baking own bread, making own cakes. is it economically better?

[NormaSmuff]

anyone any figures?

Sorry I can't answer your question, but "mortgage free in 3" is a great frugal living blog!

Difficult to compare as 45p white sliced is going to be cheaper than home made artisan loaves.

Definitely better from a health point of view as no added preservatives etc that aren't needed.

thanks for that.

Bread - I'm not sure, depends on where you buy the bread!

Cakes - potentially!

Homemade is nicer though, you know what you're putting into it and it tastes less manufactured.

It depends on what your standards are OP. You can get supermarket value cakes (well loaf cakes) for 50p, I doubt you could bake one for less than that.

I do home made bread once a week in a machine, I add olives, rosemary, chilli, walnuts etc and even adding in cooking costs I'm sure it is cheaper than a delicatessen loaf. I buy a tiger loaf for around £1 so that would be cheaper than a bog standard loaf in the machine.

Pricier to make your own, unless you bulk buy ingredients. And costly in terms of time. But healthier.

Bread, definitely no. I make bread for special occasions. I only like homemade cakes, bought are naff anyway.

Home made bread doesn't last as long. My hubby regularly makes loaves and they need to be used within 2 days usually or they so stale.

Bread is definitely cheaper to make if you do it as your standard bread. We worked out our break even (including the £160 Panasonic bread maker) and passed it a few months ago. And it's much nicer we now eat too much bread

I'd say home baking is going to be more expensive.

I find the opposite to a pp though - out homemade bread lasts ages.

My hubby regularly makes loaves and they need to be used within 2 days usually or they so stale.

Does he mix plain in with the strong white? I normally get about 4 days off a loaf before I start only being able to use it for toast

OP it only works out cheaper if you buy in bulk, sack of flour etc.

@justanotherposter00 what ratio of plain flour does he add?

Depends what you are making!

Scones, only in the oven for 15mins and very cheap ingredients, have got to be cheaper, pizzas also. I also think it is cheaper to make your own 'posh bread', the sort with walnuts, cranberries etc in.

However I have no doubt my homemade breakfast bars and Christmas cakes are more expensive than just buying ready made (crap).

@justanotherposter00 what ratio of plain flour does he add?

If you add plain flour to the strong white flour it makes it more like a french loaf in texture but doesnt keep well, try switching to the extra strong flour

Tesco will give you fresh yeast free at the bakery. I used to buy mine at sainsburys, pennies for 50g. Asked at tesco and they gave me about 300g for nowt!

I buy 2 packs of strong flour from asda for 95p each and a box of six sachets of yeast for 65p. Works out at 43p a loaf and tastes far better than shop bought.

I make it either in my kmix or by hand. Usually do 2-3 loaves a week.

I don't think homemade cakes are cheaper though

I make brown bread like type you get with soup in a restaurant, works out about one third of the price you can buy similar for locally & I know exactly what's gone into it.

Vegan cakes are nice & very cheap because they use oil as fat.

Cheaper to make pitta bread than buy them.

I think homemade stuff is more satisfying. We tend to eat much less if we have homemade bread because it resembles a brick when I make it

When we're really strapped we have pudding after every meal. That way no one has seconds and no one needs to snack.

Agree with PP that homemade pizza is much cheaper - about £3 for ten last time we costed it!

You have to compare like with like.

A packet of custard creams costs less than a batch of home made chocolate chip cookies, but home made chocolate chip cookies cost less than a bag of 5 chocolate chip cookies from Tesco.

I make all our own bread. It's cheaper if you compare like with like. But not if you compare even with good quality "ordinary" supermarket bread and I have an Aga, so don't have to factor in fuel costs. I like doing it, or I probably wouldn't bother.

Not time consuming at all- and I don't use a bread maker.

It doesn't keep as well as bought. But I slice it while it's fresh and keep it in the freezer.

I pay 80p for a 1.5kg bag of bread flour and that makes 3 large loaves in my bread maker. A tin of dried yeast is a pound (I use a tsp per loaf) a small amount of salt and sugar is in each loaf too. I'd say it's just over 30p a loaf.

If you kneed a bit of oil in, it'll help it last longer and I keep bread wrapped in a cotton tea towel which also keeps it fresh for a few days. It is usually all gone before it's gone stale, however if it hasn't gone you then get bread and butter pud which is much better than bread anyway 😉

I've been expire eating with sourdough. Local lovely bakery sells sourdough loaves got £3 that last me and DH for 5 days.

Bag of flour costs £1.50 or so. I can make two loaves and feed the starter for a week from that. But....so far only one out of seven loaves has Ben edible. I'm treating it as a relatively cheap hobby....

Cakes, if you've got everything in then whipping up a cake is nice, but it's not cheap if you still it out. Coop does a lovely choc cake for 1.99 that it would cost me about £6 to make...

Batch of scones, cheap, but so is a pack from tescos. Artisan m and s scones more expensive.

Not expire eating! Experimenting. Though....

I think scones have to be freshly made to be worth eating.