Our family is growing at an enormous rate!  We’ve gone from 1 to 6 in the same number of years – that makes it sound really dramatic doesn’t it? hahaha – well I was just a single gal and then I had my son.  2 years later we met my husband and his son, since then we’ve welcomed a baby girl and now I am pregnant with our 4th and last child!  As you can imagine food costs for 2 young boys, a pregnant & nursing woman and my husband who has the matabolism of a….hummingbird (yes I just googled what animal has the fastest metabolism) are something we have to be concious of.  If we decide to make some sandwiches for a picnic – that’s a whole loaf of bread gone!

So -I’m a WAHM now (work at home mom).  I’ve reduced my workload significantly and, being home more, I have increased my interest / passion about running our house as efficiently as possible.  I thrive on finding the most efficient ways to do things – possibly because I am, as my dear friend Amanda has told me, an over-functioner – if multitasking were an olympic sport…. Anyway, this way of being has it’s pros and cons, but an analysis of the why and the how of that is for another day….

Here I am at home, I must maximize fun & home made and minimize expense & waste!  As a result you will be seeing a lot more posts about our home-made adventures! I’m off topic…so the bread!   A whole loaf of bread for one picnic, and I’m not sure I feel great about the ingredients – the solution?  Make it myself!  With a breadmaker.   I’m not THAT good

If you haven’t heard of Freecycle – get on it!  This is a fantastic website that connects people who have stuff to give and people who need.  This is not a save yourself a trip to the dump with your old junk kind of thing – this is – “I have this great useful thing that I just don’t have the time and energy to post of craigslist and try to sell” or “I thought I’d use this but just don’t so someone else should make use of it rather than it gathering dust” or “I am a super generous & kind hearted human being”. Seriously- the things people give away is shocking.  I try to match what I take with giving – but the truth is so far I’ve taken more than I’ve given simply because we seem to use everything or almost everything we own right now!  I will certainly pass on the things I’ve taken back to freecyclers when I’m finished though – it is a great way to build our communities I believe.

I’ve never used a bread maker before & wasn’t willing to invest money in something I wasn’t sure I’d actually use – better to try and find one for free and see how it goes!  I posted on Freecycle asking if anyone had one they weren’t using and the very next morning I got a reply!  Deborah asked me to come by as soon as possible to pick it up as she’d got a new one and didn’t need her old one anymore.

I made a trip out to her place the next afternoon and along the way I discovered a new beach &  playground to take the kids to! Bonus!

Here’s what a friendly paddler (thank you neighbour) brought up to the beach for the kids to see:

Don’t worry – we made sure this beautiful creature was put safely back in the water before leaving the beach

Here’s what I came home with:

I’d never used one before so played around with the buttons a bit to figure it out. Then I googled recipes for breadmakers and found this: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Bread-Machine-Bread/Detail.aspx It was a recipe for white bread so I switched that ingredient to whole wheat, and added a little more salt as the reviews suggested, but the rest I kept  the same.

In the morning this is what we pulled out of the machine:

First loaf of bread machine bread!

My husband loves it, the kids love it – I’m overjoyed!

I was ecstatic “I found a bread machine for free, and now we have delicious fresh bread, and it’s SOO much cheaper too!” It’s a little surprising to me that I get so “into” the whole home making aspect of my life – I never envisioned myself here – but I’m enjoying it!  Anyway, hubby’s response was grand approval for the taste, texture, and “heartiness” of it – this man is picky, he doesn’t like many baked goods so his genuine enjoyment of the bread made me very happy.  He then wanted to know “how much cheaper is it?”

Hmmmm…now I want to figure this out:

1 loaf of basic store bought whole wheat bread = $2.5

1 loaf of  bread machine bread = $1.77

Breakdown or ingredient costs.

So if I shop regular priced ingredients in small quantities instead of waiting for sales or buying in larger quantities the savings : $0.73 per loaf.  We go through 3 loaves a week roughly = $2.19.  Not a huge number, but it all adds up!  Now that I know how easy it is, I will start trying new recipes to make even healthier breads with flax seeds etc. and start buying my flours and other ingredients in larger quantities.

Thank you fellow freecycler Deborah!