09 March 2010

My New Frugal Ways

I was inspired by Ann over at Ann's Snap Edit & Scrap for sharing some of her frugal ways and it gave me an idea to do something similar. As you all know, we are living in some very tough times and the saying, "a penny saved is a penny earned," has begun to mean something once again. For us, the days of impulse buying are over and the days of frugal living are beginning. So, to start things off, let me share with you my first step down the road of frugal living: making our own bread.

Before I began making our bread, we were paying close to $4.00 a loaf for the sourdough bread we like and just under $2.00 for regular bread. Over a period of a month, we would be shelling-out close to $25.00 on just bread. Now, let's do the numbers: we get a twenty pound bag of flour for $8.00, which lasts a little over a month. The recipe I use requires, in addition to about five cups of flour, a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of oil (I use Crisco) and four teaspoons of sugar. I make about two loaves of bread each week: the regular sandwich bread and a loaf of french bread. I figure that each loaf costs just under $1.00 to make (this includes the flour (about $0.55), salt (one to two pennies), sugar (about $0.05), and oil (about $0.10-$0.20) (optional).

Over the course of a month, I figure that we spend roughly $10.00 on bread, so we're saving close to $15.00 a month by making it ourselves. Now, I know that's not a huge savings, but it is fifteen extra dollars that can be allocated elsewhere.

If you would like to begin making your own sourdough bread, here are the recipes for the starter and for the actual baking:

Sourdough Starter

Baking your Sourdough Bread


8 comments:

  1. WOW, that's a savings. $15.00 doesn't sound like a lot but you keep adding that up every month at that's a big difference. Thanks for the mention too. I'm glad that my post inspired you.

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  2. Nothing beats homemade bread (unless its homemade pie). Great way to save. I have a bread making machine - maybe I should start making our own bread. If I could find the whole wheat flour and grains I would probably do it.

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  3. $15 a month is $180 a year so it does add up! I love homemade bread but we don't make it very often since we tend to eat it faster than regular bread!

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  4. Ann: It really gave me a great idea for some future articles.

    Split Rock Ranch: Yum, I love pie! I tried it with wheat flour and it does work, but I found that I needed to be very careful adding the flour, because it absorbed the liquid at a different rate than the white flour.

    BeadedTail: That's why I make a long loaf of french bread, which we use for our snacking. Well, not me, but everyone else :)

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  5. Don't forget to add in the cost of the electricity used to bake - you still come out ahead, but just remember that part too. :) I try to bake several things at once to keep the costs down.

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  6. Storm, The Psychotic Housewife: I have the oven hooked-up to a bike and I have the girls pedal to provide power to it :) Actually, thanks, I never thought of that. I'll need to look into how to get an accurate reading.

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  7. You didn't mention yeast. I make my own bread (for the most part) and yeast is the most expensive ingredient, I think. I buy it online; I get it for @ $5 a pound, which is a huge savings; my local store sells it for about $5 for a third of a pound!

    Rebecca @FreakyFrugalite

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  8. Mrs Mecomber: Hi, I don't use yeast. I made my own sourdough starter using just warm water and flour. I think I put a link to that recipe in the article.

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