One thing I noticed is people talking about making bread. I used to make all our bread by hand and had a wonderful ceramic bowl I used for letting it rise. due to various things my husband now makes our bread in a machine. If you look, you can find them almost brand new at thrift stores.
The biggest difference in our bread making is that I measured by volume and then would add more flour as necessary to get the correct texture (when the dough is fully kneaded and you pat it, it should feel about like a baby’s bottom) we found that volume doesn’t work nearly as well in a machine as does measuring by weight. so we bought a small kitchen scale (also at the thrift store). The bread is almost always perfect now.
we grind our own flour and when there is a change from one batch of wheat to a different batch there is some small difference occasionally, but nothing like the differences even with the same flour before he stated weighing the ingredients using the amounts given in the manual for whole wheat bread.
so, if you want to start making your own bread, find a machine (you can get instructions on line if you get a machine without instructions). it is so much cheaper, better and makes the house smell great. well — it may not be cheaper than clearance smush bread, but it’s cheaper than good bread
you can buy all purpose flour (no bran). if you want whole wheat flour there is hard red winter and hard white winter (which is what we use) there is also soft wheat which is used for quick breads and cookies
you can always add making bread by hand to your list for next year, but you’ll be starting on homemade bread now.
happy baking