I remember my father telling me I was the "cook out of the box." His way of reminding me that I didn't technically know how to cook - I used boxed mixes to get me part of the way. Now, that's called Semi-Homemade, and it's considered chic. Who knew? Well, my father's distinct lack of appreciation for my cooking and baking shortcuts was evident, I could never shake the allure of using some shortcuts that the brilliant folks over at Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Duncan Hines provided.

It's the last of those companies that I am currently grateful for today. Well, in conjunction with Target, of course. Target was thoughtful enough to give us a $.50 printable coupon on Duncan Hines baking products (hey, can you say vague wording?), and they were nice enough to drop the price from $1.17 to $.97 each. Combined with an abundant stack of coupons, DaMama, my sister (Amy), and I headed off to harvest some cake mixes (and some frosting, too).

I drooled over the french vanilla, lemon supreme, and the coconut flavors while my sister loaded chocolate cakes into her cart with reckless abandon. How well did we do? 45 cakes mixes and 15 frostings later - here's what we spent: $29.37 - and that includes tax. DaMama had a 10% off your entire shopping order coupon which we put through first - naturally. What really makes me laugh? That's less than half the price that some people spend on a single birthday cake - and no, I'm not exaggerating. I know some of those people...

And the crazy thing is - it won't take that long to go through all those yummy cake mixes - since I tend to turn mine into bars, Amy's great with cakes and cupcakes as is DaMama, and my friend, Sandy makes them into cookies. Sure beats going to Jewel and paying $1.69 for a single box of cake mix. What silly people do that, anyway?

While my cakes are seldom made from scratch, I do know this: I'm happy to spend half the cost of a single birthday cake for delicious treats throughout the year. It may make me frugal (or cheap), but it also makes me smart.