Why It's Worth It To Bake Your Own Bread

I've been a bread-baker for a long time; I've been cranking out homemade loaves for well over a decade now. We eat store-bought bread so infrequently that my kids protest whenever I pull out one of those purchased-on-sale-and-stashed-in-the-freezer emergency loaves for those times when I fall behind on my breadmaking schedule. They're so used to the freshly baked goodness of a homemade loaf that the store-bought stuff is vastly inferior in their eyes.

So, making your own bread is definitely worth it just from a quality perspective. Heck, it might even be worth it just because of the way it makes your house smell! That being said, there's no denying the financial advantages of home baked bread. I've always known that making my own bread saved a lot of money, however until recently I hadn't bothered to calculate the exact savings. 

Here's the cost breakdown for a batch of my Whole Wheat Refrigerator Dough (which makes 3 loaves of bread):

5 tsp yeast (purchased in bulk) = 28.8 cents

1/2 cup sugar = 11 cents

1 cup mashed potatoes = 12.6 cents

1/2 cup canola oil = 24 cents

1 egg = 17 cents

3 tbsp ground flax seed (purchased in bulk) = 5.5 cents

1 1/2 tsp salt = 1.4 cents

4 cups whole wheat flour (purchased in bulk) = 33.6 cents

3 1/2 cups white flour (purchased in bulk) = 30.8 cents

Total cost for a batch = $1.65, or 55 cents per loaf.

In comparison, a loaf of decent-quality bread costs $1.99 on sale, and it doesn’t go on sale for that price very often. Since our family of four generally goes through the equivalent of 6 loaves of bread per week (or 24 loaves a month), it’s difficult to stockpile enough in the freezer to get us through from one sale to the next (plus I’d rather dedicate that freezer space to other items). 

Monthly cost savings of making my own bread:

24 loaves of sale priced bread @ 1.99/loaf = $47.76

24 loaves of homemade bread @ 0.55/loaf = $13.20

$47.76 - $13.20 = $34.56

Now, if you have a very large grocery budget you might not find that a huge savings. On our modest grocery budget of $375 a month, a nearly $35 savings per month on a single food item is huge - that's nearly 10% of our total budget!

Making bread using my refrigerator dough method is easy and convenient, and for our family it is well worth the minimal effort involved. It's also an activity I enjoy doing, and it even makes a great gift.

Do you make your own bread? If not, have I convinced you to give it a shot?

RECIPE: Spicy Black Bean Bake

Photo by Filomena Scalise/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My older son *loves* black beans so I'm always looking for new ways to use them. I came up with this dish one night when I wanted something meatless, quick, and filling. Both my boys loved it, so it's definitely going in our regular menu rotation (I would have a photo, but the midnight snackers ate the leftovers I was saving to photograph during daylight!)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ cups salsa

3 cups black beans

1 ½ tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp each salt and pepper

juice of 1 lime

1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese

cornbread batter for topping (recipe below)

Instructions:

In a large frying pan, sauté the onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the salsa, black beans, chili powder, cumin, salt pepper and lime juice. Simmer over medium heat for a few minutes to allow flavours to blend.

While bean mixture is simmering, prepare the cornbread batter.

Pour the bean mixture into a greased 11x7" lasagna pan. 

Sprinkle with grated cheese, then pour cornbread batter over top and spread evenly.

Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes or until topping is golden brown and springs back when lightly touched.

Serves 6.

Cornbread Batter:

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

⅓ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

In bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In small bowl, combine remaining ingredients and beat well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. 

I shared this recipe at  Tasty Tuesday, Full Plate Thursday, Fat Camp Friday, the GCC Recipe Swap and Friday Favorites.

Winter Walk Challenge Update

Back at the beginning of December, I issued a "Winter Walk Challenge" and invited my readers to join me in the goal of walking outdoors at least 30 minutes per day. I have trouble staying motivated to get out of the house during the colder months and this was my plan to get some fresh air and exercise daily while avoiding cabin fever! I meant to issue an update right at the beginning of January, so I'm a bit late getting to it, but on the "better late than never" theory, here it is.

I'm afraid I have to report that I had very limited success during my first month of the Challenge. On Day 1, it was raining, but I went out anyway, so I was proud of myself for that. The very next day, minutes before I was to embark on my walk, my older son fell and got a very impressive gash on his forehead that required stitches, so instead of a walk I got a trip to the doctor's office. The day after that, I was busy trying to catch up on all the stuff I didn't get done while I was at the doctor's the day before! For about a week after that, I was very consistent and got in a daily walk. After that, things fell apart, and to be honest, from about December 10th on is a giant blur and I got in the occasional walk here or there, but I know I didn't come anywhere close to walking every day.

I'd like to be able to say that once the new year rolled around, I got right back on track, but (ahem) it didn't quite work out that way. I did venture out on a New Year's Day walk, however, since then it's been hit-or-miss again. Today's a nice bright sunny day (albeit, minus 13 Celsius!!) so I am going to renew my resolve, get all bundled up, and get out there. I want to see if I can stick with it every day for the rest of the month. If this frigid weather keeps up, at least I won't have to worry about getting stuck walking in the rain.

One thing I *did* manage to do consistently was attend Bikram Yoga classes weekly. I've been going faithfully every Friday since the last week of November (and even went twice the week between Christmas and New Year's). Since I ride my bike there and back as well (about 5 km in each direction), I get a LOT of exercise on Fridays. I purchased a 20 class package through Groupon, and although the class is very challenging, I love it! In fact, I used the money I received as Christmas gifts to purchase more classes, and I plan to start going twice a week.

How about you? If you joined me on the Challenge, how have you made out so far? And if you haven't yet joined in, it's not too late. Hop aboard and we'll root each other on for the rest of the winter.

Weekly Menu Retrospective #20

Welcome to my weekly roundup of the past week's eats. I prefer to report what we ate in the last week, rather than what we're planning to eat in the coming week. Why? The reason is pretty simple: although I usually have a general idea of what we're going to eat in the next week or so, life often unfolds a little differently than planned, and I adjust my menu plan on a near-daily basis to accommodate leftovers and other not-possible-to-plan-ahead circumstances. I find this is the easiest way to ensure that I minimize our family's food waste. I'm also willing to admit that I'm a rather spontaneous cook, given to preparing foods that strike me as the most appealing thing to eat right here and now! 

Wow, I really have been cooking up a lot of new recipes lately - so many, in fact, that I have nothing to link to this week as none of them are up on the blog yet! I promise I will share them here, starting this Wednesday.  

Breakfasts: pancakes, Aloha Muffins, French toast

Lunches: leftovers, pizza, peanut butter toast

Dinners:

Monday: Turkey Salsa Casserole

Tuesday: Southwestern Beef & Pasta Soup 

Wednesday: Ham & Potato Hash

Thursday: Smothered Meatballs, mashed potatoes, carrots

Friday: Spicy Black Bean Bake

Saturday: Leftover pizza by myself (kids on a playdate and hubby working)

Sunday: Fish in Spicy Coconut Milk, rice, carrots, Pineapple Coconut Cake

Snacks & Sides: apples, bananas, clementines, fresh pineapple, carrot sticks, popcorn

For more great meal ideas, stop by Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com.

RECIPE: Indian-Spiced Honey Garlic Chicken

I came up with this recipe when I had a stockpile of sale-priced chicken and wanted something a bit new and different. This is a mildly spicy twist on honey garlic chicken that is kid-friendly. Serve with plain, coconut, or curried rice and vegetables.

8 chicken thighs or drumsticks, bone in (skin on or off as you prefer)

2 tbsp butter, melted

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup honey

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp turmeric

Place the chicken pieces in a glass baking dish. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken, turning pieces over a couple of times to make sure they are well-coated. Cover dish with foil and bake at 375°F for 45 minutes or until chicken is tender and no trace of pink remains. Pour a generous spoonful of sauce over chicken when serving. Remaining sauce can be poured over rice or vegetables if desired.  Serves 4.

I shared this recipe at Fat Camp Friday.

My Top Five Frugal Successes of 2010

 Photo by Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's the last day of 2010 and I've been taking some time to reflect on the year's many joys and challenges. A lot of things have happened in our family this year (many of them too personal to share on this blog). What I *can* share are some of the frugal changes we made over the course of the year that have been the most satisfying to me.

1. Finally ditching cable...for good.
This one seems like a total no-brainer; after all it's practically Frugality 101. We canceled our cable service in January. For a family that previously lived without a TV for a couple of years, I don't know how we ever managed to get sucked into cable, but we did. We had it for about seven years, and in hindsight it's definitely one of those "what were we thinking?" situations. Neither my husband or I are big TV watchers in the first place. We discovered after we canceled our cable service that a simple pair of rabbit ears given to us by a neighbour allows us to receive the 3 or 4 channels we most commonly watch. Since we're in Canada, we don't have access to Hulu; however the netflix streaming service is now available in Canada and if we wanted to spend $7.99 a month we could stream it through my boys' Playstation 3 system. Right now we've been very content to watch shows on DVD from the library (we're fortunate that our library has an extensive DVD collection). The only thing I've really missed is being able to watch baseball games during the summer (we listened to them on the radio instead).

We had our phone, internet, and cable services bundled through a single provider, so when we canceled cable, we reassessed our phone service and switched to a less expensive package (this was a new package that wasn't available when we first signed on with our current provider). These changes allowed us to cut our bill in half, from $162 and change a month down to just over $82. That means we saved $960 over the course of the year. I'm so pleased we made this change, but really wish we'd done it a lot sooner (or better yet, never succumbed to the lure of cable in the first place).


2. Switching to a cash system for groceries and miscellaneous spending.
I've always paid fairly close attention to how much we spend and allocated specific amounts for each item in our budget. Most of our bills are paid by automatic withdrawal, so they're pretty easy to keep track of. The two categories in our budget that were the most difficult to keep a handle on were groceries and miscellaneous spending (which for us includes everything from personal care to general household needs, gifts and haircuts). We finally decided to switch to a cash system for these two categories, and it's worked out beautifully. It's so much easier to track how much we've spent and how much we have left for the rest of the month. I simply put the designated amounts of money into envelopes at the beginning of each month, and once it's gone, it's gone (if there's any left at the end of the month, I roll it over into next month's envelope). This method has really helped us stay true to our designated budget without spending a lot of time trying to track our purchases.

3. Switching to reusable feminine hygiene products.
This is a change I had been meaning to make for a few years now. I tried the Keeper several years ago, and I really *wanted* to like it, but it just didn't work out for me (it was uncomfortable to wear and I had some kind of reaction to it). I planned to sew some cloth pads and never quite got around to it (my bottomless mending pile has a lot to do with that). I definitely didn't want to spend the amount of money required to purchase pre-made cloth pads, but I'd had enough of purchasing disposable products (not to mention all the unnecessary waste they create). I finally came up with a very simple, no-sew solution that took me all of five minutes. It's worked well for me for several months now. I'll share more details in a future post.

4. Learning how to make my own homemade deodorant.
Not only is this a money-saver, it's very satisfying to find an all-natural solution that actually works! My husband and I have been using this recipe since the spring and we both love it. I add a few drops each of tea tree and peppermint essential oil for extra anti-microbial coverage and a fresh, clean scent. This discovery has blossomed into an interest in making more of my own personal care products, and a few weeks ago I discovered the awesome blog CrunchyBetty.com. Since then I have enjoyed making Mocha-Frappuccino face masks and Winter Face Scrub and am itching to experiment with many more concoctions in the new year.

5. Perfecting my homemade yogurt and granola recipes.
I definitely know my way around the kitchen and generally have no trouble creating a wide variety of tasty foodstuffs from scratch. The perfect yogurt and granola recipes seemed to have eluded me for years, though. This year I finally got them both right! I can now consistently turn out a vanilla yogurt that my family loves, and have achieved what I consider to be "granola perfection" - flavourful, crunchy, but not too sweet (recipe here).


What were your biggest frugal successes in 2010?

A Year End Clothing Budget Report

Photo courtesy of bulldogza/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I can't quite believe that Christmas is over for another year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I guess it's time for me to ease back into my blogging routine. With just a couple of days left in the year, I wanted to make sure to squeeze in my final clothing budget report for 2010. In my mid-year update, I shared that we had spent a total of $99.54 on clothing for the first half of the year. Since then, I picked up a number of items at yard sales in July and August:

$1.00 for a black button down shirt for me
$2.00 for New Balance runners for hubby
$3.50 for 2 T-shirts, 1 long sleeve T and a denim stretch jacket for me
$0.50 for a long sleeve thermal undershirt for hubby
$1.00 for a short sleeve dress shirt for hubby
$3.00 for a long sleeve T, short sleeved summer blouse and black skirt for me
$5.00 for a Nike jacket

The total for these yard sale purchases was $16.00 for 12 items.

In late summer and early fall we hit several sale days at local thrift stores. A detailed report of our purchases at the Salvation Army and Value Village 50% off days is here. My boys needed a lot of new clothes so we ended up buying a lot - 32 items for $105.50. We also hit up Walmart to stock up on socks and underwear to the tune of $55.59.

After we completed those shopping trips, we had most of what we needed to meet our clothing needs until next spring. We checked out another 50% off day at Value Village in November, which I reported on here. We purchased 8 items for a total of $31.12 that day. I also picked up a couple of things at fall yard and rummage sales:

$2.00 for 2 pairs of running shoes for the boys
$1.00 for a pair of dockers-style pants for hubby
$1.00 for a long sleeved dress shirt for hubby

Our final purchase was a pair of winter gloves for my younger son at a local surplus store for $4.50.

That brings our total for the second half of the year to $216.71 - over twice what we spent the first half of the year! That is fairly typical for us I think, as we seem to need more items for the fall and winter months.  Just over a quarter of this total was for socks and underwear alone. It always amazes me how much undergarments can eat into our clothing budget!

Our grand total for the year was $316.25 or $79.06 per person. I had guesstimated that we spend about $300 a year on clothes (this is the first year I've kept such detailed records on our clothing purchases) so it looks like my impression was pretty accurate.

How about you? How much does your family spend a year on clothing? Were you over or under your budget for the year?