Thrifty Thursday: Trying to get Back on the Frugal Bandwagon

I am trying to get back into the habit of making frugal choices.  I got a little farther off the path then expected with the longer then necessary move process.  We are finally in the new house 100% and the other house is sold!!!   I did go over there to get the mail after we moved but that is because there is no one living there yet and all the mail was addressed to us.  I changed the address at the post office but I think that takes awhile so crossing my fingers that nothing gets lost in the transfer.

1. Buy less junk food!

I had to explain this to my son that chips were not something necessary to have in the house.  Not only that but we had one of his favorite chips and didn't need to have two other chips that he was heart broken because we didn't have.  We don't need four things of chips in a shopping trip!!  I am working on always having popcorn made in a bowl for easy access because we all love to eat that healthy and filling snack.

2. Bake More at Home

This is an easy addition and with the end of summer and start of school, I have made blueberry strudel muffins, applesauce bread, banana bread, cherry coffee cake and chocolate chip cookies.  I have been working back to making most of the things and trying new recipes on great baked goods for breakfast and treats.

3. Make Food from What We Have

This is something that we did for a long time to use up the food at the old house but now we have to do it because we don't have a lot of extra budget to stock up on things that we currently don't have a stockpile of.  I like to stock up on things when I get them really inexpensively.  I have a lot of Italian Dressing that we don't use so I added a little dill and marinated chicken with it.

I have tons of Worchestershire sauce that I need to use up so I am using that for marinate so that we have flavorful chicken without having to buy additional items to season them.

We are back to leftover nights where I use all of the items in the fridge to make other meals like my husband's favorite fried rice.  I bought some cooked chicken on sale and with coupon for free so super excited to have that in the freezer to use when we need to for yummy dishes like this.

I also have a ton of spaghetti sauce that we moved to the new house.  My mom took a bunch home with her in exchange for whatever she bought us.  I got the sauce free so it was a great deal for me and I am not stuck with a lot of sauce that we still aren't using.  We are going to be having a lot more pasta with sauce soon!!

5. Get Organized to Coupon

I went back to get a little more organized but I am still two inserts behind in cutting my coupons to sort them (plus I didn't even get the coupons).  The great news is that I found the two Coke coupons that I couldn't find when shopping before in my wallet!  I am super sad that I didn't find them when I was shopping because I wasn't organized but I am trying to pull together everything and get the coupon basket back in the car so that I can get things while I am out instead of thinking that my coupon basket is at the house.  I can't wait to coupon and stock up on the things that are on sale for the week!!

Here is hoping that I can get back on the bandwagon without hitting too many speed bumps!!