Does anyone know what is the average cost per loaf if you use a breadmaker?

[MadamAnt]

Just wondering if it is likely to work out cheaper (incl energy costs) than the £1.20 per loaf I currently spend at the shops.

Are you including the cost of the breadmaker itself in this?

I can't vouch for the energy costs because I bury my head in the sand about such things. But the ingredients work out way cheaper and the quality of bread is much better, imho.

Yes it would. I forget the exact sums we worked out but we were paying £1.40 a loaf at the bakers for a standard non organic loaf. When we switched to the bread maker we bought only organic flour made at a local windmill and organic butter etc, and even then it was still quite a bit cheaper. If you weren't a ponce interested in that it would be substantially cheaper.

It's also really fun, because you just sling the stuff in and in the morning you get a perfect loaf smelling all yummy

Hmmm. I suppose I wouldn't count cost of the maker itself. I know that's illogical! TPL - that's good to hear!

letwiggle - I'm sold

My actual ingredients cost about 55p when I worked it out - flour has done up recently so I imagine it's about 62/65p now.

I really don't know about the electric costs

My breadmaker costs £49.99 & lasts about 18m

I make about a loaf a day, mon-fri so the breadmaker costs about 15p a loaf

I don't know about the costs and am a breadmaker novice, only had it for 5 days but I bought a couple of rolls yesterday and we couldn't eat them. It was like we had dipped them in salt, awful. And they were bakery rolls not packaged ones.

I buy expensive locally milled organic flour and mix it half and half with cheapo Lidl bread flour - keeps the cost down, still tastes good and makes a lighter loaf.

Katymac - I love your thoroughness. Thank you!

I'm just about to hotfoot it to the shops. Thanks for all your replies

What price freshly-baked bread, where you know exactly what has gone into the ingredients?? No preservatives, can reduce the salt (which i often do as recipes can suggest too much), put in extras as you wish (herbs, cheese, sun-dried toms, etc.)??

IMO, that makes home-made bread the most economical by far.

i worked out we get three loaves per large bag of flour - dont count adding the sugar/salt/butter as there's always some in the cupboard and sadly never worked out what the yeast worked out at! but definitely cheaper than nice supermarket bread (which is what i compare it to, not cheapest sliced, as that's what it tastes more like) and especially so if you make speciality breads - the raisin one is extraordinarily popular with ds and tomato and herb ones with dh. also make pizza dough in it, and homemade pizza is a LOT cheaper than bought ones....
i wouldn't buy one if you are only doing it to save money because the upfront cost is so big (tho i would look for one on freecycle). if you want one anyway, then the savings are definitely a big incentive. and yes nothing beats coming downstairs in the morning to smell of freshly baked bread...