I don’t know if you’ve priced local, organic, whole-wheat bread lately, but it’s pretty darned pricey. ‘Round my neck of the woods, a brand of organic bread that’s made here in Colorado but available widely in our grocery stores runs about $4 a loaf when it’s not on sale. (Because I’m a savvy shopper, I know that they sometimes go on sale for $2 per loaf, and that’s when I fill up my freezer.)

But no matter how you slice it (har-har), local organic bread is expensive.

So why is Budget Organic Tip No. 15 to buy local bread??

Buy Local Bread

In short, because it’s a whole heckuva lot better for a lot of reasons:

1. First, it’ll taste better. Real bread always tastes better than “wonder” bread.
2. You’ll be supporting local businesses.
3. We consume a LOT of wheat in this country, so the more we can buy organic, the more the farmers will grow organic.. and so on.

You see, I think bread is one of those places where it’s worth it to pay a little extra when you can to get the best possible product and vote with your dollars.  When we can afford it, I buy that $4 loaf and pay the extra $2 per gallon for local organic milk because it’s important to me to support those producers.

But this is a budget feature, so what do you do when you can’t afford it?

1. You can always try stocking up when things go on sale. If I had a big enough freezer, I could buy enough bread at $2 a loaf (which is comparable to good, non-local, non-organic bread) to go from one sale to the next. Bread freezes really well, it just also takes up a lot of room.
2. You can try finding “day-old” sales at your grocery store or going directly to the bakery for day-olds. These are literally loaves of bread that are just a couple of days old that you can usually get for half price or less.
3. Finally, you can try baking your own.  I’ve got a video that shows my very best tips for making your own whole wheat sandwich bread.  (It’s really not as hard as you’d think!)

What kind of bread do you buy? Do you get organic bread at the grocery store? Make a trip to a special bakery? Make your own?  I’d love to hear about it!