One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1735 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.

Canning 101 | Meyer Lemon Marmalade

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 7, 2013 · 18 Comments

I love eating fresh fruits and vegetables when they are in season. So last week when I picked up 4 pounds of Meyer lemons from Costco, I knew right away what I was going to do with the first 6 of them.

Make marmalade.

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE marmalade. Especially on buttered toast.

This recipe is super easy to make, I hope you like it. We sure do.

Ingredients

6 Meyer lemons {1 1/2 pounds}
4 cups water
4 cups sugar

Directions

Cut the lemons crosswise and remove seeds. Place the seeds in a cheesecloth bag, or tea infuser and set aside. Quarter each lemon half and thinly slice the lemons into strips. Place the lemons, 4 cups of water and the bag/infuser of seeds in a nonreactive heavy pot and let mixture stand, covered, at room temperature 24 hours.

Once the mixture has sat for 24 hours, bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

When you are ready to make the marmalade, {after the lemon mixture has sat for 24 hours}, discard the lemon seeds and bring the lemon mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat, and simmer, uncovered, until your mixture is reduced to about 4 cups {about 45 minutes to an hour}. Stir in sugar and boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally and skimming off any foam, until a teaspoon of mixture dropped on a cold plate gels, about 15 minutes.

Carefully ladle hot marmalade immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids and screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 5 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary}. Yields {5} 1/2 pints.

See More of my Canning Recipes HERE

Looking for a few more awesome canning recipes? Check out Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Amazon has it currently in stock and ready to ship.

Need a canner? I used the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack. And if you need a tool kit, I use one similar to this one.

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Money Saving Tip – Make Your Own Foaming Hand Wash

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 7, 2013 · 16 Comments

In an attempt to avoid the sniffles, I find winter time brings around more frequent hand washing. Needless to say, hand soap goes pretty quick around here–and a girl could go broke buying those fancy-schmancy bath store soaps, so I say, why not make your own? I make mine in a foaming hand wash pumper bottle I bought years ago. {I have found the Method pumps stand up to the test of time best.}

To make, simply buy your favorite liquid hand soap. Fill your pump 2/3 full with water {filling the water first prevents a wave of bubbles from spilling over}. Then add liquid soap, leaving enough room to put the pumper back on. Shake it like a Polaroid picture, and voila, you cut your cost by two-thirds. {The first pump or two might be kind of soupy, but trust me, it’ll get foamy after a couple vigorous shakes.}

~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.

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

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 7, 2013 · 73 Comments

Seriously, who buys this much mayonnaise?

Alright, let’s get this party started, shall we?

For those of you who thought I was going to bag the idea of couponing, and go Whole Paycheck on you, you were totally wrong. Believe it or not, I am going to try {for the third year in a row} to adhere to a grocery budget of $100 a month for my family of 4.

And I DO have a plan.

Back in 2011 when I challenged myself to feed my clan for $100 a month, I was knee deep in Extreme Couponing. At the time I was very confident I’d be able to rein in my spending and still keep the cupboards stocked. What I didn’t count on, was that I’d be spending so much time clipping coupons, and running to the store constantly to find deals, that I would gain 10 pounds because I was stuffing my face {and my family’s mouths} with processed crap in a box that no great great grandmother on the planet would be able to recognize as food.

As I headed into 2012 I decided to dust off my garden tools, and try something new. I set a goal to grow 2,000 pounds of food in our backyard. I figured I could shed those 10 pounds of processed food that had stapled themselves to my backside, by spending more time in the garden GROWING food rather than SHOPPING for food at the first sign of deal. And it worked. Mission accomplished.

Now, as we head into 2013, I want to continue my goal to feed my family good, wholesome food. I have a few new things I’d like to try. First, I’d like to see if I can double what I grew last year by trying to grow 4,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables in the backyard garden. Secondly, I want to see if I can slowly transition my husband and son away from eating/wanting so much crapity crap food.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to take away their beloved Doritos, I’m just going to ~~trick~~ silently go about how I introduce healthier foods to them.

I don’t want to give away all my plans yet {in case the HH is reading this}, but I do want you to know, I have a “general idea” as to how I’m going to go about this.

So, I’m still here, I’m still on a mission to feed my family for $100 a month, and I’m still going to use coupons. I’m just to going to go about it a bit differently this year, I hope you’ll stick around.

♥ Mavis

Here is what I purchased this past week:

Costco – $219.59

Well, well, well, someone fell off the wagon, that’s for sure. I think I said everything I wanted to say about this purchase HERE.

QFC – $5.96 for 1 gallon of fresh, local milk. WOW everyone sure had a lot to say about this.
Local Produce Stand $4.80 for cucumbers, peppers, grapefruit, broccoli, and avocados.
Bartell’s Drug Store – $17.70 for pasta sauce, Nutella, dried prunes and apricots.
Fred Meyer – $2.01 for oatmeal.

Reclaimed Food Scraps – FREE

I can’t even begin to guess how much money we’ve been able to save over the past 8 months on fresh produce. Produce that was going to be thrown away.

Target $2.84

I picked up some junk food for the boys. I gave them one box of the fudge covered Ritz crackers and hid the other 3 boxes along with the Pretzel M&M’s.

Total Spent This Week $252.90
Total Spent This Year $252.90
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $0

Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.

Here are the One Hundred Dollars a Month Challenge Guidelines I have set for myself:

1. I will be keeping track of all grocery money spent this year. I do not include toiletries, medications, newspapers {because I don’t buy any} restaurant meals {we rarely go out} or money spent on vacation {because when we travel we use money from our “vacation fund.”

2. If I {or anyone else in my family} receives a gift card to a restaurant it does not count. Why? Because the gift cards were a gift. We did not have to pay for them out of our own pockets.

3. If I win a free gift card, redeem credit, or barter with my neighbors, the street value of the products don’t count because I did not have to pay for them out of my own pocket.

4. If I am able to score a free $10, $20 {ect.} catalina from the purchase of a gift card {ie: Amazon, Home Depot, iTunes ect.} the amount I spent on the gift card does not count towards my food purchase total. Why? Because we don’t eat lumber, music or books. But we do eat food, and if buying a gift card to a store I already know I’ll be shopping at within the next 6 months scores me some free food, I’m going to do it.

Okay, that’s it. I think I’ve covered everything. Any questions?

Will YOU be trying to reduce your grocery budget this year?

What is a realistic goal for your family?

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.

Shopping with Mavis – Target 90% Off Clearance Sale

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 6, 2013 · 8 Comments

While The Girl and I were running errands today we stopped by Target to check out their 90% off Christmas sale. *Thanks Monique for the heads up.

We went late in the day, so by the time we got there the stock had been pretty picked over. There were lots of boxed ornaments, gift bags, greeting cards, and a few Christmas decorations, but we didn’t need any of those items, so we didn’t buy anything. As we were walking towards the front of the store, we noticed an end cap with a bunch of holiday treats on the shelf.

There were about 20 boxes of Ritz Fudge crackers without a price tag on them so I picked up a box and found a scanner. $0.25 a box! Weeeee… these would be perfect for the boys.

Red and Green pretzel M&M’s were only $0.89 a bag.

I also picked up a box of The Girl’s favorite Kashi Cereal too.

Here is what my transaction looked like:

{4} Fudge covered Ritz Cracker Boxes $0.25 each
{1} Pretzel M&M’s $0.89
{1} Kashi Berry Cereal $2.75
Used {1} $.75/1 Kashi Target Printable Coupon *
Used {1} $1/1 Any Kashi Cereal Coupon {cut out from a box of Kashi bars}
Used My favorite Strawberry Shopping Bag to save $0.05
Final Price: $2.84

* Target was out of the Kashi Berry Cereal that was printed on the Target store coupon. When I asked the stock person if they had anymore, he told me to grab any box of Kashi berry cereal I wanted as an instant replacement.

All in all not a bad trip. I scored some crap food for the boys, and my daughters favorite cereal for less than 3 bucks. I was happy.

I will be posting my grocery budget goals for 2013 in tomorrows edition of Mondays with Mavis, so be sure and check back tomorrow morning.

Did YOU score any great after Christmas deals at Target this past week? Have you tried those fudge covered Ritz crackers? How do they taste?

~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.