Christmas Treats -$$

[dreamin_disney]

This year I realized that christmas treats are getting expensive!!!

A bag of pecan and walnuts were over $12-$14 each at costco/Sam's
plus I got a big bag of powdered sugar and regular sugar

Wal-mart bag of pretzels $3

almond bark went up 2.98 each pack I had to buy 3 packs
dh wanted me to make the rolo pretzel truffles but rolos are expensive $3 for small bag Wal mart was out of the big bags

eagle condense milk $1.99 x 2

and so on.

nuts are what cost the most


How long can inadvance can....
- sugar cookies and icing be made and stored
- buckeyes peanut butter balls?

Tonight I grinded 2 boxes of granham crackers, I'm going to crush candycanes. I'd like to get started on dipping pretzels or making the buckeyes but not sure if its to soon to make for Monday and Tuesday


I would love to make some caramel if anyone knows of an easy inexpensive way to make it. I wanted to make some dipped caramel pretzels then cover in chocolate and some caramel dipped marshmellows the cover in chocolate. I love the ones from WDW yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Whats everyone else making?Have you already started, or when will you started making your treats.

any budget tips for next years Christmas treats?

 

[tarheel618]

yes, I am finding everything is getting crazy regarding food prices. I coupon, use generic, eat breakfast for dinner, and do meatless nights and I am finding I still seem to spend a lot on food.

This year, we are going to attempt to grow some of our own vegetables to cut cost. We live in Florida, so we know we can grow year around.

Everything seems to go up except for our pay.

 

[maslex]

This year I realized that christmas treats are getting expensive!!!

A bag of pecan and walnuts were over $12-$14 each at costco/Sam's
plus I got a big bag of powdered sugar and regular sugar

Wal-mart bag of pretzels $3

almond bark went up 2.98 each pack I had to buy 3 packs
dh wanted me to make the rolo pretzel truffles but rolos are expensive $3 for small bag Wal mart was out of the big bags

eagle condense milk $1.99 x 2

and so on.

nuts are what cost the most


How long can inadvance can....
- sugar cookies and icing be made and stored
- buckeyes peanut butter balls?

Tonight I grinded 2 boxes of granham crackers, I'm going to crush candycanes. I'd like to get started on dipping pretzels or making the buckeyes but not sure if its to soon to make for Monday and Tuesday


I would love to make some caramel if anyone knows of an easy inexpensive way to make it. I wanted to make some dipped caramel pretzels then cover in chocolate and some caramel dipped marshmellows the cover in chocolate. I love the ones from WDW yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Whats everyone else making?Have you already started, or when will you started making your treats.

any budget tips for next years Christmas treats?

UGH!!! I know what you mean. I'm doing all of my baking tomorrow (Sunday) for Monday and Tuesday. I took everything out that I'm going to need and put in onto the table. I'm making 7-layer cookies, fudge & caramel/chocolate covered pretzel rods.

box of graham cracker crumbs $2.98
2 bags of chocolate chips ($2.38 ea) $4.76
2 bags of butterscotch chips ($2.38 ea) $4.76
1 bag of coconut $1.78
2 cans of condensed milk ($2.24 ea) $4.48
1 bag of mini M&M's $2.78

2 jars of marshmallow creme ($1.00 ea) $2.00
2 bags of chocolate chips $4.76
2 cans of evaporated milk (68 cents ea) $1.26

container of pretzel rods $5.98
2 blocks of almond bark ($2.98 ea) $5.96
4 bags of caramel bits ($3.13 ea) $12.52
2 containers of sprinkles ($1.78 ea) $3.56

The rest of the ingredients I had on hand but this is a list of the things I bought (over a two week shopping trip) $57.58 !!! I'm making a double batch of everything and splitting up between going to my brother's on Christmas Eve and going to my SIL's on Christmas Day. There will also be enough left over to make up a couple plates of goodies for a couple neighbors.


As for making the stuff in advance, I think making the buckeyes today would be fine. Just store them in the fridge. I've never made sugar cookies or the icing, so that one I'm not too sure on.

 

[la79al]

I told myself last year and again this year (after I left the grocery store) that it's almost not cost effective to make treats for Christmas. Cookies without special ingredients, yes, but I was looking at recipes that called for 1 tsp of mint extract, etc. $3 for something I'm going to use 1 tsp of?!?! I bought a lot of the same things you did and am using the treats for 'filler gifts' (like that aunt that you didn't even know existed that shows up to Christmas dinner). My DDs made the pretzel, chocolate wafer, M&M things 2 days ago, we made soda cracker chocolate candy yesterday and cookie dough truffles today. Tomorrow we are making chocolate covered peanut butter balls and probably starting on some of our cookies. Problem is, no one that we know is willing to finalize get together plans so who knows when we will actually be needing this stuff. One thing that really saved me some money this year was that one of our local grocery stores sells a lot of stuff out of bulk bins so the recipes where I only needed 1/4 cup of sliced almonds, I could just get a 1/4 cup of sliced almonds. The only advice I can give for next year is have your list early of what you want to make and what you will need and start looking for sales and coupons before 'prime baking season'.

 

[pixieprincessmom]

To make caramel you take a can of condensed milk and boil for about 3 hours. You have to make sure water stays over the can so you will have to add waters few times. DO NOT try to open it while its still hot.

 

[cornflake]

As above for cheap, really good caramel with a sauce type texture. Be CAREFUL handling and let cool to room temp IN the water IN the pan. Just shut it off and leave it be for a while.

If you want to make actual caramel, it's not particularly expensive - sugar, butter, cream.

Nuts are not too bad at Trader Joe's. How big were the Costco bags? I've gotten 1lb of walnuts and pecans for $7.50 each at TJ's.

Chocolate costs a lot though - when I realized how much it cost to dip biscotti (nevermind the stuff I put IN the biscotti) when I was melting the second batch, eek.

Butter and sugar aren't cheap either, especially when producing a bunch of stuff.

 

[dreamin_disney]

As above for cheap, really good caramel with a sauce type texture. Be CAREFUL handling and let cool to room temp IN the water IN the pan. Just shut it off and leave it be for a while.

If you want to make actual caramel, it's not particularly expensive - sugar, butter, cream.

Nuts are not too bad at Trader Joe's. How big were the Costco bags? I've gotten 1lb of walnuts and pecans for $7.50 each at TJ's.

Chocolate costs a lot though - when I realized how much it cost to dip biscotti (nevermind the stuff I put IN the biscotti) when I was melting the second batch, eek.

Butter and sugar aren't cheap either, especially when producing a bunch of stuff.

2 lbs eac of nuts.

hhmmm I wonder if tamales would be cheaper-lol! I know some people will give out 1-2 dozens as gifts. I like that those can be made and fozen but its a lot of work especially since I've never made them myself. I have helped but just spreading the masa which i kinda need improvement on-lol!

I want to make peanutbutter balls or magic cookie bars tonight but not sure if I can just put in tubberware and leave on counter until Monday


I also have a bag of chinese noddles used for haysacks any ideas instead of basic chocolate?

 

[cornflake]

2 lbs eac of nuts.

hhmmm I wonder if tamales would be cheaper-lol! I know some people will give out 1-2 dozens as gifts. I like that those can be made and fozen but its a lot of work especially since I've never made them myself. I have helped but just spreading the masa which i kinda need improvement on-lol!

I want to make peanutbutter balls or magic cookie bars tonight but not sure if I can just put in tubberware and leave on counter until Monday


I also have a bag of chinese noddles used for haysacks any ideas instead of basic chocolate?

Sorry, never made those - got nuttin. Heh, NUTtin. That's not so bad for 2lbs of nuts each I don't think.

You should be able to leave both those out, it sounds like. I've had several bags of cookies and biscotti out for a day or so.

I should make more biscotti.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Sorry, never made those - got nuttin. Heh, NUTtin. That's not so bad for 2lbs of nuts each I don't think.

You should be able to leave both those out, it sounds like. I've had several bags of cookies and biscotti out for a day or so.

I should make more biscotti.

yum! I've never thought of making biscotti. Sounds to complicated-lol!
I did buy a 24 pack of almond biscotti dipped in choco at costco Those were$7 i think..under $10. I figure some for me and a few wrapped in a bow for dh's nana to go with her giftcard and a few wrapped for my godchild parents along with movie tickets,goodie tray and they have a keurig and drink coffee so biscotti be be perfect.

I'm off to bed. I have a long day tomorrow.

btw- I'm gonna make mini cupcakes using cake box, it doesnt have ow long to cook the mini's would it be the same time as regular cupcakes or should i cut the time in half?

 

[cornflake]

yum! I've never thought of making biscotti. Sounds to complicated-lol!
I did buy a 24 pack of almond biscotti dipped in choco at costco Those were$7 i think..under $10. I figure some for me and a few wrapped in a bow for dh's nana to go with her giftcard and a few wrapped for my godchild parents along with movie tickets,goodie tray and they have a keurig and drink coffee so biscotti be be perfect.

I'm off to bed. I have a long day tomorrow.

btw- I'm gonna make mini cupcakes using cake box, it doesnt have ow long to cook the mini's would it be the same time as regular cupcakes or should i cut the time in half?

Less time - depends on exactly how big/small, your oven, etc. If the regular baking time is 25 minutes, I'd check at 15, then etc. It's like cooking anything - a tiny baby potato takes less time to cook than a large potato.

They're not hard to make really - little time consuming and persnickity sometimes but they're good and ppl like them and they last forever and a day, heh. On the other hand, apparently WAY CHEAPER to buy at Costco!

 

[MSSANDRA]

I just spend 200.00 for Christmas food! I have NEVER had a 200.00 grocery bill. One thing that I figured out, for the first time, some of the items that I wanted were cheaper to buy already made than for me to buy the ingredients. We have a Sam's, which is very much like Cosco, and the quality of some of their goodies is BETTER than what I would bake. I know it is not home-made.....but I bought my pies for this week and my cookies for a party today.

 

[swilshire]

This year, we are going to attempt to grow some of our own vegetables to cut cost. We live in Florida, so we know we can grow year around.

That may not be true. Our Florida friends with the wonderful vegetable garden plow it under in the summer. It's too hot for things to grow then. I can imagine that being true, since it's almost too hot here in July for things to grow, no matter how much you water them. You can garden at different times from the rest of us, but I'm not sure you can do it year round.

Sheila

 

[mimmi]

Were the walnuts peeled? I'm trying to get a feeling for food prices in the US.
I usually pay about $18 for 2 lbs of peeled walnuts so I guess food prices are even higher over here.

 

[cornflake]

Were the walnuts peeled? I'm trying to get a feeling for food prices in the US.
I usually pay about $18 for 2 lbs of peeled walnuts so I guess food prices are even higher over here.

I'm going to presume you mean what we call 'shelled' - without the hard shell, not without the paperskin. I've never seen walnuts sold without the skin, though other nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts for example) are.

Yes, we're talking about shelled.

Here, in general, something like walnuts will be cheapest by the lb in the shell, obviously, because the shells weigh a lot and you have to do a lot of work.

Then the shelled pieces are next cheapest. Then most expensive are whole, unbroken walnut halves. At the store I mentioned, the $7.50/lb is for a bag of mostly broken halves. Not tiny pieces but not pretty, whole halves you need for presentation or toppings - those are $8.50/lb.

 

[mimmi]

Oh ok, shelled it is then, sorry.
8,5 per lbs sounds just a little cheaper than over here.
Btw, I just had to write a paper about a sweets manufacturer and learned that the price of hazelnut has gone through the roof in recent years because of worldwide shortages, maybe it's a similar problem with other nuts, too.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

my plan was to make several homemade treats last weekend for my teaching partners and my son's special area teachers.... then I got the flu..

Kmart had the nice assorted Hersheys Pot of Gold chocolates on sale for $3.98 a box, and everyone got those instead. I am fairly certain that I probably came out about even on the money aspect of it.

 

[MrsPete]

My observations on this topic:

I've baked two cakes today -- both simple, old-fashioned recipes with homemade icing. Flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk, butter. Those ingredients are still inexpensive. What costs is add ins: Chocolate chips, coconut, candies, etc., and I didn't use any of those.

On the other hand, I also made a pan of semi-homemade brownies. A student gave me some, and they were so good that my girls insisted that we leave these for Santa. They're "layered": Chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, Oreos in the middle, brownies on top. We used Betty Crocker cookie mix, obviously purchased Oreos, and Duncan Hines brownie mix. A quick calculation tells me that this pan of brownies cost more than both cakes combined.

Yes, Christmas treats CAN BE expensive, but not all Christmas treats are expensive. Of course, the less expensive options tend to take more time, and that's a different type of "cost".

 

[cornflake]

My observations on this topic:

I've baked two cakes today -- both simple, old-fashioned recipes with homemade icing. Flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk, butter. Those ingredients are still inexpensive. What costs is add ins: Chocolate chips, coconut, candies, etc., and I didn't use any of those.

On the other hand, I also made a pan of semi-homemade brownies. A student gave me some, and they were so good that my girls insisted that we leave these for Santa. They're "layered": Chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, Oreos in the middle, brownies on top. We used Betty Crocker cookie mix, obviously purchased Oreos, and Duncan Hines brownie mix. A quick calculation tells me that this pan of brownies cost more than both cakes combined.

Yes, Christmas treats CAN BE expensive, but not all Christmas treats are expensive. Of course, the less expensive options tend to take more time, and that's a different type of "cost".

I've made nothing but completely scratch stuff and it's not cheap here. Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, nuts, dried fruit, sour cream, cocoa powder, chocolate - I'm not even counting spices, extracts, etc., because they're on hand.

 

[dreamin_disney]

I've made nothing but completely scratch stuff and it's not cheap here. Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, nuts, dried fruit, sour cream, cocoa powder, chocolate - I'm not even counting spices, extracts, etc., because they're on hand.

I agree with cornflake - it all cost $$ and adds up. I dont even make stuff with cocoa because the last time i bought some it was $4 something. I would only use a little for a recipe and the rest would go to wait and the can arent little.

 

[cornflake]

I agree with cornflake - it all cost $$ and adds up. I dont even make stuff with cocoa because the last time i bought some it was $4 something. I would only use a little for a recipe and the rest would go to wait and the can arent little.

I had cocoa on hand, but ... I think the brand is Chatham's? isn't bad pricewise. I admit to being picky about certain ingredients, which does drive up the prices, but even regular butter on SALE today was $3 a lb (regularly $4.69), and that's the third or fourth lb I've bought. It totally adds up.