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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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Daily Deals – Wild Turkeys, Bulk Whole Spices, Pool Toys and More

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Quote of the Day: “A house without books is like a room without windows.” ~ Horace Mann

Ahhh Thursday. So yesterday, I had to chase a wild turkey out of the garden, that was interesting. And then I got a text from Mrs. HB’s mom who {bless her heart} offered to make the HH and I both mosquito hats so we don’t get eaten alive. Wasn’t that sweet? So hopefully by next week, I’ll be able to garden in peace. Well, kinda of. I did see a little bunny in the front yard this morning, and with the wild turkey problems and finding moles belly up in the lawn {thanks Lucy!} the wildlife situation is starting to get a little interesting abound here. Note to self: Research 10 foot tall garden fence.

In other news, it was a high of 89 at our place yesterday and yet inside the house it was a mere 67 degrees at 5pm! Giddy up. Those pilgrims, they sure knew how to build things. Andrea left a comment though saying “I currently live in a small house with plaster walls. It takes about 3 days of 80+ degrees for things to really heat up inside.” 

I’ll keep you posted. 🙂 Thursday, LET’S DO THIS.

♥ Mavis

*This deal post will be updated throughout the morning so be sure and check back for deals. * Amazon prices can change without notice. Please verify price before ordering. Amazon offers Free Shipping with a $49 purchase or Amazon Prime. {Sign up for a free Amazon Prime 30 day trial!}

Available Kindle Books I think look interesting…

The prices on Kindle Books can change quickly, so grab them while you can. Don’t have a Kindle? Download the kindle app on your other devices. It’s easy! 🙂

Subscribe and Save Deals

Subscribe and Save prices reflect a 15% discount for ordering 5 or more items in 1 month.

I’ve been in the mood for almonds lately and I can’t decide if I want to make a batch of almond biscotti or the Flourless Almond Cake I made last year.  The cake is delicious, and if you’d like to give it a go, you can get the recipe HERE or Pin it for Later.

Home and Kitchen Deals

Amazon is offering a 30 Free trail for Audible. I LOVE audio-books!

Audible Free Trial benefits:

• Get two free audiobooks to start — after 30 days, get 1 book each month for $14.95/month

• Get 30% off the price of additional audiobook purchases

• Cancel anytime. Your books are yours to keep, even if you cancel.

Today only Cents of Style is offering 40% Off their Popular Taco Tees! + FREE shipping w/code: TACO at checkout.

Add on Items

*These are all Amazon Add-on Items and they will ship with qualifying orders over $25 and are eligible for free shipping on $25 orders with Amazon Prime {or will ship FREE on $35 orders without Prime}. 

dig-for-your-dinner-1

If you’d like to map out your next few months of garden chores, grab a few Dig For Your Dinner eBooks. That way, you can read about gardening, even when the weather is not nice enough to be outside gardening.

Kid’s Stuff

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.

Gardening in New England – An Update on Harriet, Black Flies, Seedlings and The Baby Chicks

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I think we’ve finally turned the corner people, and I’m getting excited! Warmer days are on the horizon {today it’s supposed to be 85!} and the soil temps are warming up. The snow is long gone and I am looking forward to getting beans, cucumbers and zucchini planted outside in about 2 more weeks.

So far this spring I’ve planted:

  • Beets
  • Turnips
  • Carrots
  • Onions {red and yellow}
  • Potatoes
  • Peas
  • Strawberries
  • Rhubarb

Have I told you the acorns are HUGE here? And abundant too. I am going to have to come up with some sort of acorn craft project for the fall. I might also make a pine cone wreath for the door as well.

Lucy’s babies are doing well and are enjoying their afternoon trips outside in their little chicken coop. We moved the chicks to the garage last week where they sleep at night, but once the sun comes out, Lucy and I bring them outside to play. Lucy will typically hang out with them for a solid 10 minutes in the coop before sauntering off to go tan herself.

The last few days I’ve been working in the garden clearing the area around an arbor that was left behind, and tidying up Harriet, our mystery fruit tree.

The area was filled with vines and brambles when I started, and honestly I wasn’t too keen to work in this area of the garden because I knew it would be a full on tick sanctuary {I still need to find some white pants so I can spot them crawling on me better}.

But man oh man it looks so much better now and while I was cleaning up the area I discovered several perennial plants and bulbs and though it’s hard to see them in the photos, it will be fun to discover what they are when they come into bloom.

Harriet looks so much happier, and I think the arbor will be the perfect spot to grow birdhouse gourds. And that old bench…. It will be a great lounging spot for the puggle princess. I’ve already seen her on it twice. 😉

That feeling of bugs crawling all over me and fluttering around in my hair though…. I can’t help but itch all the time and check myself for them every 15 minutes. Even after I shower…. It feels like they are still there. Phantom bug pain? Is that a real thing?

Even after dousing my garden pants, boots and white shirt with Repel and Natrapel {the the highest rated bug repellent I could find} I can still feel the bugs on me {if only in my mind!!}. Gaaaa! They should make pills for this. I am seriously thinking about buying one of those mosquito net hat things.

I have no idea if I am being overly dramatic about this, if it’s normal around these parts, or if this is just one of the charms of living in New England with a pond on your property. Black fly season, I think it’s here though and I just want to be prepared. Also, I’ve noticed a big uptick in bugs flying around after 5 pm. So maybe that’s my quitting time. Who knows.

I did discover mint in the garden this week, so that’s nice.

Mystery plant of the week. Does anyone know what it is?

Hey now, check out all those seedlings! Aren’t they looking marvelous?

The pepper plants that took so long to get going… are starting to produce true leaves.

And the herbs, well now, it looks like I’m going to have to create a herb garden here pretty soon as well. The projects here, are never ending. And you know what? That’s just the way I like things.

Have an AWESOME Wednesday everyone, enjoy the day.

~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.

Daily Deals – Prime Pantry, The Cutest Rocker Ever, Deals on Chocolate, Online Deals and More

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Quote of the Day: A best friend is like a four leaf clover, hard to find, lucky to have.

A high of 85 degrees is predicted for today {wowza!} and since we don’t have air conditioning at our place, and we haven’t put the screens on the windows yet, it will be exciting to see how hot it gets in the house. Apparently our plaster walls are supposed to help keep the place cool. We shall see! 😉

Everyday, it’s an adventure. Have a great day everyone, stay cool.

♥ Mavis

*This deal post will be updated throughout the morning so be sure and check back for deals. * Amazon prices can change without notice. Please verify price before ordering. Amazon offers Free Shipping with a $49 purchase or Amazon Prime. {Sign up for a free Amazon Prime 30 day trial!}

Available Kindle Books I think look interesting…

The prices on Kindle Books can change quickly, so grab them while you can. Don’t have a Kindle? Download the kindle app on your other devices. It’s easy! 🙂

Subscribe and Save Deals

Subscribe and Save prices reflect a 15% discount for ordering 5 or more items in 1 month.

Home and Kitchen Deals

Weird, but true:  All the Cool People Pee in Their Garden.  Find out how urine can enhance the health of your garden.  Find more garden tips on my Pinterest Gardening Board

Add on Items

*These are all Amazon Add-on Items and they will ship with qualifying orders over $25 and are eligible for free shipping on $25 orders with Amazon Prime {or will ship FREE on $35 orders without Prime}. 

I think I’m going to grab some spinach at the store this week so I can make this Spinach Salad w/ Bacon Dijon Dressing. It’s one of my favorites. You can get the recipe HERE.

Prime Pantry Deals

Get a Free 30-Day Free Trial to Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon Music Unlimited gives you access to on-demand, ad-free streaming from a catalog of tens of millions of songs!

After your 30 Free Trial, you will be billed $7.99 a month BUT if you try it for 30 days and decide you don’t like it you can simply cancel the subscription. Sounds like a win/win to me. Here are the benefits of Amazon Music Unlimited:

  • Stream over tens of millions of songs ad-free with unlimited skips
  • Thousands of expert-programmed playlists and stations
  • Hottest new releases from today’s most popular artists
  • Download their favorite songs, albums, and playlists for offline playback

Kid’s Stuff

Thinking about placing a bulk order with Zaycon Fresh but not sure what to do with all that meat? Read my post on How to Process and Prepare Your Bulk Chicken Order for some great tips. Zaycon Fresh is now taking orders for their upcoming events.

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.

The Little Things That Are Making Me Happy These Days…

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I met a lady the other day who noticed the Washington state plates on my car. She asked where I was from, and why we had moved to New England. And for the first time, I think I was able to {coherently} put my finger on it.

It feels different here out in the country. More real. More in touch with the real world…. in the sense of how, I guess, real life should be lived. There is no 24/7 ANYTHING. The post office? It’s tiny. And when the one person window is closed, the doors to the building are locked and you know what? They’ll be open tomorrow, and you can come back and do your business then.

Our small country store is in a really old building, and the selection isn’t incredibly huge, but it pretty much has most of what you’d need to tide you over until your next stock up trip to a larger town. And heck, if they don’t carry something you’d like, you can make a special request, and they’ll order it for you.

True, I could probably just order the same thing off Amazon and have it on my porch in 2 days, but it’s nice to know exactly where my money is going. To actually be able to hand my 4 dollars over the counter and know that 2 of those dollars, is helping a mom and pop shop to employ a few people in the community I live in. When you live in a big city, or shop major retailers, you just don’t get that warm and fuzzy feeling. Or at least, I never did.

So many things in our lives nowadays are just so instantaneous. With exception to the occasional big ticket item, the whole waiting, or longing for something is kind of gone from our lives. When you can pretty much get anything you want at the click of a button, or from a big box store that carries a dozen of an item, something personal is lost in the process. Do you know what I mean? Do you feel like special occasions, have stopped being so special? Do you think it’s because we’re getting older and nostalgic for simple the things we loved so much growing up?

I finally feel calm inside and at peace. I don’t know if it’s because I’m past that stage in my life where {nearly} everything I do revolves around my children and I feel the constant need to be on the go, or if I’m finally in the {physical} place I knew I always belonged.

The “noise” and distractions of basically meaningless things, is gone. These days, there is music occasionally playing in the next room, the birds are chirping outside and the frogs are singing a tune from our pond. We can even hear wild turkey’s chattering on occasion in the distance when we’re outside. I’d also be the first person to bet $10 that someone within a half mile distance of us has a bunch guinea fowl. Note to self: Never buy Guinea fowl.

I am working harder {physically} than I have in a very long time, and you know what? I am IN LOVE with this feeling of contentment.

Do you want to know what else I’m in love with at the moment? Our local recycling center. We don’t have to pay for trash service here, because included in our property taxes, is the opportunity to dispose of our trash {and recyclables} at our local transfer station. If you want to pay for curbside pick up, there’s a company you can call, but c’mon now, why would we voluntarily pay for something we could take advantage of for free? The place is only open a few hours a week and oddly enough, it’s quite the community hot spot.

And you want to know the best part about the transfer station? Not only can you drop off your trash, and recyclables, but you can also bring your unwanted “stuff” and place it in the community building rather than chucking it in the garbage bin. You know, just in case someone else in town wants your used items, or maybe a gift you received and didn’t want to keep.

I’ve been four times since we’ve been here and have dropped off about a half dozen ceramic pots to the community building that were left by the previous homeowner because I knew we wouldn’t use them. Dropping off our recyclables and trash, has truly become one of my favorite things to do every other week.

So far I’ve picked up a candle, a glass frog, a few large mugs, a candle holder, a wooden plate and some canvas fabric that was actually on my list for my next visit to the fabric store. Twice now I’ve missed out on some nice big wicker baskets by about 5 seconds and last week I missed out on a table lamp.

But this past week? HOLY CANOLIES….. I hit the jackpot.

A braided rug, a Keurig machine {it works!} and a large frame {for my next sampler project!}.

Seriously!!! A free large braided wool rug. How cool is that?

New England. Thank you for such a wonderful welcome. I. Am. Home.

Wishing everyone nothing but delightful and unexpected discoveries as you make your way through this beautiful day.

~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