Throughout my frugal journey, I have picked up tons of great frugal habits. Some I have left behind and some I’ve had for years. Many of them I do not have use for anymore and do not fit into my lifestyle. Here are frugal habits I got rid of and why:

1. Coupon Clipping: I do use a few coupons but it is very rare these days. I do most of my grocery shopping at the farmer’s market and the health food store. Sometimes I find health coupons but there aren’t many. I also make my own milks and cook mostly from scratch so I have no need for coupons which usually promote processed, canned or non organic foods. I also live off of my Monthly Beauty Boxes and do not buy make up or beauty items in the store. So I have little use for coupons. My partner does get his hair cut at a local inexpensive chain and we get a $2 coupon every month which he uses. But that’s about it!

2. Collecting Reward Points: I switched my credit card to a Cash Back instead of receiving points to accumulate Air Miles. We kept my partner’s card for Air Miles as he uses it for work and we then cash in the miles to travel ourselves. I also don’t follow flyers to monitor when they are giving away extra points (such as Shopper’s Optimum, HBC Rewards or Air Miles). I realized that I was spending money for things I *may* have wanted but didn’t really need. Once I stopped looking to collect points everywhere, I stopped spending. I do use these cards when I am in the stores but I don’t buy things to get points.

3. Collecting All Freebies: I used to acquire all the freebies I could get my hands on. One year I even started a box just to see how much free stuff I could collect in a few months. I had received everything from company notepads to soap. I actually gave most of it away in the end. I now don’t look for freebies but if one comes my way that I am interested in I’ll jump on it. But I do not sign up for samples or other things anymore. At a time when things were pretty bad it was ok, but now I don’t need those samples anymore and have no use for most of them.

4. Buying Cheap & Processed Food: I no longer purchase Ramen Noodles or canned/processed foods from the store. There was a time that I needed to do that to get ahead financially. In the end, eating processed foods is just bad for your body and ends up costing you more because it hurts your health. My joints are happy because I am no longer eating sodium filled canned foods (try to get them in glass jars). And by purchasing only organic/local we buy a lot less food and there is even less waste!! I have noticed a difference in our compost, much less wasted food since we switched. We eat fresh foods daily, therefore we buy seasonal produce weekly and sometimes our bread is purchased twice a week at the bakery (day olds are 1/2 price!). Sometimes people need to make ends meet therefore Ramen noodles and tomato soup will do the job temporarily. I no longer do this and am happy not to have to eat those foods anymore. I do have some udon noodles (single packets) that I store when I am in a pinch and need something fast. They just need to be heated so I use them for a stir fry with veggies.

5.Stock Piling: I used to LOVE stockpiling and would buy tons of things on sale and store them. I even got a high off of the thrill of getting all these great bargains. Now I realize how stupid that idea was. We have a large house so storing was easy. That’s probably what got me in trouble. One day I decided enough was enough. I’ve actually been living on my existing toilet paper stash for about 8 months and have at least another 6 months to go before my stash runs out. I also found expired toothpaste in my cupboard. Old creams that had lost their lovely scent…need I go on? Stock Piling is crazy unless there are 10 of you living together and need it. I don’t stock anything. I just buy when I need it. We usually keep track of what we are about to run out of then start looking for the cheapest place to buy it.

*all photos are borrowed*

WHAT FRUGAL HABITS HAVE YOU HAPPILY LEFT BEHIND?