Well, I had to sit down and figure it out....how much does a loaf of homemade bread cost? With the prices of wheat, oil, honey and just about everything else, I actually sat down and figured it out! With my limited math skills, I found a worksheet on the University of Washington's extension service site and got to work.
There are only seven ingredients in my whole wheat bread: wheat flour, active dry yeast, vital wheat gluten, salt, water, honey and canola oil. I calculated two versions: one, buying store bought wheat flour at Walmart and the second, using flour from grinding my own wheat. I did not calculate the water, energy and time that goes into the bread....hmmmm, what's two hours of my time worth? Well, that's another story!
Drum roll......with store bought flour......55 cents per loaf!
Another drum roll....grind your own......41 cents per loaf!
If you look carefully at the loaves in the store, the ones with ALL natural ingredients (if you can't pronounce it, it isn't natural!) cost well over $3 per loaf!
If I went to the local bakery and purchased 3 loaves of their honey wheat bread each week, I would spend $486 for the year!
If I bake my own bread, once a week, 3 loaves at a time, I will save $419.58 per year!
So, take a chance, learn a new skill, make your family happy, and save some money!
This is a great site and I love that you did the math here! We are considering selling our loaves and just wanted to see what other's were using for their formula for homemade bread. Do you have a recipe you use too?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Jina
Just out of curiosity, because ingredient prices can vary wildly across the country, about how much does each of these ingredients cost in your area? Because $3/loaf sounds about right for my area. $3 for a loaf of halfway decent bread at the store, which still isn't as good as homemade, can you believe that? Crazy.
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