Are you sure you need a *breadmaker/easiyo/slow cooker*

orange-sox

ARGH! My OH is doing my nut in this evening!

I mentioned to him that I may bid on a breadmaker that's listed near me on ebay - local pickup bargin!

Anywho, he's started moaning at me, saying fresh bread is a pain in the !!!! because it won't slice properly, and that supposedly, I will waste more money on the electric for my BM than the money it will cost for bread?

Someone give me a better arguement than "but no I won't!":o I.E could you let me know what kind of savings you have encountered getting rid of bread from weekly/fortnightly/monthly shop.

We've also had this dicussion in relation to the easiyo - how the man cannot see that his almost £20 a month yogurt habit is ridiculous and needs to stop I will never know!:p

misskool

Does your OH spend money on his other hobbies? It's just hobby money (if you have that sort of spending pot).

morganlefay

Bought yoghurt is really hideously expensive and much of the cost is in the packaging - how much better to buy an easiyo and perhaps a spare pot and have just one outlay for litres and litres of lovely yog which you can flavour just like the bought ones. I think easiyos are a MS no-brainer.
And what about looking at the list of ingredients on the bought bread packet ? (Pick a loaf with a LONG list - all that extra cr*p) when all you put in a BM is flour, water, yeast and a smidgin of sugar butter and salt so you know what you're eating.
BM bread does go stale quicker so what you do then is make breadcrumbs and freeze them for nice HM stuffings and TREACLE TARTS. I've never yet met a man who didn't like treacle tarts so the suggestion of an unending supply might do it ?

Kadeeae

Have to agree about the ingredients list on most store bought breads. Personal opinion is, homemade tastes so much better and you can vary that taste in 100 different ways - I don't find the bread at all difficult to slice now that we have a proper (long, v. sharp and stiff) bread knife. Maybe difficult if you were after very thin slices

We seldom have any leftover but I do mine as breadcrumbs that go into the freezer. I've never honestly costed it out properly, but I figure most loaves cost me about 50-60p to make (totally guessing on the electric). My arguments to your OH would be:

1) I decide what the ingredients are (health)
2) Tastes sooo much nicer
3) Makes the kitchen/house smell lovely (less spent on air fresheners? :rotfl: )
4) Made at home means I'm not 'popping to the shop for a loaf'
5) BM allows me to take 2 min to put ingredients in and then I'm off to do 10 other things while 'it' makes bread. (Although usually I use my BM just for dough and bake it in tins myself, or rolls)

Could come up with a few more, but I've gotta go! Good luck!

kittynortheast

Hi, I like my slow cooker cos I can shove something in in the morning of a busy day and don't have to rush in and start a meal/resort to expensive ready made stuff, you can also tenderise cheaper cuts of meat which would take forever in the oven.

I agree it is hard to cut fresh bread thinly but just solved that-treated myself to an aldi electric knife £6.99, it also will be used to slice roasts thinly for the kids packed lunches to reduce to amount of plastic chemical infested ham they currently comsume (only like wafer thin)!

lindab15

Slow cooker is a critical item - use mine regularly. Makes the most divine beef in red wine casserole / curries etc out of cheaper cuts of beef (shin, skirt etc) or other meats and uses minimal electricity compared to doing the same dish in the oven for a couple of hours.

And such bliss to come in from work with it all but done.

Love my BM also, all the reasons people have said before. Makes fab dough for pizza bases then the kids have a whale of time doing their own toppings. I still buy bread on occasion, but it was fantastic in the recent snowy weather, when I could only get to the corner shop for a few days, and they quickly sold out.

Still thinking about an Easiyo for myself, but some of the arguments listed have convinced me .......... where's my shopping list !

sb44

orange-sox wrote: »

ARGH! My OH is doing my nut in this evening!

I mentioned to him that I may bid on a breadmaker that's listed near me on ebay - local pickup bargin!

Anywho, he's started moaning at me, saying fresh bread is a pain in the !!!! because it won't slice properly, and that supposedly, I will waste more money on the electric for my BM than the money it will cost for bread?

Someone give me a better arguement than "but no I won't!":o I.E could you let me know what kind of savings you have encountered getting rid of bread from weekly/fortnightly/monthly shop.

We've also had this dicussion in relation to the easiyo - how the man cannot see that his almost £20 a month yogurt habit is ridiculous and needs to stop I will never know!:p

I don't use my breadmaker anymore for breadmaking as my husband doesn't like the taste or texture BUT, it was still well worth the money for quality of the pizza dough that it makes. It does also make a good cinammon fruit loaf, a bit like the Warburtons ones.

x-cupcake-x

I don't use my clow cooker as much as I could, but my breadmaker has proved a brilliant purchase. I wasn't sure how much I would use it so I bought a second hand one. We hardly ever buy bread now, I much prefer the taste to shop bought and the smell while it's cooking is amazing.
I suppose I could make it buy hand, but I work shifts so being able to put everything into it before I leave and setting the timer so it's ready when I or the OH get home is brilliant.
I've just tried it with dough improver added, and it seems to last a little longer and tastes even better

Cost wise I haven't really worked it out but I would guess at around 40p for ingredients (for a medium loaf), I'm not sure how much electricity it would use but I can't imagine it would be that much? Maybe 10 p max?

The advantages are that you know exactly what is going into the bread, and also there's no nipping to the shops for "just" a loaf and putting alsorts into your basket as you walk round and spending a lot more than you intended to.

purpleivy

I wouldn't be without my bread maker. Home made malted loaf is excellent. Pizza dough, excellent, bread rolls fab, naan bread also good. I don't ever buy bread of any description these days. OH, I lie, I do when we go camping, though the 'girls' and families that we go with have suggested it! I do take the waffle maker, but that's a long story!

SLow cooker? Had one and didn't bond with it so gave it to SIL. I tend to make batches of stuff to get out of the freezer and warm up on busy days.

Easy Yo. I got one in the sale after Christmas. It makes fab yoghurt from their sachets, don't know what it will be like on the HM stuff though. I liked my electric yoghurt maker, but always found the consistency rather slimy. I suspect it's the easy yo packets I like and in my view these are delicious but expensive.

Stick blender I wouldn't be without, got a cheapy when my first one broke. Melted the first time I used it. Spent a lot on the Bamix from Lakeland and it's fab. So very useful. Soup, hummus, small amounts of nut chopping, will do a single clove of garlic!

My Kenwood electric slicer was so blunt and new blades expensive. I decided to try without for a while. Even though I have a big kitchen I have decided not to bother having another. Too much space and mess. I've just learned to cut bread. I try and have it made a half day before I need it. Admittedly when it's fresh it's not easy to slice, but it still tastes good!

Food processor - wouldn't be without this baby! It's got a broken part though at the moment and not sure how long it's going to last.

Kenwood Chef - from freecycle, grew up with one at home and I think this is of even earlier vintage. I'm going to treat it to an over haul soon.

CCP

purpleivy wrote: »

Pizza dough, excellent, bread rolls fab, naan bread also good. I don't ever buy bread of any description these days.

I quite agree - I couldn't live without my breadmaker now. It really proved its worth when we had all that snow last week - I couldn't get to the shops but I could still have fresh bread every day, and eat HM pizza rather than phoning for a takeaway.

I have no idea if it's actually cheaper than buying a nice loaf (although I strongly suspect it is), but it's certainly cheaper than buying a loaf plus 'a few other bits', which is what usually happens with me! As other people have said, the bread also tastes nicer, smells good, and you know exactly what's in it.

I love my breadmaker - does it show?!

purpleivy

CCP wrote: »

I quite agree - I couldn't live without my breadmaker now. It really proved its worth when we had all that snow last week - I couldn't get to the shops but I could still have fresh bread every day, and eat HM pizza rather than phoning for a takeaway.

I have no idea if it's actually cheaper than buying a nice loaf (although I strongly suspect it is), but it's certainly cheaper than buying a loaf plus 'a few other bits', which is what usually happens with me! As other people have said, the bread also tastes nicer, smells good, and you know exactly what's in it.

I love my breadmaker - does it show?!

I make bread using great quality flour from a miill, with seeds in. I'm sure it's cheaper than a comparable loaf from the baker or shops. My ds would rather have mum's home made pizzas than shop or restaurant ones, unless they're outstanding. I make 4 bases at a time, parbake and then use when we need them. Make a batch of naan, which I then freeze, don't take long to defrost. I love my BM too!