Baking bread is one of those things that I’ve always said I’m going to do. When the question “What new frugal thing are you going to try?” gets asked, chances are I’ll say “baking bread.” In preparation for that, one summer I scouted yardsales and accumulated several bread pans. I had good intentions. And I heard that baking bread is therapeutic, too. I’ve just never been able to make myself do this. It might be partially due to the fact that while I absolutely love to cook, I don’t like to bake. The closest I’ve come to baking bread is banana split bread (oh, that is good, let me tell you.) But to tell you the truth - I think yeast scares me.

I briefly considered getting a bread machine, but thought that would probably go the way of the food dehydrator, yogurt maker, etc…to live out its days on a shelf in the basement.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to paying the high prices that the grocery stores charge for bread (we like whole grain breads, and even the sale prices in the grocery stores are steep.) The answer is bakery thrift stores! There are two of them within my shopping radius - Wonder/Hostess and Brownberry/Entenmann’s.

I’ll shop the Wonder Outlet when my husband gets his cravings for Wonder Bread (I never developed a taste for the stuff, but he occasionally indulges in his childhood bread.) One time he wanted Wonder Bread for his turkey sandwiches, and I didn’t feel like going to the thrift store. Yikes. I could not believe the price of the bread in the grocery store. I think it was triple what I had paid the last time I bought it at the outlet. And I’ve gotten free items at checkout, which is always a nice surprise.

We’re pretty frequent customers of the Brownberry Entenmann’s Outlet store, too. In fact, we just stopped there this past weekend, which probably goes a long way to explain today’s blog topic. I love the whole wheat bread and whole wheat English muffins, my husband loves the rye bread, and we’re both partial to Thomas bagels. In addition, the store has a wide selection of Entenmann’s bakery (not good for my hips, but a yummy occasional treat) and sometimes (although increasingly hard to find) Boboli pizza crusts.

The prices at the Brownberry store are 50% of the grocery, retail price (making it around $1.60 or $1.65 for a loaf of bread). But there are a number of ways to make the deals even sweeter. There are usually items on special tables that have been marked down further - $1.09 a loaf. These are very fresh, too - I’ve never gotten anything that was stale. And there are promotions - double punch days, for example. You get a punch card, and when it’s full, you get two free items of your choice. I’m not sure if this promo is still going on, but for the longest time, if you spent $12, your punch card was filled (normally takes $24). But the best deal, as far as I’m concerned, is the calendar. At the beginning of 2007, I paid $2.99 for the calendar. Each month has three coupons - one for 50% off your entire order, up to $25; one “buy 2 items, get 2 free” and one 12 items for $12. My favorite shopping trips are the ones where I use a “buy 2, get 2 free” coupon AND turn in a filled punch card, getting me two more free items. 6 items for the price of 2 - make that the OUTLET price of 2. I’m one of those people who like to figure out how much full price would be, and then see how little I paid, so you just know that this excites me!

There are only two people in our household at this time, so there are times when I come home with a LOT of bread and bagels. We have a chest freezer in the basement, and the bread freezes just fine. I like to stock up, because if I’m having a busy weekend, I may not want to head out to the bakery outlets, and may be tempted to buy bread while grocery shopping (and therefore, pay more than I have to. I get lazy sometimes.) Having extra loaves in the freezer is my way of avoiding this.

I love the bakery outlet stores. But you never know - maybe, someday…I might just bake a loaf of bread, too.