I am trying to get back to a normal blogging routine especially after making this move. I thought I would start by filling in some posts from my weekly series.
Frugality for me has been at an all time high these last few weeks. If anyone is dealing with too much “stuff,” I recommend making a move across the country and ONLY being allowed to fit all of your personal belongings into a 25 foot long moving truck. Talk about being frugal!!!
When I think of myself, I think of myself as a minimalist. When you call a person a minimalist, you’re describing their interest in keeping things very simple. A minimalist prefers the minimal amount or degree of something. But then, I started going through all of the things that I own to decide what to keep for packing and what goes to the donate pile.
I started in my kitchen, noticing how many pots I had, how many baking dishes I had and how many plastic bowls I owned. This one was for that one time, someone wanted to make eggs and this bowl was for the one time we needed to mix up multiple things and needed it. I had to start somewhere in getting rid of things.
In my new kitchen, I was able to store all of our items that we use everyday along with our pantry full of food which would probably last us about 3 months.
I kept the 2 big stock pots that I use and one small pot for melting things as we don’t use the microwave. I had a few frying pans and decided that I did not need them and I just kept my chicken fryer which I can fry eggs in anyways. It isn’t too often that one person makes breakfast for them self.
On the bottom I have my cupcake pans, which we use to make muffins in. I also had bought some new baking pans off a recommendation from my friend who has a much larger family than myself.
She recommended getting these pans. I think they are called chafer pans?? Not sure on the correct names, but if you have a wedding or party they use these with the lighted fuel underneath them. They are cheap and durable. It has replaced my glass baking pans which I had to use a couple for our size family. These work great and clean very well. 
My dishes have since been replaced. We used to have the divider cafeteria style plates which worked great for all the little ones but I wanted something smaller to make washing easier. I did not know Walmart sold this type of plate and was so pleased to find them, again thanks to my friend:)
I need plates that would not break and since all of my other plates have broken over the years I wanted the restaurant kind that would stand the use from our family.
I love my new plates, cereal bowls and small bowls for applesauce or yogurt. The speckled ones are probably my very favorite for serving a meal that can be all mixed together. We call them our blates bowl + plate. I have a set of restaurant style cups so that they won’t break. A coffee cup for each adult and that is all we need.
I picked up 2 of these matching bowls for serving. That way we have a “nicer” set for us or company.
I still did my baking cupboard and it is smaller than my older one. It holds measuring cups, mixer, food processor, bread pans, strainer, small mixing bowl, strainer for kombucha, applesauce strainer, rolling pin–which I almost gave away but thankfully brought it. Very hard to roll out things without a rolling pin!!!
I kept my big stainless style mixing bowl for bread and popcorn and acquired this taller one from Sams Club. Inexpensive, it is nice for mixing as everything doesn’t fly out of it as you mix it. Another recommendation from friend:)
I bought a big roll of aluminum foil and have that along with a box of plastic bags for freezing. I plan to wash and reuse my bags as I always do.
We have a drawer that fits our silverware in it and smaller tools. I store my bigger spoons in my chicken holder on the counter top.
The only other cupboard is our plastic cupboard and that is filled. I have all my containers for freezing foods in. Since we downsized a freezer I have a bunch. I know we will be using them and don’t want to waste the plastic. I have about 6 bigger plastic containers from Goodwill that I have collected over the years to hold baked goods. That way I won’t use plastic baggies.
I only have a popcorn popper and toaster that didn’t make it in the photos. Everything else went. Makes for a much easier kitchen time. I don’t spend the hours washing dishes after each meal or constantly organizing cupboards.
As for the rest of the home, we have basics. It was great to get rid of the things that we did. We even pitched some toys that I was constantly picking up and thought my children would eventually play with. I realized they played better when they had only a few toys.
The children are even very creative when they only have crayons, paper, and scissors. No need for extra frilly craft items. Those items are fun but just lead to more mess and clean up.
Our food eating has been more frugal lately too as we have been eating up the foods that we had frozen. Lots of tomatoes, corn, and applesauce. After moving here, we ate more from our pantry as we are learning more of the better stores to go to. I am grateful we stocked our pantry because it has been a good time to eat from it. My younger girls are enjoying baking and that helps to fill the gaps for food. I am thankful that I came with a full freezer.
Oh speaking of freezer, another frugal accomplishment this week was to remake our freezer. In this home, we don’t have a basement like we did in our old home. It has a basement/garage but in North Carolina its more carved out of a mountain. I didn’t want the hassle of having to walk outside to grab a freezer food, so we put it in the home part. Now my freezer was a basement old freezer. Rusty and definitely not pretty. My husband said he would paint it. But that would require us moving it outside again to spray paint it. I really did not think that would happen so I started pinterest looking. Couldn’t find what I really wanted but saw how someone used electrical tape and made designs on it. I have all of our photo collages that I needed to put somewhere so I decided to put them on my freezer with the electrical tape.
Ok now it might not make it into a magazine spread, but for someone who has to look at it everyday and didn’t have a lot of money to transform it, I think it is going to work. 
I did my photo collages last year and had them on our walls, this home didn’t have as much wall space for them so it worked out great.
My husband bought a pack of electrical tape at Harbor Freight for like $5, I still have 3 rolls left. A very inexpensive freezer makeover!!
Hope you enjoyed my frugal accomplishments last week. Be blessed, Amy
