Now we’re making our own bread I thought it’d be worth working out how much cheaper / more expensive it is than just buying standard wholemeal bread.
So here’s the standard pricing of all the ingredients – I haven’t started looking for cheap bulk supplies yet so these are just from Sainsbury’s.
| 310 ml semi-skimmed milk | 20.77p |
| 225g Strong White Bread Flour | 10.35p |
| 225g Strong Wholemeal Bread Flour | 14.85p |
| 1 tsp salt | 0.2p |
| 3 tsp sugar | 1.49p |
| 25 g butter | 7.5p |
| 2x7g sachets of dried yeast | 19.75p |
| Electricity | 3.14p |
| Total | 78p |
So in total it costs 78p, which is about the same price as a Sainsbury’s wholemeal loaf. Cost wise then it doesn’t make much difference – as long as you’re not making a separate journey to buy your bread, as once you start your car up the cost difference would be substantial!
I’ll keep doing it because it tastes great, means we never run out, and it’s a good skill to have learnt for leaner times. I might also look for cheaper bulk ingredients.
Advertisement
August 21, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Me again — while you’re talking about something that I have experience of, I’m likely to rabbit on. (The rest of the time I’m here, watching quietly in awe…)
The bad news is that bread makers don’t last for ever. So arguably you need to factor in the cost of a new one.
You can make bread cheaper without the butter and milk. You can buy dried yeast cheaper in bulk. But in the end it’s a tiny bit more expensive than shop bread.
On the other hand, it’s *far* healthier and *far more tasty. And you get the killer smell of baking bread throughout the house.
August 22, 2009 at 6:52 am
Feel free to rabbit on – any advice given is gratefully received!
I tried the bread without the butter and it didn’t rise anywhere near as much, so I’ll stick with this recipe as-is for the moment. There are a few other bread recipes I want to try though, so watch this space!
August 24, 2009 at 9:06 am
Any suggestions as to the best place to buy bulk ingredients?
January 26, 2011 at 9:54 pm
try Infinity Foods:
http://www.infinityfoodswholesale.co.uk/
particularly if you can combine with other people (I gave up on bulk flour though because I wasn’t happy with the space I had for a sack).
Dove’s farm quick yeast (125g packet) avoids using sachets and I now use oil instead of butter in case my vegan sister visits.
August 25, 2009 at 10:07 pm
We got a big tin of yeast from W H Lung in Manchester (A chinese supermarket) — it wasn’t as good as the normal stuff, but it worked and was much cheaper.
August 24, 2010 at 12:47 pm
You can cut the costs you calculated by omitting the butter, sugar and milk powder – none is an essential ingredient of Real Bread.
Also, if you are baking regaularly, loaf for loaf a tin of dried active yeast will work out cheaper than (usually additive-enhanced) sachets of instant.
For a straighforward recipe: http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/bread_machine_loaf/
January 27, 2011 at 6:59 am
Thanks Chris – I’ve been trying out your recipe, with some success, and a dramatic reduction in costs – you can find out more here: http://traffordecohouse.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/baking-cheaper-better-bread/
January 24, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Bulk flour can be got quite cheaply online, we foudn http://www.bigbrandsforless.com, whose breadmixes (all you need to add is water) are very good, and cost about £1.23 for 3.5kg, enough for 7 1lb loaves. Even better is when they do their bogof offers, we got 6 months worth of bread mixes for less than £15!!
Keep up the good works, have enjoyed reading the blog! We have an allotment, are virtually self sufficient for fruit and veg, keep bees on their too and would love to go totally self sufficient (ideally in a self build earth sheltered eco home), we could afford to buy the land needed by selling our house, but cant afford to do it if we have to buy land with planning permission!
January 26, 2011 at 4:19 pm
[...] interesting challenge this – a comment from Chris Young from the the Real Bread Campaign on my post on “how much does it cost to bake your own [...]
February 21, 2011 at 9:26 pm
[...] it’s edible, how much does it cost? We’re using the same prices as my original “How much does it cost to bake your own bread” recipe, minus the milk, butter, sugar, and with the new Doves Farm large packets of yeast [...]
February 22, 2011 at 10:42 am
[...] We looked at the cost of it too in my previous Trafford Eco-House post - “How much does it cost to bake your own bread”: [...]