A lot of times I can find good bread on sale for about $2/loaf. At 16 slices, and 2 slices for .25 total, a sandwich should still be within almost anyone's budget. Try cutting back on meats or finding coupons for them (Carl Budig's precut beef usually has a $1 off coupon for your next purchase), so for 8 ounces its around .30/ounce. Plus cheese and mayo or whatever topping you like, a sandwich should cost no more than $1.25. You can also try grilling your favorite meaty sandwich for some extra kick.
What to Do About the Rising Cost of Bread
Photo: Adactio
I don’t know about you, but even the thrift store prices of bread lately have turned it into a luxury item at our house. With bread being such a family staple, and lunch sandwiches being the item of choice to pack for the road and school, this is hitting and will continue to hit family pocketbooks in a big way. Following are a few strategies and resources to help adjust this particular line item in your family budget.
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- Rethink the sandwich as a staple. Particularly if you are not into making your own bread and bread substitutes, this strategy can really help you control the amount of bread consumed at home. Check out this previous brown bagging alternatives article to give you some ideas. If this idea doesn't float with you, here are some sandwich ideas to make the most of the bread you do buy.
- Make friends with your bread machine. If you have one already, good for you. If not, with these rising prices you may want to consider picking one up. I did an article on how to streamline the use of these a while back. With the price of a loaf of bread skyrocketing, it’s probably even timelier now.
- Crackers. OK, these are still made of wheat and yes, the prices per box are still on the rise along with sandwich loaves. However, there are many crackers per box and they keep way longer and store more easily than sandwich bread. This means you can stock up and save on fuel and energy costs. These are great for make your own “lunchables” meals to take to work.
- Whip it up the old fashioned way. I have to admit, I almost didn’t include this one because I know how busy we all are. And doing the knead and double rise thing takes an enormous amount of free time or at least is more for those that are able to be home a great deal. Still, if you can fit it in and don’t mind doing it, you can save some money.
- Explore the world of batter breads, otherwise known as “no knead” breads. These are a nice middle of the road option for those who want a little more convenience but don’t have the extra cash to dish out for a bread machine. They come out nice and crusty and are great as a dinner side. I’ve even seen recipes out there for no knead dinner rolls and braided breads, so there is definitely some flexibility for creative interpretation. Here’s a link to a simple looking recipe from the New York Times. There are tons of other recipes on the net, though. Do a search and see what you find. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t make bagged versions of these mixes ahead of time like you would with the bread machine mixes.
- Consider homemade alternatives to the standard loaf. These can include items that are made of the same types of flours, but are not necessarily designed for sandwiches. At our house, we have several bulk dry mix recipes for these items as well to save on time. Some specific ideas? Homemade tortilla mix, cornbread mix, baking / biscuit mix, pizza crust mix and more.
- Beer bread. This is very similar to the batter breads listed above. You just use beer as a liquid and yeast substitute rather than have the yeast and water as additional ingredients. You don’t have to use the expensive microbrews for this. Get the cheap generic kind as it really only matters that you have the ingredients.
- Rethink toast as a frugal morning breakfast staple. At our house, this isn’t something we do any more at all. We go with an oatmeal topping bar, breakfast cookies, scones, or low fat muffins. Sometimes the large bags of generic cereal go on sale and we’ll stock up on those for a low prep option in the mornings.
- Bulk purchasing of various flours and other bread ingredients. Great pricing on this stuff is going to become even more of an issue. For strategies on storage, check out this recent bulk buying article.
- Shop the sales with coupons in hand. Since there has been a fair amount of chatter on Wise Bread recently about shopping strategies (see Sarah’s recent piece ), I thought I would chime in here with one of my best coupon deals ever. A couple of years ago, a grocery chain in Tucson was having the five pound bags of Gold Medal flour (any kind) for 59 cents piece. There was a 25 cent printable coupon on azcentral.com that had no limit on the amount of times you could use it. This same grocery chain was also having a triple coupon week. I went in and picked up 25 pounds each of every type of flour they had available. Free flour rocks. Baking ingredients always get marked down this time of year. Keep on the lookout and (please) keep the rest of us posted!
I was shocked when I had a chance to stop by the nearest (although still quite far away) bread thrift store recently. The price wasn’t quite double what I’d paid last time, but pretty darn close. Most of these strategies are ones that we’ve always used. Some of them, like the batter bread, are ones we are just starting to explore.
Grabbing a loaf of the generic stuff if we didn’t feel like dealing with make your own options was always an option we knew was not a big deal with our family budget. Now, with the rising costs as well as our distance away from regular large stores, it is becoming less and less of a back up option and more of a special event. Hopefully, these strategies will help out some of you the way they have helped us. Please feel free to post any other ideas you may have, as usual.
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I agree that bread is getting expensive. I usually buy bread at Aldi's. If you are lucky enough to have one of these stores in your area, you can get very good quality whole wheat bread for $.89 and 12 grain bread for $1.29. The Aldi store that I usually go to is about 30 minutes away from my house and it is not on the way to work for me. So I make a trip to go there once a month and I buy 6 or 7 loaves and freeze them. Also, sometimes I can find store brand bread on sale at our Super WalMart for $.50.
For myself I have found that ditching bread altogether improved my health. I use the money not spent (on bread & stuff to go on it) for other carbs like fruit, dried fruit, veg. It's a bit of a cop-out with my kids though: sometimes I need for them to be able to feed themselves, and a sandwich is easy for them to make, so I still buy it for them. But in an ideal world, I'd prefer to have other snacks around for them to help themselves to, that don't include bread. This would involve more cooking/preparing than I have the time or inclination for!
Kneading bread is one of those perfect activities, like polishing shoes or sharpening knives--a simple, repetitive action that makes something better than it was. Life would be poorer if we got rid of all of them.
Now that I'm a full-time writer, I have the luxury of being able to include such activities in my schedule: I baked a loaf of sourdough yesterday. (Irish brown bread--equal parts bread flour and whole wheat flour, a generous dollop of honey, a handful of quick oats thrown in, no salt, no oil or butter.) For sourdough, I just do a single rising in the loaf pan, rather than the more usual double rising. It saves time, and I like the result.
I am very lucky. I have a bread outlet less then 1 mile from my house. It is very cheap. Perfect example. I bought 4 loaves bread, 3 english muffins, 6 bags bagels and 8 cakes (note-they are for the holidays) for $12 bucks. When I added everything up of what it would have cost-$70 bucks. The dollar store also carries bread for a $1 each. These 2 places don't sell old bread, just the stuff the grocery stores didn't buy. I tried to make bread once-horrible. I am not a very good baker. :)
Thanks for the comments, everybody.
Debbie, sounds like you still have a store that is actually a "thrift" store. This one is not as inexpensive as the ones I was used to having out in Arizona. I think that was because it was near a larger city and there was more competition. That's not the case here. The nearest super Walmart (as someone else was suggestion above) is at least an hour away, and I have not seen the 50 cent sales there. That being said, I'm not there often, so I can't really schedule my visits at mark down time.
Glad to know someone still as some alternatives. Thanks for posting everyone.
I love to make bread myself for many reasons (thrift just being one, taste another) and I've found most no-knead recipes to be more crumbly than regular recipes. They're great for toast, but sandwiches tend to fall apart in my experience.
As far as time issues are concerned, it's possible to make bread dough before bedtime, stick it in the fridge, shape it in the morning, put it back in the fridge, and then bake when you get home. The cooler temperature will slow down the yeast so you can go through the steps when you have time. This has worked for me just fine in a pinch.
I also feel that making my own bread (or buying from a good bakery--it's not more expensive than the grocery store) is better for my health anyway. Why pay $3.00 for a loaf filled with HFCS and little fiber? I know everyone likes to save on groceries, but when it comes down to your health shouldn't you invest in what you put in your body (with time or money?)
i know i kind of sound like a crazy, but to me, it's worth it to pay a little more for a quality loaf of bread than to scrounge the dollar bin for wonder whitebread. (of course, all the roll-your-own ideas in the post are great too -- then you know exaclty what you're getting). i'm all up in omnivore's dillema right now, so it's got me thinking in a very specific way about the food i eat, but i think you can justify splurging on things like bread if you balance it out by cutting down on expensive, often unhealthful (not always) meat a bit.
I pay 69 European cents (about a buck) for a loaf of bread at the local discounters.
Also Trent had a topnotch article on making your own bread
If had a decent knife I'd be tempted to make it myself. But fresh warm bread doesn't cut very well
Homemade Bread: Cheap, Delicious, Healthy, and Easier Than You Think
Trent had an excellent article on making your own bread. If I had a decent knife I'd try it myself
Homemade Bread Cheap and Delicious
Buy corn tortillas in the stacks of 100 (about $3.00-4.00 most places). Good for ham-n-cheese rollups and the like, though I've never tried them with PB&J. At $0.10 for 3 tortillas vs. $0.25 for a couple slices of bread, you can save yourself a little dough!
Yes, it is a bread thrift store, I guess. I actually have 2 near me besides the $1 store. I do live in Ft. Lauderdale and everything is very close. It good and it's bad. Good, b/c I don't have to drive far(or take bus) to buy anything and bad, b/c everything is right here-very tempting to go overboard and buy thing you don't need. I have always been a "city girl", so I think if I moved to a small town and had to drive far, I don't think I could handle it. Kuddo's to those who do.
I enjoy making homemade bread with my Kitchenaid mixer, but it also goes stale a lot faster than a store bought loaf. Not to mention I can't get it into perfect slices for sandwiches (my slices end up about an inch thick) Generally I buy a loaf of high end sandwich bread (from Great Harvest, expensive but very satisfying) and make my own when I want the aromas and taste of fresh (and butter-melting goodness)
If I didn't live alone (in the desert) I would consider making bread more often as there would be more people to eat it before it went stale. I have never had trouble baking except one time I forgot salt. Always remember the salt!
We bought a bread machine two years ago. I was really worried it would become a useless appliance but we use it all the time. It ends up being cheaper than purchased bread and way cheaper than $4 loaves of gourmet breads. I set it off at night and have fresh bread for sandwiches in the morning.
We also keep a bag of french loaves and bulk bags of flour tortillas in the freezer for when we don't have time to make bread.
Look for locally milled flour too. Sometimes bulk sized bags of that are considerably cheaper. We can get a 25# bag for about $9 for bread flour.
This has been a hot topic on my blog recently and I couldn't agree more with your suggestions. My bread machine and I have been old friends for quite some time, but I pushed it into high gear when I visited our bread outlet and had discovered it had almost doubled its prices. I drove quite a distance for that bread only to find out that the prices had been raised. They said that the gas costs rising attributed to that, but I tried to explain that they would be pushed out of business if no one was coming there anymore because there weren't any real savings anymore.
Thank goodness for the bread machine! We use it for our pizza dough too and it saves us from grabbing take-out on Friday night. We have made it a family event in our home.
I am a frequent lurker and am always drawn to your topics- keep up the great work!!
One of the greatest things my grandmother ever taught me was the value of extra loaf pans. It's possible to make 6 loaves worth of bread dough one time, bake one, and put the other 5 in the freezer-- pans and all. When the first loaf looks a little low, set one out to thaw and preheat the oven to bake it. It really doesn't take that much time or extra effort, our discount stores have decent loaf pans for just under $3 each.
If you want to be really fancy you can add different herbs, extra butter, cheese, nuts, fruit or grains to each loaf prior to freezing so that you have some selection.
Great article. I found this site through Stumbleupon and have bookmarked it so I can visit again.
I'm so excited about the variety of ideas here in response to the piece. This is exactly what I was hoping for . . . a lively discussion an exchange of ideas (because I know I don't have all the answers, that's for sure). The making the dough ahead of time to bake off later is interesting. Fits in with that whole flash freezing thing I like to do. Hey, they sell frozen bread dough at the grocery store, so why not do it at home? That one may get me to finally make the old fashioned kind. I also really liked the alternative carb suggestion . . . rice, other fruits, etc.
While we've cut down on the types of meals where we need sandwich bread, I know that for so many people (particularly parents) it is one of those things that "gets you by" so to speak. And to tell you the truth, with everything that's on our plate right now, we are often tempted to just go there as well. At these prices though, we might as well indulge in something higher end like premade lasagna for crying out loud.
Looking forward to more great ideas and further discussion, everybody!
I used to use a bread-machine briefly, til the teflon fumes made me feel weird and almost light-headed.
That's too bad. You know, I don't think all of the inserts are teflon coated. It's been a while since I've seen mine (it's still in storage) but I'm pretty sure it's just a metal insert without the teflon coating. Might be worth checking for a used one, if you enjoyed it aside from the fumes.
my strategy is, every sunday i try to make 2 loaves of quick bread (pumpkin or banana) which are really simple, and 2 loaves of a more "sandwich" type of bread. for my family of 4, this more than gets us through the week, although i usually buy one loaf for my daughter's school sandwiches. the quick breads take care of snacks after school or desserts. as far as the sandwich bread goes, although i understand everyone who said it's too hard to slice homemade bread for sandwiches, it's not so bad to have a slice of toast that's a little on the thick side. also, being used for toast, it's not really that important if it gets a little stale. (i usually keep one loaf of each out, and freeze the other two until we're ready for them.) alternately, if you don't want to buy any store bread at all, use your thick slice of homemade bread, put whatever you want on it, and just leave off the other "top" slice. that way it's not overly thick and "bready", but it's pretty much the same size/amount as a regular sandwich.
I have a tip for those of you slicing overly thick pieces of your homemade loaf. Invest in an electric knife. Seriously. I have one and it goes through the bread very easily so you can control how thick the slices will be. It DOES take practice, but I think the investment is worth it to keep people making bread @ home.
Also, you CAN freeze pre-sliced bread. I have some in quart zipper bags in my freezer now. With it being only 2 of us, we don't go through a loaf very quickly so I usually 'chunk' slice the loaf into 4-5 sections, freeze 4 sections and sandwich slice the rest. When we need more bread I take it out of the freezer, defrost it a smidge and slice it up! I've never had it fall apart or go stale that way.
HTH.
I like this idea because it sounds do-able and way less exoensive than the deli slicer idea I was trying to wrap my head around. Thanks for taking the time to contribute to the discussion.
I would never make home made bread if it wasn't for my Kitchen Aid mixer, with a hook for kneading dough. The process couldn't be more simple, (and trust me, before the Kitchen Aid I ruined countless batches of dough--let's just say I'm no Martha Stewart). I usually bake the dough as rolls, though, instead of bread, as I have a toddler who never finishes a slice, but likes small rolls.
I eat a lot of rice and noodles instead of bread, but one of my staples is the stir-fry because it's so easy to make. Just throw in whatever veggies you have, your protein ingredient of choice (I've been eating a lot of beans lately because they are cheaper than meat and probably healthier too), and some tasty sauce and spices, and you're good to go. Same with pasta, pretty much anything can go on top of it as long as you have a decent sauce for flavor.
I love the idea on freezing bread. As a single, I can never finish a loaf before it goes bad. I just don't eat that much bread, so I don't buy it very often. I really wish they had smaller, cheaper packages of bread for people who don't want to buy a whole loaf.
I think sometimes we get caught up in "having to have bread". If there's already a major carb in the meal, why go overboard? I love fried rice and noodle dishes, too. Thanks for posting.
Re: the price of flour. Yesterday, we went to our local Costco (Atlanta area) and I was startled to see that the price of a 50# bag of bread flour had jumped $2 in the last week. It is now $14.99, still a bargain if you bake often and can use those quantities. Another savings gambit: the holiday season is the time of year when supermarkets put baking supplies on sale. I notice that this year the sales on flour are not as prevalent or as cheap, but if you see 5# bags of flour for 99 cents or so, it's probably the best price we'll see this year. White flour is shelf stable for a long time, but whole grains will go rancid if you keep them too long, so if you stock up, you may want to stash them in the freezer.
You know Karen, I noticed one of those 99 cent sales the other day on the five pound bags and was wondering the same thing . . . will this be as low as it goes this season? You might very well be right.
Hi Myscha,
I had this ipifany yesterday. I was thinking about
your wise bread posts (as I get them via email) and
I realized that what you are writing is creating a
way for people who live in a world of few options to
begin to have some, and those who want to create
more options with their wealth, rather than spending
it on over priced stuff, to do that in a sane way. I
know there are people who have almost no cash and
for some ten extra dollars is a lot of money and at
least with the posts you offer they can begin to
find a way to save and create a bit of wealth or
savings with lifestyle changes.
I've had to really think about all of this, because
some of the posts I just couldn't relate to, (the
one about affording the three dollar loaf of bread
and the one about the powdered milk. ) But then I
realized when I was watching Extreme Home Makeover
last sunday that there really are many people who
live in real poverty and that for the mass
consciousness of society you are creating a gift of
showing them another way, another option to change
their life and create a new way of thinking and
living that will in the long term allow them real
options.
It also offers a new way of thinking for just the
every day family who might be in too much credit
card debt or living pay check to pay check as many
do and some of the posts give them a hint that life
could be different, if they choose to think and live
life differently.
I had been thinking about this alot over the course
of the last couple weeks and I just wanted to share
with you that I know you are doing a really great
thing and even the posts that don't resonate with
me, will certainly touch other lives out there and
make a difference!
Have a great week!
Lisa
Thanks, girl. As I mentioned in the meet the writers post a while back, there really is a spiritual component to this for me as well. I think we should all be able to have choices, and sometimes with the craziness society places on us, we forget that those choices are there for all of us. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there are probably many of the Wise Bread writers and readers that appreciate your comment as much as I do. Thank you for your thoughtful words.
Yes, that was really nice :) and true.
I agree that lessening reliance on sandwich bread can help with both budget and health, but I rely on it because French toast is the only way to get eggs into my first grader, for one thing. I buy expensive bread - Ezekiel no-flour sprouted bread - keep it in the freezer and use it only when it's really called for.
The cheapest way to get healthy grains is to start with whole, unground bulk grains. They last much longer than whole-grain flour and can be prepared a number of ways. The big innovation for me was discovering that I didn't need a grain mill to make bread from whole grains - specifically, sourdoughs and quickbreads that use a batter rather than a dough consistency. Grains can be soaked in the blender carafe with soured milk, yogurt or kefir until reasonably soft, and then other ingredients added, blended, poured and baked (I actually use a stick blender with a pitcher of the right size). Sourdoughs are soaked, blended, then allowed to ferment with starter.
The method can be used for porridges, waffles, pancakes, muffins, etc. in varying proportions. I keep whole brown rice, oats, rye, wheat, millet, etc. on hand and set up the night before.
Cooked grains from dinner, like brown rice, quinoa, barley, etc. can also be added to these batters... cooked grains can also be formed into patties and baked or fried, while leftover rice can be used to make horchata, a sweet Mexican drink.
This bread is fabulous! equal to the artisan "tuscan loaf" you buy for a fortune but uses .50c worth of ingredients: 3 c flour, 1/2 tsp yeast. 1 1/2 tsp salt and 11/2 c water. Miz with spoon - cover with saran wrap and let proof 12 to 24 hrs. Preheat oven to 475 and heat an heat proof casserole with a LID for 1/2 hr. Cover clean towel very heavily with flour, turn out the dough and gently roll into ball shape. When cassarole is blazing hot, plop in dough, bake at 475 dor 1/2 hour w/ lid, remove lid bake additional 10- 15 min- cool 1hr and Enjoy! You will be amazed at how crusty and chewy this round loaf is.
What I think sounds really interesting about your suggestion is that it's a no knead bread that can be baked outside of a traditional loaf pan. I think I can picture it from your description and I'll be it does look very much like a bakery style artisan bread. Thanks for contributing it!
You will love the taste, ease and cost of this bread. To view the video from the original baker google nytimes.com video no knead bread.
You know, I'm planning a rustic split pea soup for tomorrow, so this sounds like a perfect side item to try. Oooh, I'm excited about this. I hope I don't screw it up. Is it pretty forgiving?
It's totally forgiving but the secret is the long rise of the dough and the super hot, enclosed baking so plan accordingly. Once you view the video and make your 1st loaf, you can see how easy it is. I use flour for dusting and bake at 475 and have never had a bad loaf. My family loves it toasted- if any is left. You have to try it!
It's totally forgiving but the secret is the long rise of the dough and the super hot, enclosed baking so plan accordingly. Once you view the video and make your 1st loaf, you can see how easy it is. I use flour for dusting and bake at 475 and have never had a bad loaf. My family loves it toasted- if any is left. You have to try it!
Cool. Here's to hoping for now technical difficulties today so I can carve out the time to try it. . . I'm really looking forward to seeing if I can pull it off.
A $1.25 for a sandwich???? Are you nuts? That's not frugal at all - a sandwhich shouldn't exceed $0.050 at most. For 1.25 you could get something off the dollar menu & still have change left over.
Lunchmeat is outrageously exspensive... especially since it's mostly ground up organs soaked in salt & water. I worked for Conagra & Tyson in college - I've personally seen what goes into lunch meat.
My son's PB&J sandwiches are about 20-23 cents. The cheese ones are about 15 cents. If I put left over dinner meat in the sandwich then it goes up to 35-40 cents depending upon the meat.
BTW - for those with stale bread... we use our stale bits for stuffing, french toast (or broken slices make french toast sticks), bread pudding, or we crumble it , put in a small baking dish with a dab of cinnamon & sugar then pop it on the toaster oven for 5 min and out comes some kinda of toasted cereal type thing. My son loves that one.
We just keep a sealed bag in the back of our fridge for bread scraps and when it gets full or we feel like a french toast we raid the bag.
It is so worth reading through all these comments! You guys are such a creative and thoughtful bunch of people. Wendy, your tip on putting the whole pan with the risen dough ready to bake into the freezer is such a good idea - I can't wait to try that next time I make bread. And I completely agree with Amy, about using the bread machine to whip up some pizza dough and make your own - it has become a Friday night tradition at our place, and tastes so much better than the cheaper take-away pizzas. We actually bought a take-away the other week and the kids complained about the stodgy crust and lack of toppings, so they're converts to home-made pizza too!
Thanks for stopping by, Kathleen. Glad you enjoyed the piece. Got a fabulous super secret recipe for bread you feel like sharing? It's going to start getting cooler here soon, so I'm on the lookout . . .
Check out my various projects and services at Itinerant Tightwad. I also have a monthly education newsletter.
1) i know some people who are "gleaners" at a local grocery store. they get a *very* large quantity of bread that's just past date (along with cakes, etc) and have it available for people to pick up outside after church lets out. starting up a group like that might be a good idea
2) if you're looking to make your own bread, buying whole wheat kernels is the cheapest way to go. i can get a 25lb bag of wheat for about 5$ usually. plus, you dont have to worry about it going bad. apparently archaeologists found pperfectly good wheat in one of the pyramids... :)
A number of years ago I worked for Oroweat Baking Co., in Seattle, as a driver/salesman. My route was 162 miles round-trip each day. I had quite a few smaller stores in the outlying areas, with a couple of huge stores spread across the route. I would take all the product from those little stores on a daily basis, and roll them into those large stores on the way back to the loading area in the afternoon. That way, the small stores got fresh product every day, and the bread in the larger stores was still plenty fresh. Kept my returns down below 5% most of the time! The codes then were Monday=yellow. Tuesday=green. Thursday =white. Friday=blue. Saturday=red. I still face up Oroweat shelves when I go in a store! Fun!
