Recipe: Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this recipe in an issue of  "Today's Parent", I made it for my daughter's second birthday a while back and she loved it, it was literally all over her face.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 Cup boiling water

1 1/2 Cup all purpose flour 

1 Cup white sugar

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 Large bag of "Rolo" chocolate or something similar

Icing

3 tbsp Butter at room temperature

1 3/4 Cup icing sugar

1/4 Unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

1 tbsp Vanilla

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, whisk cocoa with boiling water until no lumps remain.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour with sugar, baking powder with salt.

Whisk oil into slightly cooled cocoa mixture, then whisk in eggs and vanilla. 

Stir in flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be very thick.

Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups. 

Bake until batter is barely set, approx 8-10 minutes.

Remove partially baked cupcakes and push pieces of  chocolate into the center. 

Bake for another 8-10 minutes, then set on cooling rack. 

For the icing beat butter in a large bowl.

Whisk icing sugar with cocoa to remove lumps. 

Beat into butter, alternating with milk. 

Beat in vanilla until icing is smooth. 

Enjoy!!

Today's Income

Today I had an etsy sale. Wahooo. It was a small sale, but a sale is a sale and I'm happy people are buying my stuff. The item(s) bought were a set of four polymer clay mushroom charms for $2.60. A thank you goes out to the buyer in Texas.

Today's Income

I've decided that anytime I make money from home I'm going to keep a record of it, no matter how small the number. Today I sold a stroller weather shield on craigslist for $10. It was actually the one thing I was expecting not to sell, but hey I'm not complaining. As a family we've decided that any craigslist sales along with bottle returns and things that my husband sells to his friends are going straight to our "summer savings account", so that we can have a little freedom when choosing our family vacation.

*To add to today's total, my husband sold $84 worth of stuff to some people he knows, one of whom owns a working farm, he has happily agreed to barter our items for his fresh produce, this will really come in handy in the summer!*

Making Money When You Don't Have a Job

So how do people make money while being a stay at home parent? I've been doing a few things, and I'm sure I could be doing more, slowly but surely it'll happen. Since October I've opened up my own etsy shop, selling kids/ kid inspired jewelry. By no means is business booming, but it gives me a great feeling that a few people are interested in things I'm making, it's also a few extra dollars that I wouldn't have had otherwise. 

This month I've been selling things on craigslist and my husband has been selling some things to a group of friends he sees once a week. Craigslist has been OK, although I will admit it can be a huge hassle with people saying they are interested in somethings and then not following through or dealing with people who are a little ummm....blank among other things. Thankfully though, my husband helps me out with craigslist selling and in less than two weeks we've made $100 selling to three different people. As for selling things to his friends, today was the first time he did it and was able to make $50. Selling things to friends might just be a one time thing, or possibly a once in a while thing, we'll see but at least I can say we made some cash and people are interested. 

I'm looking into ways to make more money, my husband works, but I don't and I miss getting a regular pay cheque. Selling things here and there has been great for this months challenge of organising, but I need something that I can count on more than craigslist and also something that makes more money than etsy, yet still allows me to be at home with our two toddlers. Suggestions are always welcome.

Lifetime Supply of Scrubbing Bubbles

...well, if not a lifetime supply at least a few years, because umm *cough cough* I may have more than this in my cleaning closet.

I bought this in one shopping trip yesterday at....yup you guessed it London Drugs. I love this store. After using $80.00 in coupons I paid just the tax which was $9.51, still cheaper then what just one of these cleaners costs before tax. 

For anyone out there that might find this blog and stacks at London Drugs I got this deal by using 2 x "$5 off Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean", one coupon was from an October Smartsource flyer and the other coupon was found in my townhouse complex mail room a couple weeks ago. 

December Challenge: Organising the Bathroom Cupboard

Today I got to organising the bathroom cupboard, I was shocked at how many things I had in there that were useless. Empty spray bottles, too many cleaning buckets and my husband's broken electric razor. It all had to go.

Before:

After:

November Challenge: Days 27, 28, 29 and 30 and Results!

Phew that was a long title.

Nov 27th:
$ 11.50 - Kids swap meet
$ 11.79 - London Drugs (used $55 in coupons)

Nov 28th:
$ 11.45 - London Drugs (used $63.46 in coupons)
$ .50 - Coffee
$ 44.45 - Grocery

Nov 29th:
$ 23.43 - Fruit and veg
$ 8.30 - Grocery

Nov 30th:
$ 19.31 - London Drugs (used $91.46 in coupons)
$ 4.72 - Chips
$ 17.29 - London Drugs (used $65.47 in coupons)

This past month I challenged my family and I to only spend $2300 on everything for the month of November, well sadly we spent more then $2300.  With the car having issues, a holiday and my youngest daughter turning two, I don't think we did too bad, we spent $ 2430.14 this month.

December's challenge is an organising challenge, and I've already gotten started.