What's the cheapest way to buy good quality flour for use in breadmakers?

[IlanaK]

I am loving my new panasonic breadmaker, but part of the reason for getting one was to spend less money on bread. We were spending around £3-£4 on a load of "artisan" bread. Now, a bag of organic spelt flour is costing me about £2 and I use half of it per loaf. Add in the yeast, sugar, salt etc (plus electricity) and i would guess it it costing me £1.50 a loaf? Ok ,its a lot better than what we were paying before, but we are going through it at a rate of knots! I have also bought granary and white flour for variation.

So, there must be a better way of buying it than Waitrose (my local supermarket). I would good quality - organic would be good, but not the be all and end all. Where can I buy it cheaper - and maybe in bulk?

We just buy Sainsbury's strong bread flour or Hovis if its not available. Both work fine although ATM we are going through a shop bread stage as the children went off home made!

Do you know how much you pay? There is no Sainsbury's near here though.

I wonder if you can buy it online somewhere?

My mum buys her bread flour direct from a flour mill in 25kg bags, and its much cheaper.

If you would have bought your artisan bread from a baker, ask them where to get the flour from, or try someone at a farmers market

what actually is artisan ?

I get bread flour in Lidl, not artisan or organic, but 56p a bag!

Apparently the strong flour from LIDL is better than some of the big brand names or the own brand from the big four.

No Lidl here either. I am in central london and our nearest (and only) proper supermarket is Waitrose. We have a Tesco metro but there is no bread flour in it. I go to a farmer's market every weekend and they do not sell flour.

The flour mill sounds great though I am wondering where I would store the bags! I live in a flat with very little storage.

We use lidl bread flour and it turns out great every time. I recommend it, cheap too!

Sainsburys flour is 79p for 1.5kg
Hovis is 85p for 1.5kg

I get my bead flour from here

I buy it from a shop & £3.63 for 3kg I use about 350g a loaf so 42p for flour, yeast costs about 7p, 2 teaspoons of sugar & one teaspoon of salt (total estimate 5p??) so cost pre baking =55p

KatyMac - I have some friends who are trying to be self-sufficient so they count the cost of everything they buy. They use a breadmaker and even factor in the amount of electricity and guess what? It's 55p!

You mean the electric is 55p?

Wow what a coincidence??

Tesco strong flour is 50p a bag and makes 2 loaves. I know there is the cost of electricity and yeast but the other costs are minimal. I think I am saving loads given I was buying shop made loaves for £1.40 or more each.

(But I dont use organic flour).

Katymac, unfortunately they don't have a supplier in London, but it looks great and the price works out cheap too. Maybe i should google mills?

Interesting about the other costs too. Especially the electricity. I mean, most breads take between 3-5 hours so that is a lot of electricity. If you factor it in at 55p and other ingredients about 15p (being generous) then I don't want to be spending more than 50p per loaf on flour.

No, sorry - I mean the whole lot is 55p, incl the electricity it takes. You were bang on.

Oh - but my actual ingredients cost 55p the electricity is on top of that

So my loaf must cost much less than I though

I bought this silly elec monitor but I can't understand the readout

So how much is the flour part of that 55p? Or is it 55p excluding the flour?

I don't know which flour they buy but it did include the flour. At a guess, they would use something like Allisons.

I don't know which flour they buy but it did include the flour. At a guess, they would use something like Allisons.

"so 42p for flour, yeast costs about 7p, 2 teaspoons of sugar & one teaspoon of salt (total estimate 5p??) so cost pre baking =55p"

KatyMac - I bought some flour at Letheringsett while staying in Norfolk last summer and it was the best bread I've ever made! When I ran out I assumed they would do mail order but doesn't appear to be the case from their website.

Would you mind suggesting it next time you are in there?

Waitrose do a nice organic multigrain one for £1.59 for 1.5 kg, but nowhere near as good as Letheringsett.

I shop for it at a little Post Office about 8 miles from home & everytime I go I panic in case they have stopped stocking it.....sorry

I could post/courier you some? - I imagine it would cost a fair bit in P&P

That's so kind KatyMac but don't worry about doing that - I'll just have to visit beautiful Norfolk more often! (Unless they start supplying an outlet in south London! ) The flour really is lovely isn't it.

Waitrose have started selling some flour from what must be a similar outlet (fancier packaging though) but quite small bags at about £2.50 for small bags!

Well I buy it from a PO so I would hardly have to put much effort in....would I?

Stick it in a bag, then an envelope & post