Bread prices have really gone through the roof lately. And as a home office worker, I eat at home for every meal. And as a bad cook, many of those meals are sandwiches. Furthermore, I am picky about bread, and usually buy the more expensive loaves. (My current favorite is the line of local Franz breads which do not use high fructose corn syrup.)
I decided that it was time to invest in a breadmaker. I had tried making loaves of bread by hand in the past, but these efforts were… less than successful. (See note about bad cook above.) Since breadmakers are expensive, and I was not sure if I would like the results or keep at it, I decided to hit the local thrift store first.
I scored a perfectly good breadmaker for only $7 at the Goodwill. Yay! If you go thrifting for a breadmaker, be sure that it has all its parts. It should have a removable bread dough pan, and a little paddle. Be sure that the bread pan fits in correctly, and that it isn't badly scratched. Thrift stores usually have a place where you can plug in electronics to verify that they work - be sure to do this!
When you get home, run a Google search for "[manufacturer] [model number] breadmaker manual." For example, I searched for "Sunbeam 5833 breadmaker manual." Most manufacturers offer downloadable PDF versions of their user manuals online. Download the manual, and study it carefully. In the case of the Sunbeam 5833 manual, it included a lot of valuable troubleshooting information, basic breadmaking instructions, and an extensive collection of recipes.
It's tempting to buy the boxes of pre-packaged breadmaker mix, but don't be fooled! These are practically as expensive as a store bought loaf of bread, and contain a lot of weird chemicals. It's not that hard to make breadmaker bread "from scratch," I promise.
Your main ingredient is flour. Be sure to buy breadmaker flour, NOT "all purpose flour." I use Gold Medal Better For Bread, but that's just because it's the least expensive option at my local grocery store.
Buy the smaller bag at first, because flour goes stale fairly quickly. If you end up making bread often enough, you can justify the purchase of a ten pound sack. Regardless of which size you buy, be sure to store it in an airtight container. I usually pour half of the flour into a plastic lidded container, then stuff the remaining sack into a large Ziplock bag to keep it fresh.
Your breadmaker manual will have a ton of recipes in it. You can also search online for bread machine recipes. There are a ton! My current favorite recipe for basic white bread is here. (In fact, I'm baking a loaf right now!)
It will take about three hours for your breadmaker to complete its cycle. After that, I like to let the loaf sit (not in the pan!) for at least 1-2 hours, in order to cool off. I store my loaves in a ziplock bag, so I want to be sure they are 100% cool before sticking them in there, lest they steam themselves to death.