"John Kane" > wrote in message
...
On Jun 15, 9:51 pm, "boulanger" > wrote:
> "John Kane" > wrote in message
>
> ...
> On Jun 14, 8:00 pm, phaeton > wrote:
>
> > I just picked up a seldom used 4.5qt Kitchenaid Classic Stand Mixer for
> > $75.
>
> Very nice!
>
> > I always wanted a larger one (like the Pro 5) but for this much
> > scratch and for just one person, I think i did ok for now. Maybe
> > someday I'll upgrade and pass this one on.
>
> Me sir, me!!!
>
> > You don't save any
> > money making your own bread, but it always tastes better than
> > store-bought, and I enjoy doing it.
>
> I've always wondered about that. I figure I can get about 30 loaves of
> bread from a 10kg bag of flour, and a small bag of yeast ( maybe 40
> cents a loaf last time I checked which was before the price of flour
> jumped) . The real questions are, "What are my energy (electic oven )
> costs and the cost of my labour.?)
> __________________________________________________ _____
>
> Your figure isn't far out! I recently bought a 20kg sack of bakers' flour
> for Can$17 from Loblaw's "wholesale" division. At 65% hydration, that's
> enough for about 44x750g loaves which, if you ignore the cost of the 400g
> of
> salt and the yeast, works out to 39 cents per loaf.
> Even if it cost a dollar per loaf in power, one would still be waaay ahead
> (unless you compare it with 99c supermarket specials that can hardly
> compare
> in taste or texture).
> Graham

Thanks Graham.

I did the 40 cents calculation really fast--a sort of back of the
envelope calculation about 8-10 months ago. It's reassuring to see my
figures are not that far out.

It seems a bit difficult to get consumption figures for the oven but
it looks like, at a areally rough guess, it would be about 60 cents
for an hour's operation. With either 2 or 4 loaves in the oven that
gives me a cost of somewhere between 48 cents (2 loaf) & 43 cents (4
loaf). Tis looking good so far assuming I have not messed up the
hydro cost.

Now the killer, do we cost it at what I'd charge as a consultant ($60/
hr) as an untrained baker ($12hr) , at minimum wage ($9.50) or just
say it's a hobby and assusme the 15 minutes (actual working time) it
take me to bake bread has no cash value to me?" ARRGHHH the pain of
Cost-Benefit Analyis!
-----------------------------------------------------------

But using that logic, we might as well buy ready meals from the supermarket
or take-out!
BTW, $60/hr is low for a consultant - that's plumber's rate!


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Below are my costs. Interestingly enough even at consulting rates it's
fairly affordable to make my own bread as long as I make a minimum of
4 loaves.

I remember being at an urban permaculture seminar at least 10 years
ago where one of the people running the seminar said that it was
uneconomical to make one's own bread. I thought that he was a bit
wrong then and this analysis seems to suggest that unless he was
buying day old bread from the supermarket that he definately was
wrong.


Table 1. Production costs for 2 or 4 loaves of bread at various
labour rates.

Pay Rate
N. Loaves $15 $3 $2.38
2 7.98 1.98 1.67
4 4.33 1.23 1.08
--------------------------------------------------------------------

One has to factor in the overheads. My prof assoc recommends a charge-out
rate of 2.5 to 3 times base salary. So $12/hr costs the company $30-$36/hr.

Graham
(Boulanger from a different computer)