26
Oct

Tightwad Bread

   Posted by: MotherHen   in Bread, Pinchin' Pennies, Vittles

kitchen-utensils

Have I mentioned that teen aged Cowboys eat like vultures?  I have?  Well, I’m sayin’ it again!

My only tricks for keepin’ ‘em fed without breakin’ the bank are as follows.

  • Feed ‘em beans.
  • Homemade food is cheaper than store bought junk.
  • Home baked bread is FAR cheaper and FAR more wholesome than any other bread you can buy.

I thought I would try to break down the cost of my home baked bread and compare it to the (at least) $3/loaf that I would otherwise have to shell out.

I’m not gonna factor in the equipment I use, because, #1.  I expect it to last my whole life and I don’t yet know how long I’m gonna live, and #2. You could use a different kind of mill than I have and you could use a different kind of mixer or just your hands and still make bread.  Too many variables for this time of night.

But, we can have a good look at the ingredients.  (Oh yeah, not gonna work out how much it costs to run my oven either.  Sorry.)  So, just the ingredients.

I make a 5 loaf batch.  The costs are for a whole batch.

  • Wheat berries – $1.32
  • Olive Oil – $0.75
  • Honey – $0.93
  • Yeast – $0.32
  • Sea Salt – $0.08

Ready for this?  Total cost of ingredients to make 5 loaves of the healthiest bread I know how to make is $3.40.  For FIVE LOAVES of bread!  That’s $0.68 per loaf!

bread-and-a-wet-cowboy-003a

Shocked myself just there!  Wow!  I knew it was saving us a bundle, I just never ran the numbers before.

If I were to serve only store bought bread we would use about 10 loaves a week.  $30 minimum.  The home baked bread gets made an average of 2.5 times per week.  $8.50 + electricity to run my mill, mixer and oven.

No contest, folks!

You may be wondering, why we would eat more loaves of home baked bread than of store bought bread.  Well, I guess you might wonder that if you’ve never eaten home baked bread.  It’s delicious!  And it’s so wholesome that I just don’t hesitate when the kids ask for another piece of bread.

Here’s a site with lots of wholesome bread recipes. And here is a thorough tutorial on how to make bread by hand. And one for those of you who want to try the soaked method.

And if you don’t mind getting your toes stepped on a little bit, check out this marvelous article called The Bread of Idleness by Sue Becker.  Read that and then go have a productive day!  :D

Linked to:

Related posts:

  1. Bread, only better!
  2. Easy Banana Bread
  3. Frugal Cornbread
  4. Homemade Breakfast Sausage
  5. Wholesome ‘Mater Soup

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Bread, Pinchin' Pennies, Vittles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

24 comments so far

Ritsumei
 1 

Homemade bread is DEFINITELY better than the store bought stuff, though I have yet to convince my husband of that! I saw numbers a while back for what it costs to run the stove, and it’s minimal. I want to say that the cost of running it for an afternoon of canning is something like $.25. So don’t sweat the power costs of baking your bread!

October 26th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Ritsumei
 2 

That “Bread of Idleness” article is, indeed, very thought provoking. Hadn’t looked at it that way before. I’ve got the STUFF I need to make our bread. I make some of it already, but it’s not consistent. It’s not even regular, though it could be, if I’d manage my time better. I’m going to have to make a serious study of Proverbs 31. I think I’m falling short of what I could be doing.

October 26th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
MotherHen
 3 

She lays it right out, doesn’t she? I know I could be doing more with my time. Can’t wait to see how much I get done tomorrow! :D

October 26th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Cyndi L.
 4 

Great stuff! I recently bought a loaf of Ezekial Bread just to try it. It was good but for the $3.50, I’ll just make my own. My bread machine finally went to electronics heaven. It was from 1992 so it had a good long run. I’m not going to replace it but learn to perfect my bread with out it. (Besides I have a kitchen aid with a dough hook.) I hope to eventually cut my dependance on electricity so I the more I do by hand the better.

October 27th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Cyndi L.
 5 

Pleasure of the moment is something I’m very good at! Very good article. I printed it out so I can reread it as needed. I’ll also need to check out the rest of the site too. Interesting that this article was originally written in ‘94.

October 27th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Janee'
 6 

Do yo buy your wheat from the Bread Beckers? I too make my own bread, but I have never broken down the cost like that. I am doing better than I thought if my cost for wheat is the same as yours. I pay $30 for a 50lb bag at joyfullivingforyou.com

October 27th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
MotherHen
 7 

Hi Janee, I buy my wheat from a local store that runs a co-op. Twice a year they have goods at nearly wholesale prices if you pre-order. The price I used was on a 50# bag @ $17.05. Not bad, eh?

October 27th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Teresa
 8 

How do you get such light colored fluffy loaves, without usuing dough enhancer?

October 27th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
MotherHen
 9 

Well, Teresa, I dunno. I used to use the dough enhancer. But then I ran out and needed to make bread anyway and found I didn’t see any difference at all, so I have no reason to pay $7.95 for something that doesn’t do anything. I guess it could be that I don’t use red wheat, I use the white, or golden wheat.

October 27th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Teresa
 10 

I use golden and sometimes red, they both turn out the same, maybe its me:) I have not found white wheat somewhere that I can afford the shipping:) I usually make my own dough enhancer so it does not cost that much- but still I would like to get the cost down even more.

October 27th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Gail@FaithfulnessFarm
 11 

I love Crystal Miller’s site and have followed her for years. Your bread is beautiful :)

Blessings!
Gail

P.S. Come visit me and enter in my giveaway :)

October 27th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
MotherHen
 12 

What kind of mixer do you use, Teresa?

October 27th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Teresa
 13 

Sometimes I use my kitchen aid sometimes I use my hands, my bread machine died.

October 27th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
MotherHen
 14 

Teresa, that may be the difference. I use my Bosch. It’s a real pro at doing the tough, thorough kneading. :)

October 28th, 2009 at 8:14 am
M
 15 

Hi there, thanks for sharing this ! I am VERY intrested in the soaked bread and I am going to be checking into that one. You bread is beautiful. I can just imagine how good it tastes… my mouth is watering.

Thank you for joining and I really hope you come back next week. I can’t wait to explore your site some more.

Blessings in Him<
-Mary

October 28th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Mary @Raising 4 Godly Men
 16 

I ment to sign as Mary. Sorry about that. I want you to know you have a beautiful site.

God Bless
-Mary

October 28th, 2009 at 9:49 am
MotherHen
 17 

Thanks, Mary! :D

October 28th, 2009 at 9:56 am
MotherHen
 18 

I’ll be there. I can’t resist a Linky! ;)

October 28th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Shelly
 19 

Those are some beautiful loaves! How do you arrange them in your oven so they all fit and get good even heat? I almost always make 6 loaves worth of dough but then I don’t have enough room for them all in the oven!

October 28th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Shelly
 20 

Oh, yes… I forgot… which recipe do you use from the site you linked?

October 28th, 2009 at 11:15 am
MotherHen
 21 

Hi Shelly,
I put two along the back. If you were above the rack looking down the back two would be horizontal. Then I put the other three in front and they go in vertical, so to speak. Does that make sense?

October 28th, 2009 at 11:45 am
MotherHen
 22 

Since I purchased my recipe I cannot give it out, but it’s actually more like Marilyn’s Famous Whole Wheat Bread Recipe buy I omit the dough enhancer and the vital wheat gluten. At the Urban Homemaker she also has a tutorial for how to make bread using the Bosch.:D

October 28th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Janee'
 23 

Shelley, we use the recipe from Joyfullivingforyou.com and it is really yummy!

October 31st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Ritsumei
 24 

Hey, I tried the soaking thing. Made some yummy bagels. They had some issues, but overall were a great success. Monkey was ready to arm wrestle me for the last piece! I linked to my post about it in when I did this comment.

November 6th, 2009 at 9:04 pm