Is baking your own bread sensible?

We’ve all been there: standing in the kitchen, smelling that heavenly aroma of a fresh loaf, and wondering—is this actually saving me money, or am I just paying for a very delicious hobby?

I decided to do a quick "back of the envelope" calculation to see if my bread machine is a financial hero or just a countertop ornament.

The Baseline: The Supermarket Loaf

Let’s look at a budget supermarket staple: a nice, full-size Waldkorn (whole grain) loaf.

• Weight: 800g (approx. 500g of "solid matter", see notes at end).
• Price: €2.49

The Home-Baked Contender

In my bread machine, I make a slightly smaller loaf (375g of dry ingredients) using organic ingredients from a local mill. Here is how the grocery list breaks down (buying in 5kg quantities, prices rounded up to nearest cent):

• 175g Waldkorn Mix: €1.12
• 200g Regular Flour: €0.32
• 7g Yeast: €0.10
• Ingredient Subtotal: €1.54

The "Honesty" Tax: Power & Equipment

To be fair, we have to account for more than just flour.

1. Electricity: Running the machine for a cycle uses about 0.5 kWh. At €0.25/kWh, that’s €0.13.
2. Depreciation: My machine cost €165. If it lasts 5 years at 125 bakes per year, that’s about €0.26 per session.

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The Side-by-Side Comparison

To make this a fair fight, we have to scale the supermarket loaf down to match our home-baked 375g size.

Expense	Store-Bought (Scaled)	Home-Baked
Ingredients	€1.89	€1.54
Power & Machine	Included	€0.39
Total per Loaf	€1.89	€1.93

The Verdict: It’s a Wash (Financially)

Gram for gram, baking your own bread is essentially the same cost as buying the budget option from a shop. You aren't going to retire early on the savings, nor will you have to sell your house.

However, home baking has two "Secret Weapons" that the spreadsheet doesn't show:

1. The Waste Factor: Supermarket bread often goes stale after 3 days. If you're a two-person household, you might throw away the last third of a big 800g loaf. With the bread machine, we eat 100% of what we make. Zero waste = massive savings.
2. The Quality & Experience: You get quality ingredients, no additives, and your house smells like a professional bakery every other morning.

The Conclusion? If you are a two-person household, the added benefits are amazing. It might not save you a fortune, but for the taste and the lack of waste alone, I’d tell anyone to go for it. And you can use that breadmaker for other things than just bread, so the depreciation could be lower.

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Notes

Bread in the Netherlands is not classified based on its shelf weight, but on the weight of the dry ingredients. So a full sized loaf of around 800 gram (depending on the amount of water it contains) must contain between 480 and 530 grams of dry ingredients. Link (in dutch). 

Links 

(no affiliate links, prices mentioned here were current at the time of writing: March 12, 2026)

• Full size whole grain Waldkorn loaf  €2.49 (at Jumbo, a large, budget friendly supermarket chain)
• Waldkorn mix (flour) €15.95 / 2.5 kg (at zelfbroodbakken.nl, artisanal millers) 
• Universal white flour  €7.95 / 5 kg
• Dry yeast €6.95 / 500 g
• Panasonic SD-R2530KXE (breadmaker)  approx. €175,- (bought ours in February 2024 for 164, but loads of similar machines are currently available in the same price range)
• Energy €0.25 / kWh (average price in March 2026 according to Statistics Netherlands; Does not include fixed yearly costs for grid connectivity)

Acknowledgement

The image used in this article is and unaltered image by Magda Ehlers.