Yellow Cake Mix, Chocolate Chips, A Stick Of Butter And Two Eggs Became The Cheapest Easiest Christmas Cookie Bar One Family Swears Saved Them Hundreds And Lots Of Tears

Jane Clark

2 hours ago

One reader of The Minimal Mom says a simple cake mix cookie bar “saved us hundreds of dollars and lots of tears” at Christmastime. It needs a bag of chocolate chips, a box of cake mix, a stick of butter and two eggs, and it started as a random recipe the creator shared five years ago.

The recipe came up while the creator was sharing six ways to keep the holiday season simple. The idea running through every tip is to take away extra thinking, so that a busy month does not swallow your budget or your brain.

The Cookie Bar That Does The Heavy Lifting

Her standard recipe is a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a yellow cake mix, mixed together with a melted stick of butter and two eggs. She calls it so easy, and says you can press it into a pan like cookie bars or roll it into cookies and bake them for seven to nine minutes.

The fun part is the variations. A member of her community says her family has tried a new version every year for three years, and their favorite is a red velvet cake mix with peppermint and white chocolate chips, which she calls the perfect Christmas fabulousness that everyone asks for. Other versions include a chocolate cake mix with mint chocolate chips, a pumpkin-flavored mix with butterscotch chips, a funfetti cake with white chocolate chips, and a chocolate cake mix with salted caramel chips. As the creator puts it, she has not met a cake bar she does not like yet.

For gifting, she suggests a foil pan, which makes the batch look a little more substantial without costing much. A printable tag with the combination goes along with it. She keeps a few packaged ahead of time because her kids will often announce they want a gift for some teacher or coach, and this is the perfect thing to have ready to go.

Standardize Your Thank You Gifts

That is her second tip: decide on your gifts of appreciation once and then set it and forget it. She means teachers, mail carriers, youth leaders, pastors and hostess gifts, anyone you want to thank this time of year. For most of us, she says, those are the most fun gifts to give, but we have to watch the budget.

She keeps a few inexpensive options on hand. One of her favorites is a container of Dawn Power Wash with a Scrub Mommy, which still comes in around $10. It is not nothing, she admits, but practical and useful is her love language. Another is a set of little mug cakes, four in a package for around $5.

Gift Cards Are Not Thoughtless

She also wants to give people permission to hand over a gift card or a note of appreciation. Two women in her workshop, a teacher and a teacher’s wife, backed her up. The teacher’s wife said that what her husband saves forever are the heartfelt notes, and that gift cards are nice but not expected. They have not kept a mug, a candle or a pen, but he has a box of notes. When they use a gift card, he even writes back to the student to say what it bought.

The creator likes pairing a coffee gift card with a cute holder. Teachers, she says, like things that are practical and consumable, and nobody who receives a coffee card thinks it is thoughtless.

Start The Holiday Wardrobe Early

Her first tip is to create a holiday uniform, a small section of clothing where everything fits and you feel good, so you can walk up to the closet and just get dressed. She does not mean a black T-shirt and jeans, only something easy that takes no brain energy. She picked up wide-leg pants in brown, black and navy that happened to match tops she already owned.

One reader told her that putting away extra clothes for December was a game changer. For that month she only had things in her closet that she felt good wearing, and it was an incredible peek into living with less without a big commitment.

Dishes Daily And A Repeating Meal Plan

Her third tip sounds boring but, she says, it pays off in a big way. Dishes get harder the longer they sit, and once they pile up, everybody piles on. Doing them daily gives you a set starting place. She says bringing the physical environment back into order helps the brain process, and she even skips pre-washing before loading the dishwasher when time is short.

Tip four is a repeating meal plan. For each day of the week you pick a category, such as handheld night for tacos, wraps or burgers, pizza night, or air fryer night, then choose a recipe you know really well. The family can survive for a month or a month and a half eating the same things, she promises. The pay-off is a very standard grocery order, less waste on random groceries, and less eating out when every dollar is headed toward the holidays.

A Wrapping Station And A Polite Pass

Tip five is a gift-wrap station. Wrapping takes more time than most of us think, so she rolls a cart out of a hall closet with everything in one place. Her favorites are drawstring gift bags, which are quick and easy on the hands, and her kids still like opening gifts out of them.

Her bonus tip is a phrase to keep ready: “We’re just going to take a break this year.” You can skip things and pick them back up next year, she says, and most people will not even notice. Between the cookie bars, the easy gifts and a few well-chosen habits, the season may feel a little lighter and the budget a little kinder.