One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 890 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 – Pickled Dill Carrots

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 24, 2015 · 7 Comments

I recently got an email from reader, Susan, about pickled carrots. They looked so amazing I emailed her right back and asked for her recipe. She was gracious enough to share it. Here’s what she had to say:

Mavis- I hear you on the itching to can! I was recently at Chuck’s Produce {best store in the world!} where they had these gorgeous Organic Carrots for .50 bunch! After removing the tops, they weighed 1 – 1 1/4 lb. each!

I got 7 jars of Pickled Carrots from these carrots. I went back and got 4 more bunches the next day = 14 jars.

Ingredients

4 lbs carrots, ends cut off and peeled, cut into sticks
6 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
1/2 cup pickling or canning salt
7 cloves of garlic
7 1/2 teaspoons of dill seed or fresh dill heads {be sure to get dill “seed” and not “weed”}
7 pinches of red pepper flakes

Directions

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, water and salt. Stir, boil over medium-high heat and stir again to dissolve salt. This is the brine.

Put 1 clove of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of dill seed {or fresh dill} and a pinch of red pepper flakes into each sterilized hot jar.

Pack carrot sticks into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 ” to the top of the jar. Ladle hot liquid into jar to cover carrots – leaving 1/2 ” headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace by adding more pickling liquid if necessary. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw on band.

Place jars in hot water bath canner. Be sure they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil. Process 10 minutes.

I like to use the 12 oz tall quilted jars for these. I just like the way they look in them. 🙂

~Susan

Thanks so much for sharing Susan. They look so pretty and sound delicious!

Looking for a few more canning recipes?

Search my Full List of Canning Recipes

Want to start canning, but don’t know where to start? Here’s a guide to help you get started.

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How to Make Newspaper Seedling Pots

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 24, 2015 · 42 Comments

{This post was first published in 2012 but I thought I’d post it again for those of you who missed it}

Have you ever made your own newspaper pots before? If you haven’t, they are are super easy to make. Some people use tin cans, but I prefer to use the Pot Maker. I’ve found I can whip out a batch of 50 pots for my seedlings in about 20 minutes or less.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to use the Pot Maker.

Cut newspaper strips 4″ by 9″ each. {20 pots = 20 strips of newspaper}

Cover pot maker with newspaper and roll.

Make sure your paper is wrapped tight around the pot maker.

Fold the bottom of the paper inward.

Place the newspaper wrapped pot maker in the stand that’s included with the kit and give it a little twist and a jiggle.

Then slowly remove the newspaper from the wooden pot maker.

Add potting soil, seeds and a little bit of water and you’re good to go.

These pots are not only easy to make, but pretty thrifty too. Free newspaper √ Free labor √ {have your kids make them} Life is good! You can buy a Pot Maker HERE.

Do you make your own pots or just buy them at the store instead?

~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.

Composting for the Home Gardener

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 24, 2015 · 10 Comments

Composting can seem a bit overwhelming if you’re a newbie, but it’s actually really, really simple. You can use a composter that is super simple and cheap, or you can get a fancy one. Either way, “cooking your garbage” {Thanks Uncle Buck}, is like FREE nutrient rich goodness for your garden. All it really requires is for you to toss your scraps into the bin and poke it around every once in awhile. I know that sounds over-simplified, but seriously, nature pretty much does the job for you.

You can compost kitchen scraps, yard scraps, used napkins, coffee filters, etc. Between recycling and composting, you will literally be shocked at how little garbage you generate. Start with kitchen scraps–they are the easiest. You’ll need a bowl, container, or kitchen compost bin to toss your scraps in. If you are committed to taking the scraps out to the composter each day, a bowl/bucket should be fine. If you aren’t, I recommend a kitchen composter. It will help keep your kitchen from smelling like garbage. Just toss in compostable scraps {for a full list of everything that is compostable in the kitchen, go HERE} and then dump it into the outdoor compost pile when it gets full.

For your outdoor compost pile, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. You want to have a nice mix of food waste and garden waste. Keep the pile moist, but not soggy. You want the microorganisms that are naturally present to do their job and break down the food/garden scraps into compost. Providing air is one way to expedite the process. Every once in awhile {like every two weeks, or so}, turn your compost with a pitch fork or shovel. It adds air to the mix, and it helps to mix in decay with non-decay. If you want to expedite the process, you can add bone meal or dried blood to the mix–but that is not necessary.

The cooking time on compost varies a ton, in my experience. I think it has to do with how hot the mixture gets, what is in the layers, etc. I’ve had batched “cook” relatively quickly, while others seem to take forever. Either way, you know compost is done with it has a very earthy smell {the rotting garbage smell goes away a bit} and is almost black. It will crumble in your hands, like a mixture of earth and soil. The compost will be “hot” initially–meaning very high in nitrogen, so you won’t want to spread it out on your garden and immediately plant. It’s best to spread it out in the fall or wait until very early spring and give it a month or two before planting. If you go the fall route, just lay it over the top of your garden beds and wait until spring to mix it in with the soil. In the spring, you can mix it directly in with the soil. {It’s best for your garden soil not to toil it in the fall, it promotes healthy microorganisms–that’s why you don’t mix it in in the fall.}

You can buy a composter if you are trying to keep things simple. There are literally tons of styles to choose from. If you are looking for a more budget friendly options, they are super easy to make. You can make a compost tumbler, like my friend Heather did last year, which is awesome, because you can “turn” the compost with minimal effort. At my last house, I made our composter out of pallets the HH brought home. It worked great, and cost me next to nothing. Whichever option you choose, you’ll just want to make sure that you have some place to “cook” your compost {which, by the way, is just a fancy way to say get your garbage to break down using oxygen, water, and naturally occurring heat from the breakdown process}.

You seriously CANNOT screw compost up. It happens whether you try for it or not–naturally occurring waste breaks down…you might as well take advantage of the awesomeness that happens as a result in your garden.

Happy composting,

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.

Giveaway: Win a Year’s Supply of Chicken {160 lbs!} For You AND a Friend From Go Direct Foods

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 24, 2015 · 13 Comments

That headline was not misleading. I really am giving away 160 lbs of chicken to TWO lucky readers. But before we talk about that, let’s back up. What is this GoDirect Foods company and why on earth are they sponsoring such an amazing giveaway?

Simple answer. It’s because they are awesome!

What is GoDirect Foods?

GoDirect Foods goes directly to the farm or processor so that they can offer their members fresh, high quality meat at substantial savings, and with GoDirect you can order any of their products throughout the year and have access to a wide variety of products and small order sizes as well. They will be launching this June!

You will be able to order some bacon and chicken and ground beef on any given Tuesday and pick them all up together. I love this concept! Plus, by going direct, an average family of 4 will save an average of $563.85 per year on meat alone. Now they are speaking my language.

For more info, check out this little video:

The Review:

Even though GoDirect is not launching until June, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of some of the products they are offering. And let me tell you Bob they were delicious. We were able to try the precooked pot roast and the ground beef. My whole family was impressed by both.

I was nervous about the precooked roast because I’m kind of particular about my roasts. It blew me away. It was moist and so full of flavor that even though there were just 3 of us eating and the roast was 10 lbs, we had plenty of leftovers for soup and tacos the rest of the week.

The ground beef was just as good. It was lean, but not dry, and had a full, delicious flavor to it. I didn’t have a single complaint and I will absolutely be buying both products when they are available.
The GoDirect Referral Program:

If the food quality alone won’t sell you, their referral program will. Their referral program is unlike anything I’ve seen before. It is crazy generous. They offer a $2 credit every time someone you refer orders a case of one of their signature items {their signature items are their staple items like chicken, ground beef, salmon, bacon, etc}. Because it’s per case, if they order 4 cases, you’ve just made $8.

Wait! It even gets better. They take it one step further. When your friends refer their friends, in addition to giving them a $2 referral, they’ll also give you a $2 referral credit when they buy any signature item. So let’s say your BFF Sally signs up under you and orders 3 cases of various signatures meats {$2 x 3}. Then Sally tells her friend Wanda about it and Wanda signs up under Sally and orders 4 cases {$2 x 4 for you and $2 x 4 for Sally}. You’ve just made $14 and Sally has made $8. Free meat for everyone! Ha. Tell all your friends and you may never pay for your meat products again because you get paid out on every signature order they ever make until forever.

You can use that credit to purchase any of the products on the GoDirect site, or if you go crazy and refer everyone you know, they’ll pay out in cash twice a year anything over $200 in credit. So if you have $500 in your referral account, they’ll automatically send you a check for $300 dollars on the next payout day. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

The Giveaway:

And now, what you’ve been waiting for. Details on how to enter for a chance to win a year’s supply of chicken. How it works:

1. Head HERE to register. Your registration enters you into the giveaway {it will also enter you in to win a year’s supply of beef GoDirect is offering on their site}. Your registration will also allow you to hear about launch dates and prices before the public! VIP basically! 😉

2. Grab your own personal referral link {you’ll want it anyway so you can tell all your friends about GoDirect’s awesomeness and earn money when they order!} and spread the word about the giveaway.

3. If one of your friends who registered under your referral link wins, you win too! You both will win 160 lbs of chicken total.

4. If a reader is drawn who was not referred by a friend {meaning, there would be no one to give the second year’s worth of chicken to}, we will draw one additional reader’s name to win the other year’s supply of chicken. So there will be 2 winners no matter what.

5. Winners will receive 40 lbs of premium boneless, skinless chicken breast every 3 months {July 2015, Oct. 2015, Jan. 2016, April 2016}.

6. Winners must be able to pick up chicken at current distribution locations in either Oregon, Idaho and Washington {there are multiple pickup locations in each state}. You may enter to win if you live outside of those states, but you would have to wait to claim your prize until they open locations in your state.

7. Giveaway ends April 24th, 2015.

That’s it. Ready to win some chicken?

Enter to win a Year’s Supply of Chicken from GoDirect Foods HERE!

Good luck. I hope you win!

~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.