Sign up for my newsletter and get a copy of my "28 Ways to Slash Your Grocery Budget"

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.


Instagram did not return a 200.

Costco Square Milk Jugs… They Stink!

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 45 Comments

Is it just me?

Or do you despise the Costco square milk jugs too?

Sure it may take up less space on the shelves, but even after 4 years of occasionally buying these square jugs, I still haven’t figured out how to use them without spilling milk on the counter.  It’s just not worth the $.12 savings if you ask me.

What do YOU think?

~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.

Mavis Garden Blog – What Should I Do With All This Squash?

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 16 Comments

This morning I decided it was finally time to tidy up the bean teepee area. Which included of course, harvesting the remaining Anna Swartz Hubbard squash.

I must admit, I am pretty pleased with how I fared poundage wise this year with these squash.  184 pounds 1 ounce.  Hot diggety!  Now comes the hard part.  Storing it all.  So far we have only cracked open one of the squashes {I’ll show you what I did with it later today}.  If I remember correctly, when I grew these a few years ago, 2 of them kept until the following April, which I thought was amazing considering I’m not  a true Pilgrim, and don’t have a real root cellar for storing things like squash.

Fall is officially here, the growing season is winding down, and I feeling kind of bummed.  What am I suppose to do when it’s all over?  Besides becoming a professional kale farmer that is.

I need your suggestions… What should my next project be?

~Mavis

P.S.  Also, if you have any suggestions on what I am suppose to do with all this freakin’ squash… that would be great too.

Learn more about how to store all sorts of fruits and vegetables naturally with the book Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables By Mike Buble.  Not to be confused with Michael Buble, who is a total hottie.  Amazon currently has this book in stock and ready to ship.

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 # 21 – Reclaimed Food Show and Tell

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 14 Comments

This week Mr. Produce guy set aside 3 boxes of “chicken scraps” for me, and honestly, I don’t think I could have asked for a better assortment of fruits and vegetables.  After picking through the boxes I was able to salvage about $50? worth of produce that was still edible.  Not to shabby if you ask me.

The chickens also scored big with free watermelon, cucumbers, grapes and lots of greens {spinach, lettuce and cabbage}.

So what am I going to do with all of this free food?  The pears will be turned into pear butter, the strawberries will be transformed into homemade strawberry ice cream, the lettuce will be used in tacos this week, and the cantaloupe and watermelon will be eaten fresh for a yummy after school snack.

The banana’s will be turned into banana bread, the peppers will be used for heirloom tomato salsa, the organic grapes will be bagged into smaller portions and packed in the kids lunches for school.  And the mushrooms?  Maybe I’ll dehydrate the mushrooms, or just toss them on the grill.  I haven’t gotten that far yet.

All I know is free food rocks.  Whether it has been reclaimed, gleaned, bartered or grown in your very own backyard.  Learning how to feed your family on less, and having fun with it, is a pretty cool pastime if you ask me.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great day, I’ve got some preserving to do.

~Mavis

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past 5 months?

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

Looking for a few yummy ways to cook what you harvest?  Check out Grow Cook Eat By Willi Galloway.  The reviews rock and the pictures are so AMAZING I want to lick the pages.  Yum!!!

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 Garden Blog – Zucchini Season is Officially Over

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 1 Comment

This weekend past weekend one of my garden chores was to pull up the dying zucchini plants.  It took all of 5 minutes, and then zucchini season was over.  Just like that.  I was actually hoping to get one more round of giant zucchinis so I could doorbell ditch them onto my neighbors porches, but no such luck.  Oh well, I suppose 257+ pounds of zucchini wasn’t such a bad haul for one summer.

So what did I plant in the empty space?  All those strawberries I pulled from the greenhouse gutters of course.  I still have one gutter with strawberries in it, but as soon as this last round of cucumbers are ready to harvest,  I’ll pull the vines and plant the remaining berry plants in their space.

So long zucchini, see you next summer, it’s been fun{sniff sniff}.

~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.

Mavis Butterfield Etsy