One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1643 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.

Giveaway – Enter to Win 1 of 3 Botanical Interests Seed Collections

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 1, 2013 ·

Curtis, Mavis & Ryan

Earlier this year my friends and I were given a special behind the scenes tour of the Botanical Interests Seed Company in Broomfield, Colorado. It was really awesome to meet everyone who works behind the scenes and to hang out with Owner Curtis Jones and my on-line boyfriend Ryan.

Ryan recently sent me a big box of goodness and included were 3 seed collections to give away: the Container Vegetable Seed Collection, Fast Food Seed Collection and the Super Organic Salads Seed Collection All of these seed collections would be perfect for the newbie garden or the more experienced one.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment below and let us know which seed collection you would like to win, and what is your favorite thing to grow in your garden. If you are new to gardening, no worries, just let us know what you are going to try and grow this year.

Container Vegetable Seed Collection

Carrot Tonda di Parigi (1 Gram)
Cucumber Spacemaster (2 Grams)
Kale Dwarf Blue Curled (3 Grams)
Lettuce Mesclun Farmer’s Market Blend (1.5 Grams)
Onion Bunching/Scallion Tokyo Long White (2 Grams)
Pepper Sweet Cherry Blend (30 Seeds)
Spinach Lavewa (3 Grams)
Tomato Bush Better Bush (24 Seeds)

vegetable seeds that grow quick

Fast Food Seed Collection

Bean Bush Contender Organic (15 Grams)
Beet Early Wonder Organic (2 Grams)
Broccoli Raab Rapini Organic (1 Gram)
Lettuce Mesclun Farmer’s Market Blend (1.5 Grams)
Radish French Breakfast Organic (4 Grams)
Spinach Tyee Organic (3 Grams)
Squash Summer Early Prolific Straightneck (2 Grams)

organic vegetable seeds garden

Super Organic Salads Seed Collection

Cress Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Organic (750 Mg)
Arugula Rocket Salad Organic (1 Gram)
Endive Olesh Tres Fine Organic (400 Mg)
Lettuce Butterhead Marvel of Four Seasons Organic (750 Mg)
Lettuce Leaf Red Sails Organic (750 Mg)
Lettuce Romaine Parris Island Organic (1 Gram)
Radish French Breakfast Organic (4 Grams)
Spinach Tyee Organic (3 Grams)

Rules

1 entry per person/ip address. If you cheat, you will totally be disqualified.

This giveaway ends Sunday, April 7th, 2013 @9 pm PST and the winners will be announced in the Monday, April 8th, 2013 edition of Mornings with Mavis. You will be notified via email and have 48 hours to claim your prize. If you do not claim your prize within 48 hours these seeds will be donated to a local community garden.

Good Luck! I hope you win!

♥ Mavis

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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 1, 2013 · 11 Comments

Happy Monday!

Well, the map is up {it took 3 tries and a lot of tape and tacks!} and I can’t even tell you how excited I am to get mail today. It’s all I’ve been able to think about this weekend.

Will anyone send in gnomes? Where will they come from? We will get a gnome from Yap? The Girl and I stared at the map for a good hour last night dreaming of all the places we’d like to see. We found the Colorado River in Argentina, decided we’d like to go to St. Petersburg,Russia someday and talked about what it would be like to walk through a spice market in Morocco.

Maps are so cool! Everyone should have one hanging up in their home. It’s a big world out there people. A big, big world.

Alright, here is what I purchased this week to feed my family of four:

Costco – $13.99

Quick question. How many people do you know serve BBQ for Easter dinner? Do you think that is totally weird? I was going to get a ham at Costco, but when I called the HH to ask if he thought that would be a good choice, he said since the weather was so nice he’d rather fire up the BBQ and then he added that he’d stop by Costco on his way home from work and pick up some meat.

Well, I know my husband, and I know it’s impossible for him to leave that store with one item, so I sprung into action and zipped on over to Costco.

All the packages of steaks were like $30 and up. $30 for 4 steaks?

So for Easter we ended up having some yummy chicken & apple sausages {with plenty left over}, grilled salmon {from the freezer} mashed potatoes and broccoli. I also made a pumpkin pie but we kind of forgot about it so we’ll have that tonight for dessert.

I’ll admit, weenies and salmon for Easter dinner doesn’t seem that traditional, but it was good.

Oroweat Bread Outlet – $8.00

Please tell me you shop at the bread outlet because I think it is da’ bomb! I don’t know anywhere else you can get good, quality whole wheat bread and bagels for $1 a bag or loaf. Plus, it freezes well too.

Evaporated Milk – Bartered with Girly Girl for Eggs

Well, technically I bartered with Chino the Handyman. Girly Girl was getting her nails done.

I also received a nice stash of chocolate Easter candy from Francisco {the vegan} in exchange for some eggs. He needed a few eggs so he could dye them with his son. What an outrage! Maybe he’s not so vegan after all. Hmmm.

Mr. Produce Guy – FREE

To say we were busy eating free vegetables last week would be putting it mildly. We made so many smoothies that I didn’t even end up buying milk. How cool is that?

All in all it was a rather slow week in the grocery shopping department, but that was fine with me. How did you do this past week? Did you splurge or save?

~Mavis

Total Spent This Week $21.99
Total Spent This Year $569.96
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $778.29 {I bought a Meyer Lemon Tree, Rhubarb crowns, 6 Fruit Trees , 15 yards of soil} and 90 pounds of seed potatoes.

Plus, supplies to make my own potting soil.

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.

Mavis Butterfield | Backyard Garden Plot Pictures – Week 14 of 52

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 31, 2013 · 15 Comments

Week 14 of 52 – Mavis’ Backyard Garden Plot

This past week was a gorgeous one here in the Pacific Northwest. Sunny skies and temps in the low 60’s made hanging out in the backyard lot’s of fun. As you can see the garden beds finally look like they have something planted in them and pretty soon it will look like a proper vegetable garden.

The potting bench is a live with color and if you look closely at the first watering can that’s hanging on the fence, you’ll see some tulip leaves growing out of the top. I totally forgot I planted a few bulbs in there last fall.

So far in the raised garden beds we have broccoli, broccoli raab, cabbage, radish, beets, garlic, and carrots planted.

If you squint real hard you’ll be able to see the endive, romaine and another lettuces I planted in the wood pallets. I still have not decided what I’m going to plant in the other 3 wood pallets yet.

I know it’s hard to believe, but when Lucy the puggle dog sees me pull out the camera, she strikes a pose. It’s the strangest thing ever. I’d say a photo shoot for Dog Fancy might be in her future.

Pea teepees and potato beds.

Check out them peas! Wahoooo! Now, if I could just keep Lucy away from them.

Artichokes, poppies, rhubarb and gladiolas.

I was having a wee bit of a problem with Lucy “inspecting” all the seedling flats on the greenhouse floor so I had the Handsome Husband haul another folding table out to the greenhouse last night.

My plan for today is to get everything off the ground because ideally, I’d like little Miss Lucy to be able to walk in the greenhouse and hang out with me when I’m in there.

The potato towers and the wood pallet compost bin have been installed and the gnomes have begun to take one of many stumps in our wooded backyard.

A view of barktopia.

Poor Lucy, the chickens are still not ready to be friends.

Future pumpkin patch.

The raspberry patch is finally coming alive. I noticed a few bare patches and new growth popping up in the paths yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out there this week and transplant a few.

A view from the kitchen window.

And finally some progress on the container herb garden. Yee- Haw! We now have oregano, sage, rosemary and parsley planted. As soon as the thyme is ready to set out I will plant it. I think I’ll keep the basil in the greenhouse again this year because it thrived in the hotter temperatures.

If I had to guess, this week is going to be crazy. The forecast looks awesome for the next four days. Wahooooo. Now we’re farming!

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great day and remember to have some fun.

~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.

12 of the Deadliest Garden Plants

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 30, 2013 · 25 Comments

A big thank you to Heather for forwarding me a link to the 12 deadliest garden plants. I had no idea these were so toxic to our furry little friends and wanted to be sure and pass on the information to everyone!

All of these our common place garden plants that can be poisonous to kids and/or pets:

Rhododendron {the entire plant}
Lily of the Valley {the entire plant}
Hydrangea {the entire plant}
Poet’s Narcissus {the entire plant}
Foxglove {the entire plant}
Larkspur {the entire plant}
Oleander {the entire plant}
Poinsettia {the sap found in the veins of the plant}
Purple Nightshade {the entire plant}
Mountain Laurel {leaves, twigs, flowers and pollen}
Mistletoe {the entire plant, especially the berries}
Water Hemlock/Spotted Parsley {the entire plant}

If you know of any other plants that are toxic, let me know in the comments below so we can all keep our pets and kiddos safe.

Thanks again Heather!

~Mavis

The New York Times 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers: Based on the New York Times Column Garden Q & A is awesome. I own it, and it’s pretty darn awesome.

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.