One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 3 of 2167 - 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.

Double Chocolate Cheesecake

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 20, 2019 · 9 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely LOVE a good chocolate dessert. So when the HH asked me what I wanted anything special for my birthday a few weeks ago, I told him I wanted him to make a chocolate cheesecake for my big day.

Why a chocolate cheesecake? Well, one… I love chocolate. And two… I knew I’d be able to FREEZE the leftovers. 😉 If I had requested a chocolate cake or something, the sweet treat would have only last a few days…. But with a cheesecake, I knew I’d be able to snitch slices from the freezer for months to come.

And with gardening season only a few weeks away, the thought of being able to walk in the garage after spending a few hours outside and having something delicious waiting for me… well, the idea of a cheesecake for my birthday, it sort of sealed the deal. {Pretty clever, don’t you think?}

So. About this cheesecake. It’s pretty freakin’ AWESOME. You should make it. 🙂 Just be sure and hide a few slices for yourself for later on. You’ll be so glad you did.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1/4 cup hot, brewed coffee mixed with ¼ cup very hot water
¼ teaspoon salt
14 ounces 70% Dark Chocolate Bars
16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Mix cookie crumbs, melted butter and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl until combined. Press mixture onto the bottom of the 9″ springform pan and set aside.

Dissolve salt in hot coffee mixture; set aside.

Coarsely chop 12 ounces of the chocolate bars saving the remaining 2 ounces for garnishing the cheesecake.

Place chopped chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on medium for 1 minute. Stir, and continue to heat in 30-second intervals until the chocolate is almost completely melted {you want a few small chunks remain}. Stir chocolate until smooth, and cool slightly {about 3 – 5 minutes}.

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese at low speed until creamy {about 2 – 3 minutes}. Gradually add the remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat until well blended {at least 2 minutes}. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and slowly beat in the coffee mixture and vanilla extract. Drizzle in melted chocolate and beat until blended. Pour mixture into the prepared crushed chocolate wafer cookie crust.

Bake the cheesecake for 55 to 65 minutes or until cheesecake is puffed and center is set, but slightly wobbly {do not overcook!}. Cool the cheesecake completely in the spring form pan on a wire rack {about an hour or so}. Then cover the spring form pan with aluminum foil and refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 6 hours or overnight.

This is a very rich cheesecake, and you can easily get 16 servings out of this recipe.

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Succession Planting – Why It’s Awesome and How to Do It

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 19, 2019 · 14 Comments

If I could teach you one tool and only one tool to maximize your garden’s harvest, it would be succession planting! Technically succession planting is putting in a new bed of the same vegetable at intervals throughout the growing season. Basically it’s continuous planting or staggered plantings so that you get a constant harvest of a particular fruit/veggie, rather than a one and done type planting/harvesting.

When I had a large square foot garden, I utilized succession planting constantly. It allowed me to take full advantage of my garden space the entire growing season. You can easily fill those spots that previously harvested food left behind, like during the transition from early spring crops to summer crops. Maximized garden spots means maximized garden yields.

I typically start my succession planting with lettuce, which is a great place to start if you’ve never tried succession planting before. It’s impossible to eat all the lettuce a garden produces at once, so I began replanting smaller amounts every 2 weeks. I love it because I am able to have different types of lettuce that produced every couple of weeks.

Another benefit of succession planting is that it naturally breaks up your garden chores into smaller pieces. Sure I end up planting from March through the end of September, but because I’m only planting a small amount every week, it takes little time at all. Can you imagine doing all that planting at once? It’s a TON of work all at the same time. This way it spreads out the work and makes it more manageable. { I wrote post about the importance of using grow lights a while back, you can read all about that HERE}.

When it comes to getting a continuous harvest from a particular type of veggie/fruit, certain plants work better than others. Here’s a basic succession planting date guide for a continual harvest:

Green Beans – Plant every 10 days
Beets – Plant every 14 days
Cucumbers – Plants every 3 weeks
Kale/Collards – Plant every 3 weeks
Lettuce – Plant every 10-14 days
Melons – Plant every 3 weeks
Radish – Plant every 7 days
Spinach – Plant every 7 days
Summer Squash – plant every 6 weeks
Sweet Corn – Plant every 10 days
Carrots – Plant every 2-3 weeks {as weather allows, stop when it gets too hot and resume in late summer/early fall}
Cauliflower – Plant every 2 weeks {as weather allows, stop when it gets too hot and resume again in late summer/early fall}
Turnips – Plant every 7 Days

After you’ve decided on the veggies you want to plant, you need to create a planting schedule. Creating a detailed succession plan eliminates the guesswork of what and when to plant later on. You can do this by drawing a spring, summer, and fall map of each garden space or garden bed you have. Then plug veggies into the diagram, with early, quick crops followed by long-season ones. You’ll need to note transplant and harvest dates.

Once you have your plan, you can manage the succession of your crops by sowing small amounts of seeds or transplanting a few seedlings at regular intervals, either in the same spot or at different times in various parts of the garden. I’ve done both with great success.

Planting season, it has finally arrived! 🙂 {Even if some of us are having to start our seeds under lights}

What are YOU most looking forward to growing this year? Curious minds want to know.

~Mavis

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How Much We Spent on Groceries and What We Ate – Week 11 of 52

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 18, 2019 · 14 Comments

Market Basket $87.90

Last week the HH and I went grocery shopping at Market Basket together {he usually does the shopping alone these days, a total reversal from the past 25 years, when I was the only one who bought groceries, but I like it}.

It seems like hot dogs, Cape Cod chips and boxes of cereal are always high on his priority list, while I’m always on the lookout for butter and the boxes of Good and Plenty. We’ve been here almost a year now, and I am still learning where everything is in the store.

The HH though, he could probably be a stock boy there, he knows where EVERYTHING is. It’s hilarious.

Hey all you chicken mama’s out there… Peeps has a Chick’N Coop cookie building kit this year. Mrs. HB, have you seen this? I bet Little HB boy would love one. Amazon has them online, but they’re less expensive in the stores {$9.99 I think}.

ALDI $10.94

Those darn pita chip crackers! Tortillas were $0.99. Every time I see a package of tor-till-ahs in the store I think of that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where his mom is telling him to make a darn quesadilla. How you can walk thorough life pronouncing tortillas or quesadilla properly after watching that scene, I don’t know. The movie is 15 years old, and The Girl and I still say tor-till-ahs.

Mississippi Pot Roast.

I ate the leftover potatoes cold for breakfast the next morning and then made tor-till- ahs filled with leftover pot roast, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, and cheese for dinner. I tucked the extra meat and juices into the freezer for a soup sometime in the near future.

Pickety bits. The brie cheese was a new addition.

Big salad.

Creamy spiced red beans and lentils…. or as I like to call them, beans and rice, rice and beans.

Market Basket $2.99 {Doesn’t that seem cheap for 32 ounces of ricotta cheese?} I needed it for the Italian Ricotta Pie I made and so I had the HH pop by the store and pick it up. When I asked him how much it was I was surprised. I thought it would have been around $5 or so.

The increased amount of Italian and Irish products in the stores {at least in comparison to the PNW} is pretty noticeable. I mean, Bewley’s coffee and tea products? The last time I had a cup of Bewley’s tea was when I was in Dublin like 10 years ago. So to see their products on the store shelves here is pretty awesome {the Irish breakfast tea was always my favorite}. I guess the Irish and Italian population is big around here, and it shows on the grocery store shelves.

Breakfast date with the HH at the 1690 House. Those people, they sure know how to make a good breakfast sandwich.

As I was biting into my ham and brie croissant, I thought about my friend JJ and her quest for the perfect puff pastry and how I’d like to go down and sit in her kitchen for a few hours to sip tea and talk about random things. But I couldn’t very well visit JJ without stopping by to visit her mom and well since Zoë’s house is on the way, I’d have to stop there too and well then I couldn’t very well go to Zoë’s house and not stop at her parent’s place and before you know it I’d be gone for 5 days.

Good food, it reminds you of things. 🙂

How about YOU? Did you buy anything exciting at the grocery store this week? Did you make anything crazy good? I bet you had corned beef for dinner last night, didn’t you?
Have a great Monday everyone and

~Mavis

Total Spent on Groceries This Week $101.83

Total Spent on Groceries in March $204.14
Total Spent on Groceries in February $220.92
Total Spent in January on Groceries $41.19
Total Spent So Far on Groceries in 2019 $466.25 {Goal is to average $150 – $175 a month for the year}

You can 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.

My 22 Goals for 2019 – Week 11 of 52

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 17, 2019 · 17 Comments

My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love

Oh my goodness! Look at that forecast!! Those daily temps, everyday above freezing for the next week. Can you believe it? {well, at least the day time temps anyway}. One thing I remember about last year, is that spring came on like the flip of a switch towards the end of March and it was totally nuts. The ground went from a rock solid brown to a glorious green in about a 6 week period and all the bugs and ticks and BLACK FLIES were out in full force.

I’m a little more prepared this time around though and plan to be outside hacking and whacking away all the brush I want GONE over the next 2 weeks before it becomes an uphill battle. Wahoooooooo! Spring, it has sprung!

Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden

Yesterday I planted a flat of lettuce seeds {I love that Botanical Interests always includes a packet of freebie seeds with their orders}. I’ll be planting pepper and cabbage seeds next week. Note to self: Make a list of seeds to plant in the order I’ll be planting them both inside and out.

Seeds I planted so far this year:

Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard

Maybe in late April?

Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed

A few months ago the HH installed party lights in the potting shed for me and then the doors to the potting shed froze and I wasn’t able to get back inside to get the potting shed cleaned up. As you can see, we need to get some crushed rock in there to help with the run off from the driveway, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

With this being “mud season” now though, I think it might be a wise idea to wait a few weeks until we have a big truckload of crushed rock delivered {for the driveway and potting shed} so we don’t make things even worse.

At least I can get the doors open now, and start playing around. 🙂 Happy Happy.

Goal #5 — Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand.

I should really make a list of the veggie and herb starts I want to plant extra of.

I don’t know whether to be happy because the ground is thawing and the snow is finally melting or to be upset about the fact that weeding season will be starting soon. That brick path…. hopefully I can keep it weed free this year. 😉

Goal #6 — Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books I’ve Been Meaning to Make.

I updated my Etsy Shop at the beginning of March with my latest creations and this past week I hooked a few more pieces for my next Etsy listing on March 29th. 2 of the rugs came from my pattern bin which means I have 60 more to go if I plan to get that bin of projects cleared out by the end of the year.

I started the year off with:

73 rugs {now down to 60}
183 hooked flowers {finished 73, now down to 110}
10 “things” from back issues of magazines {finished 0}

Goal #7 — Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones}

I started off the year wanting to create 12 new rug hooking patterns and so far I’ve create 4 new patterns {well, actually 5 but I don’t count a pattern as done until I have the model hooked up and the pattern ready to sell}. I’ve also added a few rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop due to people asking if I could make a kit for them. I wasn’t planning on making kits to sell, but I’ve made a few and so we’ll see how it goes.

New Rug Hooking Patterns I’ve Created This Year:

Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter

I plan to have the HH out there cutting wood just as soon as we can do it without getting our boots stuck in the mud.

Goal #9 — Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone

Ehhhh.

Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top

I walked on the treadmill 3 times last week for a little indoor, I don’t want to leave my house exercise. And then I washed our comforter in the bathtub {because it won’t fit in the washing machine}. What a workout that was!

Goal #11 — Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, ~~10k~~, Half Marathon and Marathon

I haven’t signed up for anything yet.

Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books

I am about 3/4 through Where’d You Go, Bernadette and of my goodness it is so funny. Everything she says from trying to walk around downtown in Seattle, to ferry boat lines to the parent volunteer stuff to the school/parent emails is so totally spot on. I have a feeling I’m going to be sad when the book is over. I am also currently listening to This is the Story of a Happy Marriage on audiobook as I work on my rug hooking and little pottery projects.

I am waiting my turn on the library wait list for the following audio books:

Books I’ve Read or Listened to So Far This Year:

Carnegie’s Maid #2 favorite so far
Marilla of Green Gables #1 favorite so far
Finder’s Keepers
Delicious!
Will’s Red Coat.
Following Atticus

Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes.

8 down, 44 recipes to go.

This past week I made an Italian Ricotta Pie and Almond Pears.

Goal #14 — Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog

Seven recipes down, 45 to go.

Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars

4 down, 96 to go.

Market Basket had pears on sale for $0.99 a pound last week so I canned some Almond Pears which I plan to use in a pear crisp later this year.

Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House

Not only did I come home with the perfect craft table for my wool room, but yesterday when I went to the recycle center to drop off our stuff I picked up a free coffee table someone has left behind {thank goodness the HH was not with me or it wouldn’t have made it into the car}.

It’s not perfect, and it’s all scratched up and needs a new coat of stain {or paint} but hey, it’s just the right size, and in the general style I was looking for, and it was free, and if something better comes along I can always bring it back to the recycle center. 🙂 Go Fight Win.

Furniture pieces I’m still on the hunt for:

~~Coffee table for the family room~~
Console, cupboard or sideboard for the one and only tv in our house which is in the family room. I could totally live without a television, but my husband says the tv stays.
~~Long rectangular table for the craft room.~~
Table for the formal dining room {We moved the kitchen table to the dining room and so mow we are looking for a table for the kitchen/keeping room area}.
2 wing back chairs for the family room.
I’d also like to decorate the mantel in the keeping room as well as put up some sort of decoration above the other 3 fireplaces in the house. I’m not one for a lot of things on the walls, but it would be nice to throw up a little pilgrim bling on the plaster.

Goal #17 – 52 Dates with the HH {8 down, 44 to go}

Late last fall the HH and I discovered the 1690 House Bakeshop Cafe in Wells, Maine and like many businesses in New England, the 1690 House Bakeshop and Cafe closed it’s doors right after the Christmas holiday for a few months. {The tourists had long packed up and gone home, the holiday season was over, and the locals then pretty much stay home and hunker down for the next few months until early spring, so why stay open, right?}.

I can’t tell you how much I LOVE the fact that so many local shops close up for the winter around here. I think it’s cool the owners get a nice long break from the day to day grind, and that if they need to make any repairs, or gussy up their stores, they get the chance to do that at a reasonable pace without having to worry about or inconvenience their customers. Plus, it kind of makes opening day a big deal.

So, when the 1690 House Bakeshop and Cafe opened it’s doors for 2019 on Friday, we made sure we were there for breakfast. And boy was it good! 🙂 I love date days that involve food.

Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class

Hey! I signed up for a class {with my neighbor!}. I’m keeping it mum until AFTER I take the class {in May} but it’s something I’ve never done before and I am SUPER excited about it. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project {On hold, because I don’t have the patience for it}

I’ve 100% decided to ditch my first idea. But, I feel good about my current idea {even if I have no idea when I’ll get started on it}. Show and tell date is still set for the first Friday in September.

Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters

3 down 9 to go.

I made a platter of pickety bits for linner a few days ago and then we nibbled on the leftovers the next day {or two}. Also, I am beginning to think Good and Plenty are a party platter must have.

Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores

1 down 11 to go and I have a HUGE list of stores I want to visit when we are in those particular areas.

Goal #22 — Compete with Carole….. Get on My Front Door Game On

I had the HH cut out a giant carrot for the front door for spring, now I just need to go to the craft store and grab some paint. 😉

Front Door Bling I’ve Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole:

Late January : Valentine Heart ♥

Late February : Shamrock

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How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, it’s so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you! 🙂

♥ Mavis

You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE.

Have a Great Sunday!

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.