Just under a year ago we bought a breadmaker.

Because my accounting software allows it, I created a little bucket in our savings account and another little bucket in the food+drink spending account. I've been tracking spending on breadmaking supplies (flour, yeast, seeds, etc) and also putting aside £3 per week as that's what we were spending on bread from the milkman before the breadmaker arrived.

By the end of 2008 we had saved up £138.75 and spent £165.27 (including the cost of the breadmaker).

I may have missed some of the breadmaking supplies, as this relies on me inspecting receipts before I enter the totals into accounting software, and some things are used both for general cooking and for bread (e.g. butter, pesto). On the other hand I haven't adjusted the saving on not-buying-loaves even though bread prices have risen in the shops. Even with those uncertainties, it's clear we should expect to break even sometime this year.

Money aside, it's been a big improvement to general happiness in the house. The bread is yummy, makes the house smell lovely, and we've had lots of fun trying out different recipes. We did intermittently make bread by hand before getting it, but that petered out whenever we got busy. We've done other, more expensive, things to make life happier in the last couple of years (e.g. buying a dishwasher, hiring a cleaner) but those have been more about removing hassle, whereas the breadmaker has added a little pleasure to every day.