I often get the question is it really cheaper to make something rather than buy it. One example is bread, when you can buy bread for 50 cents, why make it? There are a lot of reasons, besides cost to make bread. Whether it is worth your time, and is cost effective, is largely an answer that only you can answer.
You must start with your time, because there is nothing more frustrating than buying all the equipment, and ingredients, to only watch them collect dust on a shelf, because you never had a chance to use them. Will you have the time this change requires? Bread does not have to take a lot of YOUR time, but you will find that it does require you to be home for a long period of time, that is unless you opt for a Breadmaker. To make bread from scratch, takes about 5 hours, but it only requires only about an hour of your time.
Breadmakers are the ideal solution for many families, as it allows you to put your ingredients in, and walk away. I prefer to make mine from scratch, I do use a large mixer, but it gives me far more flexibility, and making it from scratch I think yields a better quality product. Do you have the time? Will you still feel the same way in 3 months? What about 6 months? Or a year? This is the time to be really honest with yourself.
So once you have decided that yes you can reasonably commit some time to your project, then you have to decide, how much you will need to invest on equipment. Some things require no special equipment, and again with bread making you do not have to have much in the way of equipment, but you may wish to use a breadmaker, or mixer. Be realistic, will you do it by hand? That takes more of your time, and physical effort. Will you make enough bread to pay off your investment. I almost never buy bread products from the store anymore, so the investment was well worth what I paid for it. Will it be for you? Only you can say. If you are going to be an occasional baker, and want to know if it is going to pay off, chances are the answer will be no.Do some research, dont just go down to your local department store. Do a search on the internet, check yard sales, watch the sales.
Now you have the Equipment handled it is now time to do some number crunching, go to the places in your town where you get the best prices, dont forget to look for restaurant supply stores, and wholesale warehouses,they are great sources of bulk ingredients, at a decent price. Find the best prices on the ingredients, you can get. I can get a 50 lb sack of flour for 8 dollars, a large package of yeast for 3 dollars, and since my basic recipe takes little else, I dont worry too much about the rest. But other prices you make want to look at, are sugar, honey,salt, and oil, all common ingredients in the basic bread.
Then you will need to estimate, how many loaves of bread that sack of flour will make, I do know that I use about 2 packages of yeast, for one bag of flour. So I can weight the amount of flour the recipe calls for, then divide that number into the price of the flour, and you will have the number of loaves of bread that 50lb sack will make. Now that you have the number of loaves for bread, and the yeast, you can calculate the price per loaf. You can do the same for any other ingredients, I just guestimate the cost of the salt, sugar, and oil, because the recipe I use, only takes a small amount of each. Dont forget your electricity as well, just like you should remember the cost of gasoline to buy loaves of bread.
In the end my calculations come out to about 29 cents a loaf. But there is still more things to consider. One is storage, and the proximity of your store. If you are like me and cannot buy cheap bread close by, you will choose to buy several loaves of bread. This takes up precious space in my freezer. When I bake bread, my ingredients are stored, mostly on my shelf, I usually have enough for 3 -4 months baking. In all honesty that is far more convenient for me, than running out to the store for a loaf of bread. However do you have the place to store your bulk ingredients? If not you may have to settle for a smaller bag of flour, that too will bring your costs up.
And Finally the health issues, these days, there is a growing concern for what is being put in our food,and legitimately so. Preservatives, and additives,such as colors, and flavorings, do not need to be accounted on the label, which means there can be a variety of things in your bread that you dont realize. Many of the chemicals and additives, are under the Generally Recognized as Safe category, which is not tested, and is not regulated. I believe many of modern day disease stems from these products. There is a growing trend by many families, to eat as much whole food as possible, and to eliminate the presence of these chemicals and additives in our diet. So there you have it, all the information that you might need to make an informed choice, about your decision to bake or not bake. I hope this gives some food for thought, and helps you to decide, whether it is cheaper to make it or buy it.
About The Author: Patty Getz is the owner, and editor, of Totally Frugal and loves to spend her time with family, in the kitchen, and teaching others, how to have a more fullfilling life. http://www.totallyfrugal.com
Another delightful thing you might experiment with is using only a small amount of yeast, so the bread dough rises at room temperature for a long time. In my house, a quarter teaspoon of yeast will leaven a 6-cup batch of bread overnight; then I can punch it down and let it rise again during the day, to bake in the afternoon. I learned this technique from a lovely book called "Home Cooking" by Laurie Colwin; now instead of being a slave to my rising dough I can mix and bake when it's convenient for me. Plus, the bread seems to keep better if it has a very slow rise like this. (On those rare occasions when we don't eat it all up in three days, that is ;-)
There are many good reasons to make your own bread, but to me the biggest consideration is simply, "Do I enjoy it?", and I do. Since I live alone I can't justify it by cost; for me it would be cheaper to buy bread from the grocery store. One reason is that it keeps longer (preservatives). But I still wind up tossing part of each loaf because it just doesn't taste as good as homemade, fresh-baked loaves.
One of the cool things about baking is experimenting with different breads, tweaking recipes to get what I want. I love to play in the kitchen, and it's amazing how many different types of breads one can come up with. I use a bread machine to make the dough, then usually bake it on my stone in the oven. Experimenting is a lot of fun and I learn a lot, partly because I have to eat my mistakes. And when a new recipe comes out right it's a lot of fun to share bread with friends and family, and light up their faces with it. To anyone who really enjoys being turned loose in the kitchen, I say give bread baking a try. Do it just for the fun of it!
I wish I knew where I could buy bread for as little as 50cents per loaf.At my local grocery stores for a good, wholesome (not 99%air) bread; the price is anywhere from just over $1.00 all the way up to just over $3.00 per loaf. I LOVE my bread maker for Whole wheat and other yummy breads.
Having allergies is a great reason for making your own breads. We are unable to eat wheat, so I make our bread with spelt flour and we do just fine. For variety, I often experiment with other flours, like quinoa. We make rolls and pizza dough too, which allow us to follow our diet and feel "normal."
I find that when a loaf is still warm from the oven, we love to eat it for a snack rather than anything else, which is much healthier for us.
I buy the frozen bread dough....because I ALWAYS mess up starting the yeast! Except the fact the flour is bleached (I don't like that!) It is very good and comparable to homemade. But my boys love whole wheat, so I buy the kind with the least amount of ingredients (or I need to know, pronounce, and find them in my own house!) Because it is hard to keep up with little ones and bake how I would like to, I am searching and saving for a bread machine that heats the water and dispenses the yeast. I think that would be my only saving grace to get as close to homemade as possible!
Buy a loaf of store bread and you have air. Bake a loaf of bread and you have almost a meal in a slice of it. It's a stick-to-the-ribs slice of bread. Homemade bread has taste! No preservatives but, who cares. It won't last that long anyway! There is nothing like fresh homemade bread. I'm the kind who does everything the "old fashioned" way. Baking bread is just one of the "old fashioned" things I do. Kneading the bread is a wonderful tension release. Smelling that bread baking in the oven is a fragrance so sweet, it's difficult to even describe. You can talk all you want about the difference in price but, money can't buy taste or love. Homemade bread is a gift of love to my family.
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