One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 987 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.

Cinnamon Walnut Cookies

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By Mavis Butterfield on December 15, 2014 · 7 Comments

I’ve had traditional snowball cookies. You know the dry, flaky ones rolled in powdered sugar. These are NOT those cookies. No offense to them, because they are delicious in their own way, but these are moist and chewy on the inside. The coating of powdered sugar on the outside is the perfect finishing touch and makes them so freakin full of delicious I can hardly stand it. Melt in your mouth goodness right here people. I suspect this will land on your permanent Christmas cookie list after you’ve made them.

Ingredients

2 cups flour + 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups walnuts
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use silpats. In a small bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Slowly beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Add in flour mixture and mix just until combined.

In a food processor or blender, pulse the walnuts, cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons flour until chopped but not paste-like! Add the walnut mixture to the dough, and stir to combine. Drop 1 tablespoon-size balls of dough about 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, and allow to cool before coating with powdered sugar {you can throw them in a bowl of powdered sugar or into a Ziplock bag of it. Works either way!}. Enjoy!

Looking for more cookie recipes? Check out my Cookie Board on Pinterest.

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.

Money Saving Tips for Hosting Christmas Dinner on a Budget

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By Mavis Butterfield on December 15, 2014 · 2 Comments

Christmas has to be the most expensive time of year. I don’t think it was meant to be that way, but it has certainly evolved into a real potential financial crisis. My kids are pretty good about the presents part of the equation, they really don’t ask for that much.

Christmas dinner is where keeping the costs low and still maintaining traditions takes a little bit of effort. The good news is that with planning, it really is possible to put on a great spread for family and friends without breaking the bank.

Here are couple of tips to get you on the road to a tasty meal for a price you can afford:

Make a menu and STICK WITH IT. Making a menu allows you to stock up on specialty food items when they go on sale. The earlier you make the list, the more sales cycles you have to score deals.
Bring the outside in with your table decor. Where we live there are plenty of pine and cedar trees, not to mention pine cones. If that doesn’t have all the makings for a traditional Christmas centerpiece, I don’t know what does.
Shop seasonally when it comes to fruits and veggies. Providing a grapes in your fruit salad is going to be a heck of a lot more expensive than oranges.
Have everyone bring a dish. If you can get away with providing the staples, and your guests provide the sides and appetizers, you can cut the cost SIGNIFICANTLY.
Figure out proportions. Over-cooking leads to overspending. There is a delicate balance between having plenty and having an offensive amount of left-overs.
Take advantage of store promotions. Most stores offer free turkey with minimum purchase. {If they offer it only at Thanksgiving time, consider buying and freezing your Christmas bird then.}
Now is the time to transfer prescriptions. I know this sounds crazy, but lots of stores will offer gift cards for transferred prescriptions. Transfer them now, and put the gift card to good use by buying the groceries.
Cut energy costs by dropping the thermostat if you are having a lot of guests. The sheer amount of people will raise the temperature in a room, no need to pay for additional heating costs.
Make everything from scratch. It will taste better and cost significantly less.
Keep it simple. No need to provide 18 appetizers and 14 desserts. All those extra ingredients add up.

Do you host Christmas dinner? How do you keep costs low?

~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.

Easy Kids Christmas Craft – DIY Santa Binoculars

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By Mavis Butterfield on December 15, 2014 · 1 Comment

Do you have little ones who love to try to spot Santa on Christmas Eve? If so, they totally need some Santa binoculars. I found these on Meri Cherry, and thought they would be so fun to give to some of the kids in the neighborhood. {I’m sure little ones would love to help make these, but since Monkey Boy is neither little or game for my awesome ideas, I settled for equipping the neighborhood with Santa spy-gear on my own.}

You’ll Need:

2 rolls of toilet paper
Red felt
White “fur”
Glue gun
String, ribbon, yarn, twine {whatever you have on hand}
Black and gold washi tape {electrical tape would work for black, if the HH won’t miss it from the workbench}

Directions:

Cut the red felt to fit the length of the toilet paper rolls. Roll the felt completely around the rolls and glue down using the glue gun. Cut a 1″ strip of white fur {make it long enough to go around the end of the toilet paper roll completely}. Glue the fur to one end of the toilet paper roll.

Repeat on the other toilet paper roll. Now, glue the two rolls together. Attach whatever material you decided on for a strap inside the rolls of the toilet paper on the opposite side of the fur–again using your trusty glue gun.

Finally, wrap the black tape around the toilet paper roll just above the fur. Now cut a “belt buckle” shape out of the gold tape {belt buckle pretty much being a square U shape that you turn on its side}, and place the gold buckle centered on the black tape.

Now bundle the kids up and send ’em outside to do a little recon.

Merry Christmas,

~ 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 I Feed My Family for $100 a Month – Week 49 of 52

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By Mavis Butterfield on December 15, 2014 · 2 Comments

Costco $95.42

Costco has some great deals happening right now so I decided to grab a cart and get the bulk of my holiday grocery shopping done. I don’t know about you but I just can’t shop in grocery stores {actually stores in general} around the holidays. I’d rather get it all done in one big swoop then to have to go back each week for a few items. I don’t know, maybe I’m weird like that.

Some of my favorite Costco deals were 4 pounds of butter for $8.99, Pretzel Chips $4.39, Pom Juice $6.29, and a 6-Pack of Lubby’s Pumpkin Puree for $3.79. Saweeet!

Albertsons $32.61

Holiday baking season, it’s a killer isn’t it? BUT WAIT TIL YOU SEE THE RECIPES…. oh my word!!! Blowing my budget this week for a couple of convenience pizzas was totally worth it. 😉 If you’re an Albertsons shopper be sure and use the $1.59 coupon in the Albertsons Flyer to snag Nestle chocolate chips for $1.59 a bag as well as 4 pounds of sugar for $1.59 as well. {Side note: one of the recipes I made last week had 4 pounds of sugar alone in it!!!} No wonder I have problems with my teeth. Ha!

How did you do this week? Score any hot deals at the grocery store or online?

~Mavis

Total Spent This Week $128.03
Total Spent Year to Date $1862.61 {Yikes!}

Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.

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.