And we're off!

My number one excuse for putting off a lot of frugal life changes is gone! We've finally moved into our own apartment this weekend. I'm still quite limited in things like gardening or line-drying our laundry but no longer do I have to concern myself with what anyone else thinks of my lifestyle. :)

My very first project in my new home is: Bread!

It must be something in the air down here that makes people think wheat bread is tasty but I am not yet fooled. I love my white bread. I NEED my white bread. It's sort of ridiculous how hard it is to find white bread down here. Of course, it's there, but it's always too soft or too hard or goes bad too fast. Not only that, but it's much more expensive here. In Michigan, I liked Meijer brand bread just fine. Their scrumptious white bread would frequently go on sale for $1 per loaf. I could buy a few and freeze them. Bread freezes well. No such thing here.

Well. If you want something done right? You do it yourself. So I ordered a packet of white flour sour dough bread starter. It's delivered in a dehydrated state, so I'm in the middle of the long process of activating the yeast. I should be able to make my first loaf by Wednesday or so, though.

Concerns:

1. I will be overrun with starter. I will probably resort to keeping it in the fridge so I only have to feed it once or twice a week. Then I will just have to come up with an iron clad routine for de-fridging and feeding/freshening my starter every week to make a fresh loaf.

2. This may not be saving much money with the amount of flour that goes into feeding the starter, much less making an actual loaf of bread.

3. Will I like the bread? The basic recipe for a loaf of sourdough calls for flour, water, and a pinch of salt. This is my skeptical face. Being used to the overprocessed junk bread that I am, I think it's going to take a whole lot of something (ie: sugar) to make me like this bread, further increasing costs.

4. With no preservatives added, am I going to be able to eat a whole loaf of homemade bread before it goes bad?

Benefits:

1. The smell of fresh-baked bread. Also, nifty and inexpensive gifts! I could also even share my starter if someone was interested. But probably not. They call me the pilgrim around here.

2. I'm going to check a warehouse store and see if I can buy flour in bulk to pinch some pennies.

3. Even if it's overprocessed junk, at least I know for sure what's in my homemade overprocessed junk.

4. There are some natural preservatives I can add (like honey) to make my loaf last a little longer. There's also the possibility of cutting a loaf in half and freezing one part of it for the few days it takes me to eat the unfrozen half.

Updates to come!

Timeline

3/31 11pm Fed 1/4c flour, 1/4c water

4/1 12pm Fed Sc1/2c flour, 1/2c water

4/2 12am Transplanted 1/4c starter -- fed 1/4c water, sc 1/2c flour

4/2 3pm (whoops, hehe) Transplanted 1/4c starter -- fed 1/4c water, sc 1/2c flour