Cheapest way to buy flour

[loraxc]

I have been doing a lot of bread baking lately (all no-knead) and love the results. I'm wondering where people who bake a lot buy their flour.

I have been getting it (organic unbleached white and whole wheat) in the bulk bin at my local supermarket where it runs something like 1.25/pound, I think. Is there a cheaper way? And if you buy in bulk, how long does it store and how do you store it?

[lakeruby]

I don't buy a whole lot of flour, but I do make sure to store it in the fridge-- especially whole wheat, because it goes rancid much faster than white flour. I would think that buying bulk at your food co-op would be the cheapest way to buy it, but if you have lots of freezer space you could buy it in large bags (possibly from Costco? Or from a distributer at a discount?) and store it frozen. Good luck! For some reason I haven't tried that no-knead recipe yet, but I keep meaning to....

[Kaitnbugsmom]

I buy 25 pound bags at the wholesale club of bread flour for $6.93. Deep freeze it for 24 hours or so then store it in a tightly sealed 5 gallon bucket {about $5 at paint stores/big box home stores/walmart} From what I understand you can get a pretty decent rate on whole wheat flour buying it through smaller mom and pop type natural food stores, not so much via whole foods etc.

[ewp11100]

I have shopped a round for flour quite a lot. For a while I was buying Bread flour in big bags at Sam' Club and mixing with whole wheat which I was buying from the grocery store. I went in search of bulk whole wheat flour and the only place I could find it was ordering though Frontier or the like. But then I found that the ethic food stores have really good wheat flour in bulk for pretty cheap. It is usually found in the indian section. The "Indian wheat" is lovely for backing bread as it does not need mixed with white because (I think) its ground more finely. I equate it with whole wheat pastry flour with gluton. It makes nice loaves and you don't need two different types of flour

[loraxc]

No food coop here, alas. I also do not belong to Costco (actually, we only have Sam's Club here).

Indian groceries, however, we have!! That is a great tip.

I do keep my ww flour in the freezer, but I was wondering how long it does keep at room temps.