This week I was a lot slower than normal due to having a cold!  I spent some extra time asleep today but I was still able to accomplish a couple of things that I wanted to share.

First up I collect a gallon of tomatoes from the garden. We really enjoyed the pizza sauce that I made last Saturday so I decided to repeat the process. I used about a gallon and half of tomatoes (filled up my casserole crockpot) add some fresh oregano and basil along with a 1/2 cup of lemon juice and a tablespoon of sugar. This sauce turned out perfect!   I was able to can up 11 additional pints for future use!  I went ahead and made a fresh crust but with the ingredients all out I also made and froze two additional crust which will be nice for using during the school year.

I can tell the garden is coming to a close. So I have decided to go ahead and plan for next year. I had purchased a small green stalk planter on sale in the spring.  We used dirt from a garden bed that is currently behind the green house. This is a bed that is out of sight and out of mind so we will be moving it this fall.  I am going to use this small green stalk for attempting lettuce and spinach this fall and in the early spring..  I actually received a packet of arugula seeds that I started on the top row.   I also purchased two additional tops for my green stalk planter during the sale they had last week.

I did some research as to what type of garlic, spinach and lettuce would grow best in my area. One of the big reasons is that I have had very limited success with this in the past so I decided to try something new.  I placed an order for all three things so we shall see if they work.

I am attempting to lower the grocery budget significantly during the final four months of the year. I would love to keep this month September to less than $200.  I went through and skipped most of my subscribe and save order for the month. So far including the Amazon I have spent $106 for the month. We are starting to run low on paper products so a trip to Costco will likely occur around the first week of October which will mean at least a $500 budget for October.

EVERY BIT COUNTS!