One Frugal Thing — Bread!
by Katy on January 18, 2025 · 62 comments
I’ve been meaning to get myself to a Franz Bakery outlet store, as they’ve been advertising $1 loaves of bread on Saturdays throughout the month of January! This is an insane bargain considering how much the cost of bread has been rising, just like everything else.
I assumed the bread would be somewhat picked through, as I didn’t get there until after 2:30, but such was not the case.
Behold!
I ended up buying eleven loaves of bread for $10, as you get a free loaf with a ten dollar purchase. Plus, I pulled out my punch card, which only takes five $10 purchases to earn additional free bread. I have a chest freezer in the basement, which is how I’m able to stock up to such an extreme, but you could always buy less.
Here’s what I bought:
• Four loaves of commercially packaged multigrain bread. (I gave one loaf to a friend.)
• Two eight-packs of pub rolls.
• Two loaves of garlic bread.
• One sleeve of pizza bagels.
• One sleeve of whole wheat English muffins.
• One loaf of “Naked” organic great seed bread. I would have bought more of these, but this was the only loaf.
The Great Seed bread loaf normally sells for $7.99, currently on sale for $5.49 at Safeway.
Is this post sponsored? Nope, nyet, absolutely not! I just like a bargain.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! That’s fantastic! I can see where having a second freezer would be super beneficial for deals like this.
I’m jealous of the bread deals!
1. I loaded Safeway coupons on the app and got 1 chobani yogurt for free, $2 off a $4 lettuce (first time I bought one this winter), and a 29 cent bread. I rode my bike to get there.
2. I have some less than desirable GF pasta that I can’t bear to eat anymore. I replace 1/4 cup of regular pasta with the GF when I make macaroni and cheese for my husband. He doesn’t taste the difference (he would if it was ALL GF pasta) and I use the food I paid for.
3. I bought command picture strips to hang 2 pictures. I used our abundance of Staples points (from recycling ink cartridges there) and only had to pay the tax.
4. I found some free PVC pipe on FB marketplace to use on a garden project, which whittled the amount of pipe I needed to buy down to 8 ft.
5. I got a $5 off $5 Michaels ‘reward’ in my email today (I don’t know why I get them since the only time I shop there is when I get them and then I will only spend the $5). I got online and ordered the rubber cement glue I already had on my list. I paid 26 cents out of pocket. Pretty good for something I already needed.
Great idea for using up the not-so-great GF noodles – I will be using this hack. 🙂 Yes, there are some GF noodles that do not pass the grade, and the cost for these is so high that tossing them is painful.
I’m glad it’s not just me! And it is pretty satisfying to get them used up!
When you freeze the bread do you wrap it before putting in the freezer?
Curious too – we put bread et al in a Ziploc bag (out of our reuse stack) or in a plastic grocery bag.
Nope, I just put it as-is into the freezer.
I double bag bread before putting it in the freezer to prevent freezer burn.
I double bag too.
Bread seems to dry out faster
Maybe I need to start double bagging!
I double (sometimes triple) bag my loaves of bread to prevent freezer burn. I order quite a few loaves at one time and store them in the freezer for many months. But the key is this: when I take a loaf out to thaw, I do NOT open it. I put it on top of the fridge overnight, still sealed in the original package, and then put it in the refrigerator when it’s soft. If you open the bread bag, the bread will dry out and it’ll be as crunchy as croutons….or hard as a rock, depending on how dry it gets. In the latter case, it won’t be edible. Keeping the bag closed allows any ice or moisture to get re-absorbed so that the slices stay soft. (Now, you can open the outer bags if you double- or triple-bagged the bread, but the original bag that it came in needs to stay closed. )
Oh, and I forgot to say: For years, I’ve order the Millet Special Bread from DeLand Bakery in DeLand, Florida, because of my allergies. They ship it to me across the country, and I’ve always been pleased with their product. I want to give a shout out to those folks!
Thanks for mentioning this bakery. I had never heard of them, but I just took a look at their website and it sounds like they make some products I could eat. I have only had one option for a while now, Canyon Bakehouse gluten-free bread, so it’s nice to have another one I can try.
I have read that thawing bread in the package it was frozen in creates the best texture, (perhaps a comment about how McDonald’s or some fast food place with frozen buns works?).
However, it sounds like you store your bread in the refrigerator? I thought that it spoiled more quickly that way.
It does dry out more quickly in the fridge! The cold temps cause starch retrogradation. 🙂
You’re so smart!
We freeze our bread in its original bag and pull out slices as needed. Before placing the bag in the freezer, I jiggle it around to make sure the slices aren’t stuck together.
What a deal! Wish we had something around here that was similar. Years ago we had a New England area bakery Nissens that had a day old bread store. Like your bread store there were phenomenal deals. It was years ago but I really miss it. I also miss the smell of their products baking whenever I drove through their neighborhood. It was near my exit on the highway through the city so I frequently drove by. Yum!
WE used to have a discount bakery nearby – could get near-best-by breads for 50 cents sometimes, and when they were over stocked the gals would dump the price lower (if they liked you). I would often get 6 loaves, when I had more kids at home.
I sometimes buy the half off breads or buns at my local bakery – I like to do this when they are already on sale, so half off a previous discount can work out quite well. My freezers are full though so less of that is happening until I eat them all down.
Count me in among those (a) admiring Katy’s great bread haul and (b) missing the bakery outlets we used to have. In my case, the local Freihofer’s outlet (which also sold Arnold’s, Stroehmann’s, and a few other brands, all baked by the same regional bakery) closed without warning last year.
Since then, I’ve twice lucked out on bread giveaways at thrift stores–but I try not to go crazy at those, reminding myself that other patrons may be in far greater need than I. The rest of the time, I just watch for specials at my usual grocery stores. Two Freihofer’s loaves for $6 at Price Chopper is about the best I’ve done since the outlet closed.
In many places, there is too much bread coming into food recovery, which is why you see giveaways in other places like thrift stores, rec centers, etc. Often they’re throwing some out at the end of the day, so don’t hesitate to chat with whoever is running it to see if that’s the case.
You have to spend money to save money. May not be possible for some, may be a stretch for some, or may be no impact for some.
Freezer space beyond the frig is a game changer. My vote is to spend less (way, way less from what I read) on a wedding and use the money for long term financial well being. I suspect some pay more for the dress alone than I paid for my entire wedding.
Adjust for inflation of course. Inflation in the early 80s was way the hades higher than any time during the pandemic. What is different is the number of middle class, living wage jobs. Mortgage rate of 7% is nothing compared to 18.6% like it was in 1981.
I agree on mortgage rates but the increased price of housing makes it crazy expensive to buy a house these days and rents are high too. I am glad we are not just starting out.
When I bought my first house in 1995, our rate was 8% which was considered quite good at the time. Granted, we paid $224K and it’s now work $775K, as KD points out.
What an amazing deal on bread — way to go, Katy!
This morning I cooked marinara with Italian sausage and mushrooms to go with some gluten-free spaghetti for my husband. There was a pot of yellow rice he mostly had not eaten still in the fridge, so I used it as the base for some freezer meals for myself.
What a great deal on the multigrain bread. I’m very impressed. It’s been years since I bought a loaf of whole wheat or multigrain bread for $1.
1. Made a large pot of squash soup with the huge squash I had roasted, onions from my 50 pound sack, other random veggies, and some home-canned and purchased tomato products that were getting past the best by date. It was ok, but nothing to write home about.
2. Since there was SO MUCH soup, I converted half of it into a lovely bean chile using home canned and purchased canned beans, the tail end of two bags of frozen veg (mixed veg and straight corn), more chopped onion, another jar of crushed tomatoes, handfuls of home-dried oregano plus copious quantities of chilli powder and cumin. #2 son and I particularly adore chile – we already have almost finished it, so I plan to re-make another pot of chile to use up the rest of the “meh” soup.
3. Best Buddy and I walked together for the first time in ages, solved most of the world’s problems and hit our step targets, in the sunshine, with our dogs. Priceless. She sent me home with 4 bags to cull then I pass on.
4. #2 son chose a couple of tee shirts and a sweater from the bags, the rest has been sorted: homeless shelter (for worn out sox —[did you know that if someone wears their sox for a week, they essentially can’t be washed, so even your aging discard sox are received gratefully – even if you have mismatched they are better than nothing], ditto for some shoes that have plenty of wear, and a couple of warm hats), bag for #2 daughter to review, bag destined for the thrift store. Everything is sorted and already in my car!
5. We are starting to get some hard frosts, and I noticed that I had a huge Romanesque broccoli that was finally ready to harvest (they grow on enormous plants that spread over at least 4’X4′ in the garden, and take forever to flower).
I found a knife down in the garden and channelled my inner Paul Bunyan – hacking through the 3 inch diameter stem. Pulled off the 3-foot long leaves and fed them to the sheep, then rushed to the kitchen to cut off the many florets and do a quick boil. This speed was to address the fact they were slightly frozen, and I knew that thawing them and storing them, uncooked, would result in a soggy mess.
I put the ready-to-heat-then-eat florets into the fridge – over 10 cups worth!! and the stalk is currently weighing down a counter in my kitchen, daring me to attempt to peel and chop the centre for more broccoli yummyness.
We get our potatoes in a 50 pound sack. How do you keep the onions from sprouting? Farms by us sell them but I worry they will go bad before I will use them.
Great price on bread Katy. I’m glad you have the ability to buy ahead (and store) as that is a frugal game changer. We had a freezer for years but gave it away after yet another power outage that caused spoilage to all the frozen food. We gave it to a family that liked to bake/freeze bread. We do have a second (old) refrigerator in the basement that we didn’t have when we had the freezer.
That is an impressive bread haul. We do have a bread outlet but I don’t get there often, but as you said with the rising prices of groceries. What a great resource.
A Marie must live in New England. All Freihoffers closed in Maine and do I miss them! Have refurbished a Breville bread maker neighbor gave me. And are making breads, doughs, focaccia etc. Bought 45 pounds of flour at Sam’s Club and not looking back.
Enjoy your haul, Katy. With those prices cheaper to do outlet shopping!
No, I’m in Central NY. But I think that the Freihofer’s outlets were all over the Northeast.
Katy – do you ever see gluten free breads at this outlet? Just curious. That would be an excellent savings as GF bread prices are ri-di-cu-lous.
I do see gluten-free bread there occasionally, although it’s rare.
Thanks!
I wanted to comment on the post from a few days ago about the 2024 book list. I read a lot of books through Libby/Overdrive at the library on my Kindle. Sometimes I can’t read them fast enough before they need to be returned. If I need a day extra to finish a book before it automatically returns to the library, I just put my Kindle on “Airplane” mode a day before it is due, while I finish the book. Then I can finish the book without it disappearing back to the library, because there is no wireless connection to the library. When I finish the book, I take the Kindle off “Airplane” mode and the book is “returned” to the library automatically if it is overdue by a day or so.
Thanks for this. I was rushing to finish a book the other day before it disappeared.
I make fancy breads, pretzels and rolls in my Zojirushi breadmaker. Fancy like pickled rye. It’s fine for us because we somehow don’t tend to eat much bread, except for bagels sometimes at the bagel store.
Bread SCORE!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps it is obvious but anyway– Bread can be divided up and frozen in half-loaf packages. Great deals, Katy! I hope the hospital staff strike is reaching a good resolution for patients and workers.
We had something like a Sweetheart/Hostess bread outlet when I was little. Really big deal if Mom would buy a box of individually wrapped Twinkies, which used Peanuts characters for added premium offers. We got some patches with the characters on them, and stickers of Snoopy for President. Expiration dates would mean little on them.
I found holiday potholders on 70% off clearance, so 60 cents for two. If they aren’t thick enough, I will tack them together into one thicker one.
I went through my wrapping paper and viciously culled most of the bows to share with someone else. I don’t use them; no reason to store them.
I don’t keep financial data in clear ways to compare year-to-year, but as I am sorting through year-end stuff, I might prepare an envelope to set aside and look at again in November of 2026 and 2028, so I have my own data to do grocery and investment cost comparisons when I consider our next elections.
Back in my formative years in Ruby’s current city, we made out big-time on Dolly Madison/Sweetheart/Hostess/etc. products from the father of our next-door neighbors’ family, who drove a delivery truck for those products. Of course, given the amount of preservatives that we now know are in those products, I’ll probably last longer than King Tut. 😀
Thanks for the memories (set to music)! My father’s uncle drove a delivery truck for Drake’s. He had retired by the time I would remember him coming around but my father often reminisced about how exciting it was to see Uncle Lenny’s truck pull up to the house.
The former Sara Lee bread outlet closed for good the same week the country shut down for the pandemic. It was like some apocalyptic game show driving around that day trying to find bread and toilet paper.
Yeah, the whole toilet paper thing was crazy. Fortunately, I had just bought a case of it when the shutdown came, so for a while there I was the TP Queen of my street.
All bow down to the t.p. queen!
Great job on the bread haul. I love my chest freezer. I asked for it for my 40th birthday. My sisters and some friends thought I was crazy.
Hubby and I spent all morning and some of the afternoon making 104 dairy free ravioli. The only place near us that sells them sells them for $10 for 8 ravioli.They are frozen so I still have to cook them. It cost us $11 to make 104. If hubby eats 8 at a meal he will get 13 meals which is less than $1 a meal. There are also extra ingredients that I can use towards other frugal meals. Hubby likes our ravioli so much better than the store ones.
What a fun thing to do making ravioli that you can eat without breaking the bank. My ex partner and I used to do things like that, one of the (few) reasons I miss having him around… LOL.
how do you freeze them? do you flour a cookie sheet to freeze individually?
I freeze them on a silicone mat on a cookie sheet. I am going to vacuum seal them in bags today. It was snowing here yesterday so it was agreat way to spend the day. We had music going as we worked.
Nice haul! It’s hard to imagine the outlet store is still making a profit with the current price of flour and electricity..
I helped organize the village party this weekend, it was loads of fun and always great to keep the community spirit alive. My frugal wins are all party-related:
We had free pizza for all helpers Friday evening.
Food was free for everyone on party night (leek and potato stew with sausages)
I worked at the bar so had cheap drinks
I went home with all the decorations to use for my birthday party in 2 weeks. My nieces and nephew will love the fluorescent theme!
Brought home 15 bottles of wine for 18 $, a huge loaf of bread which I cut up and froze, 3 containers of leek stew and half a liter of cream.
Oh forgot to mention my BF’s and my outfit went thrifted of course, neon bright as per the party theme
The outlet store is run by the larger bakery, which does make a nice profit. The “bakery” is HUGE and bakes bread for the entire region. The whole neighborhood smells amazing!
Yes we go to our Franz thrift shop monthly. I’m not paying $7 for a loaf of bread. Saturday is 5\$5
Made beef stew today. The round roast was getting a little icy, and had all the vegetables in the fridge. Made a huge pot.
I made a loaf of peasant bread to go with it.
My chickens are coming out of their winter moult. Got 10 eggs last week, so no more store eggs.
Going through my seed starting stuff to prepare for vegetable garden. Won’t need anything but 1 packet of tomato seeds.
Your house must have smelled heavenly!
Well, that’s frustrating. I was in the neighborhood of the Franz bakery on Saturday, and I wondered why I had a hard time finding parking! I’ll have to check it out next Saturday. My husband prefers Orowheat, but they’re doing some weird shrinkflationy things and I’m just about done with them.
Great haul Katy!
We used to have a bread outlet store, Hostess and Dolly Madison mostly.
We have always frozen bread like that as my mom would not even consider baking it at home. Especially for the prices we could get it for at the outlet.
Personally, I think the bread you buy nowadays tastes very different from what we had growing up.
I use my bread machine to mix and then form and bake. I don’t eat enough to buy that much but back in the day I would have.
Oh yes, I am set for at least a couple of months!
1) I got behind on an enormous bag of onions, and a bunch sprouted, so I spent some time picking out the sprouts and slicing the rest thinly to caramelize them in the Instant Pot, yielding two pints ready to add to recipes by the spoonful. This also produced an equal amount of sprouts, which were succulent in a stir fry, like a different vegetable.
2) Tried a recipe for gf bread using both yeast and baking powder. It was OK, too moist, but successful enough to try the recipe again and decent toasted. It’s made from plain whole soaked rice whizzed in the blender, so if I can get it to work, it will be a significant savings over storebought. The yeast was from a bulk pack that expired in 2023 but was fresh and active.
3) Combo win/fail – I found some clothing for DH that I hadn’t managed to return while recovering from Covid. The pieces had been on deep sale, fit him perfectly now and are exactly what was missing from his wardrobe.
4) Hit the motherlode of seasonal clearance at the grocery store, and stocked up on fancy jam, nuts, and a bunch of no-additives, GF bread mixes – cheaper than the ingredients. The jam was “seasonal” because of a red ribbon around the lid.
5) Picked up multiple bags of quality clothing from a neighbor who is a professional organizer. I’ll sort and distribute them in exchange.
I love that you have a neighbor who’s a professional organizer. I’d be picking their brain left and right!
We no longer have bread/bakery outlets by me. BUT, two of my local Dollar Tree stores get the bread deliveries (think Thomas, Pepperidge Farm, Entenmanns, Sara Lee, Arnold)– one on Saturday, and the other on Tues/Wed. So, I can score breads/baked goods, close to their “sell by” for $1.25. I’m good with the dates – I try to find what I want with the furthest out dated on it. I am normally throwing in freezer anyway.
I used to see bread at the Dollar Tree, but I just realized that it’s been a few years since I’ve come across that.
I still see it here in Massachusetts. Bread, English Muffins and bagels, although there’s only four bagels to each bag. Still not bad for $1.25.