There are thousands of ways to save money on food but some which might purportedly do that could end up costing you more than what you thought you'd be saving. So I came across this tip today. That it's much cheaper to bake your own bread instead of buying. Considering the amount of time you'd spend making the bread I think that probably this isn't one of the best ways to save money on food. What do you guys think? Would baking your own bread save you any money?
Absolutely not. Like you mentioned, you have to consider the time required to make bread from home. Then you have to consider the cost of materials, which is probably only a few dimes per loaf, but we haven't covered energy costs yet for baking that bread. You then have to factor in the convenience of picking up a loaf of bread for two bucks while you're already out grocery shopping. It MIGHT end up being cheaper on a per loaf basis if that's all you consider, but I'm positive it's more expensive when all factors are considered.
It's not more expensive. I used to bake bread all the time and it's the easiest thing in the world after you find the right recipe and make it a few times. The time consuming part is finding the recipe, but thankfully it's easier today than it was when I started out. Just hop online and find a recipe with a billion reviews. I found my favourite recipe that way.. it was nothing special, but the easiest ever and the kids absolutely loved it. After that, some recipes are seriously just letting it sit there for a while and kneading it a bit. Less work than getting dressed and driving through traffic to eat at a fast food joint or go grocery shopping, so I'm not sure how it's time consuming in comparison. The stuff in the store isn't bread and it's horrible for you.. so if we're factoring in costs, factor in health care due to poor diet while you're at it lol just my opinion of course. If you absolutely must eat bread (understandable.. bread is so yummy) then I'd go homemade.
It depends really on the kind of the food that you are planning to cook. You can make two kinds of bread, one is the healthy, and the other is just the ordinary that is often not healthy. To make a healthy bread, you would have to use ingredients that are concern with the health. It's just that they come with price; they are often more expensive than your regular ingredients. If you are up to making large quantities of bread then it would be cheaper if you are just going to make your own, be it the healthy or the ordinary kind. If on the other you just want a bread to taste of for a one-time dessert, then it's gonna be more practical to just buy. It's the quantity that will dictate. The quantity should fit the effort and the costs.
Baking your own bread can be healthier and cheaper especially if you make gluten free. My friends can't have gluten and bread is so expensive and not very tasty so they make their own which is cheaper. Normal loaves I would say are slightly cheaper, but if you take into consideration time and the cost of the gas oven, it may not be much of a saving unless you make several in one go. For a single person, unless you were having a party it would not be so economical, but for families it maybe.
I used to bake my own bread and yes it is cheaper, especially if you bake more than one loaf at once and are able to source the best priced ingredients. You also get much better quality bread this way. It does tend to go off quicker, but then I would just use stale bread to make breadcrumbs or in desserts such as bread pudding. The time consuming element of breadmaking is the proving time, but I would allow this to occur overnight, meaning I could bake fresh bread in the morning.
Of course it is, provided you make bread of the same quality as those in stores. My sister bakes quite a lot but for "everyday" bread (if that makes sense), it's better to just buy because it isn't worth the hassle. But if you want to up the quality a bit without spending a lot, baking at home is a great option.
There's a frugal bread recipe from Pinterest that I use that costs 40 cents a loaf to make, but I mostly make it because home baked bread tastes better, not to save 60 cents. If you are pressed for time and don't have time to bake, spending a dollar or two on store bought bread is a better choice for you.
When you consider how much rubbish, as in artificial flavors, added vitamins, preservatives and other nasty things are put into commercial bread these days, it really will cost you a lot less in the long term to make your own bread at home, as you won't be paying for medications and doctor's bills to treat the symptoms that you might develop from consuming these nutritionally dubious products for a number of years.
Yeah as others have said, it's really a time vs money thing. Bread from the store is pretty affordable. There's nothing like homemade bread, though. It has so much more flavor and is great right out of the oven. If I have a couple of days to spare I'll bake some.
Well, since I don't even know how to cook, then buying bread will be the only option for me. I guess if you know the right ingredients then it can be cheaper, but I'm under the impression that baking your own bread is more of a hassle than just buying one.
It is certainly cheaper for me. It really doesn't take me much time to bake bread because I invested in a really good bread machine that does all of the work for me. I just put in all the ingredients, and the rest is history. This allows me to get other things done that I need to get done. Factoring the cost of the machine and the ingredients, it still comes out cheaper for me to make my own bread because looking at what I will spend on buying bread and making it, there is a huge difference. Plus, a good quality bread machine is a lifetime investment. The money I saved from making my own bread paid off the machine in about 3 months. Artificial chemicals and preservatives are not an issue for me because all the bread here is freshly baked and lasts only 2 or 3 days outside of the refrigerator and does not contain any types of additives. But,what I like about making my own bread is that I like 100% whole wheat bread and nobody here makes it 100%. There's some amount of white flour in it.
For me, I enjoy the process of baking my own sourdough bread from scratch. I know exactly what is going into it, I incorporate the work of making the bread into my day, and the reward of the smell of fresh baked sourdough (that will give me 3+ loaves and I freeze the ones I don't use) is music to my nose at the end of the day (or sometimes the next morning). The cash savings is there, and yes, it takes my time, but the reward is worth it!
I've dabbled in this several times, including buying and returning a bread machine twice, and could never seem to get a loaf of bread that I was pleased with. They were all too dense and heavy and didn't have that nice airy-ness and chew to them like the loaves of bread I get in the bakeries. Plus I was also having a tough time finding actual bread flour and not just all purpose flour. For some reason most of our groceries just don't carry the proper bread flour - which is weird because they all carry yeast. I ended up wasting a noticeable amount of money buying bags of flour and jars of yeast, along with sticks of butter, and milk - and most of it went to waste when the loaf didn't come out good. I also later learned a few things that might have contributed to my loaves coming out bad - aside from not using the proper flour. Apparently tap water doesn't work well either since the chlorine in it can kill the yeast, so many sites were recommending bottled or distilled water instead - one more thing to buy. The other thing is the bakeries have special ovens that produce steam and other unique settings required to create specific styles of bread, such as those with hard crusts. You can kind of replicate this at home by misting your oven, but I don't know of any consumer bread machines that do stuff like this. I also had trouble getting the bread to rise in my apartment, even when I put it in the oven with the light on. I wish I was able to bake my own bread because it certainly seems fun, but personally I just stick to buying it from the bakeries. Especially when it only costs 99 cents a loaf at some of them.
I don't think it's cheaper to make it at home since bakeries often pay cheaper for their ingredients since they buy in mass bulk and you'd just end up paying roughly the same price probably if you made one at home with items purchased at retail price. However, if you have a big family and you all consume a lot of bread throughout the week then it probably is not that bad of an idea to start baking at home. This way you could just source your ingredients and buy in bulk and it will last months and you will eventually get the savings.
If you have a medium-sized oven and a good number of people to eat, I guess it is cheaper to bake bread at home. And that is provided you know how to bake because we had tried baking the morning bread and we were never successful in many tries. And if you will bake for only 4 people, it is better to just buy from the bakeshop to save you on the effort and ingredients.
