Is It Cheaper to Make Your Own Bread? Here’s What We Learned

I can’t be the only mama in the world to try and save a few bucks by making my own food from scratch. And while we’ve introduced a lot of DIY into our kitchen lately, it’s time to talk about what started it all: bread.

It’s cheaper to make your own bread instead of buying it from the store, but how much it is cheaper is really up to you and your preferences.

For us, the savings were pretty significant (we’re butter-bread lovers), and although it was a pain to start, it’s now just one piece of our weekly routine.

How Much Money Can You Save By Making Your Own Bread?

There’s so much it depends on, but no matter which way you decide to go, you’re most likely going to save a few bucks each month. For today, I’m going to use the basic bread recipe my husband and I love (because of the minimal instruction) and the ingredients in it.

We also buy all of our ingredients in bulk. So instead of a 5-lb bag of flour, we buy 25 lbs. Storage was tricky, but we’ve found a good place for all of it now. Plus, these dry storage containers make a world of difference.

I’m also not going to include the cost of our breadmaker. We found it at a local thrift store for $7.00, and you can’t even buy the new model anymore (but I’d say this one from Elite Gourmet is the closest match).

A standard simple loaf costs $0.63 in materials, while the cheapest brand from Food Lion is $1.39. Making your own bread saves a minimum of $0.76 per loaf.

With most families of four or more eating two loaves per week, making your own bread can save you around $6.00 per month.

But, if you’re like us and you love butter bread (and I swear to you, homemade bread tastes just as good, so you won’t miss it), then you’re making the swap from $3.79 per loaf to $0.63 — and saving $3.16 per loaf and $25+ per month.

If you want the full ingredient cost breakdown, you can check out my basic bread recipe here.

Will a Bread Maker Save You Money?

Now, to the most costly part of making bread — the breadmaker. You can do it all on your own (no breadmaker needed), but I found the time consumed was not worth the savings.

It can be hard to justify the cost of a breadmaker when you’re not sure about making your own bread. That’s why I recommend buying one second-hand. Even if it doesn’t make the most perfect bread, it’s good for building habits and seeing if this is something you even want to do!

And if it is, then it’s definitely worth it! A breadmaker helps with so much more than just loaves of basic bread — you can make hamburger buns, pizza dough, rolls… anything!

We use it way more than we thought we would, which makes it more than worth it for us. We’re even considering upgrading to a newer, bigger bread machine since our youngest (we’re a family of five) is getting to the point where she wants sandwiches and ‘hot bread’ (toast), too!

Honestly, I have my eye on this gorgeous cream and gold 2.2-lb Nereteva Bread Maker. (I’ll let you know how it goes.)

Is It Easy to Start Making Your Own Bread?

I’m going to get really real with you here: It’s so easy to make bread, but it’s also super easy to fudge it up.

I love the basic bread recipe we use regularly because it doesn’t require special instructions (like letting your milk reach room temperature or resting your dough)—everything is done in the breadmaker!

But, I’ve also tried to make other breads, and they haven’t gone so well…

This was literally the densest, driest, chunkiest loaf of bread I’ve ever tried to make and eat — it was SO bad. But this was also a cheese bread and one of my first cheese bread attempts.

Still, I followed every step of the instructions to a tee, and it still turned out like that.

I guess I’m trying to say that making bread isn’t a hard thing to do, but it can have a learning curve, just like anything else.

So, what do you think? Is it cheaper to make your own bread? Is it even worth it? Are you ready to try it on your own? Let me know in the comments below!

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