I use wax paper all the time to line my pans and have never had a problem...
I've had waxed paper smoked when I used it to hold "pie beans" when blind baking a pie crust. It's the direct heat that waxed paper doesn't like. Under a cake, it's fine.
Yip, as long as it's not exposed you're ok. I ran out of parchment one night at 11pm, so I used wax paper. Haven't bought parchment since.
I have been using waxed paper for over over 50 years, as had my mother before me. I've only used it for cakes, however, which are covered with batter. For cookies I use silpat sheets or shortening. I guess I must be paranoid about sticking issues for I use homemade pan release, waxed paper, then more pan release and believe me, I have never had a cake stick. There is no way I could afford parchment paper, and I have the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.
LoriMc, Go with the waxed paper, you'll do fine.
Cake release is great for the sides. I always use it. But I don't trust it for the bottoms of my cakes. Have one cake stick and break when you're on a time schedule and you'll wish you'd lined the bottom. Just don't want to use waxed paper where it'll be exposed. And the wax doesn't wick into the cake as some think.
i recently switched to wax paper from parchment because of the cost factor as well. it is thinner than the parchment so i have to be more careful (slowly) when i pull it off the cake. i took a bit of the bottom edge off the first couple times but otherwise it works great!
leah_s... you are always ... right on the money... great advice... i mostly use wax paper ..when i bake a chocolate cake.. or carrot cakes... never seen my mama bake a cake without using wax paper.. ha! jennifer dontz... covers the bottome and sides with wax paper.. not the cheap kind.. the reynolds cut-rite... she doesn,t take it off .. she freezes the cake with it on.. i haven,t tried that.. but she has done it for years. she shows this in her dvd... so keep giving us good advice leah.. always looking for your comments..
"You can line a cake pan with wax paper (the batter will cover and protect the paper), but dont line a cookie sheet with wax paper (the exposed portions will smoke and char)." 
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/JF02_ISparchmentpaper.pdf
Yup!!! LOVE using wax paper in my pans, I have for over 30 years.
No crumb coating.... ever. I think it makes the cakes even more moist because non of the steam ever escapes from the cake. I cringe when I see a cake cooling on a rack... all of that nice moisture is going into the air 
Jen
PS - No washing pans either - cake never touches the pan. I do this with different shaped pans, too. Yahooooo!!!!
Can you use it to line your cake pans if you don't have parchment? Thanks!
You sure can. I line the bottoms of pans 12 inches or less in waxed paper...larger I use parchement since the parchement sheets are wider. I then spray the pan with Pam for Baking [the one with flour in it]. You can also just use old fashioned greasing and flouring too.....grease the bottom, then line with paper, then grease and flour the whole thing.
NEVER had a problem!
All that greasing and flouring seems like a pain. I think I will try the wax paper and spray it with pam.
The only cakes that give me problems are carrot and strawberry. Who knows why.
Cakes with added pieces of fruits or nuts tend to want to stick as well as cakes with very thin batters.
Can you use it to line your cake pans if you don't have parchment? Thanks!
You sure can. I line the bottoms of pans 12 inches or less in waxed paper...larger I use parchement since the parchement sheets are wider. I then spray the pan with Pam for Baking [the one with flour in it]. You can also just use old fashioned greasing and flouring too.....grease the bottom, then line with paper, then grease and flour the whole thing.
NEVER had a problem!
You grease and flour the pan THEN line with waxed paper THEN grease and flour the paper? Why when you are lining the pan with the paper? I just can't feature why you need to do this. If it works for you fine, I'm just curious. It's quite a bit more work.
Jennifer, How do you line the bottom AND side of your pans? Strips around the side and cut piece to fit the bottom? I haven't seen the dvd.
Can you use it to line your cake pans if you don't have parchment? Thanks!
You sure can. I line the bottoms of pans 12 inches or less in waxed paper...larger I use parchement since the parchement sheets are wider. I then spray the pan with Pam for Baking [the one with flour in it]. You can also just use old fashioned greasing and flouring too.....grease the bottom, then line with paper, then grease and flour the whole thing.
NEVER had a problem!
You grease and flour the pan THEN line with waxed paper THEN grease and flour the paper? Why when you are lining the pan with the paper? I just can't feature why you need to do this. If it works for you fine, I'm just curious. It's quite a bit more work.
Jennifer, How do you line the bottom AND side of your pans? Strips around the side and cut piece to fit the bottom? I haven't seen the dvd.
If you are using the grease and flour method, just grease a couple small spots to hold the waxed paper in place, then grease and flour the pan.
Same thing happened to me, don't remember what I was baking with wax paper and it started to smoke so I've used parchment ever since. I will also try wax again. Thanks everyone.
I've got to try wax paper, I've been using parchment up to this point. Thanks for the tip!
Wax paper works fine for fruitcakes as well. When I bake fruit cakes I use 2 layers of unprinted newspaper then wax paper as the 3rd layer, to line the tins. This year I left the waxpaper on (while storing) and covered with gladwrap (saran) then foil. The cakes stayed lovely and moist and it was not too difficult to remove the waxpaper.
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