Frugal Challenge: Bread

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I used to make all of our bread we ate. I have a grain mill and I would make my own flour out of organic wheat berries. I have a recipe that I really like to make and would make 4-5 loaves at a time. That was until I found I could get Organic 100% Whole Wheat Bread at the Franz Bread Store for $.80 a loaf on sale on Saturdays. So since the price was so good I have been purchasing our bread. But I thought I should figure out which is less expensive store bought or homemade. When I compare the taste of homemade bread to store bought the homemade wins every time.

So here is what I found:

Organic loaf of 100% Whole Wheat bread cost $.80 on sale to $1.20 not on sale.

My homemade bread breaks down this way

1 C Water $.00
2 T Oil $.12
2 T Honey $.16
1 t Salt $.004
1.5 C All Purpose Flour $.14
1.5 C Whole Wheat Flour $.17
2 t Yeast $.01
Sprinkle of Ginger $.005
4 T Gluten Flour $.16

So the cost of just the ingredients of my homemade loaf of bread is $.77.

I still have to pay for electricity to bake it and my time to make it. My time does not really need to factor in as I really like to make bread but the electricity would. I am going to guess that it would cost $.20 per loaf to bake as I usually bake 4-5 loaves at a time. This may be high or low I don’t really know how to figure out how much an electric oven uses in about 1 hour of baking at 350 degrees so I will guess at $1 and divide by 5 loaves. If you know how much energy this takes let me know.
So my estimated cost for a loaf of bread prepared would be $.97 per loaf.

So my homemade bread is more expensive than the sale store bought bread. Of course my homemade bread taste better, but does not last as long. The bread store loaf ingredients are almost the same as my homemade loaf.

I think I will probably stick to purchasing the bread at the bread store unless I have time to make bread at home, for a special dinner or if the price goes up at the bread store.

Do you make all your own bread or do you purchase it? Do you have a good source for inexpensive bread?

2 thoughts on “Frugal Challenge: Bread”

  1. Thanks for this post Shell! I never figured the cost of homemade bread, but if I see it at Aldi for $.89, I will usually buy some. Since I got my bread machine, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with different recipes.

    1. I used to have a bread machine but it broke. What kind of bread machine do you have? Do you like it? I have been doing all my bread and rolls by hand for about 6 months now.

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