Between chemicals, price and convenience and household real estate, I bake our bread 9 times out of 10.  Freak or Frugalite?  You be the judge

1.  The way I figure it is that my kids ingest enough chemicals from all of the non-organic fruit and vegetables, hormone and steroid injected meats and ‘special treats’ I feed them on a daily basis that their peanut butter sandwiches should be as free from chemicals, hormones or drugs as I can make them.

2.  On sale, with a coupon (unless it’s a FPC) the most I will pay for a commercial loaf of 100% whole wheat, whole grain bread is $1.00.  Cheap, smart or frugal, that’s up to you decide, but that is my price point and I really, really detest straying from it, since 6 out 7 members of our household are NOT gluten-free and really, really love sandwiches.  Homemade bread, all in, runs me about .20-.25 cents a loaf.  And it’s warm.  And it’s fresh.  And it’s so, so yummy.  I bake four loaves a week.  Buying four loaves (even at Food Basics, No Frills or Price Chopper) would cost me $8.00 (because I really never have four bread coupons a week and the *best* sale price averages $1.99 each.  Or, I can spend $.80 a week and bake it myself.  For me, it’s a no brainer.

3.  Baking bread is far easier and faster than it sounds.  It takes me the same amount of time to drive to the store, pick up a loaf of bread, stand in line, cut my eyes at the person in front of me in the Express lane for have 10 items, pay, and drive home as it does for me to mix the ingredients, kneed the dough, cover it for the first rise, prepare my bread pans and wash up my baking accoutrements.  The dough works its magic while I do other, very important things (Facebook, chocolate, daydreaming you know, really high priority stuff).  Then, in the amount of time it takes the average bear to find his keys, get to the car and pull out of the driveway (to go and buy more bread, of course!) I’ve divided the dough, rolled it out, rolled it up and plopped it in the previously prepared pan for a second, quicker rising.  At this point, we are about 30 minutes from baking and about an hour from smearing it with peanut butter, butter, Nutella – whatever your poison happens to be.

Fresh out the oven this morning, the first two of our four weekly loaves of carbohydrate-laden homemade heaven. Still nice and warm at lunchtime for some very serious peanut butter sandwich connoisseurs.

4.  Bread goes stale if not used up quickly.  Or frozen.  Freezer space is prime real estate when you shop the sales and mostly cook from scratch.  So, having four loaves of bread taking up all kinds of space in our freezer really doesn’t work for us.  Especially since I really can’t store anything on top of it or pushed up against it or around it.  Bread is soft and ridiculously diva-like about getting smushed.  Baking our own bread means that we really never have stale bread anymore and more important than that even: there is more room in the freezer for Momma’s private stash of Moose Tracks. *grin*

So there!  Take that June C.  Mwah!

So, Freak or Frugalite – I leave the evidence in your hands.  Judge away (but let me know either way, ’cause I want to know!)