Have you ever made your own microwave popcorn? Maize in Montana has, and her microwave popcorn is cute! She shares her secrets for successful–and cute–DIY microwave popcorn over on her blog. Make personalized microwave popcorn as a fun kids’ activity, or as part of a frugal movie night gift basket (you can pick up the basket and movie candy at the dollar store). [how to make microwave popcorn]

And since Maize shared all her popcorn memories (and secrets) on her blog, I’ll let you in on some of mine. My favorite trick right now is to air pop the popcorn and spray it with Crisco butter-flavored nonstick spray and then salt it. The spray smells like butter and gives you enough grease on your fingers to trick you into thinking you’re eating buttery popcorn, but the actual fat is negligible. If you’re used to super buttery popcorn, it will probably take you a bowl or two of this to readjust your palate, but this trick works for my family and completely removes the guilt for me.

Project Estimate:

  • Brown paper bags, $1
  • Popcorn kernels, $1 and up
  • Masking tape, on hand
  • Letter stamps and ink, on hand

Total: $2