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One Hundred Dollars a Month

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.


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Thanksgiving Recipes – Stuffed Acorn Squash

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If you’re having your in-laws over for Thanksgiving {or someone else you’d like to impress}, I suggest doubling, or tripling this recipe for stuffed acorn squash.  A nice full platter of this squash dish would look amazing on any table, any time of year.

And the taste?  Awesome possum!

Ingredients

1 acorn squash halved lengthwise, seeds and pulp removed
1 apple, diced {I used granny smith}
1 small onion, minced
2 cups water
1 cup wild rice*
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place squash cut side down on a lined baking sheet {I used a Silpat}.* Bake acorn squash for 30 – 40 minutes until tender.

While the squash is baking, in a large saucepan combined the rice, water, apple,butter, garlic, parsley, thyme, onion, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook rice for 20 minutes or until the water is all absorbed.  Fold in spinach and cranberries.

Place acorn squash on a platter, fill with rice mixture and spread extra rice around the bottom of the platter.

Looking for more yummy vegetable recipes?  Check out The Fresh & Green Table* By Susie Middleton.  Amazon currently has it in stock and ready to ship.

*Direct link to Amazon product

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.

Easy Christmas Gifts – Garden Gloves and Plant Markers

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Call me a cheapskate, but I happen to actually like making a lot of my Christmas gifts.  Not only because it saves money, but because it’s fun.  Now the Handsome Husband on the other hand, does not believe in making gifts.  No sir re Bob.  He likes to do his shopping at 6 am on Christmas Eve, and buy a bunch of random crap and it in plastic bags with the store logo on it. In fact, one of our first years together he bought me some paint brushes, a pie crust edge protector and a large bag of Skittles.

I have no idea what Skittles and the Sweet Baby Jesus have in common, but I’m sure he meant well.

Anyway, here is my Christmas gift idea number 1.  Plant makers and a pair of gloves.

Required Materials

  • Popsicle Sticks {or just ask your Doctor for some tongue depressors.  They work just as well}
  • Rubber Stamps {c’mon we’ve all been to Stampin’ Up party and paid way to much for some}
  • Ink Pad {borrow one from your neighbor the accountant}
  • Garden Gloves {Home Depot $3.99 in the garden center}

Directions

  • Stamp herbs, vegetables, or fruits on popsicle sticks
  • Place dried sticks inside of the glove {be sure to leave a wee bit showing}

Viola!  $5 and you now have a gift for the gardener on your list.

~Peace Out Girl Scouts

Mavis

Feeling Crafty?  Want to break out hot glue gun but not sure were to start?  Check out Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts: An A-to-Z Guide with Detailed Instructions and Endless Inspiration.* Amazon.com currently has it in stock and ready to ship!

*Direct link to an Amazon product

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 Gets a FREE Turkey… But Had to Pay For a Ham

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Well, I finally did it.  I decided to take my chances and I went to Albertsons and took advantage of their buy a ham get a free turkey deal.  The cheapest ham I could find was $32.54 {clearly they were picked over} and the turkey weighed in at just under 12 pounds.  The perfect size for a family of four, with plenty of extra meat for leftovers.

This time of year most stores will have some sort of turkey promotion where if you spend $25 or $50 they’ll sell you a turkey for $.39 a pound.  But knowing I’d never drop that much change at the grocery store to qualify, I decided to just go for it.  Hopefully I didn’t jump the gun to soon.

I also picked up a few bags of sugar while I was there too.  I think last year Fred Meyer had butter for a really low price, so I’m saving my money in hopes the deal will come around again this year.  Butter for holiday baking is a must, no doubt about it. Fingers crossed.

Here is what my transaction looked like:

Hormel 81 Ham – $32.54
Honey Suckle Turkey – Free with Purchase of Ham
C&H Sugar Products – $2.49
Used {4} $5 off Albertsons Store Coupons
Used $2/1 Hormel Cure 81 Ham Printable Coupon
Used {3} $0.75/1 C&H Sugar Product Coupons {09/16 RP}
Used $1.50 Campbell’s Catalina Coupon
Final Price: $12.01 after store coupons, catalina and double coupons

How about YOU?

Have you purchased your Thanksgiving Turkey yet? Or are you still holding out for a good price?

~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.

How to Get Free Food Week #27 – Reclaimed Food Show and Tell

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I think this may have been the first in a very long time there were not strawberries in our boxes of free chicken scraps.  This time around it was mostly water melon, cantaloup and apples.  Plus a few grapes.  Kind of a snooze fest of you ask me.

In the summer Mr. Produce Guy was giving us 4 to 5 boxes a week full of all sorts of produce.  But the last few weeks there have been only 3 boxes.  I’m guessing it’s a seasonal thing.  I suppose the chances of getting boxes of sweet potatoes and cranberries for Thanksgiving are pretty slim.  But we’ll see.

A lot of the watermelon didn’t look so great, so we decided to give it to the chickens instead.  The papaya could have been salvaged, but Black Fatty loves them to so we decided to toss it her was as well.

Here is what we decided to keep-

  • Grapes {for lunch snacks}
  • Melon {for breakfast}
  • Lettuce {for taco night}
  • 1 pear {snack}
  • Giant owl of apples {for homemade applesauce}

Free food?  I’ll take it, any day of the week! But my fingers are totally crossed for free cranberries and yams next time. Ha!

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great day.  Now go forth and find some scraps!

~Mavis

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past 7 months?

Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.

Looking for a juicer?  Amazon has several in stock and ready to ship.  Including this Breville Compact Juice Extractor.*

*Direct link to an Amazon.com product

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 Etsy