Frugal Friday...Cupcake cups

Frugal Fridays

A few years ago, while my husband was transitioning from logger to nurse, we had to get creative on how our money (or lack of) was spent. For a time, our income was only enough to make our house payment and buy a few groceries. In fact, one year, we netted only $12,000! For a family of 11, those were some lean times. A lot was learned during that time, and even though money isn't as tight now, we still work hard to practice frugality. After all, spending a little money on a road trip to Yellowstone is more rewarding than say, an electric bill or a fill-up for the car! So today marks the beginning of "Frugal Friday". Every week, I'll share a frugal "tip" that has worked for us, and I'll even share some that didn't make the cut! (And oh, there's been a few!)

Tip #1: Avoid unnecessary trips to town.

Case in point. On Wednesday, we were asked to donate 2 dozen cupcakes to the annual Pinewood Derby Race at our church. (If you don't know what that is, you are missing out on something special!) There were was a problem in committing to this.

Yep. I ran out of cupcake holders. Of course. I don't make cupcakes enough apparently because I had no idea we were low! And I wasn't about to spend $10 in gas for a 30 mile round trip to town, to pick up $2 worth of cupcake holders! So I got creative.

A little parchment paper, a c.d., pencil and pinking shears to the rescue! Oh yeah, and a lot of patience. Times 10!

This is #1. It has 9 friends. Only took about 5 minutes. 55 minutes less than it would've taken for me to "run" to town!

I shape these by stuffing (it's a technical term) into the muffin holes. (Isn't there a more technical word for these? I don't know.) Then I scooped in the batter which held them in place. Once the batter was in all of the "holes", my homemade paper liners weren't too noticeable. They fit in rather nicely in fact.

Baked, they looked even better! In fact, I'd say, downright tasty!

Okay, with frosting, they look GLORIOUS! Good enough to eat! And since young boys are known for eating paper, parents can rest easily knowing that I used organic parchment paper!
See how thoughtful I am? ( Don't bother counting these...somebody ate a couple!)