Grandma knows best
By Amy Packwood • Bankrate.com

Canning and freezing food
Oma always had a large garden, which produced enough fruit and vegetables to keep the family of seven fed year round by canning and freezing. For those of us in small apartments, or with black thumbs, the thrill of home canning can still be had by ordering flats of produce directly from farmers. This is easiest to do by visiting a local farmer's market in season and arranging to pick up your flat from him or her directly (this also saves money by eliminating a middleperson).

If the time commitment required for canning is too much of a strain on your schedule, consider simplifying the ingredients you use. For more tips, check out Bankrate.ca's story Enjoy the fruits of your labour through canning.

Thrifty recipes
When workroom habitué Melissa Thomson's grandmother wanted to bake during the Second World War, she used a recipe that Thomson and family still use today. "It's called the wartime cake," Thomson says, "because the use of eggs and milk and butter were rationed during the (Second World) War, so they came up with the creative, science-experiment technique of baking soda and vinegar to make it rise instead of the usual expensive characters like eggs." The wartime cake recipe is still a family favourite.

Wartime cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together one and a half cups of all-purpose flour, one cup of sugar, one-third of a cup of cocoa, one teaspoon of baking soda and half a teaspoon of salt.

Then, add half a cup of vegetable oil, a cup of cold water, a tablespoon of vanilla and two tablespoons of white vinegar. Mix together until smooth, and then bake in a greased pan for about 30 minutes.

To prepare an optional sauce to serve with the cake, melt half a pound of bittersweet chocolate, three-quarters of a cup of water or milk and half a tablespoon of vanilla.

Simple, homemade cleaners
Baking soda and vinegar have long been admired for their transformative properties in the kitchen, but, thanks in part to the environmental movement, these adaptable substances are once again being recognized as equally effective in the rest of the house.

This is recipe, from Annie B. Bond's Better Basics for the Home, is one our grandparents may have whipped up to keep the homestead sparkling. Nontoxic, homemade and cheap, this recipe costs about 17 cents to make and is enough to deep clean your bathroom several times. Compare this to even the least expensive commercial products from the grocery store, which start at about $2.99, and the savings are clear.

Tub and tile cleaner: This cleaner makes tub, tile and fixtures shine like nothing else. In addition, the baking soda and vinegar keep mold and mildew far, far away. To make it, simply combine one and two-thirds cups of baking soda, half a cup of liquid soap, half a cup of water and two tablespoons of vinegar.

By repurposing and repairing old clothes, making inexpensive foods and creating your own household cleaners, that last envelope is bound to have plenty of cash left for a few treats at the end of the month.

Amy Packwood is a writer living in Toronto.