Ways to save at grocery store and have your cake and eat it, too

This may seem bizarre to some and even repulsive to those who don't like mayonnaise on a sandwich. However, bear with me and hear me out......
With eggs and butter (even oils) so costly at the grocery store, you can still make a little cake without breaking the budget.

Mayonnaise - yes, mayonnaise.

Full-fat, real mayonnaise has eggs and it has oil. It has what you need to make a cake.

But you say, "Isn't mayonnaise expensive, too????" And yes, it can be. It can also be cheaper than eggs and butter or oil for baking. You can use high end or store brand as long as it's real mayonnaise and not "light," "fat-free," or made with "olive oil."

You can economize by purchasing it when it's on sale and also use a coupon. You can also use more economical "store brand" and get just as good results.

Example: This particular week, Mid-March 2025, at the Food Lion grocery store their 30 oz jar of real mayonnaise is $2.69 and there is a digital coupon of $.95. So if you use 1 cup of this mayonnaise your cost is $.41 for the oil and eggs in your cake! This week a single white/large store brand egg is $.47 each!

So whether you're trying to economize or simply have just run out of eggs and/or oil at home, give it a try. (NOTE: You can use mayonnaise with cake mix also with great success.)

Basic vanilla "mayonnaise cake" recipe:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup cold water

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients together 2 or 3 times. Set it aside. Thoroughly blend together mayonnaise and sugar. Alternate adding sifted dry ingredients and water to the mayo/sugar mixture. Begin and end with flour. Blend in vanilla. 

Check out my post on Chocolate Pumpkin "Mayonnaise" Cake - click here

Getting frugal with our pocket book and with the enviroment

The world is full of stuff. The stuff that makes life pleasant, beautiful, enjoyable, doable, workable, easy, tasty, and so much more. The stuff that we buy, make, grow, and bring into our lives to enrich it and make life as good as possible.

But stuff gets worn out, has wrappings that we toss away, has scraps that need to be tossed and simply gets replaced by more stuff.

But the stuff that gets replaced or becomes too worn out to continue to use or that we just simply don't want anymore, gets tossed into the trash container, picked up by the trash collector, and tossed onto the trash dump. Then what happens?

That's the story of stinky, mountains of trash. Its origin and its destination. But it is destined to remain in piles, floated down rivers, dumped into the ocean and swirled into the Garbage Patch of the Pacific. 

But we can each do a little to stop the piles of trash, and in the course of helping the world a bit this way, we help ourselves. We help our budget. We get to feel good about things.

So let's get frugal. Let's get into living smart. Let's do a few little things....

1. Broth: You don't have to purchase a can of broth when you need it for gravy, sauces, or soups. You can make your own. Did you buy a rotisserie chicken? Slice off the meat and then boil the carcass (bones, skin - yes, the skin, and remaining bits of meat) with a bit of salt and pepper. Then strain the broth and save. Pick the meat from the bones and save for the soup you make with this delicious broth. You can use the broth and meat within a few days after refrigerating or you can freeze it for later use. And there is no can for the trash container! Another opion is you can purchase some chicken parts or the whole bird and boil to make your broth. Then you have lots of wonderful, tender, tasty meat to use for casseroles, salads, or creamed dishes. This way you don't have to purchase canned chicken with all the additives. And.... no can for the trash container!
2. Bags: We all know about the reusable bags you take to the stores so you don't have to bring home the store's little plastic bags (or paper bags). Well, those little plastic bags are terrible for the environment. I feel so good when I remember to take my own bags to the store and use and reuse them over and over again. No, I'm not perfect and I sometimes forget them. But I am trying to cut down on my plastic footprint on this sphere we can home.
3. Linens: If you have a sewing machine and can sew a relatively straight line, you can do lots with towels, sheets, and shirts that are wearing thin. Cut them down to use for other purposes. A towel getting worn in the middle? Cut it down for a kitchen dish cloth or a cleaning rag to use and reuse. Sheets getting worn in the middle? Cut them down and make pillow cases. A pillow case is just a strip of cloth stitched into a rectangle and hemmed at the open end. Just look at the ones you already have, cut a "pattern" allowing for seams, and make them. Or you can cut a large sheet down for a child's bed or a crib or just a light cover to toss over a sleeping child. Napkins can be made from bits of sheets or the backs of Dad's shirts that are too worn to wear. This way you don't buy as many cloth or paper napkins. You have a colorful assortment for the family to use and reuse. You've saved money. You've purchased less items. You've slowed the growth of the trash pile a little.
4. Bottles: Try to use your own refillable water bottle. All those plastic water bottles that folks purchase in daunting quantities end up in the landfill. They just don't degrade. They are there and they stay there. Try to avoid them as much as possible. If you must use them, be sure you recycle the plastic.
5. Coffee to go: Do you love your coffee house buys? Love to get that special blend as you're on the go? Some shops let you bring your own travel mug and they fill it (you purchase the drink). That way you don't toss another disposable cup in the trash container and some shops even discount you a little for not needing their disposable cup. To be a frugal coffee drinker, though, make your own drink at home and take it with you. You've saved money and maybe helped the environment a little.

Is that all? Of course not. It is just a start. There are lots of ways to live frugal and there are lots of ways to help manage the environment. You don't have to be a miser or "tree hugger" to do any of these. It is just good common sense and a caring attitude.

©Chat With Vera. Permission to use this written material wholely or in part may be acquired by contacting Vera via email in the side bar. The Youtube Garbage Pile of the Pacific was gleaned from the internet and used solely for the purpose of enlighting my readers and not for personal gain. Permission granted to use the written material can be granted by Chat With Vera and does not include granting permission to use the video.

Thinking back to an earlier time.... a button jar..... and tea towels from men's shirts

Sometimes it behooves us to pause and think back to an earlier time, a slower pace, a less privileged people, and a way of life almost lost to us.

Think back to when people didn't throw out worn out items or outgrown clothes. No, they utilized every bit that they could.

Take a man's shirt that is worn out at the collar - their neck has simply worn the fold of the collar threadbare. The same is true of the cuffs of his long sleeve shirts. In that "earlier time of make-do," ladies would carefully remove collar and cuffs and "turn" them. That means she put the outside on the inside. You couldn't simply turn the cuffs. I believe you had to replace or shorten them to hide the worn edges.

And then when nothing would work to make the shirt wearable anymore, you simply cut out the back of the shirt, squared off the edges, and hemmed it with a narrow hem. This could become a "dish towel," tea towel, a napkin, or an all-purpose cover for bread, cakes, etc. Just imagine everyone in the family having their own favorite "napkin" made from dad's shirt.

Then take the woman's coat. It has become a bit threadbare or doesn't fit anymore. Take it completely apart. Press the pieces. Then take a child's pattern for a coat or jacket and make it into a different outer wear coat.

You can remake any larger garment into something suitable for a child if you are careful in choosing your pattern and you have sufficient pieces from the larger garment.

Don't forget the "button jar." Save buttons from any discarded garment. These are real handy when you need to replace a lost button from another garment. And if it is kept through the years and passed down from one generation to the next...... well, there would be stories to tell about buttons found in the button jar.

Quilts of today are mostly made of brand new material in special patterns. However, in that earlier time, the basic patchwork quilt was made using scraps from any and every garment. As I said earlier about using the back of a man's shirt for a tea towel, the rest of the shirt would make quilt scraps. And then, of course, the buttons would be clipped and put into the treasured button jar.

So while we thoroughly enjoy the blessings and comforts and ease-of-life that today's world has enabled us to all have, it pays us to touch base from time to time and remind ourselves that some things from an "earlier time" are worth remembering and worth doing a bit of, perhaps.