If you’re a big scratch baker like I am, be sure to take advantage of the seasonal discounts on ingredients like butter, sugar, flour, chocolate chips, and eggs—all of which were on sale—no coupon necessary—at my local major supermarket when I made a sweep through the store last weekend.
I also found nuts, vanilla and other flavored extracts, pie filling, Karo corn syrup, canned frosting and ingredients that only come out this time of year, like mint chocolate kisses and chips, among others.
Baking supplies typically go on sale this time of year through Christmas and manufacturers are generous with coupons too. After talking with Kate Megill, author of "Cut it Out: How I Feed My Family of 10 for $500 a Month Without Coupons” (available for your Kindle) for a previous post, I’m vowing to squirrel away a baking stash for later since I bake throughout the year and I’m trying to get my daughters to drink the baking Kool-Aid too. So why not stock up now?
“We’ll buy 50 pounds of flour and store it in big Rubbermaid bins and use it for the next six to eight months,” Megill says. And things like chocolate chips? “That all freezes well,” she says. Freezing may not be necessary though.
After doing some informal research on the Internet, it seems that chocolate does just fine if you store it in a cool, dry place that’s 60 to 68 degrees F for 18 to 24 months. The “best buy” date on the bag of chips I just bought is July 2013, so technically, I’ve got nine months to use them. If they last until next week, though, I’ll be lucky. Anyway, I’m looking forward to taking advantage of all the sales in the supermarket baking section. How about you?
