The switch from paying $8.50 for a loaf of bread to baking my own in a 1950s oven

I used to grab that overpriced sourdough at the co-op in Brattleboro every week, but after my electric bill hit $320 in January I started baking my own in this clunky old oven my neighbor gave me. First loaf came out like a hockey puck, second one caught on fire a little, but by the fifth try I actually had something edible and my wallet felt a lot lighter. Anyone else get way too into DIY projects out of pure spite against the cost of living?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevinc8429d ago

The 1950s oven angle is actually the smartest part nobody's talking about, because those old gas ovens hold heat like nothing else built today. My dad's got a 1947 Chambers in his workshop in Keene and that thing will still be warm 45 minutes after you shut it off. You're basically getting a free second bake cycle on your bread if you turn it off 10 minutes early and let the residual heat finish the job. Plus those old ovens don't have fancy electronics to fail and cost you $200 for a repairman to look at, they're just a thermostat and a gas valve. I bet you could probably fit four loaves in that beast at once and feed yourself for a week on one firing. That electric bill of yours would probably drop another $40 a month just from not heating up a modern oven that bleeds heat everywhere.

piperr5829d ago

That's a very good point about the heat retention, @kevinc84. My grandmother had an old Sears Roebuck oven from the 1950s until she passed in 2008, and I swear that thing could keep a casserole hot for an hour after she shut it off. I remember she'd bake two batches of cookies back to back and the second batch would come out perfect because the oven never lost much heat. You're spot on about the simplicity too, I've had my modern oven's control board go out twice in ten years and each time it was over 300 bucks to fix. And with the price of propane and electricity going up the way it is, I can see the appeal of something built back when they meant for things to last a lifetime.

paulw6329d ago

Never thought about it that way before, but you got me reconsidering my whole kitchen setup.