Saturday, October 15, 2011

31 Days: Day 15 - All Mixed Up

If this is your first visit I welcome you to my little corner of the world! You might want to start at the introduction of this series. It explains what 31 Days of Change is, and has links to each day's post as they occur. Just click on the 31 Days to Slash Your Budget Painlessly button at the top of my sidebar on the right.


I love boxes of premixed staples...cake mix, biscuit mix, brownie mix...they make my life a lot easier. Thinking I could save a lot of money making my own mixes, I did find some recipes, did a couple of trials, and realized I wouldn't save a lot making my own.

Ummm...so why am I writing about mixes then? I realized I was looking at individual mixes. For instance when I compared a brownie mix I tried this month, the cost of one batch of brownies from my mix was 65 cents. I can usually find brownie mix for about $1.00 per box. That's a savings of 45%, which is really good, but considering I probably bake brownies only twice a month, posting a savings of 80 cents a month just looks ridiculous.

However, when I start adding up the savings from multiple mixes, something beautiful happens...cue the angels singing...the savings start to multiply. Hmmm...so what mixes could I make? Here are just three mixes I am currently making or plan to start making this month. 

Mixes                         Average Monthly Use             Savings


Brownie                               2 boxes                            $0.80                       
Biscuit                                 2 boxes                              1.90
Pancake                              3 boxes                              4.95
                                                                                     $7.65/month

There are homemade alternatives to almost any mix you can think of, including seasonings, flavored rice, granola and many more.  Do a google or Pinterest search and you will find all kinds.  Start small and add 1 new mix a week, and before you know it the savings will really start to add up!  Just with these three mixes, I will save $7.95/month or $95.40/year.

The other major benefit of homemade mixes, is that you know what's in it. Unless your ingredients themselves have it in them, you aren't going to have artificial preservatives, flavorings etc. Plus you don't have to run to the store to get a box of mix to make biscuits. You can whip up a batch much faster than you can drive to the store and back.

If you are benefiting from this series, I’d love it if you would grab my button from the top of my sidebar. I will be back with another money saving tip tomorrow.   I will keep up a running tally of my savings at the bottom of each new post. Just scroll down to the bottom to see.  Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll be back!

My tally so far:
$1691.85/year
$141.00/month

2 comments:

  1. Hi Debberra!
    I'll take a brownie, premixed, or homemade...anytime!
    It's really windy over here!! I'd better find my ruby slippers..just in case.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Girl, you do a great job breaking all of this stuff down. Thanks for great info...

    ReplyDelete

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