One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1635 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.

Kitchen Tip – How to Get the Most Juice from a Lemon

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 8, 2013 · 9 Comments

You probably already know how much I love Meyer lemons, but if not, let me be very clear: I LOVE THEM. I would bathe in lemon juice if it were socially acceptable and didn’t dry my skin out. So, whenever I make anything that calls for lemon juice and I have fresh lemons on hand, I microwave my lemons first.

Heating the lemon releases almost twice the juice {you can put it in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds if you prefer that to the microwave}, which means you need less lemons for each recipe. Less lemons means less money. {I am really good at math.}

So next time life hands you lemons, heat them, and make even more lemonade.

Wahoooo!

~Mavis

Want to learn more about lemons? Check out The Lemon Book.

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Square Foot Gardening – How Does Companion Planting Work?

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 8, 2013 · 26 Comments

Yesterday it rained all.day.long.

Although it was nice to lounge around in my pajamas all day long and watch movies, around 5 pm yesterday I actually got bored {can you believe it?} and so I got dressed and went outside to do a little gardening.

I don’t know about you, but when it’s raining outside, I like to wear my husband’s coats and shoes and I have no idea why. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t want to get my stuff wet {Ha!} or if his stuff just seems cozier. After 18 year of marriage I still haven’t figured that one out yet. I’m pretty sure it’s something crazy people with too many things on their mind do. I say this only because I don’t think my husband would walk outside with my shoes and coat on. And if he did, well…

Okay, back to the garden. As I was putting the square foot garden together last week, I was thinking how cool it was going to be to have 32 squares with different vegetables growing in them.

But then as I was planting seeds yesterday, I started to wonder how on earth I’m going to be able to grow 32 different varieties of fruits and vegetable in an 8′ by 4′ raised garden bed.

Is it really possible?

Is it a bad use of space to plant only 6 beets or 12 radishes in such a small area? Will this one raised garden bed really grow a significant amount of food? Will it grow MORE food per square foot than if I would have planted an entire bed with just one vegetable? I need answers people!

I am beginning to think it might be a trick question, but I’m still pretty excited about it. I’m just not sure how the whole companion planting aspect is going to play into it though.

So far 9 of the 32 square have been planted. Sugar snap peas, carrots, beets, Walla Walla onions, strawberries, lettuce, Swiss chard, radishes and celery all have their own little 12″x12″ plot.

What do YOU think?

Have YOU ever tried square foot gardening? Do you think it’s a bad idea to try and grow 32 different plants in this small of a space? Do you think everything will thrive or will it die, die, die because I’m trying to do too much in such a small amount of space?

Mavis wants to know.

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

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

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 8, 2013 · 38 Comments

You know what’s really weird? After looking at this weeks pictures I tried to remember what I fed my family this past week. I remember serving pasta, salmon, buffalo, smoothies, oatmeal, sandwiches, soup, and lot’s and lot’s of eggs.

When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing what little a family needs to purchase each week if you do a lot of cooking from scratch.

But sometimes the pictures of what I purchased, still don’t come across as enough food to feed a family of four for one week. Probably because I’m not reminding people of the food we have in or freezer, pantry or the food we purchased in bulk. So you know what I’m going to do? This week I think I’ll photograph all the meals I prepare for my family and then show you the pictures next monday.

What do you think? Is that weird? Or would it be helpful? Let me know in the comments below and I will follow your lead.

Alright, here is what I purchased this past week:

QFC & Fred Meyer- $6.08

As you can see, the debate about local milk is still a hot one in our house. The Girl and I can not convince the boys that the stuff in the glass bottles is fresher and better for them.

Vitacost – $2.41

I had some Vitacost credit and then shopped through ebates to score a 6% rebate on my purchase.

If you’ve never made a purchase from Vitacost before you can get a $10 credit just for signing up, and right now Ebates is offering a 6% rebate on any Vitacost purchase. Pretty cool if you ask me. Plus, if you are new to Ebates, you can also score a $10 gift card for signing up to their website as well.

Harbor Greens Produce Market – $7.88

Every time I buy a sack of potatoes I tell myself it will be the last time. But we keep eating them so I have to buy more!

Swagbucks – FREE

I traded in some Swagbucks for an Amazon gift card and used it for a 4 pound box of the best dried cranberries on the planet!

Mr. Produce Guy – FREE

Thanks to Mr. Produce Guy, last week we ate big salads and had plenty of apples to pack in the kids lunches this past week. There is no doubt about it, free produce rocks!

The Bellingham Farmers Market $10

$10. Shut.The.Front.Door.

It was the biggest loaf of artisan bread we have ever purchased and and boy was it good! Sometimes you just have to be frivolous and buy the good stuff. Even if it’s expensive.

How did you do this past week? Did you hear the rumor that Albertsons Double Coupons might be going away? What do think about it? Will your grocery budget survive without them?

~Mavis

Total Spent This Week $26.37
Total Spent This Year $596.33
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $781.98 {I bought a Meyer Lemon Tree, Rhubarb crowns, 6 Fruit Trees , 15 yards of soil}, Walla Walla Onions and 90 pounds of seed potatoes.

Plus, supplies to make my own potting soil.

Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.

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Mavis Butterfield | Backyard Garden Plot Pictures – Week 15 of 52

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 7, 2013 · 11 Comments

Week 15 of 52 – Mavis’ Backyard Garden Plot

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. Like in the middle of a heat wave in August. Yeah, that would be nice. You know what the soggy, wet bark reminds me of right now?

A 1970’s maroon shag carpet.

Or Ron Burgundy’s sports coat.

Yep, I’d take neon orange bark over this crap any day of the week.

I decided all the sports gnomes needed to be together. So they guarding the perennial garden from squirrels and chipmunks.

Thanks to the rain, the greenhouse is nice and muggy. Lately I’ve been keeping the doors open about a good 8 inches. My tomatoes and basil is in there and as soon as the weather warms uspI want to be able to plant them outside. So far the plants are all looking strong.

Poor Lucy the puggle dog was having a bad hair day and didn’t want to look at the camera.

A view from the upper deck.

The peas have begun to pop through the soil and the fava beans that I planted in front of the chicken fence are about 2 inches high now. I haven’t grown fava beans in a long time {since the kids were 2 & 3 if I remember correctly} So I’m pretty excited.

The raspberry patch.

A view of the raspberries from the kitchen window. Hopefully I’ll have time this week to transplant the canes that are growing in the paths to the bare spots in rows 1 &2.

The container herb garden. All that’s left to plant is the thyme. We already have oregano, sage, rosemary and parsley planted in this area. We also have mint planted in an oak barrel next to the garden gate as well.

If you look closely you can see 2 rhubarb plants. I’ll have to transfer those to the perennial garden before they get much bigger.

Did I mention rain is in the forecast for 4 of the next 5 days?

Yep. It ain’t easy being green.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, try and stay dry.

~Mavis

This years garden is being sponsored by the awesome folks at Botanical Interests Seed Company. You can check out their website HERE, order their new 2013 Garden Seed Catalog HERE.

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.