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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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The Great Migration East – Day 3 St. Cloud Minnesota to Somewhere Near Cleveland, Ohio

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Today, was exhausting. I knew it was going to be, but still, as I type this at 10:30 tonight, I feel like I need a massage. And I’m totally not the massage type either. My legs are tight, my back hurts and I’m dehydrated. So far, this was been my least favorite day on our 3,000 mile trip.

Plus, we are quickly running out of podcasts to listen to and if I have to eat another handful of trail mix…. I might scream.

We left the hotel around 5:30 am, drove 2 hours and then somewhere in Wisconsin got off the freeway and found a long country road so The Girl could get a 15 mile run in. Seriously, who does that in the middle of a road trip? My daughter, that’s who. Did I tell you she qualified for this years Boston Marathon? Yes, yes she did and well, you know, the kid had to get her training in somewhere, right?

Driving through the Chicago area…. Is insane. I could never live there. And the gazillion dollar tolls… Don’t even get me started.

We also got pulled over in Indiana by the highway patrol. Apparently the speed limit had changed from 80 to 70 and I didn’t notice and well, don’t tell my husband this but the officer was super sweet {even though Lucy barked her little face off at him the whole time he was talking to us}. After he checked my license and registration in his car for like 5 minutes, he let us off with a warning. I was so certain I was going to get the ticket I deserved, but I didn’t. BAD MAVIS.

Sadly, we did not see John Mellencamp. Or a pink house for that matter.

Food we ate today: Trail mix, oranges, banana, fig bar, chicken Caesar salad from Panera, bread and a MRE. I think I’ve gained like 10 pounds since we moved out of the HOA house. The first month was due to inactivity {because of living in a 600 square foot apartment} and this week, well, I’ve been sitting in a car. Once we get settled though, I think I’m going to drink nothing but hot tea and chicken broth for an entire week. Also, my face and hands are really dry. Maybe it’s the colder weather? Or maybe I’m just feeling a little whiny today because The Girl and I didn’t make it to the hotel until way after dark.

Road trips…. Some days are better than others.

720 Miles to go. I don’t even care if I have to sleep on the floor tomorrow night, I just want to be HOME.

~Mavis

P.S. If you are ever in Minnesota, you MUST find a Caribou Coffee stand and try their hot chocolate. It tastes just like you are drinking Cadbury chocolate. Ah-Mazing. The Girl and I  gave it a 5 out of 5.

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 – Newman’s Own Organics, Freezer Meatballs, Granite Ware and More

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Quote of the Day  “All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.” Steven Spielberg

Hello Thursday! I hope you have a WONDERFUL day…. Day 3 of our road trip coming up next.

♥ 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!}

A Few of My Favorite Cookbooks

Hot Dog! Yankee Candle is offering 4 of their large 22 ounce candles for just $48! Shipping is $5.99 for orders over $50 and free with orders of $100 or more. Here’s what I ordered:

Subscribe and Save Deals

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

Meatballs – I love freezer meatballs because they are so versatile.  You can throw some bbq sauce on them and call it good, or spice them up with a little teriyaki sauce and rice.

Discount Mags is offering a 1 year subscription to Bon Appetit Magazine for only $4.95 a year when you use code MAVIS at checkout. This deal will expire 3.23.18 at midnight EST.

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.

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

Get the Valley Food Storage 1 Month Food Supply: Value Kit for just $139.95 shipped {was $204.95}. I ate this entire kit {supplemented with beans and rice} and the food was great!

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 Great Migration East – Day 2 Billings, Montana to St. Cloud, Minnesota

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Yesterday we drove 775 miles and believe it or not, the drive wasn’t too bad. True, getting up at 4:30 in the morning and then jumping in the car at 5:15 am and driving for 12+ hours isn’t for everyone, but having a sense of humor about the whole thing, and having an abundance of podcasts to listen too, makes the drive fly by for the most part. {Favorite podcast of the day: The Art of Manliness.}

I was actually a little worried shortly after we took off from Billings because the roads were kind of slick once we hit Miles City and I was really hoping we’d be able to make it to Minnesota before dark. I’m not a big fan of driving at night, and since the boys were not exactly right behind us in the moving truck {more like an hour behind} the urgency to get to our hotel for the night before sundown was pretty real.

I don’t remember where we filled up, but somewhere along the way we paid $2.39 a gallon for gas, and I was thrilled! $0.40 less a gallon than Tacoma, Washington? Yes please!

Also, for the first time ever {I’m not even sure HOW that’s possible} but I noticed on the big gas station price sign you are offered  a different price for paying in cash vs paying with a credit card. I can’t even remember when the last time I paid cash for gasoline. Maybe 20 years ago? Before debit cards were invented?

Do YOU take the time to walk in to the gas station, get tempted to buy a Slim Jim and stand in line and pay the attendant? It kind of makes me wonder how much money doing that one small task could save someone over the course of a year.

This picture was actually take the day before…. But God Bless Teddy Roosevelt and the Antiquities Act of June 8, 1906. I’m so glad there are vast parts of this country that cannot be developed.

By the time we hit St. Cloud Minnesota, I had made some serious progress on the outer boarder of my chicken rug. It’s fully, I thought I’d be able to get like 75% of this rug finished before we hit New England, but I totally forgot to account for it’s size {24″ x 60″} Oops. 😉

For the most part, day 2 on our 3,000 journey wasn’t super exciting, at least for me anyway. The 3 bakeries we had on our “potential stops” list, didn’t quite match up to our driving schedule, which was sort of a bummer. Instead of stopping for breakfast or lunch, we just munched on our road trip snacks of trail mix and granola bars.

Dinner time for The Girl though, you would have thought it was Christmas morning or something. She was so excited to try out the MRE’s Mrs. HB gifted us for our journey, it was hilarious. It was all she could talk about for the last 2 hours of our drive. Chili, Mexican corn, a chocolate shake, crackers and some Red Hots. She was enthralled by the whole process. Who knew heating water in a plastic packet could be so exciting?

Life on the road, it’s just one big adventure. 😉

1,400 miles to go!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone,

~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 – Keeping Birds Away From Your Berries, Online Deals, Nutella Quick Bread Recipe and More

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Quote of the Day  “To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.” ~ Jerry Seinfeld

One word —- Exhausted. 😉 Road trip post coming up next. {And then I need a nap}

♥ 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!}

Books About Decluttering and Living with Less

Subscribe and Save Deals

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

Want to get outside and garden but the ground is still frozen? Well then, here’s a handy little craft… Gather up a few rocks and paint the like strawberries to fool the birds. 😉 See how I did it HERE.

Discount Mags is offering a 1 year subscription to This Old House for only $6.99 a year when you use code MAVIS at checkout. This deal will expire 3/22/18 at midnight EST.

Home and Kitchen Deals

Nutella Banana Nut Bread – Nutella is basically a gift from the heavens.  Enough said.

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}. 

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.

Mavis Butterfield Etsy