If you do it by hand yes, if you buy all the stuff we buy probably not.
MrJuart
With grocery inflation continuing to rise, I started baking my own bread, and it’s actually saving me more than I thought. Curious if others have run the numbers?
CoffeeSnakeAgent
Depends on the cost of running the oven. And fridge if you’re going long proof. And your time.
If counting ingredients alone, definitely cheaper than buying an artisan loaf outside. Especially from the pretentious ones.
tencentblues
Depends on how much you value your time. From an ingredients perspective, it is certainly less expensive; a $6.19 bag of bread flour from the store will produce 4 loaves. The cost of water and salt is negligible, so the $1.55 I am paying per loaf is far less than it would cost me to buy a loaf of comparable quality.
That said, it takes me probably 2 hours of labor all in to bake a loaf (spread out over 24-36 hours.) If that was time I would otherwise spend earning money, then the loaf costs far more than bread from a bakery.
Skyuni123
I can get probably three weeks worth of bread out of one bag of flour so yes it is for me! I’m also only cooking for myself.
lifeuncommon
Yes.
Mimi_Gardens
I bake my own because I prefer the flavor of homemade bread. If I were content buying a loaf of el cheapo white bread, then no, it would not save me money to bake bread. But bread without the weird tasting additives is expensive.
mliz8500
I buy the restaurant supply store 50lb bags of good quality bread flour (~$22 usd), and it takes about six months to use up. I keep it in my chest freezer in the garage. I don’t tolerate whatever additives they’re putting in grocery store bread very well, I rarely eat bread that I didn’t make. So I can’t say for sure if it’s actually saving any money, but especially when you can buy ingredients in bulk and you bake a few loves at once and keep them in the freezer, it certainly goes a long way.
momoftheraisin
I wandered into a local bakery the other day and they were selling sourdough loaves- plain, round, not very big loaves- for $18 🤯
And that’s USD.
Aetole
Dietary concerns could also play a role in the calculations, as well as access to specialty bakeries. I can’t really eat store bought bread and pastries because they make me carb crash too badly. When I bake my own, I can control what goes into them, and use a lot more whole grain flour, which makes it feel much better. The type of bread I bake would definitely cost a lot more and probably need to be bought from specialty stores that aren’t nearby.
use27
I mainly bake my own bread because of the type of bread I need for the things I make. I just don’t have much of a need for normal white bread
TwinkleToesTraveler
I love baking breads, particularly traditional baguettes. I started doing sour dough many years ago and enjoyed it but due to several factors, I’m now focusing mainly on baking bread with instant yeast and maybe later this year, I’ll try to learn how to do my own pasta madre so I can make my panettone.
As far as thinking if baking my own bread has been a smart saving idea, I honestly never thought about it given several reasons: I get to choose the flours I use, I get to choose when I’d like to eat fresh baked breads from a home oven, I get to experiment with ingredients, I get to learn new skills and learn from others, I get to share my bake, the immense satisfaction I get whenever a good bake came fresh out of my oven. Last and most important, where I live, no bakeries make a decent loaf of bread, especially baguettes. If I want a good traditional baguette, I’d have to drive or fly.
olnog
There is a certain cost for convenience. I think when I did the math it was like 60 or 70 cent to make a loaf of bread and I pay like a dollar 50 or something or $1.80 for mine. It takes maybe five to 10 minutes to make the bread.
For me the real thing is being able to control the bread that I’m making and also, it was kind of annoying to have to go to the store specifically to get bread. And now I can just make it when I run out.
Unless you were getting really fancy kinds of bread, I don’t think it’s that much of a financial move.
the-good-wolf
I see a lot of people factoring time as money in here.
I would just like to remind you that if bread is your hobby, your time is priceless.
Not worthless, but rather if you get joy from baking bread, you shouldn’t ever factor time as a cost in your loaf.
Ok-Sprinkles21
Hands down saves me a ton.
If I bought bread it’s anywhere from $4-$7 depending on if it’s on sale or not.
I make super basic small no knead batches of bread. Low effort, high reward.
Not taking into account how much it costs to use my oven, cause honestly I haven’t seen some huge electric bill increase since I’ve started this venture, if I’m only using AP flour it’s $0.25-$0.50 a loaf depending on if I got the flour on sale.
If I use bread flour I’m looking at $0.30-$0.60 a loaf.
Having one less processed thing in my diet is priceless.
Dry_Future_852
I don’t get the time argument. While your coffee is brewing, mix your jumpstarter. (2min). Go to work. Come home. Mix in the rest of your flour and water (2min). An hour later, mix in your salt (2 min). A half hour later, fold (2min). Repeat 3 more times (6min). Shape (2 min). Place in oven (30sec) Remove from oven (30sec) Total time: 17 minutes
ge23ev
depends, if you compare to wonder bread no. but a nice comparable loaf in my area is about 7$ versus 1$ to make at home plus I use better ingredients. also I factor in the fact that I would have to go to a bakery as the bread that I like is not available at the super market so the effort factor is equalized sort of
Bulk flour is 50 cents a pound even for good stuff, a pound of yeast is only $5. So yeah it is definitely cheaper except time is money.
LairdPeon
For comparable quality? Absolutely. If you mean like $1.00 Walmart brand bread, then no. It is impossible for you to get it that cheap. The cost to run the oven and water is more expensive.
OkAssignment6163
It’s a trade off. I love the bread that I make. I’m fairly decent. Do I want to do it for every type of bread that I can do? God no.
I’ll do it for work, no problem. But I’ll also pay for the convenience of not having to make it home.
But that’s me. Maybe you’ll find it worth the time and effort to make it yourself. It can be a fun hobby.
And it can be cost effective in the long run. For most common breads. And you don’t even need specialized equipment for most breads.
But it’s kinda like learning how to draw. All you really need is something a writing utensil and a simple sheet of paper.
But so many people that say they want to learn how to draw and they don’t even take the time to hold a pencil and practice making straight lines.
Let alone practicing concepts like shading perspectives, and basic shapes. It’s like that. But for baking. Make sure it’s something you want to actually do.
Friendly-Ad5915
It really depends on what you’re making and your habits.
You can buy cheap bagels at the store where they cost under a dollar each, or you can get fresh ones from a bakery for one to two dollars each. But once you start doctoring them up—adding cream cheese, making sandwiches, etc.—the cost adds up. Making those same things at home can save you a lot, and there are super easy ways to do it. For example, you can make your own cream cheese with just milk and vinegar or lemon juice.
Homemade bread can be a huge money-saver, especially when you factor in shelf life. Store-bought bread only lasts so long, but if you keep the ingredients on hand, you can make it fresh whenever you want. And that flexibility matters.
It goes beyond bread too. You can save a ton by learning to bake things like pizza dough, calzones, buttermilk biscuits, cookies, muffins—even cake. You’re mostly paying for ingredients, and you don’t necessarily need premium ones to get good results. Once you have the skill, it’s easier to make better stuff for way cheaper than store-bought or takeout.
That said, if you’re new to it, you might feel like you’re not saving money at first—especially if you’re making mistakes, wasting ingredients, or not getting the results you hoped for. But that’s part of the process. It’s worth it to spend a little on cheap ingredients while you learn. The skill pays off down the road, both in savings and in the value of being able to make exactly what you want, when you want it.
So yes, it’s a legit financial move—but it’s also more than that. It’s freedom and flexibility, and it adds up over time.
Inevitable_Cat_7878
It really depends. It costs me around $2 to make 2 short loafs of Japanese milk bread. This doesn’t include my time and utilities (electric/water/etc.).
What I like about making my own bread is that I control the ingredients. I know what goes into it.
ObsessiveAboutCats
I am a very picky eater. Ham, egg, cheese and bread are some of my very few safe morning foods.
Ham and cheese kolaches are perfect.
I can go to Shipley’s and buy them for $3.50 each. They contain one puny thin slice of ham and a little bit of cheese (of unimpressive flavor) and are mostly bread (which is often overcooked and burned). I have to buy half a dozen at least to get a decent meal. That’s $21. Independent shops are more expensive and of a slightly better quality.
Or I can make them myself. They work out to a little under $2 each, and contain a huge chunk of ham and ooze delicious cheese. Two make an excellent meal for $4, and I don’t have to leave my house to get them (gas money, time, risk of some asshole on a cell phone hitting my vehicle).
I bought a KitchenAid stand mixer on a hell of a deal a couple of years ago (7 quart bowl lift) and it has absolutely paid for itself just from my breakfasts.
Justatransguy29
So, no it is not cheaper than buying store bread IF (and only if) you are okay with buying regular quality bread. If you are genuinely looking for homemade or gourmet bread without any of the preservatives necessary for store shelf lives, then it *can* be cheaper but is not necessarily.
Ultimately it’s more of a lifestyle thing I’d say. It depends on what ingredients you use, how you source them, and whether or not you consider making the bread labor inducing enough to include labor costs because it almost immediately makes homemade bread either cheaper or more expensive based on that one thing. 🤷🏾
Due-Yesterday-4293
I mill my own flour, I buy organic hard red wheat and pay around $45 for a 50lb bag. I can make about 40 loaves of sourdough out of that. There’s not many other foods I can think of you could survive on for less than $50 a month. Plus you can sprout them. Store grains y’all.
jmlbhs
i started baking right around 2020. Ive bought for it a few things:
* bannetons * kitchenaid mixer (refurbished~$300) * bench tools/scrapers * razors * bread proofer ($200) * weck jars that I’ve had to buy a few times since I’m clumsy and break them ($70)
Minus the mixer and proofer, not that many tools are that costly. Where I am, a similar loaf of sourdough would go for $10. I’ve made bread more weeks than I haven’t since 2020. Say that’s 130 weeks of making bread (every other week) and I always make at least 2 (usually giving one away). So that’s about $1300 I would’ve spent on bread just for myself. Then there’s the added bonus if getting to give a loaf away to friends & family.
Flour cost is practically negligible for me, I can usually get a 50 LB bag of high quality flour (like ABC+ from Central Milling) for ~$40. This doesn’t even count for all the non sourdough bread I’ve made; rolls, hamburger buns, babkas, etc. Financially, yeah, I think the math works out
HealthWealthFoodie
There is one bakery that bakes bread in my area anywhere near what I prefer, and they charge around $12/loaf.
I grind my own flour from grains I buy in bulk. I spend $150 on 100lb of grains, so that’s around $1.50 per loaf in flour costs.
I buy yeast in 1lb bulk and use 2.5g/loaf which works out at $0.02 per loaf.
I use 12g of salt, so around $0.03.
I use 400g of filtered water, which costs around $0.05
I also include about a of olive oil. I get 32 ounces for $13, so that works out to $.20 per loaf.
I run my oven for about 1.5 hours, although usually I can bake two loaves at once. Currently I’m using gas. That’s around $0.50.
I use a dry grains container on my Vitamix to grind my grains which cost me $150 to purchase and although I expect it to last 10 years it comes with a 3 year full warranty. Baking two loaves approximately every other week (some weeks in too busy, this I’d likely an underestimate, but let’s work with that) adds up to 156 loaves, so purchase cost of $.96/loaf if it gives out after 3 years. I also use a stand mixer, but I got that before even starting baking bread, so I don’t count that as an extra expense.
That’s $3.26/loaf of bread all in. Hands on time is probably around 30-45 minutes, the rest is just waiting so I’m usually doing other things as well. This is not time that I would be working, so it’s just taking away from my relaxing time. For me, this is totally worth it and I would be hard pressed to find a comparable loaf of bread at that price cost.
grinchman042
Only if you don’t value your time.
Fockelot
I meannnnnn. I reckon it depends on how much bread you eat? For me the cost of a bag of KA flower is $5, maybe 4-5 loaves per bag let’s say. A comparable loaf like that at a store is gonna be $5 for a half loaf. So at $10 a loaf it would mean I could have made 8-10 loaves or so if you baked it at home, yeast is very cheap and sourdoughs use starters.
Blk_shp
It is WAY WAY WAY cheaper to buy all purpose flour and a bag of gluten flour. The bag of gluten flour is like $10-15 for a pound but my Bobs Red Mill (idk if it’s the same for other brands) is only 3g/100g of AP flour to bump the gluten content up to bread flour, it’s maybe 1TBSP max per loaf. Even if you bake a lot that bag of gluten flour should last like a year.
And then you can buy the like $2-3 bag of AP instead of the $7-10 bag of bread flour and actually make cheap bread. It’s crazy we’ve gotten to a point where baking a loaf of bread at home isn’t even cheap anymore 🤦♂️
Sea_Strength_3662
I’ve saved so much money by baking my own bread
Alwaysfresh9
It does for me. Got a bread maker at a garage sale for dirt cheap, make my bread with that more often that not. Sometimes I’ll make something fancy, but dough for rolls in the machine too. It’s pretty easy and cheap and we eat a lot of bread!
drunk___cat
If you get super fancy with flours, not really, but if you buy bulk all purpose or bread flower it’s definitely cheaper!
JDHK007
The time I put into baking a loaf is definitely not worth it financially, but it brings me pleasure
Anaidydal29
Haven’t bought grocery store or bakery baked items since 2021. I bake everything from sourdough starter: bread, bagels, cinnamon raisin bread & English muffins. From a poolish: Italian bread and rolls. All desserts too. Definitely easier on the wallet and so much better with 0 chemicals & preservatives.
doodlebuuggg
What bread are you people buying? Loafs of French and sourdough range from 3-5 bucks at my local Albertsons.
Palanki96
well it’s much cheaper for me
Makra567
Ive started making bread by hand recently. I end up eating a lot more bread as a result because it tastes good, it doesnt last as long, and decent flour costs nearly as much as a store loaf. I think it probably costs me more to make bread from scratch by hand than the bread we buy from our grocery store, actually. It costs me at least $3 for 2 small loaves just for raw ingredients.
But even if it were free, there are so many better financial things i could do with my time instead of taking 3 hours to make bread. I make bread because i like doing it and it tastes good.
Flux7777
Unfortunately, in my country, there is no way I can make a loaf cheaper than my local bakery can. I just can’t get access to high quality flour at the same prices they, so I’m paying almost double for high protein stone ground.
Important_Chef_4717
I’ve saved a lot of money by baking bread. I received a bread baking “kit” as a Cmas gift from my Mil. She also gifted me several old cast iron Dutch ovens that just needed some re-seasoning. She’s a really amazing old lady who loves this trend where you learn old fashioned ways. She’s very encouraging and a vast wealth of experience and information just one panicked phone call away. A quick drive if I’ve really messed the recipe up.
Idk. I think my Mil is the one saving me the most money here♥️
BrodyIsBack
No, my time is more important than spending hours making one loaf of bread.
tuckyruck
Hell no. Especially not sourdough which you have to keep feeding and halving your starter… unless you make starter pancakes or muffins or something every single day.
Just go buy a loaf.
But… i make sourdough and regular bread because I love fresh bread and the joy of making it. Not saving a dime…
Harderqp
I think the amount of bread you’re eating is going to make a big difference. But generally speaking I think the financial benefits would be fairly negligible.
cliff99
Certainly not if you place much value on your time, baking bread makes sense if you like, not so much if you’re looking at finances.
Avilola
Once you get over the learning curve that comes with teaching yourself how to bake bread, it’s totally worth it cost wise. The thing you’ll need to factor in is time. I work from home, so the labor involved doesn’t really have any negative impact on my day. Most of the “hours of time” you spend baking is idle, so it’s no big deal for me to run to the kitchen to do a five minute knead or stretch and fold, then get back to my day. You might feel differently if you’re out of the house for ten hours at a time though.
IAmEatery
Almost every skill you don’t have to outsource that you can learn will be a financial move.
Cooking and baking and gardening will cover a lot of expenses if you invest time and a little, and I do mean not a lot, of money towards this education.
For me I spend around 100-150$ a month on groceries and it’s primarily meat, eggs, flour, sugar, and things that would be generally annoying to make.
MCarabooboo
I did the math on my loaves and they cost at most 50 cents. I couldn’t sleep one night and did the math. I buy my ingredients at Costco.
Cost of a loaf:
Flour 50 lbs $16.49 45 loaves 0.37
Yeast 32 oz 2 lbs $7.99 0.06
Salt 30 oz $3.39 0.03
0.46
atombomb1945
A loaf of sandwich bread costs me between $1.50 to $3.00 per loaf. I don’t touch bakery loaves, that is just over priced and under flavored. If I need one of those I do a no kneed bread or let the mixer run for five minutes and let it sit in the fridge for a few days.
It all depends on what kind of bread you need for what application you are wanting.
ImBabyloafs
I don’t do it because it’s cheaper (though, I suppose it is). I do it because I can make it exactly how my family likes it and I genuinely enjoy it. If you’re just doing it for financial reasons every bad loaf will be that more infuriating. lol.
50 Comments
If you do it by hand yes, if you buy all the stuff we buy probably not.
With grocery inflation continuing to rise, I started baking my own bread, and it’s actually saving me more than I thought. Curious if others have run the numbers?
Depends on the cost of running the oven.
And fridge if you’re going long proof.
And your time.
If counting ingredients alone, definitely cheaper than buying an artisan loaf outside. Especially from the pretentious ones.
Depends on how much you value your time. From an ingredients perspective, it is certainly less expensive; a $6.19 bag of bread flour from the store will produce 4 loaves. The cost of water and salt is negligible, so the $1.55 I am paying per loaf is far less than it would cost me to buy a loaf of comparable quality.
That said, it takes me probably 2 hours of labor all in to bake a loaf (spread out over 24-36 hours.) If that was time I would otherwise spend earning money, then the loaf costs far more than bread from a bakery.
I can get probably three weeks worth of bread out of one bag of flour so yes it is for me! I’m also only cooking for myself.
Yes.
I bake my own because I prefer the flavor of homemade bread. If I were content buying a loaf of el cheapo white bread, then no, it would not save me money to bake bread. But bread without the weird tasting additives is expensive.
I buy the restaurant supply store 50lb bags of good quality bread flour (~$22 usd), and it takes about six months to use up. I keep it in my chest freezer in the garage. I don’t tolerate whatever additives they’re putting in grocery store bread very well, I rarely eat bread that I didn’t make. So I can’t say for sure if it’s actually saving any money, but especially when you can buy ingredients in bulk and you bake a few loves at once and keep them in the freezer, it certainly goes a long way.
I wandered into a local bakery the other day and they were selling sourdough loaves- plain, round, not very big loaves- for $18 🤯
And that’s USD.
Dietary concerns could also play a role in the calculations, as well as access to specialty bakeries. I can’t really eat store bought bread and pastries because they make me carb crash too badly. When I bake my own, I can control what goes into them, and use a lot more whole grain flour, which makes it feel much better. The type of bread I bake would definitely cost a lot more and probably need to be bought from specialty stores that aren’t nearby.
I mainly bake my own bread because of the type of bread I need for the things I make. I just don’t have much of a need for normal white bread
I love baking breads, particularly traditional baguettes. I started doing sour dough many years ago and enjoyed it but due to several factors, I’m now focusing mainly on baking bread with instant yeast and maybe later this year, I’ll try to learn how to do my own pasta madre so I can make my panettone.
As far as thinking if baking my own bread has been a smart saving idea, I honestly never thought about it given several reasons: I get to choose the flours I use, I get to choose when I’d like to eat fresh baked breads from a home oven, I get to experiment with ingredients, I get to learn new skills and learn from others, I get to share my bake, the immense satisfaction I get whenever a good bake came fresh out of my oven. Last and most important, where I live, no bakeries make a decent loaf of bread, especially baguettes. If I want a good traditional baguette, I’d have to drive or fly.
There is a certain cost for convenience. I think when I did the math it was like 60 or 70 cent to make a loaf of bread and I pay like a dollar 50 or something or $1.80 for mine. It takes maybe five to 10 minutes to make the bread.
For me the real thing is being able to control the bread that I’m making and also, it was kind of annoying to have to go to the store specifically to get bread. And now I can just make it when I run out.
Unless you were getting really fancy kinds of bread, I don’t think it’s that much of a financial move.
I see a lot of people factoring time as money in here.
I would just like to remind you that if bread is your hobby, your time is priceless.
Not worthless, but rather if you get joy from baking bread, you shouldn’t ever factor time as a cost in your loaf.
Hands down saves me a ton.
If I bought bread it’s anywhere from $4-$7 depending on if it’s on sale or not.
I make super basic small no knead batches of bread. Low effort, high reward.
Not taking into account how much it costs to use my oven, cause honestly I haven’t seen some huge electric bill increase since I’ve started this venture, if I’m only using AP flour it’s $0.25-$0.50 a loaf depending on if I got the flour on sale.
If I use bread flour I’m looking at $0.30-$0.60 a loaf.
Having one less processed thing in my diet is priceless.
I don’t get the time argument.
While your coffee is brewing, mix your jumpstarter. (2min).
Go to work.
Come home.
Mix in the rest of your flour and water (2min).
An hour later, mix in your salt (2 min).
A half hour later, fold (2min).
Repeat 3 more times (6min).
Shape (2 min).
Place in oven (30sec)
Remove from oven (30sec)
Total time: 17 minutes
depends, if you compare to wonder bread no. but a nice comparable loaf in my area is about 7$ versus 1$ to make at home plus I use better ingredients. also I factor in the fact that I would have to go to a bakery as the bread that I like is not available at the super market so the effort factor is equalized sort of
There’s a book about this. [Make the Bread, Buy the Butter](https://www.amazon.com/Make-Bread-Buy-Butter-Shouldnt/dp/1451605889).
Bulk flour is 50 cents a pound even for good stuff, a pound of yeast is only $5. So yeah it is definitely cheaper except time is money.
For comparable quality? Absolutely. If you mean like $1.00 Walmart brand bread, then no. It is impossible for you to get it that cheap. The cost to run the oven and water is more expensive.
It’s a trade off. I love the bread that I make. I’m fairly decent. Do I want to do it for every type of bread that I can do? God no.
I’ll do it for work, no problem. But I’ll also pay for the convenience of not having to make it home.
But that’s me. Maybe you’ll find it worth the time and effort to make it yourself. It can be a fun hobby.
And it can be cost effective in the long run. For most common breads. And you don’t even need specialized equipment for most breads.
But it’s kinda like learning how to draw. All you really need is something a writing utensil and a simple sheet of paper.
But so many people that say they want to learn how to draw and they don’t even take the time to hold a pencil and practice making straight lines.
Let alone practicing concepts like shading perspectives, and basic shapes. It’s like that. But for baking. Make sure it’s something you want to actually do.
It really depends on what you’re making and your habits.
You can buy cheap bagels at the store where they cost under a dollar each, or you can get fresh ones from a bakery for one to two dollars each. But once you start doctoring them up—adding cream cheese, making sandwiches, etc.—the cost adds up. Making those same things at home can save you a lot, and there are super easy ways to do it. For example, you can make your own cream cheese with just milk and vinegar or lemon juice.
Homemade bread can be a huge money-saver, especially when you factor in shelf life. Store-bought bread only lasts so long, but if you keep the ingredients on hand, you can make it fresh whenever you want. And that flexibility matters.
It goes beyond bread too. You can save a ton by learning to bake things like pizza dough, calzones, buttermilk biscuits, cookies, muffins—even cake. You’re mostly paying for ingredients, and you don’t necessarily need premium ones to get good results. Once you have the skill, it’s easier to make better stuff for way cheaper than store-bought or takeout.
That said, if you’re new to it, you might feel like you’re not saving money at first—especially if you’re making mistakes, wasting ingredients, or not getting the results you hoped for. But that’s part of the process. It’s worth it to spend a little on cheap ingredients while you learn. The skill pays off down the road, both in savings and in the value of being able to make exactly what you want, when you want it.
So yes, it’s a legit financial move—but it’s also more than that. It’s freedom and flexibility, and it adds up over time.
It really depends. It costs me around $2 to make 2 short loafs of Japanese milk bread. This doesn’t include my time and utilities (electric/water/etc.).
What I like about making my own bread is that I control the ingredients. I know what goes into it.
I am a very picky eater. Ham, egg, cheese and bread are some of my very few safe morning foods.
Ham and cheese kolaches are perfect.
I can go to Shipley’s and buy them for $3.50 each. They contain one puny thin slice of ham and a little bit of cheese (of unimpressive flavor) and are mostly bread (which is often overcooked and burned). I have to buy half a dozen at least to get a decent meal. That’s $21. Independent shops are more expensive and of a slightly better quality.
Or I can make them myself. They work out to a little under $2 each, and contain a huge chunk of ham and ooze delicious cheese. Two make an excellent meal for $4, and I don’t have to leave my house to get them (gas money, time, risk of some asshole on a cell phone hitting my vehicle).
I bought a KitchenAid stand mixer on a hell of a deal a couple of years ago (7 quart bowl lift) and it has absolutely paid for itself just from my breakfasts.
So, no it is not cheaper than buying store bread IF (and only if) you are okay with buying regular quality bread. If you are genuinely looking for homemade or gourmet bread without any of the preservatives necessary for store shelf lives, then it *can* be cheaper but is not necessarily.
Ultimately it’s more of a lifestyle thing I’d say. It depends on what ingredients you use, how you source them, and whether or not you consider making the bread labor inducing enough to include labor costs because it almost immediately makes homemade bread either cheaper or more expensive based on that one thing. 🤷🏾
I mill my own flour, I buy organic hard red wheat and pay around $45 for a 50lb bag. I can make about 40 loaves of sourdough out of that. There’s not many other foods I can think of you could survive on for less than $50 a month. Plus you can sprout them. Store grains y’all.
i started baking right around 2020. Ive bought for it a few things:
* bannetons
* kitchenaid mixer (refurbished~$300)
* bench tools/scrapers
* razors
* bread proofer ($200)
* weck jars that I’ve had to buy a few times since I’m clumsy and break them ($70)
Minus the mixer and proofer, not that many tools are that costly. Where I am, a similar loaf of sourdough would go for $10. I’ve made bread more weeks than I haven’t since 2020. Say that’s 130 weeks of making bread (every other week) and I always make at least 2 (usually giving one away). So that’s about $1300 I would’ve spent on bread just for myself. Then there’s the added bonus if getting to give a loaf away to friends & family.
Flour cost is practically negligible for me, I can usually get a 50 LB bag of high quality flour (like ABC+ from Central Milling) for ~$40. This doesn’t even count for all the non sourdough bread I’ve made; rolls, hamburger buns, babkas, etc. Financially, yeah, I think the math works out
There is one bakery that bakes bread in my area anywhere near what I prefer, and they charge around $12/loaf.
I grind my own flour from grains I buy in bulk. I spend $150 on 100lb of grains, so that’s around $1.50 per loaf in flour costs.
I buy yeast in 1lb bulk and use 2.5g/loaf which works out at $0.02 per loaf.
I use 12g of salt, so around $0.03.
I use 400g of filtered water, which costs around $0.05
I also include about a of olive oil. I get 32 ounces for $13, so that works out to $.20 per loaf.
I run my oven for about 1.5 hours, although usually I can bake two loaves at once. Currently I’m using gas. That’s around $0.50.
I use a dry grains container on my Vitamix to grind my grains which cost me $150 to purchase and although I expect it to last 10 years it comes with a 3 year full warranty. Baking two loaves approximately every other week (some weeks in too busy, this I’d likely an underestimate, but let’s work with that) adds up to 156 loaves, so purchase cost of $.96/loaf if it gives out after 3 years. I also use a stand mixer, but I got that before even starting baking bread, so I don’t count that as an extra expense.
That’s $3.26/loaf of bread all in. Hands on time is probably around 30-45 minutes, the rest is just waiting so I’m usually doing other things as well. This is not time that I would be working, so it’s just taking away from my relaxing time. For me, this is totally worth it and I would be hard pressed to find a comparable loaf of bread at that price cost.
Only if you don’t value your time.
I meannnnnn. I reckon it depends on how much bread you eat? For me the cost of a bag of KA flower is $5, maybe 4-5 loaves per bag let’s say. A comparable loaf like that at a store is gonna be $5 for a half loaf. So at $10 a loaf it would mean I could have made 8-10 loaves or so if you baked it at home, yeast is very cheap and sourdoughs use starters.
It is WAY WAY WAY cheaper to buy all purpose flour and a bag of gluten flour. The bag of gluten flour is like $10-15 for a pound but my Bobs Red Mill (idk if it’s the same for other brands) is only 3g/100g of AP flour to bump the gluten content up to bread flour, it’s maybe 1TBSP max per loaf. Even if you bake a lot that bag of gluten flour should last like a year.
And then you can buy the like $2-3 bag of AP instead of the $7-10 bag of bread flour and actually make cheap bread. It’s crazy we’ve gotten to a point where baking a loaf of bread at home isn’t even cheap anymore 🤦♂️
I’ve saved so much money by baking my own bread
It does for me. Got a bread maker at a garage sale for dirt cheap, make my bread with that more often that not. Sometimes I’ll make something fancy, but dough for rolls in the machine too. It’s pretty easy and cheap and we eat a lot of bread!
If you get super fancy with flours, not really, but if you buy bulk all purpose or bread flower it’s definitely cheaper!
The time I put into baking a loaf is definitely not worth it financially, but it brings me pleasure
Haven’t bought grocery store or bakery baked items since 2021. I bake everything from sourdough starter: bread, bagels, cinnamon raisin bread & English muffins. From a poolish: Italian bread and rolls. All desserts too. Definitely easier on the wallet and so much better with 0 chemicals & preservatives.
What bread are you people buying? Loafs of French and sourdough range from 3-5 bucks at my local Albertsons.
well it’s much cheaper for me
Ive started making bread by hand recently. I end up eating a lot more bread as a result because it tastes good, it doesnt last as long, and decent flour costs nearly as much as a store loaf. I think it probably costs me more to make bread from scratch by hand than the bread we buy from our grocery store, actually. It costs me at least $3 for 2 small loaves just for raw ingredients.
But even if it were free, there are so many better financial things i could do with my time instead of taking 3 hours to make bread. I make bread because i like doing it and it tastes good.
Unfortunately, in my country, there is no way I can make a loaf cheaper than my local bakery can. I just can’t get access to high quality flour at the same prices they, so I’m paying almost double for high protein stone ground.
I’ve saved a lot of money by baking bread. I received a bread baking “kit” as a Cmas gift from my Mil. She also gifted me several old cast iron Dutch ovens that just needed some re-seasoning. She’s a really amazing old lady who loves this trend where you learn old fashioned ways. She’s very encouraging and a vast wealth of experience and information just one panicked phone call away. A quick drive if I’ve really messed the recipe up.
Idk. I think my Mil is the one saving me the most money here♥️
No, my time is more important than spending hours making one loaf of bread.
Hell no. Especially not sourdough which you have to keep feeding and halving your starter… unless you make starter pancakes or muffins or something every single day.
Just go buy a loaf.
But… i make sourdough and regular bread because I love fresh bread and the joy of making it. Not saving a dime…
I think the amount of bread you’re eating is going to make a big difference. But generally speaking I think the financial benefits would be fairly negligible.
Certainly not if you place much value on your time, baking bread makes sense if you like, not so much if you’re looking at finances.
Once you get over the learning curve that comes with teaching yourself how to bake bread, it’s totally worth it cost wise. The thing you’ll need to factor in is time. I work from home, so the labor involved doesn’t really have any negative impact on my day. Most of the “hours of time” you spend baking is idle, so it’s no big deal for me to run to the kitchen to do a five minute knead or stretch and fold, then get back to my day. You might feel differently if you’re out of the house for ten hours at a time though.
Almost every skill you don’t have to outsource that you can learn will be a financial move.
Cooking and baking and gardening will cover a lot of expenses if you invest time and a little, and I do mean not a lot, of money towards this education.
For me I spend around 100-150$ a month on groceries and it’s primarily meat, eggs, flour, sugar, and things that would be generally annoying to make.
I did the math on my loaves and they cost at most 50 cents. I couldn’t sleep one night and did the math. I buy my ingredients at Costco.
Cost of a loaf:
Flour 50 lbs $16.49 45 loaves 0.37
Yeast 32 oz 2 lbs $7.99 0.06
Salt 30 oz $3.39 0.03
0.46
A loaf of sandwich bread costs me between $1.50 to $3.00 per loaf. I don’t touch bakery loaves, that is just over priced and under flavored. If I need one of those I do a no kneed bread or let the mixer run for five minutes and let it sit in the fridge for a few days.
It all depends on what kind of bread you need for what application you are wanting.
I don’t do it because it’s cheaper (though, I suppose it is). I do it because I can make it exactly how my family likes it and I genuinely enjoy it. If you’re just doing it for financial reasons every bad loaf will be that more infuriating. lol.