Nifty Thrifty Week: Day #1 with Crystal Paine
Whoo-hoo! It is Nifty Thrifty Week!!!!
Welcome to those who hopped over from my Proverbs 31 devotion The Boomerang of Blessing about how God took care of our young family financially when times were t-i-g-h-t! Please click here to read it.
(And if you feel a heart tug to give financially to a young family in need, please click here for the amazing story of a newlywed couple in our life who are serving God through a traumatic brain injury and in whose honor two of our friends are running the Boston Marathon TODAY!)
Now, all week long I am going to be featuring some of my favorite money-savvy, live-on-faith, save-so-you-can-give bloggers sharing ideas and really fabulous giveaways. (If you don’t want to miss a thing, please sign up to get my post automatically emailed to you by clicking here.)
We’ll start off the week with the ever-thrifty Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom. I don’t remember how I first crossed paths with Crystal in the blogging world but we have done some online ministry together and I finally got to meet her in person this past January. She is a wealth of money-saving information and ideas whose passion is to help other women save too.
Here today she is giving us oodles of recipes for making homemade mixes AND giving away a $100 Baking Ingredients Kit from Vitacost.com This prize will be staple ingredients plus some fun goodies to help you get started making your own mixes. (If you comment on this post you will be entered to win her prize. Winner will be drawn randomly and all of the week’s winner’s will be announced next Monday)
Okay fellow saving-wanabees…..here is Crystal!
Making your own homemade mixes is such a simple thing, but the majority of families who don’t cook and bake completely from scratch would likely save at least $8-$10 per month by making their own mixes instead of buying them pre-made.
Of course, if you typically get boxed cake mixes for pennies with coupons, you’re likely not going to save too much. But if you’re routinely paying for cookie mix, biscuit mix, pancake mix, taco seasoning packets, and more, you’ll save quite a bit. And every little bit adds up.
Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets
Not only are homemade mixes themselves much more economical than buying them pre-made at the store, but they can also save you money by encouraging you to eat at home. If you have pancake mix already made or pizza dough in the freezer, you have fewer excuses to go out for breakfast or order pizza.
Homemade Mixes Can Save You Time
Take a little time on the weekend or some evening to mix together the dry ingredients for your favorite homemade cakes, muffins, brownies, cookies, or pancakes. Doing this ahead of time will cut your prep time in half or more — and make cooking and baking from scratch a breeze!
Homemade Mixes Are Healthier
Aside from the time and money saved, one of the big benefits of making homemade mixes is that you have full control of what you put into the mixes. You don’t have to worry about chemicals or other unwanted ingredients. This is also a huge plus if you are dealing with food allergies at your house.
How to Get Started Making Your Own Homemade Mixes
If you’re new to cooking and baking from scratch, don’t try to make everything from scratch. Just pick a few recipes that you think you’ll love and start with those. If they don’t work or you don’t like them, move on to another recipe.
Pinterest is a loaded with homemade mix recipe ideas. You could even create a board specifically to pin homemade mix ideas on as you find them. You can see a few of my favorite tried and true recipes below.
As you find recipes that work well, keep making them and slowly add new ones. Eventually, you’ll hopefully get into a nice rhythm of always having a good supply of mixes and doughs made ahead of time and waiting in your freezer.
Be Sure to Label Your Mixes!
Make sure to label your mixes clearly, though, so you don’t end up having the disaster I had when trying to make rolls for guests with what I thought was flour, but was actually pancake mix!
Recommended Homemade Mix Recipes
Freezer-Friendly Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets
Knock-Off Betty Crocker Brownie Mix
Glazed Cinnamon Scones (I’ve made the dry ingredients as a mix, or made the scone dough and frozen it.)
What are your favorite homemade mix recipes? I’d love to have you share them in the comments so I could consider trying them myself! Or, if you’ve never tried any before, tell us that too. All comments will be entered in the drawing for my giveaway. :)
NOTE: The winner of the Lead Like Jesus giveaway is AMY: comment left April 12 at 7:31 am. Please send your home address to [email protected] so she can get you your prize!
Thanks for the great recipes!! Will give some a try real soon. :)
Anything I can do to be a good steward of what God sends to us is a good thing in my book! Thank you for the tips and would love to be a winner!
I have never tried but ready to start!
Hi from Australia. My kids love to help make home made pizzas – it gets messy !!! – but I have always bought the base. So I’m definitely going to try the pizza base mix to start with – things could get even messier but so worth it in terms of family fun.
I hope that your friends that ran today are safe!? Such a tragedy :( Thank you for all of the tips
I like to make homemade mixes to give away at Christmas.
I love having freezer meals AND home-made mixes ready to go! Anything to make my afternoons/evenings run smoother (and save time) is a great thing for me!!
I like using homemade mixes so I know what’s in my food, and I can make whatever I’m craving if I just keep basic ingredients in my pantry. This was my first homemade mix I used:
Taco Seasoning Recipe
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Use as you typically would a packet of taco seasoning.
About 3 Tbsp per 1lb ground beef +- depending on your taste.
Multiply the amounts to make this in bulk for future meals.
I been wanting to try this for a while now and actually decided this weekend that I would start. My husband doesn’t think it will save us a lot of money but I do. I want to do it more so for convenience and I think it will help me start baking again. Thanks so much for all of the suggestions I can’t wait to try them!!
I love to bake from scratch! Great ideas!
Wow, great ideas. I LOVE Vitacost & would graciously accept anything from you & them. :)
I make cookies and freeze them – in dough and already baked. I love having baked goods on hand all the time! Although, that really isn’t a mix…so my favorite mix is a baking mix. :-)
over the past few years I’ve worked much harder and baking/cooking food for my family. I work full time so it gets crazy but I know it’s so much healthier!!
I’m finding more and more migraine triggers, so homemade mixes and cleaning supplies are really saving me some headaches!
Saves money, time and is healthy sounds like a great idea to me!
I od freezer cooking, but have not made homemade mixes. I have tried Crystal’s freezer pizza dough and it’s terrific!
Love all the fabulous ideas. Thanks for your blog and ideas :)
The only homemade things I have made and frozen are pancakes, cookies, and dough for pizza or rolls. I am going to try the oatmeal mix first and see how that works out. Thanks for the recipes! God bless!
The only homemade mixes I have tried making are rubs to use on the BBQ. Thanks for sharing the mix recipes. I have tried a couple of taco ones but never found one our family liked so am looking forward to trying yours.
I have not tried making my own mixes before but I am all about learning new things especially when it comes to baking. Thanks for the tips!
I was about to share my pancake mix recipe, but yours is even better than mine with the addition of flax seed. Some of these recipes would be great for campling too!
Thanks :)
Love to make homemade taco seasoning.
I’ve never made my own mixes to freeze, but I’d love to try some of these!! Thank you!
I always mix up double cookie dough recipes and freeze half for the next week. making them into balls makes it easy for my kids to bake them up too. I am going to try the pizza dough this week. Thanks for sharing.
I love the pizza dough and chocolate chip cookies already so I can’t wait to try some of the other recipes too. And now I’m off to check out the rest of Nifty-Thrifty Week. :o)