no doubt about it. Small towns rule and I could totally see myself living in one in a few years after the kids are off to collage {as long as there is internet of course}. 😉

How about you, are you in love with small towns too? Are there any I just have to visit?

~Mavis

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The Best Chocolate Chip Recipe on the Planet

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 5, 2013 · 10 Comments

Okay, so maybe saying this recipe for chocolate chip cookies is the best one on the planet is setting the bar kind of high. But I’m old and I’ve been baking chocolate cookies for a loooong time and this recipe my friend, is the best ever. Seriously.

There is one tiny trick though. I FREEZE my cookie dough first. Yep. I think it’s the key to getting the perfect outer crunch and a soft center to my cookies. So go ahead and whip up this dough, scoop it into dough balls and freeze it overnight {or for up to 3 months}. Then, when you are ready to bake some cookies, add an extra minute to the baking time. That’s it. That’s my cool trick to making the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet.

Pretty easy huh? Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/3 cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda {15 Cool Uses for Baking Soda}
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate baking chips {Ghirardelli are my favorite}

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In large mixing bowl, mix the butter with the sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until nice and creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, one at a time. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Gradually add in the flour, baking soda and salt into the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop heaping 2 tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets {I use silpats}. I usually only place 6 cookies at a time on a pan.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool and then transfer to a wire rack. Makes 2 dozen large cookies or 4 dozen regular sized cookies

Looking or more cookie recipes? Check out the book Milk & Cookies it’s pretty freakin’ delicious.

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

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Square Foot Gardening: First Harvest

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 5, 2013 · 10 Comments

I snapped a few photos of our square foot garden this morning and thought I would share. We pulled 10 ounces of radishes from 2 squares and replanted them with lima beans. I don’t think I’ve ever grown lima beans before but I thought they might be fun to try.

A while back we planted 1 broccoli plant and take a look at it now! Yee-haw, looks like stir fry will be on the menu soon.

The kohlrabi is getting nice and fat.

I went ahead and clipped all the lettuce {2 ounces} for a small lunch salad but as I was clipping, I noticed this guy:

Mmm yum. Too bad we don’t eat slugs because we sure grow a lot of them.

We have 3 tomato plants in our square foot garden and they all have flowers on them. I think I planted my favorite Japanese black trifle tomatoes in the garden bed but I’m not sure.

Celery. This won’t be ready to harvest until early fall.

And sugar snap peas. My favorite.

Since this was my first week of harvesting veggies from the square foot garden, I thought I would be fun to keep track of how much food we pull from the 4×8′ bed. I have absolutely no idea how much we’ll end up with, but I’m almost tempted to go for 100 pounds. Would that be attainable? I don’t know but I feel like I need to have some sort of goal.

What do you think is realistic?

Did you plant a square foot garden this year? If so, how is it doing? Will you be weighing your veggies too?

~Mavis

2013 Square Foot Garden Harvest: 1 pound 2 ounces

Kale 6 ounces
Lettuce 2 ounces
Radishes 10 ounces

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.