Here’s what I know for sure. I can make bread for less than $3.69 a loaf, which is what I paid last week. Plus, the whole house will smell good and homemade bread will be better and taste better.

I don’t have one of those chi-chi bread making machines, but plenty of sturdy wooden spoons and muscle.

A long time ago, when I was in my married mode, I used to bake bread twice a week, three loaves each time. And the recipe I used was from Mainer Marjorie Standish’s book, “Cooking Downeast.” That recipe book traveled from Windham to Portland, then to Boston, New York City, South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation, Chicago and when I returned to Maine I didn’t quite have room for books on the plane.

Back home in Windham, I used my mother’s recipe books and when she passed away, I retrieved the worn old books including the one with the bread recipe in it. Wouldn’t you know it, when I turned to those pages this morning, they were gone! But inside the covers, she had written her recipe for chocolate doughnuts and molasses cookies (add enough flour to make a dough you can stand a spoon in).

A friend gave me “the other” Standish book, “Keep Cooking the Maine Way,” but the recipe that makes three loaves of yeast bread isn’t in that one. I’ll have to go to the library and copy the recipe from the other book.

Meanwhile, I have given some serious thought to baking bread on a regular basis. This is another staple that will climb in price as the summer wears on. Maybe I should take orders – this could turn into a profitable hobby. Or I could put it in the freezer, next to those blueberries, available free for the picking all over Maine. I haven’t done a cost analysis yet, but I bet I could make delicious blueberry muffins for less than $1.50 each, too.

The price we pay for convenience – or in my case, a spur of the moment craving – is inordinately high. For those of us who have to travel out of town to go to work, and absolutely cannot bring ourselves to carpool, we’re going to have to figure out a way to afford gasoline.

Buy a thermos and make your own coffee.

I remember when I was working full time. I’d stop each morning for a cup of coffee (having left a coffee pot half full at home). I have no idea how much a nice hot cup of coffee is nowadays, at a convenient drive through. Think about this: Premium coffee costs about $5 on sale and a 2.25-pound can will make over 250 cups – that’s about 2 cents a cup. At that rate you could afford to use real cream. Talk about the all-important return on investment.

Let’s resurrect the Tightwad Times.

See you next week.