Making Your Holiday Baking Creations Affordable

November and December is the perfect time to stock up on baking supplies. Image by Liesl.

I absolutely love baking this time of year! With all of the family get togethers during the holidays, it seems like there’s always a good excuse to be in the kitchen creating your next delicious masterpiece. With your local grocery stores constantly running sales, November and December is the perfect time of year to stock up on your baking supplies.

Even better, your local Sunday newspapers are usually packed with coupons for baking supplies such as butter, cake mix, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, pie crust…the list goes on and on. CouponCabin also has a multitude of coupons for baking supplies, and you can print two of these coupons per computer. Oh, and guess what? They’re free to print! One more bonus about picking up these baking supplies is that the shelf life of most of these items is quite long. If you have the room, take advantage and stock up.

If you’re someone that doesn’t like to bake, or simply just doesn’t have the time, don’t feel bad. In my experience, it’s often difficult to make things taste better than Betty Crocker. If you don’t want to make things from scratch and want to do a boxed mix for items like brownies, cakes and cookies, you can still save money that way, too. Betty Crocker, Pillsbury and Duncan Hines seem to rotate their sales every week during the holiday season, and if you’re lucky, ALL of them will be on sale at the same time. In the section to follow, I’ve listed some examples of how to save upwards of 80% on your boxed desserts!

For those of you who don’t want to deal with any of the mess and clean up, you can still save money on cupcakes, cookies and cakes if you buy towards the end of the day when the bakery is forced to sell the items. They are heavily discounted each day, and are often found on baking racks at the back of your store’s baking department. If you really want to take advantage of this and can plan ahead, ask a member of the bakery staff when they put out their baked goods that didn’t get sold and plan to be there a little bit ahead of time.

Now that I’ve filled you in on some of my special tips, pair them up with these great offers and sales to save big this holiday season!

Baking Staples

Betty Crocker – Buy the cookie mix for the 3-dozen count on sale (usually runs $1.67) and pair with a printable for $0.50 off coupon.

Carnation – Evaporated milk often goes on sale for $1; pair the sale price with $1 off two from Red Plum, or stack the manufacturer’s coupon and Target store coupon to get $2 off one 10-count box.

Pillsbury – Look for printable coupons for $0.50 off any two sweet rolls, biscuits or crescent rolls (about $1.40 ea.).

Jiffy Mix – Corn bread mix is regularly priced as low as $0.45; pair with any manufacturer’s coupon to get it for free or almost free.

Butter

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and Country Crock – Go on sale quarterly at Meijer. Stack coupons to get the 15 oz. tubs for free or for $0.25—stock up at this price.

 Land O’ Lakes– The small butter containers often go on sale for $1 at many retailers; pair with a printable coupon for $0.50 off one, making it free or close-to-free if the store doubles. Stock up at this price.

Get deals on items like sugar and butter for your tasty creations. Image by Jeffrey W.

Sugar

Dixie Crystals – Look for the manufacturer’s $0.45 off coupon to pair with sales on their brown sugar, often marked down to $0.99 a pound; if the store doubles, get a bag of brown sugar for $0.09!

Imperial Sugar and Domino Sugar – Both tend to go on sale around the holidays for $1.99; look for $0.50 off coupons on 4-lb. bags to pair with sales.

C & H Sugar – Their 4 lb. bag may be priced as low as $2.49, but coupons don’t usually exceed $0.50 off, so look for holiday sales and stock up.

Morton Salt – Get a 4 oz. bottle of fine sea salt (reg. $1) for free when the manufacturer releases their $1 off any size coupon.

I hope some of these tips will help you save some money this year without sacrificing the taste of delicious holiday desserts. Stay tuned for next week’s blog on how to save on Thanksgiving dinners. As always, Happy Couponing!

~Kristie~