Five Bread Prices for Five Familiesby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 20 Aug 2007 12:34 PM Bread is one of those great staples in life. And, despite all of the bad press that it has gotten in these low carb days, I still think bread is a wonder. I thought I would take a look five fictional families and see what each of them might spend on a loaf of bread. I'm going to assume that all of our pretend families like to be healthy, so they all eat a whole grain bread. None of them stockpile or freeze their bread, but they might purchase two loaves a week to get them through until their next shopping trip. You can combine strategies that these families use and see what works best for you. Here is how they could spend different amounts for basically the same thing. Our first family buys its bread at the grocery store. The watch the sales when they can, but most of the time, it costs them about $3.39 for a loaf. Brown bagging it is cheaper than buying lunch out. Our second family buys its bread at the local warehouse store. Their bread comes bundled in packages of two, and they spend about $2.50 for each loaf. By the way, this is the same price the first family spends every few months when their bread is on sale. Our third family recently discovered the bakery thrift shop. The bread there is always a great price, and they know that they don't have to worry about coupons or buying in bulk. They spend about $1 for each loaf that they buy. For our fourth family, we go back to the grocery store. This family has done some research to find out when the bread truck comes in to makes its delivery. This usually happens on a Monday, to restock all of the bread that was sold during the weekend. By Tuesday morning, all of the "older" bread is placed on a discount rack and priced to sell. This family pays about $.75 for each loaf of bread they buy. Finally, our fifth family ignores the stores altogether when it comes to bread because they make their own. They could make it by hand, but find their bread maker to be so much easier, especially since they purchased one at the thrift store for less than $5. Factoring the cost of the ingredients and the cost of electricity, they spend about $.15 a loaf. Mary Ann Romans also writes for the Computing Blog here at Families.com where she shares everything from the latest news on technology to cool downloads and fun websites. Related Articles: Italian Bread for The Bread Machine Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments  Aimee Amodio (11995) 20 Aug 2007 12:39 PMThis is a very cool comparison! Now I'm off to find my nearest bakery thrift store... :) jwillay (50) 20 Aug 2007 07:42 PMwow, i am thrilled when i get it for 2.00 a loaf...  Mary Ann Romans |
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