When I first posted about baking bread, someone asked me if it was cheaper than buying it. It most definitely is, I replied, especially because I am making an organic, artisan loaf for less than a non-organic one. But how much cheaper? I decided to try to cost it out so I could share.
I have been buying my organic flour at the local grocery store, a large chain that has a big bulk section.
When I was on my way out of the store, I checked the receipt. I had bought just about 2kg of bulk flour. The price? $14.63! What!! I looked again, but there was definitely a 1 in front of that 4. I had both kids with me and we were all at our best before date, so I wasn't up to going in then to tell them they must have put in the wrong code. I figured I'd save the receipt and let them know next time, and get my money back. When I got home and told Sean, he agreed that there must have been a mistake on the pricing. Flour is not that expensive, even organic.
But when I returned for my shopping the following week, guess what? No mistake. The flour costs $0.79 per 100 grams. That .79 looks like a small number but if you do the math, you are paying $7.90 for ONE kilo of flour (about $3.00 a loaf!!). Just two aisles over in the same store, you can get a prepackaged 2kg bag for $6.99--more than 100% cheaper (so, now just over $1.00 a loaf). And at the local, family owned health food store, 2kg costs only $4.94 (about $0.80 a loaf).
I'm pretty frugal, so I'm a bit ashamed that I never did this math before. But seriously, don't we all assume that bulk is always the cheapest option? I mean, we have to go scoop the stuff into a bag ourselves and then put the little tag on it, and transfer it to another container at home. Shouldn't that come with a discount? So I thought I'd share this experience so that everyone can be reminded to do the math and not get taken by this scam. Because that's what it is.
And speaking of scams, here's another one that I just got taken by. On our weekend away, we drove up to Whistler. Rather than take two cars, I parked in the Horseshoe Bay Ferry terminal long term parking. One of the friends I was with had to take the ferry home, so that way she could drop us off there easily and we could carpool. As my girlfriends transferred babies and car seats and bags to the minivan, I tried to figure out how to buy 30 hours of parking from the machine. 24 hours cost $19. 12 hours was $12, 6 hours was something like $8, and so on. But I could only put in one time choice (24, 12, 6, etc) and it spit out one ticket, starting right then. So if I bought 24 hours and 6 hours, that would start at the same time.
Finally I saw that you could extend your time by phone. Great. So I bought 24 hours and asked my girlfriends to remind me to extend my time. Only we ended up back there just 24 hours later anyway so there was no need. But when I got into my car, what was that under my wiper? A ticket! For $60!!! Why? Because, as it turns out, no matter how many hours you buy, your time will expire at 12 midnight. Even if I came there at 11pm and bought 24 hours, my parking would expire one hour later.
Scam? You bet. OK, again, I admit I didn't read the small print. It does say on the receipt that all time expires at midnight. But I was too busy learning how to buy time in the first place to notice, and then...who assumes that when they pay for $19 for 24 hours that means "24 hours, or midnight tonight, whatever comes first."
So all you who may be parking at Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal in the long term lot or buying bulk, be warned. Do the math, read the small print. And yes, bread is way cheaper if you make it yourself, if you buy the fairly priced flour. And it's good I saved that money, so I can pay for my parking ticket.
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