Why make bread versus buying?

It's cheaper and can be healthier of course :)

If you eat through 5 loaves a week, which we almost do (more like every 10 days) then you are spending about $180-260 a year on your own bread and about 540-780 on $3/loaf bread bought from the store. So depending on how much you eat you'll save somewhere between 360 and 540 a year by making your own.

Prices being at their highest (but still being the cheapest around) and taking into account energy prices you're looking at just under $1/loaf if you make it yourself.
Honey, yeast and oil are cheapest at Costco, however the LDS Cannery sells their honey for the same price. It is good when you can get it less than $1.70/lb for honey and oil for under $9/5qts. Wheat is cheapest at the cannery by a considerable margin being of recent date about $6.75/25lbs for the HARD RED WHEAT. Hard White Wheat is a little more expensive. Wheat Gluten can be purchased at any store in the baking section by "Bob's Red Mill" ($5/lb) however it is cheapest when bought in bulk. Share a 25lb bag from Whole Foods and it will only cost you around $3.05/lb.

The equipment that I prefer to use is an investment and can be financially daunting at first. However if you do the math then you will see that it does pay off very quickly. I would reccomend:
Bosch Mixer for mixing the dough (you can use a KitchenAid, but it is harder on the motor and it can handle about half the dough that the Bosch can so you're making the bread more often)
Wheat Grinder for grinding your own wheat
Coffee Grinder for grinding your flax see or anything else you want to add to it
Kitchen Scale for weighing the ingredients because the weight of dough is much more accurate and in whole wheat flour the volume can really change depending on if it is freshly ground or ground a while ago.
The Bosch is $399.99 http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/3939 is a great place to buy it, but as long as a site offers free shipping you'll be just fine.
Wheat Grinder can range from $150 on up. Many models are quite good it just depends on the level of noise and the amount of grain you want to grind at once without stopping.
Coffee Grinder can be found from $10-$15 for the basic kind, which is all you would need. I found a great cheap one from ACE.
Kitchen Scale must be able to handle at least 10 lbs. I've seen these from $30 on up. There are a lot of great brands, but I really like my 'Salter' scale.
You'll have to do the math based on how much bread you go through in your family, but for our family of 5 (4 eaters) we would have broken even within the second year. Although I have to admit I would have probably been more likely to buy the cheaper/cardboard bread sold in the stores then the tastier $3/loaf bread.