The Rising Benefits of Baking Your Own Bread

Many people, myself included, are turning to baking their own bread. Here in California, grocery store bread costs between $5 and $7 per loaf, and French sliced sandwich bread is nearly impossible to find. While cheaper brands of white bread and sourdough are available, they’re still pricey and loaded with preservatives.

This is why I’ve taken to making my own bread. A 5-pound bag of flour or bread flour costs about $5. The difference? Bread flour contains gluten, which helps create a better structure, but both work well for baking. With just 2 ¼ cups of flour, ¾ cup of water, a bit of salt and sugar, and one packet of fast-acting yeast, you can make a full loaf of bread for about $1. Not only is it preservative-free, but it’s also healthier and customizable. You can experiment with various types of bread flour to create different flavors and textures.

Making a loaf of bread takes about an hour and a half, but most of that time is spent waiting for the dough to rise or bake. The actual hands-on work is minimal. Using a stand mixer, mixing the ingredients takes only five minutes. The first rise takes about 20 minutes, rolling and shaping the dough takes just a minute, and the second rise on a baking sheet lasts another 20 minutes. Baking takes 20 minutes at 300°F, followed by 10 minutes at 400°F for browning.

For centuries, Americans baked their own bread, but as store-bought options became cheap and convenient, we moved away from the tradition. However, with inflation driving up grocery prices, who wants to spend seven times what it costs to make bread at home, only to end up with a product full of preservatives?

Now that I’m partly retired, I can easily find an hour or so during the day to bake bread. It tastes better, is healthier, and freezes well, so you can make multiple loaves at once—just like the frozen bread you find in stores.

Retirees, like myself, are finding ways to stretch our dollars. We raise our own pork and beef, which costs about the same as store-bought meat but is free of antibiotics, dyes, and preservatives. We also control what the animals eat, making our meat healthier. The same goes for vegetables, fruits, and bread—anything you can grow, raise, or make yourself is usually better than store-bought.

If you ever have the time, visit the store and buy some flour and yeast. Baking your own bread is a better alternative to store-bought. It tastes better, is healthier, and the savings add up quickly. For example, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average American consumes about 150 pounds of bread annually—roughly 12.5 pounds per month or 0.4 pounds per day. For our family of two, we estimate saving about $300 a year by baking our own bread, including energy costs.

That might not sound like much, but when you combine it with other do-it-yourself efforts—like growing vegetables and fruits—you can significantly reduce your monthly cost of living. So why not give it a try? Bake a loaf of bread and taste the difference. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy it!