Revamped leftovers chicken fried rice

From time to time I like to make a list of the different ways I saved money in the last little while and share them here on this blog. First off, it makes me feel accomplished, because often in my life (especially dealing with disability and picky kids etc…) I feel like a frugal failure, so when I do frugal things I like to keep track of them to remind myself. Second, hopefully some of the frugal things I did can inspire you to be more frugal, either using the same ideas, or just general inspiration. And lastly, sometimes, because I know I’ll be able to write it in a post, it encourages me to find even more frugal things to do.

Frugal Food Choices

Revamped Leftovers

• I deboned some leftover chicken and used it in my homemade ramen. 
  
• I used deboned chicken, leftover rice, and leftover salad, and turned it into chicken fried rice. (Of course, I first picked out the things that wouldn’t be good cooked, like the cucumbers.)
  
• I took leftover roasted potatoes, boiled them up with a little water to soften them, then blended them up to make mashed potatoes, which I then seasoned with some fried onions and garlic. 
  
• I deboned leftover chicken, some which had dried up somewhat, chopped up some leftover roasted squash, and added it to fried garlic and onion, and cooked it until the chicken absorbed some moisture, then added leftover roasted pepper salad, turning it into a fricassee of sorts.

Other Food Waste Reduction & Cooking Smart

• I took some past prime wilting cucumbers and extended their life by salting them to release some of their excess liquids, and then turned them into a marinated cucumber salad.
  
• I found fennel that froze in the back of my refrigerator. The partially frozen fennel I roasted and they turned out fine- note to self, the texture doesn’t change when roasted after being frozen. The fully frozen fennel was turned into a delicious soup. 
  
• I turned soft apples into apple crumble.
  
• I made homemade muffins using homemade gluten free flour mix.
  
• I made fake cheese sauce from scratch for tacos.

DIY & Repairs

• My 11 year old daughter gave me a haircut using the butterfly cut tutorial I had posted here. 
  
• My bathroom door handle was coming loose and I tried fixing it but it wasn’t working. I was about to call a repairman to fix it when I figured out the issue, took care of the solution and solved it.
  
• One of my kids broke their brand new belt by snapping a metal hoop open and losing it. I used pliers to pull apart another loop and used it to reattach the broken ends, and used pliers to fix it. Voila, basically as good as new.
  
• I’m working really hard on rebuilding my site and moving it over to WordPress. It is a lot of work and too much for me to do on my own, though I am doing a lot of parts myself. The rest, though, I’m bartering with other people for it.

Shopping Smart & Discounts

• Bras are ridiculously ridiculously priced locally (especially now that I found out I was 3 cups sizes larger than I’d thought) and the last bra I bought here was $150!!! I found equally good quality bras on Amazon and ordered them for less than $50 each. The two that arrived were a little too big (different companies fit differently) so I returned them to Amazon for a refund and ordered a different size. Returning things is a pain because I don’t have a working printer, so too many things that I should have been able to get a refund for, I didn’t. So my actually paying a dollar to print the label to return it and drop it off at the Amazon package drop off place counts as a big frugal deal to me.
  
• I injured my knee recently and it has been taking some time to heal. I bought some expensive kineseology tape locally (about $25 bucks for the no name brand), but it wasn’t good at all and wasn’t waterproof, which meant I couldn’t wear it to go swimming, which is when I needed it most. I found waterproof stuff on Amazon for $10 for 4 of them, making it 1/10th the price for a much better quality item than it was locally and ordered that. I combined it with something else I ordered so I got free international shipping.
  
• I ordered extra large microfiber towels to take with me to the pool from Amazon, getting free international shipping, and they cost less than half of a similarly sized product locally.
  
  
• I ordered good quality sneakers from the US for a fraction of the price locally (and these are in feminine colors, something I can’t find in my size in my country.)
  
• I’ve noticed that I have a hard time seeing the screen at the movie theater, since the angle you see the screen is the wrong one for seeing distance on my multifocals, so I bought a pair of distance only glasses. But since it is only for something inconsequential, I ordered a 10 dollar pair of glasses from Zenni Optical. 
  
• It’s my birthday month, so I used my birthday discount for art supplies at an art store.
  
• I also used my birthday discount to buy my kids soccer balls at a toy store.

Other Savings

• I went to the movies and used a buy one get one free offer for tickets. 
  
• To have drinks at the movie theater, I brought in a bottle of soda instead of buying overpriced drinks there.
  
• My son canceled his gym membership that I was paying for, so he could get one half the price next to his work via his work discount.

I think overall these were some decently good frugal accomplishments to be proud of.

Have you done any frugal things recently you’re proud of? What were they?