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.

Food Waste Tip – Freeze Vegetable Scraps and Use Them to Make Vegetable Stock

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 15 Comments

Freeze Vegetable Scraps and Use Them to Make Vegetable Stock

One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Barbara left this comment on the How Much Food Does the Average Family Throw Away in One Year story and I thought it served as a great reminder that we should all do what we can to prevent food waste in our own homes.

Here’s what she said:

“I began to wonder what I could do to improve my family’s waste. I will begin saving the peelings and ends of veggies in the freezer to make veggie stock. I will save all the bits of veggies and meat from dinner to make a soup and use the stock. Even if we go out and there is only a little bit of food on the plate, I will bring it home {rather than have the restaurant throw it out}. Hopefully, these simple steps will help to reduce food waste from my house!” 

organic vegetables

Homemade vegetable stock {scraps or no scraps} is so easy to make. Here’s the recipe I use {the ingredients list is always changing based on what I have on hand}.

Ingredients

  • 14 quarts water
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 3 carrots, large, broken in half
  • 5 celery stocks
  • 10 mushrooms, halved
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

how to make vegetable stockDirections

Place everything in a large stock pot, cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Strain.

Once the vegetable stock has cooled, use a funnel and place the stock in mason jars until ready to use.  The vegetable stock should keep for 5 days in the refrigerator or up to one year in the freezer.

Have you ever made vegetable stock from scratch before?

Do you add anything special, or just use what you have on hand?

~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.

Cooking Bacon in the Oven

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 21 Comments

Cooking Bacon in the OvenHave you ever cooked bacon in the oven?  We’ve done it for years now.  It’s a total time saver.  And hello, who doesn’t love the smell of bacon?!

baconBaking bacon is just fun to say, but it also creates delicious, crispy goodness.  Here’s how to get perfect bacon everytime:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Line a baking sheet with foil {if you want really crispy bacon, use your broiling pan, and only line the drip pan with foil for easier clean-up}.
  3. Arrange bacon on the baking sheet.  It can be super close together, just make sure it’s not overlapping, or it won’t cook evenly.
  4. Bake for 15-20 minutes.  {I recommend checking it after 10 minutes, though, because pretty much every package of bacon I’ve ever bought is cut differently, i.e. thicker or thinner, which will effect overall cooking time.}
  5. When desired level of crispiness is achieved, pull it out of the oven and place the the bacon on a plate lined with paper towels.  Resist the urge to pop it all into your mouth and then cool it simultaneously by gulping ice water.

Easy, delicious bacon.

~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.

What Do the PLU codes on Stickers of Fruits and Veggies Mean?

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 9 Comments

What Do the PLU codes on Stickers of Fruits and Veggies MeanHave you ever wondered what the numbers on those little stickers on your produce mean?  They are called PLU codes {price look-up codes} and originally were meant to help the seller price and sell the item accurately.  You may already know that  the codes can tell how the produce was grown, but they are not always reliable.

The stickers are not required, and if a seller is not planning on pricing genetically modified foods differently, they will occasionally leave the first number off of the sticker {since the codes are really for the sellers, this is not really a crazy violation}.  Overall, PLU’s can be a great guide to telling you how your food was grown, but just remember, produce with conventionally grown PLU’s can still be potentially genetically modified.

Here’s the 411 on deciphering the numbers:

  • PLU’s consist of 5 numbers.  Often, when the first number is a 0, they just leave it off of the PLU entirely.  PLU’s with 4 digits or that start with a 0, tell you that the produce was grown conventionally with the use of pesticides.
  • If the 5 digit number starts with an 8, the item is genetically modified.
  • If the 5 digit number starts with a 9, the produce was organically grown.

Happy decoding,

Mavis

**Fun fact:  The glue they use for the PLU stickers is food grade, the stickers themselves are not.

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 Clean Your Coffee Grinder

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
By on · 12 Comments

How to Clean Your Coffee Grinder

Every couple of weeks, the coffee grinder starts to build up with leftover grounds and oils that don’t easily wipe out.  That’s all fine and dandy, unless you’re a coffee connoisseur, like the HH, who can taste the difference.  So, being the awesome wife that I am, I try to clean it out, to keep his cup o’ joe tasting perfecto.  {It doesn’t hurt that cleaning it is SUPER simple.}

How to Clean Your Coffee Grinder

When grounds start to build up, empty the grinder the best you can and toss in handful of white rice.

How to Clean Your Coffee Grinder

Pulse the rice a bit, it will start to break down like rice flour, and while it does, it will absorb and grab any loose particles.

how to clean your coffee grinder

Dump out the contents, and voila! squeaky clean grinder.  This works great if you use your grinder for multiple things too {like crushing herbs or flax seeds}.  It keeps the flavors from mingling.

Ah, a housewife’s work is never done…

~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