This tip come from my reader Megan….
I wanted to share with you another way that I save money. I buy all my bread products at the local bakery thrift shop. These are the day-old breads that don’t sell in the stores, so they are sent to the thrift store to be sold CHEAP! (They also have fresh items that cost a little more than the day-old, but are still cheaper than the regular grocery store). For example, if I buy a loaf of Orowheat bread at Wal-Mart, it can cost around $2.29. I went to the bakery thrift store today and bought 8 loaves of Orowheat bread, 5 packages of Thomas’ English Muffins (2 were 9 packs instead of the usual 6), 1 package Orowheat Sandwich Thins, and 1 package of hamburger buns- all for $13.50! I shop about once every 2 months and put all the bread in our deep freeze. Then, whenever we finish a loaf of bread I can just go to the freezer and pull out a fresh loaf! This saves me not only money, but a lot of shopping time too.
My tip – Also check to see if your local Dollar Tree has bread. Mine does! They have Nature’s Own for $1.
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I buy our bread at our local bakery thrift store too. They carry Nature’s Own which is our favorite. Their regular price is $1.49 a loaf but I often get it on the manager’s special table for .79 cents a loaf. I also get whole wheat tortillas (reg. $1.09) and whole wheat hamburger and hot dog buns(reg. $1.19). Sometimes I find them on the manager’s special table too for .79 cents a pack. Love, love, love my bakery thrift store.
I freezer extra loaves and have never had any problem with it. Our loaves are rarely frozen for more than a week, sometimes two. I go the the thrift store every week or two.
I usually buy a couple of months worth of bread, tortillas, buns, rolls, etc. at the bread store and freeze them all. The only thing I don’t freeze I buy are the individual snacks they sell. I have never had a problem with freezing bread either. You can’t let it stay in the freezer more than a couple of months (I have noticed) and you have to make sure there are no holes in the bread bags.
I worked at Flower’s Bakery Thrift Store in college. Even at the bread store, some bread is fresher than the others. If you are a regular customer and nice to the employees, they can tell you which bread is the freshest. If you notice, the bags of bread have ties on them. We had a schedule of how we pulled bread off the shelf as no longer able to be sold because we could tell the age based on the tie color. To be honest, when you put bread on the shelf (at a grocery store or bakery thrift store), they always put the new bread underneath or in the back of the old bread because they want to keep selling bread and not have to throw it out. The freshest bread is usually not the stuff on top.
I too visit my local Dollar Tree store for my favorite brand of brand Nature’s Own and Sunbeam! They will kindly let you know when they get their bread deliveries because I have found it goes quickly. They often have a variety from white to whole wheat sometimes the thin rounds and hotog and hamburger buns. I freeze it often with no problem.
There is a store in the town my husband works that sells day old Pepperidge Farm bread for .75 loaf. We love the oatmeal and whole wheat bread. These are over 3.00 loaf at Walmart.
I’ve been going to the bread store for years and did a write up for my blog. There is a link to find an outlet store near you, they are nationwide!
http://www.montebellomom.com/2010/11/bakery-outlet-montebello-calendar-with.html
I freeze bread all the time, otherwise it would just mold. I’m not a fan of day-old-bread stores. I did that when my daughter was little and my paycheck was tiny. It always tasted moldy to me, but I bought it to save money. When I got a promotion, I graduated to fresh bread, buying it when it’s b1g1.
I’ve never heard of bakery thrift stores. How do you find them?
On freezing bread — we’ve done it with regular sliced packaged breads, and we usually take the bread straight from the freezer to the toaster with no issues. (Our toaster has a defrost setting.)
We’ve never tried to replicate fresh deli bread by freezing and thawing, though, or eating it without toasting.
RK- My blog post has a link at the bottom to the store listings nationwide.
http://www.montebellomom.com/2010/11/bakery-outlet-montebello-calendar-with.html
Thanks! Turns out there’s one very close to where I work. Neat!
You’re welcome! I’m glad there is one near you! If you can get your hand on some coupons that would be great! With coupons my cost is about $1 per package.
We always buy our bread at Costco which comes in 2 loaves. I’ve been making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches with one loaf and freezing them. I cut them with my sandwich cutter from Pampered Chef, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then put them all in a zip-loc bag. I put in their lunch boxes in the morning and they defrost by lunch. My kids actually think they taste better and it makes morning lunch making a breeze.
It seems like I heard somewhere that the ice crystals that form need to be left alone during the thawing process so that moisture goes back into the bread. My husband claims he can tell if bread and buns have been frozen but really he can’t tell unless he knows about it. I usually just use the stuff from the freezer for toast or toasted buns for sloppy joes and such since he usually knows it’s been frozen.
Whenever I buy a loaf of bread I divide the loaf in two’s. I take two slices put them into a fold and flap sandwich bag. I always had a problem in the past with ice crystals making the bread soggy. This way when I make my lunch for work I just grab a bag
We have an outlet close to home.. Hudson NH…the bread is always close to expriration date but never expired. I always forget to go there, but when i do i get great deals :)
My husband and I own a bread route and what most people don’t know is WE take the pay cut when you wait to buy it at the bakery, Flowers or Sara Lee do NOT! So your actually hurting someone’s actual pay check =( And the bread that was pulled the day before was there for 4 or 5 days before it was pulled so it is not going to stay fresh as long! Just a little info.. I just know I have made different decisions on things when I gained knowledge on how it actually works! :)
Hi,
I just read your post and saw that you and your hubby own a bread route. My husband is about to become an IO for Flowers. He has been a bread route driver for several years for Aunt Millie’s but this will be his firt IO route. Just wondering how profitable it is when you own the route and also if you were able to get health insurance pretty easy?
Thanks for any info.
Theresa
I’ve never had a problem freezing bread, I do it all the time. Our Aldi’s is not close, so when I go I get several loaves and freeze them.
Does anyone know of how to find a local bread thrift shop? Thanks!
I’ve never liked frozen bread or bread stored in the fridge. I know my grandma used to do this. She’d go to the Flower Bakery or another day old bread place and get the Hostess snack cakes, loaves of bread, buns, etc for super cheap and fill a good portion of her deep freezer once a month.
There’s no trick to it really, freeze, thaw, eat. I’m not hot on how the bread is after it’s thawed, sometimes it’s super mushy if ice has formed in the bag or on the bread. Sometimes it seems stale after having been frozen. If there’s a trick please share because I’ve tried several ways and my dh finally said enough of this buy it fresh! lol
My daughter goes to headstart for preschool. Publix donates all their old bread to headstart. Every wednesday is bread day. We get one loaf per child so thats two loafs a week. I havnt bought break since school started. And sometimes they have sweets. My daughter loves this program
That’s a great program!
Publix doesnt donate that bread, when distributors like me pick it up we return it to to day old bread store to recieve credit. No bread, no credit. Its then donated, by flowers because publix contract with us states they we can not sell there publix bread at a marked down price. It forces us to eighter donate it or sell it for hog feed. Publix dont care if the headstart kids starve, i promise.
A lot of time the bread for a dollar at the dollar store is a smaller loaf than they sell at other stores, just like the pack of little debbies are a smaller pack than what’s at walmart or target. I do love the bread store though! That have great deals!
I tried freezing bread once and it didn’t work well for me? Not sure if I should have done something special or not?
I don’t really think there is anything special to do… except put the bread on top so it doesn’t get smushed. I usually stand mine up..