Tips for Having Dessert on a Budget

Although dessert is considered by some people to be a luxury item, if you know what you are doing, you can actually make dessert on a tight budget. Best of all, you don't even have to be an expert chef, or have a lot of time on your hands, because it is really hard to go wrong with butter and sugar.

Budget Dessert Tip: Don't Buy Prepackaged Desserts

The worst thing you can do to your budget is to buy prepackaged desserts. These items are full of preservatives, don't taste fresh, and are over twice as expensive as what you could make at home. If you absolutely need to have some Oreos on hand for the odd craving, then try to buy them on sale and hide them away where you won't see them often. This will make them last longer, and in the meantime, you can

Budget Dessert Tip: Substitute High-Cost Ingredients

Often desserts will turn out just as good if you use less than top-quality ingredients, or even omit expensive ingredients entirely. If you are making oatmeal raisin cookies with walnuts, consider taking out the walnuts, which make up nearly half the cost of the cookie. Many puddings that call for cream will still have the right texture if you use milk. And although fancy chocolate chips are delicious, kids won't notice the difference if you use the store brand.

Budget Dessert Tip: Use Ingredients You Have

Many basic ingredients that you typically have on hand can make up the bulk of your dessert, and knowing this can help you keep from throwing away ingredients that are spoiling. If you just bought a lot of milk because it was on sale, but now it's going bad, whip up a batch of pudding to use it up. If you have a lot of bread that is starting to get stale, bread pudding is a great way to revive it and avoid throwing it away.

Budget Dessert Tip: Bake from Scratch

Cake, brownie, and cookie mixes, although marketed as being so much easier than cooking from scratch, are really just boxes of dry ingredients. You can mix together a batch of cookies from scratch so quickly with basic ingredients like shortening, flour, sugar, and baking powder, and assuming you have a good recipe, they will taste much better than anything you get out of a box. Pie crusts are not very difficult to make, and their ingredients are much cheaper than prepackaged frozen or dry pie crusts.

Budget Dessert Tip: Serve Smaller Quantities

If you only serve half as much dessert, you will only be using half as much money. The best way to limit dessert quantity is to use smaller bowls or plates. Rather than serving large bowls of ice cream, use custard cups, where one scoop fills the cup and looks like a full portion. Cakes and pies can be served in smaller pieces, and a little drizzle of chocolate or caramel syrup on the plate can make it look extra gourmet and explain the small portion size.