Baking bread with a breadmaker at home might help lower monthly food expenses, but a low-cost machine is necessary and your commitment.
The Zojirushi Breadmaker is high cost and you're unlikely to meaningfully lower your food expenses quickly or recoup the expense vs. buying.
Lower-cost alternatives such as Hamilton Beach, or buying via Goodwill are more frugal options to lower your monthly food bill.
Like most New Yorkers, you're probably constantly constrained for time, so your best option may be simply buying the damn loaf.
My Food & Restaurant Expenses Are Disgustingly High
The simple truth is, our monthly food and restaurant expenses are disgustingly high, even by New York standards. For July 2018, food and dining expenses for our household were $2,418.63, or 26% of the total, according to our Mint.com data. It was the second-largest expense category coming in just behind the home at 33%. Within that food and restaurant expense category 63% was allocated towards restaurants and bars! There’s nothing frugal about that spending. But, what can I do about it? This is NYC, it’s expensive, right?
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Enter the Breadmaker, the Solver of All Food-Expense Related Problems
One fine rain-soaked commute into work via the wonderful NYC subway, I was drowning out the background noise of a mother yelling at her children and another young man kind enough to introduce everyone to reggaeton, listening to a ChooseFI podcast. I believe it was episode 007 (America’s Food Obsession | How To Crush Your Grocery Bill) wherein partway through commenting on food preparation at home somewhat they nonchalantly mentioned using a breadmaker, at a cost of $0.18 per loaf! This planted the seed. What an excellent way to lower monthly food expenses!
On the commute home my obsessive-compulsive persona was frantically pondering if a breadmaker would help lower monthly food expenses. It appealed to me, and why not? At $0.18 per loaf it was cheap relative to buying from the local grocery that could cost $2.00-3.00 for bargain-priced options, but in practice, over $5.00 for a whole wheat multigrain. I liked the idea of automation and timesaving elements of using a breadmaker too. To me, optimization is key alongside lowering expenses on my path to financial independence.
My partner was receptive to the idea of making bread at home. In fact, more supportive than I anticipated given it could possibly lower monthly food expenses, but more importantly, provide a preservative-free vegan option too. I’ll come back to this later.
So Why the Zojirushi Breadmaker?
Ultimately, we chose to purchase the Zojirushi Breadmaker, which also happened to be about the most expensive option ($$$$). I liked the fact that it provided a heating element at the top of the machine which provides a more even browning versus alternative breadmakers. Perhaps more importantly, it also bakes a two-pound loaf that is similar in size and shape to store-bought bread.
The runner-up was the Breville Custom Loaf Bread Maker, also fairly expensive ($$$), but with the added automated fruit and nut dispenser. Beyond that, lower price point alternatives that were intriguing included the Cuisinart Convection Bread Maker ($$) that utilizes convection heating technology and the more budget-friendly Hamilton Beach ($).
Honestly, for the more budget-conscious consumer who may want to simply test the Kool-Aid first, your best bet may be purchasing a used breadmaker via your local Goodwill store, Craigslist or eBay. I get the distinct impression most breadmakers purchased new are often regifted or left off at their local Goodwill. But, if breadmaking is so inexpensive and healthier, why are people dumping their breadmakers?
Look, like starting anything from scratch, including breadmaking, it takes some commitment and diligence to achieve the end result. Using a breadmaker at home is no different. When you dig into the actual cost and effort associated with homemade breadmaking it is more expensive than we initially anticipated as we’ll touch on next.
The Vegan Low Carb Criteria Conundrum
There are two key criteria to our homemade bread recipe; 1) it needs to be vegan and 2) also low carb. Here’s where opposites attract I suppose. Myself, I try to generally limit carb intake, which lends itself to a protein-rich diet and I was previously not a big bread consumer as a result. My partner, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of this spectrum. Vegan.
Engaging the help of Google, I was able to find a proper recipe wherein our universes overlapped. The recipe for low carb vegan bread below was derived from Gabi's World-Famous Bread, but modified with added stevia and salt for taste. It is vegan and at around 3.4 net carbs per slice, passes as low carb too.
Low Carb Vegan Bread Recipe – 2lb Loaf
Begin with adding yeast plus agave syrup (or sugar) and stevia to the bottom of your breadmaker. Pour warm water (90-100°F) over and then give it a few minutes to see if the mixture is bubbling (reacting); this is proofing. Concurrently, in a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients. Once the wet mixture is proofed, add olive oil, then add your dry ingredient mixture to the breadmaker. Set it and forget it after that, the breadmaker will take it the rest of the way!
Ingredients
Measure
Units
Dry Yeast - Rapid
tsp (or 2 pks)
4 1/2
Sugar or Agave
tsp
1
Olive Oil
Tbsp
6
Baking Powder
tsp
3
Salt
tsp
3
Stevia
pks
10
Vital Wheat Gluten Flour
cups
2
Oat Flour
cups
1/2
Soy Flour
cups
1 1/2
Flaxseed Meal
cups
1/2
Wheat Bran Unprocessed
cups
1/2
Water
cups
2 1/4
For our initial foray into breadmaking, we purchased a limited amount of ingredients via Amazon. We were able to buy small packages of dry yeast, baking powder, vital wheat gluten flour, oat flour, soy flour, flaxseed meal and wheat bran unprocessed. Other items we previously had on hand or bought from Costco. There would be no economies of scale with this initial venture!
More excited than a college student comped a free drink, we hurriedly mixed the ingredients upon arrival and tossed them into the new Zojirushi Breadmaker. Pressing the start button after closing the machine, we looked with anticipation pondering what would happen next. Not much, in fact. Breadmaking is boring, and it was several minutes before the machine proceeded to do anything. The whole process takes several hours and we moved on to other matters; this was the optimization we were paying for, right?
After about three hours the process was complete. What came out (based on half the ingredients listed above for a one-pound loaf, sans the stevia and about half the amount of salt), was a Franken-Loaf looking hunk of bread. It had knots characteristic of those you’d see on a disfigured tree limb and wouldn’t pass for something in the discount bin of your local grocery. It was pigeon food! The taste, that’s what matters, I told myself. After cooling, we cut some slices and bite into the still-warm bread; cardboard. Was it worth eating cardboard to lower monthly food expenses?
Our next experiment turned out markedly better, with added sweetener in the form of stevia plus about 50% more salt than the original recipe called for. This made for a notable improvement in the taste that was similar to store-bought bread.
After finding a palatable recipe that worked, like any individual on their path to financial independence, I wanted to dig into lower the cost. Hindsight 20/20, this should have been the first step before even purchasing the Zojirushi Breadmaker!
Only a New Yorker Can Make an $8.00 Loaf of Bread at Home
Leave it up to a New Yorker to figure out a way to make at homemade bread at $8.00 per loaf. And, no, it does not have avocados on it or truffle oil in it!
After scouring Google a bit more, I was able to find a local place called Bakers Authority that sells most of the items I needed for our low carb vegan bread recipe. Here I was able to purchase semi-bulk sizes of key ingredients including vital wheat gluten and soy flours, among other items.
Purchasing in five-pound bags from here was notably cheaper than Amazon. It is worth noting, that costs could be reduced by purchasing 50-pound bags of select items that have extended shelf lives (such as wheat gluten where the cost per pound could be -40% less!). So, how do we arrive at our $8.00 per loaf cost for homemade bread?
Let’s take a step back to your microeconomics class of yesteryear. Remember your production cost formulas of total costs equals fixed plus variable costs? That’s okay, neither do I most of the time. But, in essence, that’s one of the key costs we’re concerned with when considering the expense of breadmaking at home.
We have our variable costs including our ingredients, energy and labor, plus our fixed cost, the breadmaker. For simplicity of our analysis I’ve excluded labor, but your time (labor) is something to be mindful of! The closest substitute product for our low carb vegan bread recipe comes in at around $8-10 per loaf.
The table below breaks down the variable cost components for the recipe based on most of the ingredients purchased from Bakers Authority and Costco. Electricity data was pulled from our Wemo (assumes $0.275 per kWh, about the monthly average thus far for NYC in 2018). The graph following provides a breakeven of how many loaves we’d need to bake at home before breaking even with store-bought substitutes at $8.00 per loaf for low vegan low carb and $2.25 for plain white bread.
Ingredients
Measure
Units
Cost per Loaf
Dry Yeast - Rapid
tsp (or 2 pks)
4 1/2
0.20
Sugar or Agave
tsp
1
0.07
Olive Oil
Tbsp
6
0.82
Baking Powder
tsp
3
0.10
Salt
tsp
3
0.03
Stevia
pks
10
0.39
Vital Wheat Gluten Flour
cups
2
2.27
Oat Flour
cups
1/2
0.33
Soy Flour
cups
1 1/2
1.32
Flaxseed Meal
cups
1/2
0.53
Wheat Bran Unprocessed
cups
1/2
0.17
Water
cups
2 1/4
0.00
Electricity
kWh
0.35
0.10
Cost per Loaf Total
6.32
The variable cost of making a two-pound loaf of low carb vegan bread is about $6.32. Add another $1.68 per loaf to account for the fixed cost of the breadmaker assuming 191 loaves baked (the breakeven assuming a ~$320 breadmaker cost), and your total unit cost per loaf is now $8.00. Not so cheap, right? It is also worth noting, due to the Zojirushi's high upfront (fixed) cost, even in the event you baked 300 loaves at home, that last loaf would only save you about $0.61 versus buying.
Under a different scenario if one were to make homemade white bread with the Zojirushi, the variable cost component is significantly less. Based on the recipe below with ingredients purchased from Costco, the variable cost is about $0.61 per loaf, with the fixed cost estimated at $1.64 (195 loaf breakeven), bringing the total unit cost to $2.25. Baking beyond the 195 loaves one would actually start to save a small amount per loaf versus buying. It is worth noting the disparity if an individual had purchased the lower fixed cost Hamilton Beach breadmaker.
At only 37 loaves made with the Hamilton Beach of plain white bread, you're already at breakeven versus buying a low priced alternative at the grocery (assuming a ~$60 breadmaker cost for this analysis) Contrast that with the higher cost Zojirushi wherein you're not at breakeven until 195 loaves!
Ingredients
Measure
Units
Cost per Loaf
Dry Yeast - Rapid
tsp (or 2 pks)
4 1/2
0.20
Sugar
Tbsp
4
0.06
Vegetable Oil
Tbsp
8
0.19
Salt
tsp
3
0.02
White Flour
cups
6
0.04
Water
cups
2 1/4
0.00
Electricity
kWh
0.35
0.10
Cost per Loaf Total
0.61
Does Homemade Breadmaking Save Money? Time Will Tell
It remains to be seen if my impulsive purchase of the Zojirushi Breadmaker will help lower monthly food expenses. At $8.00 per loaf, on the surface, this seems unlikely. However, taking a step back to your microeconomics class, perhaps you recall substitute goods?
Ultimately, our goal is to lower our food expenses in NYC. Previously, maintaining a low carb high protein diet wasn’t the cheapest option. A homemade meal of baked organic chicken and brussels may cost $4-5 per serving (still significantly cheaper than buying out). While the $8.00 homemade bread is expensive, spread out over eight sandwiches (~16 slices per loaf), plus the cost of meats and condiments, the cost of per serving is likely $2-3.
At this time, I don’t have an answer for you if the breadmaker will help lower our monthly food expenses here in NYC. It will take time and commitment, like most things on the path to financial independence. Six months down the road if we are still committed breadmakers, there are incremental options we can use to lower costs and improve optimization.
We can buy bulk 50-pound bags of key ingredients with long shelf lives lowering several variable costs by as much as 40%. Periodically we can also pre-mix dry ingredients in canning jars to make the weekly breadmaking process less time consuming during the hectic workweek.
Is homemade breadmaking something worth pursuing yourself?
There are a number of positives and negatives with the process. You may be able to lower your costs if you consume a significant amount of bread in your family. But be mindful, the breakeven with a high-cost Zojirushi Breadmaker could be 3.7 years or longer (assuming ~52 loaves per year). If you buy secondhand or a lower cost breadmaker, you could significantly reduce that payback period and lower your breakeven point.
Using the lower price point Hamilton Beach model your breakeven drops to 0.7 years (37 loaves)! Other immeasurable benefits such as the absence of preservatives in homemade bread and perhaps your love of cooking and trying new recipes may be offsetting factors to the hard math associated with breadmaking costs.
All of that said, if you’re like most New Yorkers, you’re endlessly busy and constantly time constrained; go buy a damn loaf of bread and call it a day!
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