September 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

Happy Friday :T Hope everyone's doing well with their budgets so far for September. Hugs to anyone who needs one. And to anyone who just wants one

So far I have spent about £116 of my £350 budget for September, so about a third and not yet a week into it. But that does include £40 on a bulk buy of cat food, which will last one of the little darlings til the end of the year. Other little darling is on his last bag of his special food, but won't need more until next month. I am feeling reasonably confident this month as I reckon I only need to spend about £20 on top-ups next week as have loads in the freezers and cupboards. That should hopefully put me under-budget by the time I get halfway through the month.

I may need to buy a new kettle though, which would be a bit of a spanner in the works. Current one seems to have sprung a leak at the bottom. Will have to have a look at it later and see what's what. OH wants one of those Tefal Quick Cup things:rolleyes: , but I've just looked at some reviews and it seems they aren't particularly good - and I'm certainly not spending £50 on a useless gadget!

Might lose track of the GC over the weekend as won't be online much. OH's sister gets married on Saturday, so we are out all day at that. Then Sunday we are off out to a pub for lunch as there will be a singer there who has been recommended for our wedding, so we are going to see what she's like.

Hope you all have a great MSE weekend

shelbell this my recipe you can add other diced veg at the frying stage

Sweet Tomato Pasta Base sauce

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 onion,peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
100ml olive oil
1 level teaspoon dried oregano
pinch chilli flakes
800g tinned tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
1teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Method
1. In a pan, slowly fry the onion and garlic in a good drizzle of olive oil.
2. Add the oregano and chilli and cook for 4 minutes until sweet and softened.
3. Add the tomatoes, simmer gently for about 15 minutes then break the tomatoes up with a wooden spoon.
4. Add the balsamic vinegar and the sugar and stir cook for a further 5 minutes
5. taste the sauce adding more sugar or vinegar if necessary then blend with a hand blender until smooth

Tip: You could serve this sauce alone or add vegetables, fish, chicken or cooked sliced sausages etc

Shaz

ooooh thanks Mrs M, you're a star.

I hope everyone is doing better with their budget than me! I have just under 3 weeks until the end of my 'September'!

£22.90 spent at the Coop, greengrocers & hardware store (some bicarb for some OS cleaning) today. I managed to pick up some whoopsied diced pork for 99p (from £1.49) - this will be turned into pork and apple burgers for the freezer. Fingers crossed for NSDs for over the weekend and next week. Meals are planned (see here) - so there should be no need to buy anything else.

Off to make an enormous batch of bolognese for the freezer. Have a great weekend everyone!

Hello, I'm declaring a budget of £200 again for September. I only blew it last month because of moving and there is nothing so exciting happening this month! The big challenge this month is that I need to start buying bits and pieces for the baby (due in November!) to put away ready, so that will stretch the budget.

So far this month I've spent £41.21, which is on target. Good luck with September, everyone!

Edited to add: Actually - £51.86 - I forgot replacement heads for our toothbrushes - blimey those things are expensive! So now over in fact - grrr.