Buying bread from the store can get expensive. Whether you are supplementing your homemade bread supply or you solely buy your bread from a store – with bread costing between $3-6 dollars per loaf, it can get expensive real fast.
Ours is a home of bread lovers, so buying bread in all its forms can really weigh down our monthly grocery budget.
With our high consumption of bread, saving any amount of money per loaf can be significant. And I’ve found the best place to save change on buying a loaf of bread is to buy it from the source: the Bakery.
Buying Store Bought Bread
Whether its buying sandwich bread, hamburger or hotdog buns, bagels, English muffins, hoagie/sandwich buns, or an artisan style loaf such as Italian, sourdough, or French bread — buying premade bread from a store is a reality for almost all of us.
The norm in our household is to eat homemade bread during the fall, winter, and early spring months. But as the weather heats up outside, baking bread in our house takes a backseat to keeping the house as cool as possible with our small window unit air conditioner and box fan.
Because I know summer heat is coming (after a couple decades, it kind of sinks in that the weather patterns are pretty much the same), I try to bake extra and stock up our freezer on a few loaves of bread to help us through the summer.
Despite this effort, a trip to the bread store always comes to order.
Not only do I have a house full of little people in love with buttered toast with their breakfast and peanut sandwiches for their lunches, but something about summer really coerces our meals to go between two slices of bread.
From the hamburgers and hotdogs cooked on the grill, to the cold meat sandwiches pulled from the fridge, cream cheese spread thick and creamy on a bagel, and shredded meat messes we stuff our faces with. There really are so many great tasting summer foods that go in a bun or between slices of bread.
With four months of solid hot weather where I live, there is simply no way I can fit all that bread into my freezer.
That’s where a trip to the bakery makes its mark on our calendar.
Bakery Outlets vs In-Store Bakeries
When I say go to the bakery, most of us probably immediate think of the in-store bakery at whatever local grocery store we shop at.
It’s true that in-store bakeries often have great tasting breads …. But their great taste doesn’t always come cheap.
In-store bakery breads can often be expensive. And because most grocery stores offer a bread aisle full of pre-sliced sandwich bread, their bakeries often offer other bread items like house baked bagels and French bread loaves.
Instead, when I talk about going to the bakery, I’m talking about going to the bread store bakery, or bakery outlet. You know, the place that bakes the bread before sending the loaves off in little box trucks to the grocery store
Many in-store bakeries focus on cakes, muffins, donuts, turnovers – baked goods that hit that sweet tooth button and aren’t available in the bread aisle.
Other items often on display racks around in-store bakeries are bread rolls, croissants, artisan loaves, and fresh French bread to go with tonight’s dinner.
Breads found at your local grocery store’s bakery are probably delicious and an easy grab and go as your walking through the store. They are often a quality bread that is more than just a staple loaf of overly air-inflated bread.
If you are seeking store bought bread options that are a little nicer than a standard loaf of bread, then shopping as a local bakery is likely the way to go.
On the other side of the aisle, if yours is a household of sandwich eaters, bagel munchers, hamburger and hotdog lovers, and consumers of breads that you would normally grab in the bread aisle of your local grocery store, then shopping at a nearby bakery outlet is something you should consider on your next trip to town.
Franz Bakery Outlet is my store of choice because it is close by, but other bakery outlets exist all across the country. BuySalvageFood.com has a great list available on their website here that can help you find a store near you.
Why Outlet Buying?
Because ours is a home of both big and little people bread lovers, buying bread at bargain costs can be a huge money saver.
Bakery outlets offer bread on their shelves at significantly lower prices than what you will find at your local grocery store.
A loaf of bread that would usually cost around $4 at my local grocery store, costs between $1.50 and $2 at a bakery outlet. This significant discant allows me to literally buy twice as much bread for my allotted budget for buying baked goods.
That is no small thing.
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Stocking Up and Buying More
Trips to the bakery for us are not just a mere handful of bread loaves added to our cart. Oh, no. A special trip to the bakery – which requires me to unbuckle my crew of three young ones out of their car seats and drag them into the store with me – means that we are going to justify the extra stop.
Stopping at any store with my crew doesn’t come easy. With car seats to unbuckle and toddlers to keep track of in the parking lot and store, it’s a big deal for us to go anywhere.
So when I do choose to make a stop, it better be worth it. And shopping at the bakery outlet is definitely worth it.
We stock up on all things bread when we stroll around the Bakery.
And we don’t spend a fortune. Which allows us to buy some of the “funner” bread items like bagels, English Muffins, hoagie buns, and better quality breads that we likely wouldn’t choose to add to our cart because of the extra cost.
Bread Storage
Buying bargain bread is fun and can feel a little exciting when you’re looking at all those cheap and affordable bread goods. But careful to not get too excited buying bread if you have no where to store it.
Just like the fruits and veggies for sale in the produce section of a grocery market, bread comes with an expiration date too.
Bread molds. And if you get overzealous buying bargain loaves of bread, you might find yourself throwing that money away if all your proud bargain buys go moldy before you get a chance to eat them.
Plan ahead before you trek to the outlet bakery. Know how much your family can reasonably eat, and plan to store the rest in either the refrigerator or freezer.
I find freezing bread is the best way to store it. Whether it is breads, buns, bagels, or muffins – they all freeze and they all thaw out to taste just fine.
Many website will recommend only freezing for three months (3 months). This a freshness / flavor timeframe, not a safety recommendation.
I’ve eaten bread that was in the freezer for over a year, and it was just fine to eat. Both the texture and flavor were the same as before the loaf made its extended freezer trip. But the key to keeping bread in freezer storage for a longer period of time is the bagging.
Regular bread bags aren’t the same as freezer bags, and over time flavors can seep in, causing your blueberry bagels to take on whatever flavor of the food sitting next to it (FYI, bell peppers and blueberry flavors don’t mesh well in a bagel. Speaking from experience).
Six months really is a long time for a loaf of bread to set in the freezer – and a year is even crazier. But if for whatever reason you do think that certain bread items might live in the freezer for a longer period of time, consider slipping the loaf into a 1 or 2-gallon sized freezer bag before storing. The freezer bag will help preserve the freshness of the loaf.
If storing for just a few weeks or a few months, then the loaf should be perfectly fresh-safe storing in the bread bag it came in.
It’s All About Saving Money
With food prices on the rise at each trip to the grocery store, saving money in any box of the food pyramid can be significant.
Buying bread from bakery outlets has helped me save money in my food buying, and I hope you will find it a worthwhile effort to help you save as well.
