Need to switch flour due to cost

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I just paid $6.99 for a 5 lb. bag of KA bread flour. I was shocked. I usually pay $3.99 and when it's on sale, $2.99.

not any more!! and with the floods in the midwest, the crops are going to be far smaller than even the low yield that was already anticipated.

I fear the days of "cheap food" in the US are over. for those of you who are familiar with prices in Europe, you know they've paid more comparatively than we have for many years.
 
I know that some of you are in my age range---post 50's and this is like the late 70's and early 80's all over again.........high gas prices and high inflation.......the prices of food were going up weekly.........please hang in there and plan accordingly y'all........don't buy a house that you can't afford is probably the nbr#1 advice I would give now........
 
for about the past year I could get King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat flour for $3.19 for a 5 pound bag at Wal-Mart. Last week the price was $3.99. I generally keep about 30 pounds of this flour in my freezer. Wal-Mart is a 30 minute drive one way for me and I usually only go there maybe every other month. A five pound bag of flour does not last long in my house.
 
A five pound bag of flour does not last long in my house.

not in mine, either, Beth. But when you think how high that is, check out the cost of a loaf of bread! even the appy-cray stuff is expensive now, but ONE loaf that is comparable to what YOU bake would set you back more than that whole sack of flour around here!
 
ChefJune is SO right. We are all saving money by making our own baked goods, AND the people who eat these wonderful wholesome, fresh, chemical-free products from our kitchens are happier and healthier. But I'm afraid you are also right, CJ, about the prices never returning to their former state. The world is changing. We must all adapt to that and make some challenging choices about how to spend our money.
 
I look at the Teenies and the Twenty-Somethings and think, These are<I> Their</i> good old days.


I don't know if I should be amused or saddened, or both.?

Flour, two months ago KA AP , 10# bag, $5 (& change). Last I looked it was up to $7.50 ~ $8.00. Probably more today.
 
Bread bakers are one of the oldest professions ... maybe not "the" oldest profession .. but you know what I mean.

Bread was made for 8,000 years before King Arthur flour ... bread is still made today all around the world without it.

I know for a fact that perfectly acceptable (actually quite good) bread can be made without it - using those supposedly "inferior" store brands.

Maybe as passioncook said in the title of this thread, "Cost of flour........need to switch" - it might be time to explore less expensive flours.
 
I can still buy the store brand for $1.19 for 5#. It may not be KA, but it makes darned good bread! I lived not far from KA when I lived in Vermont, but still preferred the Canadian Robin Hood flour, which I haven't been able to buy here in the midwest.
 
Sure can make great food with 'inferior' flours, its just that KA is the only one I was watching and taking note of. Till recently KA was selling for the same as or less than other flours.

Last time we bought flour we got Gold Metal because of the cost but I'll be darned if I remember how much we paid.
 
Bread bakers are one of the oldest professions ... maybe not "the" oldest profession .. but you know what I mean.

Bread was made for 8,000 years before King Arthur flour ... bread is still made today all around the world without it.

I know for a fact that perfectly acceptable (actually quite good) bread can be made without it - using those supposedly "inferior" store brands.

Maybe as passioncook said in the title of this thread, "Cost of flour........need to switch" - it might be time to explore less expensive flours.

Point is, Michael, there is likely NOT to be much in the way of "inexpensive" flour of any kind soon, given the cost of fuel, and the new uses for grain, compounded with the floods in the midwest, where most of the grain is grown....
 
Tell me about it! It's up to 4.99 by me here in northern NJ. Pillsbury was only 2.59, so I bought that. Like you, I do lots of baking so flour is necessary.

I made biscuits today, and needed some flour for the board. After I panned the biscuits, I used whatever was left on the board to make the roux for the gravy. Cannot waste even an ounce..:(
 
Point is, Michael, there is likely NOT to be much in the way of "inexpensive" flour of any kind soon, given the cost of fuel, and the new uses for grain, compounded with the floods in the midwest, where most of the grain is grown....

You're absolutely right ChefJune! But, I believe that if you look at what I actually said, what you quoted, I never said anything about "inexpensive" flour ... what I said was, "it might be time to explore less expensive flours."

I like the consistency of KA; as well as Bob's Red Mill, Pillsbury, Gold Medal, etc. - but there are less expensive store brand alternatives that will make quite acceptable loaves of bread.
 
In Richmond, KA is $3.59 today. I really don"t know what it was a couple of months ago as KA is not on my things I can substitute list. I like the Unbromided and Unbleached idea. Bread, wheat, and all purpose the same price.
 
:) Maybe it's time to get a wheat grinder and make your own flour? It's not easy to get whole grain wheat but I bet it's cheaper in the long run especially if you live in a wheat growing area. A good grinder can be expensive but will pay off in the end and makes the freshest most heatlhy bead ever. My mother used to grind her own wheat and made the best bread ever.
 
:) I prefer the unbleached white flour and also I keep whole wheat and other grains etc depending on what I'm making. I could kick myself for not buying more of the the Hungarian High Altitude flour at $3.74 for 5 pounds at Walmart a couple of months ago.I only bought 2 bags. Another thing to maybe stock up on is dried yeast.
 
I get yeast in 3 pound bags at Costco for around 5 bucks. I am not a serious baker, so 3 pounds lasts over a year. I put it in a ziplock and store it in the freezer. I have never had it go bad.
 
:) Maybe it's time to get a wheat grinder and make your own flour?

Like I really need that idea to bounce around my head.

All the questions, all the possibilities.

I wonder if I can convert my coffee grinder into a flour mill? Wife may stop complaining about having it around (My grinder is about the size of a KA600. LOL)
 
I get yeast in 3 pound bags at Costco for around 5 bucks. I am not a serious baker, so 3 pounds lasts over a year. I put it in a ziplock and store it in the freezer. I have never had it go bad.


3 1/4oz packs: $1.20, ~ $1.60/oz
1 4 oz jar Red Star: ~$5.00, ~ $1.25/oz
Per ounce from Mr. Bulky: $0.25 ~ $0.33
1 2lb bag Red Star, ~ $5.00, ~ $0.16/oz


I figure 1/4 oz yeast / loaf, 1/2 oz per batch. Around 1 lb flour/ loaf, 2 lb per batch. A batch is 6 to 8 buns and a loaf, 2 batches a week.

Thats about right, a jar a month and a sack a week for just breads. Adds up but is still far cheaper than 'store bought chemistry bread", even adding in the honey or whatever else I'm adding to that batch.
 
You are probably right, Costco yeast is in 2 pound bags. It is Red Star. Homemade bread costs less than a buck a loaf. I use only a bread machine, and only to knead the dough. Takes less time to bake a loaf than to go the store and get one.
 
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