Frual Tip- Use a Bread Machine!

photo credit

Trying to cut back on your food costs means that you need to be very mindful of the things that end up in your grocery cart. When you only have a certain amount to spend, somehow the junk and convenience foods don't seem to make the cut- why buy Doritos that have no nutritional value when for the $3 you can buy eggs or produce or flour? I need food that gives me a bang for my buck, and chips just don't cut it.

Cutting back on your food costs doesn't stop at the grocery store though- what you do with the food you bought is the most important part. One of my favorite frugal things to do is to make my own bread. Who doesn't love the smell of homemade bread permeating through their home? I know that making bread seems like such a daunting task to some; how do you find the time for the mixing and kneading of the dough and what if all of that prep work ends up in a loaf of bread that sucks?

Here is my secret- I use a bread machine. My bread machine is the most used item in my kitchen; it is my magical helper that allows this mom of three to bake homemade bread with only a few minutes of prep time. Now I know that telling someone to go and buy a bread machine is in itself not frugal but you don;t need to spend a ton of money to buy one. My beloved machine was given to me by my mom when my five year old son was a baby and she got it at a yard sale for next to nothing. It is just a basic model without tons of bells and whistles and you know what? It is still working like a champ.

Bread machines are not only for baking bread- you can use them to make dough also. If you want to make rolls or pizza let the bread machine do the hard work- you just toss in all of your ingredients and set it to the dough setting.

A bread machines are a great tool to have in your frugal kitchen because they allow you to cook from scratch easily; as we all know, one major hindrance in making things it the time involved. Having a bread machine means one less thing to have to take time out of your day to do. An added bonus is that no matter how lazy of meal you are making (the lazy meal in my house is pasta) adding homemade bread to it makes it look like you were slaving away in the kitchen for hours (just make sure you put the bread machine away before you husband gets home).

Here are some of my favorite bread machine recipes:

 Focaccia Bread
Cinnamon Rolls
White Bread
Crescent Rolls (just dump ingredients into your bread machine)
Pizza Dough


Disclaimer: This post contains my affiliate link.