You are here: Home / Baking / Frugal Friday ~ Baking a Cake

Frugal Friday ~ Baking a Cake

March 27, 2009 | 6 Comments

Please visit Life As Mom for more great frugal tips. And be sure to enter my giveaway…it ends tonight.

First, I need to tell you that I am absolutely all about homemade, and made from scratch, but I am also a frugal homemaker, and like getting the most bang for my buck.

Recently I found cake mixes at Walmart for .88 and I wondered what the cost difference is between baking with a cake mix or from scratch.

Here is the break down for baking with a cake mix…

Cake mix               .88

Oil                            .24

3 Eggs                    .21 (they were on sale this wk. at Kroger for .79)

Water                    Free

Total                      $1.33

Here is the break down for baking a typical yellow cake from scratch…

Milk                           .25

Butter                       .04

Eggs                          .28

Vanilla                    .02

White Sugar           .16

Flour                        .16

Baking Powder      .03

Total                        .94

Well, I am actually quite surprised by this. I really thought the cake mixes were pretty cheap.  I also need to tell you that my figures for the cake from scratch are by no means exact. I did my figuring on the baking supplies that I buy at Aldi’s and I tried to divide the best I could, but it does give you an estimated cost.

So, I guess baking from scratch is better in more ways than just taste. Now, the mix is much quicker, so if you are in a hurry, for .39 difference, it’s absolutely worth it.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Filed under: Baking
 Tagged with

Comments

  1. Brooke says:
    March 27, 2009 at 7:01 am

    that surprises me too, but it definitely pays to do the math! :)

    Reply
  2. Heather says:
    March 27, 2009 at 7:53 am

    It is always so fascinating to do the cost break downs! We did this for a while last year with EVERYTHING we ate…. VERY eye opening!
    As a fellow Hoosier I really enjoy your blog.
    Heather

    Reply
  3. The American Homemaker says:
    March 27, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    And remember, you can leave the oil out of a cake mix :) That saves you .24 and evens it out… LOL

    Reply
  4. Jaye @ canadian-mom.ca says:
    March 28, 2009 at 8:09 am

    Hi Liz, I love seeing the breakdown of costs – thanks! :O)

    Reply
  5. Charlene says:
    March 28, 2009 at 10:56 am

    Hi,Liz, you left a comment on my blog about the football cupcake liners I bought on clearance–I couldn’t find an email contact page for you, so leaving the info here :0) These were not on the baking row with the regular cupcake papers, they were with the arts & crafts clearance things–I guess close to the cake decorating supplies! Hope you can find some!

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*