One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1626 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.

Food Waste In America – Reclaimed Food Show and Tell

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 16, 2013 · 7 Comments

This week there were 2 boxes of chicken scraps to pick up from Mr. Produce Guy. At first glance I wasn’t sure there would be much to reclaim. But after I lifted up the bags of grapes and knew I had hit the jackpot.

Mama Mia! Holy tomatoes batman!

We did have to toss a few tomatoes but we made several batches of homemade tomato sauce with the rest.

There were also lot of of salad greens but strawberries and other veggies were tossed into the leafy greens. Instead of digging through them we decided to give the entire box of salad to the chickens.

2 tubs of Organic Girl super greens were free because of the sale date stamped on the container.

Fresh grapes! We LOVE grapes around here and the kids especially love to pack them in their lunches.

A huge box of tomatoes, organic salad greens and grapes. Not to shabby for free if you ask me.

Have YOU been successful trying to get your local grocery to give you their scraps? Does your store donate their extra produce or is it tossed in to a dumpster?

Mavis wants to know.

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past year?

Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.

If you have just stumbled upon this series and are wondering how I got all this food for free, you’ll want to read this story first.

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Testing the pH Level of Soil

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 15, 2013 · 2 Comments

Have you ever had your soil tested? I recently tested mine with this super simple Luster Leaf pH Soil Testing Kit. Basically, you just need soil samples and distilled water. To do the test, dig a couple of holes {the test comes with 10 capsules for testing} in your garden about 6″-8″ deep, collect some dirt, and put it into the provided test kit, as per the instructions. Top it off with distilled water, and voila: the pH of your garden.

pH testing your garden soil can save you tons of money. It basically tells you exactly how to amend you soil so that you don’t have to guess. You can waste a lot of money on fertilizers, etc. with zero benefits, because all you needed to do is change to pH of your soil. Raising or lowering your pH is a fairly simple and cheap task, to make soil more acidic, add finely ground limestone. To make soil more alkaline, add gympsum or ground sulfur.

pH levels in soil affect how well your plant can absorb nutrients. Most garden plants {but not all} prefer somewhere between 5.5-7.0 pH level.

You can order the Luster Leaf pH Soil Testing Kit from Amazon or pick on up the next time you’re at your local home improvement store.

Here’s a nifty little guide for the most common garden fruits and veggies, in case you decide to test your soil:

Ideal pH Levels
Asparagus	6.0-8.0
Beans	6.0-7.0
Beets	6.5-8.0
Blueberry	4.0-6.0
Broccoli	6.0-7.0
Cabbage	6.0-7.5
Cantaloupe	6.0-7.5
Carrots	5.5-7.0
Corn	5.5-7.5
Cucubers	5.5-7.0
Eggplant	5.5-6.5
Grapes	5.5-7.0
Lettuce	6.0-7.0
Onions	6.0-7.0
Peas	6.0-7.5
Peppers	5.5-7.0
Potatoes	4.8-6.5
Sweet Potatoes	5.2-6.0
Strawberry	5.5-6.5
Radishes	6.0-7.0
Raspberry, black	5.5-7.0
Raspberry, red	6.0-7.5
Rhubarb	5.5-7.0
Spinach	6.0-7.5
Squash	6.0-7.0
Tomatoes	5.5-7.5

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Easy Slow Cooker Recipes – Savory Chicken with Tomatoes

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 15, 2013 · 1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I love it when I only have to spend a whopping 5 minutes throwing dinner together. This chicken turned out unbelievably moist.

I hope you like it. We sure did.

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Place the stewed tomatoes in the bottom of the crock pot, add chicken, then spices. Cook on low for 5 hours or high for 3 hours. Serve over a bed of rice. That’s it! Wahooooo!

Are you in love with your crock pot too? Then be sure and check out more of my favorite crock pot recipes.

My favorite Crock Pot – Crock-Pot Cook’ N Carry 6-Quart Portable Slow Cooker
My favorite Slow Cooker Cookbook – Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook

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Who’s More Tired: Women or Men?

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 15, 2013 · 8 Comments

I can’t remember a time, in my adult life, when I wasn’t just a little bit tired. Can you? I try to get enough sleep, but still, by the afternoon, I’m beat. So when I stumbled onto an NPR Article that highlighted a study done by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on tiredness, men vs. women, I just had to share. It basically found that women are more tired than men. Hmmm, interesting, right?!

The article says that the women in the 18-44 age group were about twice as likely to report feeling tired {16% of women vs. 9% of men}. NPR suggested that this is because women 18-44 are in their child-bearing years and that as they aged, the gap between men and women reporting that they were exhausted lessened. Now, I’m not trying to take anything away from you here boys, BUT, this does not surprise me one bit {read: Duh?}. All the women I know work their keisters off from sun up to sun down, and when you add a couple of children into the mix, woo-eee, it’s a recipe for sleep deprivation for sure.

So, ladies, it’s time to cut yourselves a little slack: Let the laundry pile up a bit, order a pizza for dinner tonight, and take a nap. Feel free to tell everyone Mavis told you to do it.

Happy Napping,

Mavis

What do YOU think, is the article right? Do you think women are more tired than men?

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Ideal pH Levels