Can You Save Money Using a Bread Machine?
The straight forward answer is yes, you can save money, by baking your own bread at home, using a bread machine, instead of buying it at the store. The bread machines today have amazing features and they are easy to operate. You can put the ingredients before you go to sleep and have fresh bread ready in the morning waiting for you. To some, that might sound like a science-fiction movie but countless people are doing it every day, including me. So, don’t miss out our post on the best bread machines, where we review the best bread makers on the market.
Store-Bought or Homemade Bread?
A store-bought bread and a homemade one is not comparable even if you get one from the so-called “healthy” section. This is because you are in complete control when you bake with your bread machine and there is no need to add any preservatives. Another benefit is that you can have much more variety at home since you can pretty much add anything you like. Go ahead and invest in a bread machine, you will get your money back in no time.
Is It Cheaper to Make Bread in A Bread Maker?
Yes, it is! Using bread machine is practical and your bread has no chemical additives inside. Therefore, you should not compare it against the cheap sliced white toast version sold at the local store. Otherwise, it would be a great example of comparing apples and oranges.
Calculating your homemade bread cost depends on where you live but if you buy your ingredients in bulk then it should only cost about 15%-25% (in terms of ingredients) of what you pay to a high-quality bread. That is a lot of savings!
Are Bread Makers Expensive to Run?
There is so much discussion on this subject. Some people even added the cost of labor for baking at home when calculating the homemade bread cost. But if you do that then you should also add the cost of labor for going to the store + the gas you spend on the way and so on.
I think that is a bit irrelevant and is nothing more than taking things to an extreme. And for that reason, let’s just stick to the ingredient cost and the cost of power used for the bread machine. The ingredients for baking at home costs at least 75%-85% cheaper. So, even if you add the electricity cost, the bread machines are still not expensive to run at all.
How Much Electricity Does A Bread Maker Use?
You should check your bread machine manual but these machines usually don’t use much electricity. On average, the power they use ranges from 0.30 to 0.40 kWh.
Do Bread Makers Save Money?
Yes, they do and using a bread machine on a regular basis is considerably cheaper than buying bread from the grocery store. You should not just focus on the ingredient cost; you get much more with just baking at home.
Additional Benefits for Getting A Bread Machine
Bread machines can also make cakes and prepare dough for your pizza. They usually come with delay timers which allows you to bake bread at a later time automatically. All you need to do is to put the ingredients in the bread pan and set the time. You also do not need a kitchen stand mixer anymore because the bread machine does all the kneading for you. You can read more about benefits of owning your own bread machine, and how to take care of it in our previous post, where we talk about bread machines and how to take care of them.
In Conclusion
Making bread at home with a bread machine is just a wonderful opportunity for the health-conscious consumer, and it definitely costs much less in the long run. You do not have to use it every day unless you have a very big family. But if you do, you are still better off. Most bread machines bake 2lbs loaves. They are probably one of the easiest to use appliances in any kitchen anywhere. You get tasty bread for less, so kudos for the bread machine.
