One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1740 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.

Unique Chicken Coops

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 3, 2013 · 3 Comments

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Thinking about getting some chickens this year? I hear all the cool people are doing it these days. Here are a few coops I think are pretty awesome.

I think the 3rd picture is my favorite. It looks like a little playground for chickens. Weeee!

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If you have a garden and are thinking about getting some chickens, you might want to read Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly YardBy Jessi Bloom. Amazon currently has it in stock and ready to ship, and the book is full of chicken-keeping basics, simple garden plans, tips on attractive fencing options, the best plants and plants to avoid, and step-by-step instructions for getting your chicken garden up and running.

Yee-Haw! Now we’re farming!

~Mavis

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Is My Chicken a Rooster?

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 3, 2013 · 30 Comments

Okay everyone, I’m pretty sure Pablo is a rooster, but after 16 weeks he still has not made any crowing sounds or behaved in an ungentlemanly like manner. Picasso follows Pablo everywhere and all the other hens love him/her.

Picasso is on the left and Picasso on the right.

We made a quick video this morning so those of you with rooster knowledge can weigh in. We’ve never had a rooster before, but I’m pretty sure Pablo is a roo, even if he hasn’t made noise. Is it possible to have a nice rooster that doesn’t crow? Have we spoiled him that much?

Let us know what you think.

~Mavis

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Mavis Goes to Costco

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 3, 2013 · 71 Comments

Shut.The.Front.Door.

I think being delusional is one of my best traits. Like when I walked in to Costco yesterday {on a full stomach} and proceeded to shop like a typical housewife living in suburbia. Knowing full well what my grocery budget goals are for 2013, I happily filled my cart with things my family loves.

Monkey Boy about fell over when I grabbed a $5.85 case of peanut butter crackers, and The Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird’s eyes grew wide as I dropped 96 slices of her favorite Kraft American cheese in our cart.

I swooped up a 10 pound bag of carrots, and a 20 pound sack of giant russet potatoes.

I bought the trendy stuff like organic Quinoa, Chobani yogurt, and Dubliner Irish cheese.

And you know what? It felt good. It felt good to be able to walk into a store, and buy exactly what I wanted, and to walk out without any buyers remorse.

And you want to know why? Because good, quality food, costs money.

Don’t believe me? Just ask yourself when was the last time you saw a coupon for Meyer lemons, delicious apple chicken sausages or your favorite jasmine rice?

News Flash: Good food sells itself. It doesn’t need a coupon or a big ad campaign to get you to buy it. You don’t buy it because it’s on sale, or you have a coupon. You buy it because you like it, and it makes you feel good when you eat it.

Ahhh yes. Change is in the air. Can you feel it?

~Mavis

P.S. Peanut butter crackers are not considered good, quality, food. Buy hey, they will last Monkey Boy longer than a bag of Doritos.

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Easy Side Dish Recipes – Roasted Green Beans

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By Mavis Butterfield on January 2, 2013 · 11 Comments

Looking for a simple way to use up some of those frozen vegetables from the garden? I highly recommend roasting them. Instead of potentially mushy and flavorless veggies, you get a crispy and delicious side dish–perfect with any meal. {I’ve used this method on a ton of different frozen veggies, and they’ve all turned out delightful}.

Roasted Green Beans - YUM!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Mediterranean

Ingredients

Olive Oil
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Salt

Instructions

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Coat a pan with olive oil {NO Silpat this time, can you believe it?}. This is not the time to be stingy with the oil, you want a good 2-3 tbsp.
Toss frozen green beans on the pan, sprinkle with garlic salt and Italian seasoning. I like to take the more is more approach with the seasoning amounts, but let's just call it season to taste approach.
Use a spatula to turn the green beans on the pan. This will coat them with olive oil and mix in the seasonings.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, to desired level of crispiness. Turn once while baking.

Looking for more awesome recipes using REAL FOOD?

Check out Tender by Nigel Slater. It’s a comprehensive, deeply personal, and visually stunning guide to growing and cooking vegetables from Britain’s foremost food writer, with more than 400 recipes and extensive gardening notes. Go HERE for Tender.

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.