How much do you spend on bread each week?

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Creepy-Albatross-588@reddit

I make all our own bread, costs around £2.50ish for 3 plain white or wholemeal/half and half loaves. I’ve got a friend who is GF so I’m going to make some GF bread for her. Will be a bit more expensive but not much. Could you consider doing this?

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El_Scot@reddit

This is really kind, but just be wary if she's coeliac/sensitive, that some of your utensils may not be gluten free.

The flour will react a bit differently, so don't be surprised if it"sca bit stodgy the first couple of attempts. The bread will also often stay fairly white when baked.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Yep, very kind but I wouldn’t eat a loaf a friend had made - too much contamination risk, especially if it’s in a bread maker.

The only decent gf loaf I’ve baked (in 25 years of trying) has rice flour, teff flour, ground almonds, eggs, milk, cider vinegar, oil, yeast, xanthan gum, salt, seeds. It’s not cheap, difficult to make a sandwich and still a bit cakey. A lot of ingredients and effort for not much reward.

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El_Scot@reddit

I've never mastered it, but I'm thinking the best loaf will probably be one with a bespoke flour blend rather than a shop-bought blend. I've found some great substitutes for texture (psyllium husk, tapioca starch) but like you say, too much effort for low reward, coupled with risk of waste from trial and error.

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El_Scot@reddit

I swapped away from bread when I cut out gluten, it's just too pricey to be anything but a treat. I'm partial to toast when I feel sick, but otherwise I batch cook lunches so I can just grab a tub and go in the morning. Soup and oatcakes is a pretty decent substitute (if you can handle oats).

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Yeah, oats are still a trigger for me 😭 I have the odd rice cake but kind of forgot about them tbh. Thanks for reminding me!

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El_Scot@reddit

Ah yeah, I recently discovered my intolerance has extended to oats, so I'm having to rethink it all too. It's a massive pain!

Rice cakes with tuna mayo is a pretty good one, and I've also taken to using some weird and wonderful substitutes (ice berg lettuce wraps, nori sheets) as well as just making a big batch of something with lentils. My coworkers think I'm weird, but i reckon they would do it too in my shoes...

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AttentionOtherwise80@reddit

We have a small bread maker from Lakeland (bread is my carb) and have been baking our own bread for about 6 years. Still learning, it's taken me all this time to learn how to get the loaf out of the pan easily. I make a loaf every other day, so about £3.00 a week + electricity. Doves Farm do gluten-free bread flour, which is not a lot more expensive than non-gluten free. £1.95 vs £1.60 per kg.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Well done on your bread skills! Trouble with Doves Farm is there’s a lot more ingredients in gf to replace the action that gluten does, so baking is never as simple as flour, salt, yeast, water.

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Sasspishus@reddit

I'm also coeliac but I try to limit my bread intake because its so expensive. Promise is by far the best IMO but yeah its like £3.50 a loaf, so once a week is the most often I buy it. I really need to get my prescription sorted again but I also have ADHD so I keep forgetting...

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Warburton tiger loaf for me but Promise is nice too. So lucky being in a prescription area. Make the most of it! Juvela in prescription is great! Sadly my area stopped prescriptions about 15 years ago.

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K1mTy3@reddit

Let's see (checking the receipt from Sainsbury's this morning).

2 loaves of warburtons at £1.30 each (so £2.60 altogether). 2 packs of part-baked rolls, which were 2 for £2. 1 pack of pain au chocolate at £1.60 1 pack of chocolate chip brioches at £1.41 (would have been £1.65 without a nectar card, but why the random 1p, sainsbury's?)

So that's £7.61 on bread & bread-related products, to last a family of 4 for the coming week.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Am going to make your receipt gf…

2 loaves of Warburtons £7 2 packs of part-baked rolls £6.90 1 pack of pain-au-chocolate (only in the freezer section) £3.50 1 pack of chocolate chip brioche £2.20

£19.60 😳🙄😭

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Livewire____@reddit

You know only spies ask questions like this don't you OP?

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

And coeliacs who think they eat too much bread

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Livewire____@reddit

That's exactly what a spy would say

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Pristine-Account8384@reddit

Have you considered not eating bread?

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Yeah, but I’m a lazy cook and it’s easy! Going to cut back after reading this thread though

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dcminx96@reddit

Join olio it's basically ALL bread and I see gf on there often. I know how expensive it can be!

Olio is an anti food waste app where people and businesses give away food for free. Tesco, Iceland and Sainsbury's are on it.

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Princes_Slayer@reddit

My local Aldi has a huge GF range, so if you’ve got one to visit it might take the sting out of some costs

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

My local Aldi has nothing gf. I hate going there.

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kingoffuckery@reddit

You must be near one of the test sites. Most aldi supermarkets have bugger all for gf people. Buy lots of it so they put it in all places.

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Naolini@reddit

I'm coeliac as well and pretty much only buy bread when it's reduced and stick it in the freezer. The cheap loaves fall apart too easily and don't taste great.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Yep, that’s my tactic too. Have you read these comments though - a loaf for 75p 😳

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rememberimapersontoo@reddit

some GPs offer gf bread on prescription to help deal with this issue

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

It’s a postcode lottery. My area stopped that about 15 years ago.

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Sasspishus@reddit

They do, but it's very much a postcode lottery in England

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rememberimapersontoo@reddit

yeah mine doesn’t :/ but so few people seem to know this i thought i’d throw it out there

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Sasspishus@reddit

Sucks when they don't do it, especially with the cost of bread from the shops!

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dayz_bron@reddit

This is actually quite an intriguing question to me as the way you've asked it seems to suggest that the weekly purchase and consumption of some sort of bread is a mandatory requirement for all Brits.

For me personally, I absolutely love bread, but I never buy it because i lack the self control to not demolish an entire loaf within a day. As a result, my average weekly spend is £0.

If you're a coeliac but still really want bread and you're concerned about the cost of gluten free bread then it might be worth buying a bread maker and gluten free ingredients so you can regularly bake it yourself.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Asked because £7 a week is ridiculous. I don’t think it’s mandatory - I just can’t be bothered to cook and bread/ houmous, sandwich or toast is just easy.

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cavergirl@reddit

Have you tried co-op own brand gf bread? £2 and tastes better than any of the more expensive ones

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

Co op gluten free is pretty good actually, and it’s often reduced! I had a phase where I had to cut out gluten and co-op was my very solid back up from my absolute favourite gf bread - the Waitrose seeded boule.

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vcockle@reddit

Co-op own GF is such a good back up!

Although I am a sucker for Warburtons GF tiger bread, which can be nearly £4. Even though it lasts me probably 2 weeks, it still hurts to buy it.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Ah not just me on the tiger loaf then.

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Status_Accident_2819@reddit

Yes - this is the underdog right here, their own seeded is so good!

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MarvinArbit@reddit

Have you considered a bread maker? Many have gluten free baking settings - so it could work out cheaper for you in the long run.

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

Yeah, I have one but the bread isn’t great - more like cake.

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MickThorpe@reddit

Also, it’d be better bread without all the additives and whatnot

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Exita@reddit

Most UK bread (apart from the very worst) doesn’t have much in the way of additives anyway.

Saw a post a while ago where someone was complaining about the additives in their bread, and quickly turned out that it was just a few vitamins added to the flour.

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sadia_y@reddit

Some people think that if it’s a word they’ve never heard or can’t pronounce, it’s bad for you. Not like we all have different levels of education or reading comprehension 🙃

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MickThorpe@reddit

Wheat Flour IWheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water. Mixed Seeds (14%) (Sunflower Seeds, Brown Liseeds, Millet, Pumpkin Seeds, Golden Linseeds, Poppy Seeds), Malted Wheat Flakes, Yeast, Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Preservative (Calcium Propionate), Emulsifiers (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Mono and Diacety/ Tartarle Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Wheat Gluten, Rapeseed Oil. Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid).

That’s the ingredients of a seeded loaf in our cupboard right now, doesn’t it all sound yummy.

So why don’t you take your smug know nothing attitude and fuck all the way off. And take your assorted diglycerides, acids, emulsifiers and the rest of the shite with you

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Dotty_Bird@reddit

What in the name of Tesco's is your bread? I have just looked up a range of really generic breads, none of them have that kind of list.

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MickThorpe@reddit

It’s just Tesco farmhouse seeded loaf. Nothing outrageous. That just happened to be what we had in at the time

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Dotty_Bird@reddit

Well most of what's in it is grains and added vitamins and minerals.

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MickThorpe@reddit

I realise there are a lot of grains in that list (seedy bread after all. But that’s a lot of crap after that that I’m sure isn’t vitamins and minerals (though I’m willing to be aducated on them if that’s wrong)

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Dotty_Bird@reddit

As I said mostly grains and vitamins and minerals, plus the things that need to be added to keep it fresh for you to eat.

Wheat Flour - Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate [Calcium carbonate is a dietary supplement used when the amount of calcium taken in the diet is not enough. Calcium is needed by the body for healthy bones, muscles, nervous system, and heart. Essentially fortified Flour]

Iron, [Why is iron important? Iron is very important because it helps your body to make haemoglobin. Haemoglobin, or ‘Hb’, is the protein found in red blood cells that carries oxygen around your body and gives blood its red colour.]

Niacin, [Today we know that there are eight B vitamins -- each with special functions that help your body work properly. Vitamin B3 is also known as niacin. Having enoughniacin in the body is important for general good health because your body uses it to turn food into energy. B3 is also essential for the health of your nervous system, digestive system, and skin.]

Thiamin, [ also known as thiamin or vitamin B1, is one of the B vitamins.Thiamine helps to turn food into energy and to keep the nervous system healthy. Your body is not able to make thiamine for itself. However, you can usually get all you need from your food.] Water.

Mixed Seeds (14%) (Sunflower Seeds, Brown Liseeds, Millet, Pumpkin Seeds, Golden Linseeds, Poppy Seeds), Malted Wheat Flakes, Yeast [makes it rise] , Salt, Spirit Vinegar,

Preservative (Calcium Propionate [Calcium propionate is a naturally occurring organic salt formed by a reaction between calcium hydroxide and propionic acid. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/calcium-propionate]),

Emulsifiers (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, info here - https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/monoglycerides

Mono and Diacety/ Tartarle Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), info here - https://foodadditives.net/emulsifiers/datem/

Wheat Gluten, Rapeseed Oil.

Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid) [Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, has several important functions. These include: helping to protect cells and keeping them healthy, maintaining healthy skin, blood vessels, bones and cartilage, helping with wound healing. Lack of vitamin C can lead to scurvy.]

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sjtsjt@reddit

A cast iron Dutch oven is cheaper and more versatile and makes better bread, albeit with more input needed

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LepLepLepLepLep@reddit

Each week? I only buy bread like once every 3 weeks. It's £1.50ish so 50p a week?

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2c0@reddit

£1 for 4 buns. Rarely buy a loaf.

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itsfourinthemornin@reddit

I realised I wasted a terrible amount of bread in the past. I generally grab a loaf and freeze it for back up but have mostly swapped away. Wraps and bagels are my current favourites!

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VerityPee@reddit

Do you know that the NHS will pay for you to get gluten-free bread?

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Sea-Girlll@reddit (OP)

It’s a postcode lottery. My area stopped prescriptions over 15 years ago!

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Ok_Resident3556@reddit

Usually around £1. I don’t eat much bread. One loaf for toast for breakfast at the weekend

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kingoffuckery@reddit

I buy the morrisons own gf bread, because its the only supermarket near me. I usually buy the seeded one but found the white to be really nice too. They are about £1.85 each and I buy 2 at a time because it lasts longer than normal bread.

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MonkeyHamlet@reddit

I have a teenager, it’s not uncommon for us to get through a loaf of coop seeded farmhouse a day. Thankfully it’s only 79p with a coop membership card.

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Far_Tomorrow54@reddit

£1.50 on a protein loaf.

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Ataralas@reddit

The bread we buy is 75p a loaf, we normally buy 2 a week.

I feel your pain though my mum is gluten free (intolerance rather than coeliac) she gets promise and it’s around £3 a small loaf but she doesn’t eat much bread so that can last her a week or two!

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Present_Program6554@reddit

I'm jealous. I'm in America at the moment and decent ordinary bread cost over £6 a loaf. I'm glad I don't have to buy gluten free.

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itssearstower@reddit

US based too. Walmart whole wheat loaf (no high fructose) is $1.97 so nowhere near 6 pounds

Other grocery stores have similar priced loaves if you look around

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Thinking10Thinking@reddit

I buy an Aldi bloomer once a week for £1.49.

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Senior_Entry_7616@reddit

Co-op 75p

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MrsValentine@reddit

I bake all my own bread! So it’s very difficult to estimate costs, I buy a bag of supermarket own brand plain flour and a bag of supermarket own brand strong white bread flour probably every second week though some of that is used to make other stuff. Yeast probably once a month. Sometimes I make bread that contains eggs and dairy, sometimes I don’t. Probably it costs me more than if I bought own brand sliced white but less than if I bought fancy bread.

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Real-Apricot-7889@reddit

I pay nearly £6 for a loaf of sourdough from a local bakery but it lasts about 3 weeks for 2 of us as we don’t eat bread that often

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liseusester@reddit

About 40p - I bake my own and a 1.5kg bag of M&S bread flour is £1.40. I'm currently on a sourdough kick so no yeast coat, but assuming yeast and salt needs to be costed in, maybe 50/60p.

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Livid_Painting2285@reddit

Lidl do a nice white loaf for 55p. I have some of it then freeze the rest as we don't eat a lot of bread.

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Time-Mode-9@reddit

I make my own, and buy flour in 25kg sacks, so the cost of ingredients is less than £0.50 per loaf. The oven costs more than the flour, so maybe £1.50 once or twice a week.

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SneakyCroc@reddit

Couple of loaves of Jason's Protein Sourdough. So about a fiver. Only I eat it.

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thatscotbird@reddit

Probably like £10 on bread related products, but I like variety and my toddler is fussy and I might not want what she wants lol. But I have a freezer drawer full of bread related stuff and nothing gets wasted

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presterjohn7171@reddit

It's all a bit crap so I just buy it when it appears on the reduced price counter at my local Co-op. They mostly do Warburton's which is one of the best brands. In the freezer at the moment I've got two packs of the brioche rolls which were £1.50 a pack.

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

I have a bread machine, and probably make a loaf a few times a week. We buy some really lovely flours and go halves with cheapo plain white bread flour. Store bought bread tastes awful now and a few times a week I wake up to the house smelling like freshly baked bread.

Each loaf takes 400g flour, a tiny bit of yeast, salt, water and sometimes butter. I dunno, maybe costs £2 a week for 3 loaves? Perhaps less actually. The bread machine obviously cost money and we ended up buying new but you could pick one up on Facebook marketplace for very little.

Was worried it might be a phase but it’s now one of the most used appliances in the kitchen and worth every single penny. If I was gluten free it’d be a godsend.

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sadia_y@reddit

I buy the Sainsbury’s own medium sliced bread which is 74p and lasts me a week. I don’t eat bread everyday and live alone so usually end up freezing a few slices that I know I won’t eat.

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skin_of_your_teeth@reddit

Before having kids, not much. I only bought bread if it was for a specific meal; burgers, wraps for burritos, garlic bread etc.

Now, it is one loaf of 50/50 bread a week, so £1.35 as well as any others for meals.

The eldest is about to start school and the youngest is just starting to eat more than one strip of toast, so this will probably double.

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AgingLolita@reddit

75p a loaf for basic bread

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Puzzled_Plate3997@reddit

Have you considered making your own bread? Much cheaper?

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811545b2-4ff7-4041@reddit

Four people: Far too much. We buy a brown bread loaf, white bread loaf (£2.50), sometimes paninis (£1.25), then on a Friday I'll buy a Cholla and bagels (about £11).

About £15 a week on bread!

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Wild_Battle_8798@reddit

Muggle bread made me snort laughing

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vcdaisy@reddit

Me too

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IguanaDog@reddit

£0. Don’t eat it!

Why don’t you try making your own?

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Head-Eye-6824@reddit

I tend to buy a good standard sized loaf for the weekend at around £3.50 and better than average supermarket sliced for lunches during the week at around £1.80.

I mostly do this because I worked for a bit in an small, local artisan bakery and feel as if I'm letting myself down if its constant mediocre sliced. I did make my own for a while but came down with the arthritis and can't do it nearly as much.

If time and space allows, making your own is also an option. Takes a bit of time and practice to get the process right for your kitchen, water and preferred flours but it shouldn't take too long to beat that £3.50 a loaf price point by a decent margin. Also allows you to add in a some things you do like if you want to gussy it up a bit.

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EncapsulatedTime@reddit

I buy a discounted pack of crumpets from b&m once in a while. My bread needs cost about 25p a week.

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CurvePuzzleheaded361@reddit

Zero as we are both keto but what about getting a bread mixer? My mum has one and there are plenty of gluten free recipes online!! You dont even need the mixer actually, could use oven. You can make lots and freeze ahead of time. Plus it is fun to make!!

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NiceCunt91@reddit

I'm rarely in the mood for a sandwich and bread always goes off way too fast so i just don't buy it.

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Icy-Belt-8519@reddit

It costs a fortune, my partner likes bread, one son likes bagels, one son subs, and I only really like crumpets or occasionally bagels, so a bloody lot 😂

Have you ever tried making your own gluten free? Would that be cheaper? Must be so expensive to be gluten free, my youngest use to have a few food allergies but I don't feel any were as expensive as gluten free

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gardenofthenight@reddit

Yea we get through bread, bagels, crumpets and once or twice a month scotch pancakes and waffles. Half of the kids' breakfasts get fed to the birds too.

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ThaiFoodThaiFood@reddit

I don't buy much bread.

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SterlingVoid@reddit

0 don't really eat bread

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LopsidedLobster2@reddit

About £1.50 for a loaf

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Electronic-Trip8775@reddit

Sainsbury's Seeded wholemeal...£1.40.

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socksdadsandsleaze@reddit

Sainsburys do a lovely seeded wholemeal for 1.40. That last 2 of us a week. So 70p a week. Occasionally will buy a sourdough, but the price is ridiculous, so that's just for a treat.

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barriedalenick@reddit

I have no idea what 'muggle bread' means, but I always make my own bread. Just one or two loaves a week. No idea if it works out cheaper or not but it's very nice and I really enjoy the process

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Gary_BBGames@reddit

I’ll get a Tesco baguette once a week. Get it in the evening and it’s 31 pence.

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cubscoutnine@reddit

Freeze mine and don’t each much bread so more like 0p / week

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HistoryCat92@reddit

I make my own so maybe a couple pounds a week?

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Public_Growth_6002@reddit

Two people; £6.50, which is two large loaves from a family bakery. Expensive, but bloody good. Zero food miles (ignoring the raw materials), and providing decent local employment. I’m happy with that.

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Indigo-Waterfall@reddit

I don’t tend to eat much bread. I will buy a big sliced loaf and put it in the freezer, will take out a slice whenever I need it, which lasts me several months.