M&M Frugality.....Baking Out of the Box, er....the Bag

Every since I was a kid, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, chocolate chip cookies have been the undisputed King of the Sweets Snacking Universe.  What could be better than a warm baked goodie with melted gooey chocolate chunks in it?
And one version of a chocolate chip cookie that has been popular for a long while is to substitute the plain chocolate morsels with M&M candies.
Not only do the cookies taste like heaven but they are a feast for the eyes with those pops of candy coating colors in them.

But using M&Ms in your chocolate chip cookies can get costly if you are buying bags of the candies for full retail price.  Around here a bag of M&Ms goes for $3.99 or more.

All you frugalistas know you can usually snag bags of Holiday colored M&Ms on clearance after a Holiday for half off or more.
But putting them away until the following year's Holiday to make cookies with can lead to less than fabulous cookies.

Here is how I get my M&Ms for cheap AND still get to use them for Holidays.....

1.  Wait until the After Holiday Clearance Sales.  Buy your Holiday M&Ms for cheap.
In this case I got 2 bags of Christmas colored M&Ms.  These were $1 a bag at 75% off at CVS.

2.  Grab 2 Ziploc or similar plastic or brown paper bags and a large bowl.

3.  Open your bags of M&Ms and dump them into the bowl.

4.  Now sort your red Ms into one bag and the green Ms into the other bag.

5.  After all the Ms are sorted, close up your bags and if they aren't see-thru plastic, label the bag as to the contents within.
**If you have small kids who could use some practice with their numbers, make a game out of sorting those M&Ms.  Be sure to allow for some "disappearing" candies however....lol

Now you have a bag of red Ms and a bag of green Ms.
When Feb. 14th rolls around next week, take the bag of red Ms and make Holiday appropriate red M&M cookies.

Then in March, around the 17th, take the other bag of green Ms and make Holiday appropriate green M&M cookies.

You've gotten your candies for cheap, used them up in a short span before the candies got old, and you had special Holiday festive cookies!

Remember to grab those clearanced M&Ms after Easter for some fun frugal baking in the summer time.
You can use those pastel candies in cookies for the summer months.  For an added frugal touch, you can bake in your own personal mobile solar oven like I did HERE.
Just be sure to denature the eggs in the recipe first so you don't poison anyone if your solar oven doesn't get above 180 degrees...

Sluggy