Do you save money by making your own by making your own bread?

[DawnM]

Timely thread. I have a lot of flour in the basement pantry I need to go through and I have fresh zucchini I could use. I need to make regular bread and zucchini bread.

This week the older boys and DH go to camp. I have only ONE child! I should make a bunch of bread and freeze it this week.

I have an older Zojirushi that I picked up at a thrift store for $7 about 3 years ago. It works perfectly! I would love a loaf shaped machine, but I don't want to pay the $200+ for it.

Dawn

 

[Jennifer in MI]

I make our own bread and grind my own flour for it. I definitely save money making my own! I estimated the expenses once and it came out to less than $0.50/loaf - totally organic. I make six loaves at once and it only takes around 20 minutes to bake, so I don't think it costs much in terms of my natural gas costs.

Around here, one loaf of organic bread will run you over $4/loaf.

Oh - and those six loaves? They're gone in a week!

 

[pixiewings71]

I have a bread machine and a recipe for awesome Artisan bread, I love them both but they don't save me money. I go to the bread outlet almost exclusively now, I can get loaves of bread for $1, and it's the GOOD bread, stuff like Potato Bread and Multi-Grain that you pay almost $4 a loaf for at the grocery store, I get it for a dollar. Buy it, bring it home, freeze it....I have a freezer full of bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns.....in addition they give you a stamp card, for every dollar you get a stamp, when the card is full you get a free item....and in addition again for every $7 you spend you get a free item, so I generally get 7 items at a dollar each, get the free item and get 7 stamps towards another freebie. The bread outlet is not too far from home so it's worth it to hit once a month (or so) for good bread at great prices. I do make Artisan bread and I do use the bread maker sometimes, just not regularly. I also have some sourdough starter that I need to get going...our family LOVES sourdough bread so if I could make that and the Artisan bread I would hardly need sandwich style bread at all!

 

[crisi]

I bake it in the oven and knead by hand. I think its about $.50 a loaf in ingrediants. Less if I bake sourdough and keep the starter going. Since a loaf of bread around here is never less than $1.50, and I don't think I use $1 in gas in my oven - I think I probably save quite a bit of money.

Flour is cheap. The only other things in a basic bread loaf are yeast, water and sugar.

I don't bake it much anymore as I'm gluten intolerant and fresh baked bread in the house is far too tempting.

 

[Hardy]

I make our bread and it is definitely cheaper. I buy 25 lb bags of flour for 9 bucks at sams club that last a really long time (need to store correctly) which last I looked at bread flour at the grocery story it was 3.50 something for a 5 lb bag. I usually mix half and half with whole wheat flour. The other big cost is yeast, which again buy in bulk, not the little packets. Plus, the kids LOVE it! You do not need a bread machine, but it is definitely nice to have, and mine is totally digital and can be set to start on a delay, mix in extras, all kinds of options which is nice especially if you are at work all day, come home to fresh baked bread, or if you are just busy! Look at garage sales and goodwill for breadmakers, a lot of people hardly use them and then give them away, that's how I got my first one

 

[GatorMama]

OMG thank you so much for all the response! I hadn't even THOUGHT of pizza dough! YAY! I really appreciate everything! I need to pull the manual out to see how to get started. How exciting! I guess I didn't really say that I'm not concerned about needing "white sandwich bread" since we don't use that. The only times I think white bread is "better" than a good, grainy bread is for a pineapple sandwich (which I can't eat because I'm allergic to pineapple), a super juicy BLT made with ultra fresh home grown tomatoes and tuna fish sandwiches. And really... BLTs are super tasty on whole grain bread too... I just love the way the tomato tastes when it soaks into squishy white bread. And I can skip the bread for tuna... I'll eat it on crackers instead.

 

[trip]

It wouldn't save me money. I'd have to buy a new wardrobe.

I can leave store bought bread alone but get out of my way if there is homemade bread in the house!!