Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half! with Stephanie Nelson, The Coupon Mom
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Five Ways to Save...

On Birthday Cakes

by Stephanie Nelson, CouponMom.com

1. Cookie Cakes. One of my favorite treats to make! All you need to do is make a batch of cookie dough, press it into a large cookie sheet with sides. Next, add a message and trim in frosting when it cools. If you decide to purchase from the bakery, they are almost always less than traditional cakes.

2. Ice cream pie. Ice cream cakes can be very expensive. Make your own by simply spreading ice cream in a graham cracker crust. It’s easy to vary by simply using different flavors of ice cream or different types of crumb crust.

3. Use coupons. If you use coupons on the ingredients to make it yourself, you may only spend a few dollars. Bakeries offer cakes at prices beginning at $15-$20 and cost up to $50 at a high-end specialty shop. I don’t know how rich I’d have to be to spend $50 on a child’s birthday cake?

4. Keep it simple with cake mix. I use a cake mix, make a butter cream frosting and decorate it. Don’t be tempted by all of the birthday add-ons in the baking aisle.  Or make cupcakes with the cake mix and heap them with frosting and sprinkles--at a cost of a few pennies apiece as compared to $3 each at a fancy bakery.

5. Create family tradition. One year I bought a bakery cake because I thought it would be a special treat for my son. Afterwards, he told me that he likes it better when I made his cakes! My cakes are simple. I think he just likes the idea that Mom made a special birthday treat just for him.

Stephanie Nelson is the Coupon Mom. Her web site, www.CouponMom.com, has 6 million members, and she is established as the nation’s top expert in couponing across the country. Stephanie has been on every major national television talk show and taught millions how to save money for the past 11 years. She has been called ‘”the rock star of the recession” by the Washington Post and her book, The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, is a New York Times best seller.