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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.

10 Fun Facts About Kale!

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I like produce. I like to grow it. I like to eat it. I like to create recipes with it. I’m also kind of a nerd and like to get to know my produce. I like learning new or fun tidbits of info about the produce I’m growing/eating/baking. If you’re a weirdo like me then buckle up for this new series as I dive into a plethora of produce facts and share them with you.

1. Kale has become so enormously popular {with everyone BUT me!} that farming of it grew almost 60% between 2007 and 2015! {WOWZA!}

2. Unlike many veggies, cooking kale doesn’t diminish any of its nutritional benefits, so throw it in all sorts of recipes.

3. Wash that kale like crazy! Kale is one of the most likely crops to have residual pesticides. Ick!

4. Kale is a cancer fighter! It contains high levels of cancer-preventers like glucosinolate phytonutrients. They protect against the development of tumors as well as block enzymes associated with cancer.

5. Kale is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids that are essential for brain health, reduces Type 2 diabetes risk and boosts heart health! They don’t call it a super food for nothing!

6. Kale can actually be found in many skincare products and even in nail polish. {Weird.}

7. Gram for gram, kale has more than twice the vitamin C as an orange. One cup of chopped kale has 134 percent of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C!

8. Whole Foods tried to make “kalegating” {tailgating with kale} and “kale pong” {beer pong with kale} a thing. Let’s just say it didn’t quite catch on!

9. After a frost, kale becomes sweeter. Hmmm. Maybe I would like it then?

10. Thomas Jefferson was onto the kale craze way before the rest of America. He grew several varieties of kale at his garden in early 1800s.

Had you heard any of those fun facts before? Do you have any of your own to add? Is there a particular produce item you want to know more about? I take requests!

Grow on,
Mavis

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Daily Deals – Free Hormel, Pumpkin Spice Waffle Recipe, Online Deals and More

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Quote of the Day  “One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood.” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Hey! My computer is working today….Sweet. 😉  The HH ordered me a new one last night {I forgot to ask what kind} and he said it should be here early next week. It’s funny, you don’t realize how much you use machines in your daily life until they start to quit on you. Technology, some days I like it and others…. well, other days I wish I could flip back the calendar about 100 years. 😉

Friday, let’s do this. On the agenda for today: Rockport, Massachusetts!

♥ 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.

Attention Fred Meyer and Kroger Shoppers … Today only you can download an ecoupon for one FREE Hormel Completes Meal any variety. Simply load the ecoupon to you Fred Meyer card and claim your freebie by 10/7/18. It’s that easy!

Home and Kitchen Deals

Pumpkin Spice Waffles: Did I have you at pumpkin spice? Thought so. Get the recipe HERE or Pin it For Later.

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}. 

Kid’s Stuff

Amazon Student is a feature offered to college students with a valid .edu email address. They’ll get Amazon Prime FREE for 6 months and then have the option of continuing that membership for 50% off {so only $59/year for students!}! Go HERE to see all the cool perks they’ll get.

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.

Fox’s Lobster House – York, Maine

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Yesterday we took my parents to Fox’s Lobster House on York Beach, in Maine. The seafood restaurant is located directly across from the Nubble Lighthouse and we thought it would be the perfect spot to take them for that quintessential New England lobster feast.

After all, you don’t come to Maine to skip the lobster, right?

Or the coastal views and lighthouses. Repairs were being done on the lighthouse so unfortunately the lighthouse itself wasn’t totally visible, but the clear skies and views from the rocky shoreline totally made up for it.

Being the non seafood lover, I ordered a hamburger and a slice of blueberry pie. 😉 Which, was not only delicious, but filling {the crumb topping was spot on!}. I think I have gained 10 pounds since they’ve been here. 

The parental units, they of course had steamed lobsters. Have you ever tried to eat a steamed lobster before? It’s a bit of a challenge, or at least it looked challenging as we sat across from my parents and watched them pull their lobsters apart.

But this is New England, and I don’t think it would be a proper visit without a few lobster shacks thrown into the mix. Now, if I could just get them to wear the iconic red and black plaid flannel shirt and get them into a pair of Bean Boots, I think their visit would be complete. 😉

Fox’s Lobster House in York…. Go check it out!

~Mavis

Fox’s Lobster House

8 Sohier Park Rd, York, ME 03909

Got a sweet tooth, or want to read more about New England lobster shacks?  You can see all the bakeries and seafood joints we’ve visited so far this year HERE.

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 – Flower Baskets and Fresh Eggs

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Ahhh September. You have my heart. Last week a neighbor stopped by to introduce herself and to gift us a beautiful hanging flower basket for our front door. The neighbor had planted a ton of hanging baskets in the spring for a backyard wedding they had just hosted at their home a few weeks ago and she wanted to share all the leftovers.

How kind was that? And the hanging basket? Not only was it the PERFECT size to hang right in front of our door, but the colors were spot on, don’t you think?

Our home has about 5 or 6 hanging basket hooks {on the front, back and side of the house} and although I didn’t have enough time to put baskets together this year, next year I’m totally going to copy the plants from the hanging basket were were gifted.

Gordy. Isn’t he beautiful? And he’s a heavy sucker too. I’ve been checking on him everyday lately and am AMAZED that he is still hanging there by that teeny tiny vine. Mother Nature, she’s pretty cool.

How is your garden doing these days? Is it on the way out? We had a heavy rain storm yesterday and although it gave the ground a good drink, it sort of beat all the plants down. 😉

Oh well, it’s not like there is much trying to flower these days anyways.

Late bloomers: Red pear tomatoes. They’re hanging in there.

Rather than pick our last round of Kentucky pole beans, I’ve decided to let them go to seed. Hopefully I’ll be able to save enough for next year so I won’t have to buy any.

I can’t recommend the Arapaho pepper enough. The flavor, size, shape and sturdiness are all spot on. It’s a hot pepper, but it’s also sweet and it gives recipes just enough kick, it’s totally worth putting it on your seed list for next year.

Plus, I hear they are easy to dry, so we are giving it a try.

And garlic. Have you bought your seed garlic yet? Rather than paying big bucks {like $4 a head!} from a seed company online, I decided to go ahead and purchase this bundle of organically grown {no spray!} garlic for $10 at a local farmer’s market. I’ll plant the garlic in a few weeks and look forward to a nice bed of green popping up through the snow next spring.

And our sweet potato patch. It came back from the bunny munchathon and even though I have no idea how much we’ve got growing underground, I think it will be fun to harvest our first crop in a few weeks.

Swiss chard has been on the dinner menu all week. I’d love to try and keep the chard covered from frost and snow this winter, but I’m sort of looking forward to break from the garden so I’ve been pulling it up and tossing it in the coop for the fluffy bottoms to enjoy.

And check this out….. It’s been a little over a week and we have collected 11 eggs. Two of our hens are laying {Hilda and Martha}. I wonder who {and what color of egg} will be next.

Fall in New England. So far, I’m loving it!

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.

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