One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1680 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.

Trash Collection in London

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 26, 2013 · 21 Comments

Normally I like to start every Tuesday with pictures of the reclaimed food I was able to pick up from Mr. Produce Guy over the previous week. However this week we were out of town on our usual pick up day {we let Mr. Produce Guy we’d be gone ahead of time}. No pick up, means no free produce, for us or our chickens. So today I thought I would talk about something else instead. Trash.

Back in 2006 when our {whole} family took our first trip to London we noticed that every night as shops closed their doors they would set their trash on the street in front of their shops.

Here in America everything goes into dumpsters or trash cans, so we thought it was both rather odd {and charming at the same time}. Charming? Garbage can be charming?

Well sort of.

If you look closely at the bags in some of the pictures are marked for recycling. Which made me wonder, do Londoner’s BUY specific bags to toss their trash? Does the city give them the bags?

How much does trash collection cost in the UK vs the States?

Clearly this picture of trash was taken outside of a small hotel because it’s filled with shopping bags. Either that or it was payday and the owners of the trash went on a major shopping spree.

Is it weird that I found this fascinating enough to take pictures?

Am I off my rocker?

Did some well dressed man give me a strange look when he opened the door to his home and found some strange American taking a picture of his recyclables?

Um… YES! I actually thought The Girl was going to faint.

I thought it was hilarious, The Girl found it mortifying, and the man just closed his door on me. Whatever. One man’s trash, is another man treasure, and I had to make sure he wasn’t throwing out any treasures.

Thank you people of London for making my day. Even if all you did was throw out your trash.

~Mavis

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Giveaway – Enter to Win a Pair of Hunter Original Tall Boots

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 25, 2013 ·

You may or may not know this but I have owned the same pair of Hunter Boots for over 10 years now. To put it simply, they are the best boots I have ever owned.

I wanted to do a British giveaway based on our recent trip to England and The Girl and I decided a pair of Hunter Original Tall Boots would be the perfect item to give away.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment below and let us know:

If you win the pair of Hunter Boots, where will you wear them? The garden, grocery store, date night, skydiving, someplace else?

Rules

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

If you live in Mongolia and you want to enter, go for it. We will ship these anywhere.

One person will win one pair of brand spankin’ new Hunter Original Tall Boots with a retail value of $135.00. This page has the color choices available {chose between regular or high gloss}.

This giveaway ends Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 @9 pm PST and the winner will be announced in the March 4th, 2013 edition of Mornings with Mavis. You will be notified via email and have 48 hours to claim your prize. If the prize is not claimed within 48 hours it will be forfeited.

Good Luck, I hope you win.

♥ Mavis

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10 Cool Uses for Honey

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 25, 2013 · 17 Comments

Here we go with bees on the brain again! I still haven’t decided if I am going to dabble at beekeeping, but the prospect of honey definitely sweetens the idea.

While the sheer possibility of a big mason jar of honey in my kitchen cabinets sends my taste buds into overdrive, I hear that there are lots of other ways to it. Here’s 10 cool uses for honey, besides eating:

Give yourself a facial. Honey softens the skin and has healing properties, so glop some on, wait a bit and rinse. Plus, if in the process, some sneaks onto your lips, it will be an added bonus.
Use as an antiseptic. Next time you get a cut or scrap, try dabbing honey on the wound, it’s natural antiseptic qualities should have you boo-boo free in no time.
Put away those expensive energy bars and take a spoonful of honey to your next workout. Take a tablespoon before you exercise and it will provide a great natural energy boost.
Use to treat allergies. Local raw honey has been shown to minimize symptoms of hay fever.
Use to treat a sore throat. I guess Mary Poppins was right, “a spoonful of honey” really does help the medicine go down. Squeeze the juice of a lemon into a cup and mix with a tablespoon of honey. It should help ease the pain of a sore throat.
Use to treat a cough. A tablespoon of honey is supposed to coat the throat, lessening a persistent cough.
Make your own lip balm. Use a little honey, almond oil and beeswax to make your own moisturizing {and completely natural} lip balm.
Get rid of parasites. Mix honey, vinegar, and water to rid yourself of worms and parasites. {Hmmm, wonder if this would work as a maintenance program for dogs–anyone know?}
Treat acne. Dab a little on your blemish and let sit.
Control hair frizzies. Dab a little on your ends and rinse, or mix honey with some olive oil for a deep conditioning hair mask {allow it to sit for 20 minutes and then wash it out}.

Did you know that in the 11th century, honey was in such high demand that German peasants were required to pay their feudal lords in honey and beeswax? Hmm, I wonder if my mortgage company will start taking honey as payment?

How about YOU, do you use honey for anything besides eating?

~Mavis

Interested in keeping bees? Check out the book Homemade Living: Keeping Bees with Ashley English. The book has awesome reviews.

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Kew Royal Botanic Gardens – Orchids

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By Mavis Butterfield on February 25, 2013 · 3 Comments

The Girl and I took over 600 pictures at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens during our visit. There was so much to take in that it was really overwhelming when we walked though the doors of each of the indoor gardens.

So to break up the pictures, my first post will be about the incredibly gorgeous orchid display which is currently being held in the Princess of Wales Conservatory.

In a nutshell, I want to pack the worlds largest picnic lunch and move in to the place for at least a month so I can examine every.single.flower.

There must have been over 1,000 different shades of green in the conservatory alone. And I’m from Seattle, so you’d think I would have had my fill of green by now. But no, this place, was magical.

I probably would not have even known about these gardens if it had not been for the Telegraph article a few weeks ago. I was hoping to run into the girl with auburn hair, but no such luck.

The pictures were simply stunning and once I knew we were going to London for the weekend, we put a visit to Kew Botanic Gardens at the top of our list.

Look at this archway of orchids. What a perfect backdrop for a wedding.

This one is not to shabby either.

So much color, so little time.

Last month when I was in Denver the Denver Botanic Gardens had orchids on display as well. So I’m guessing maybe this is the time of year orchids are on display at botanic gardens all over the world. So if you have a botanic garden nearby, please, please, please take a day and go for a visit. You won’t regret it.

Peace Out Girl Scouts,

Have a beautiful Monday,

♥ Mavis

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.