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Aldi have them for £40 and £28 respectively.
I've thought of both in the past and no idea if these are good prices (3yr warranty tho).
Bread maker: do folk keep using them once the novelty has worn off? Is it any cheaper? I guess you will get high quality bread of your liking.
Slow cooker: benefits are low energy and you just bung food in before you leave for work and come home to a lovely (casserole/stew) type meal?...and can't burn stuff? Won't cook pulses/beans I guess?
bread makers make awful bread IMHO- you can have mine if you want it
Slow cooker gets some use but not loads as you still have to remember to put the food in it - good for stews or for a soup type thing
Slow cooker great for stews, curries, pulled pork and beef brisket. Gets used a fair bit in our house.
Bread maker is a long term resident of the understairs cupboard though.
We've used a breadmaker regularly for over ten years. Way better than all but the ponciest bakers.
My missus gets "ours" out once a year, to justify the space they take up in the back of the kitchen cupboard. 
Good bread makers are good. They are what they are, its not going to be like going to your local artisan baker but good ones make nice loaves quietly and reliably
So-so breadmakers suffer from being noisy and also if they don't run good programmes then you can get a lot of badly risen loaves.
The STW-fave panasonic bread makers have two advantages over a lot of others - one is the motor and mechanism is almost silent - use the timer for overnight bread making and you won't be woken up by wailing, grinding motors art 3 in the morning (and I'm not distracted by having it running while I'm working). The other is the programmer takes human error out of the set up. My old kenwood left it for you to decide what 'tepid' water was when putting the ingredients in - starting with water that was to cold (or a kitchen that was too cold) meant the dough would rise too slowly and give small heavy loaves. The panasonic starts by doing nothing for half an hour or than bring the contents of the machine up to a starting temperature - water from the tap, butter from the fridge - all warmed through to a set temp before the motor starts - absolutely dependable results.
Won't cook pulses/beans I guess?
You guess incorrectly
We use both: bread maker daily; slow cooker weekly.
We have not bought bread since we got the maker.
OP you can burn stuff in a slow cooker if you don’t put in enough liquid but it’s pretty fool proof. Great for sticking on before you go out for a ride / walk and coming back to a lovely hot meal. Breadmaker I’ve never used but I enjoy making loaves from scratch by hand, reality is Indo that rarely as it takes quite a bit of time.
Of the two I’d take the slow cooker, wait for an offer on a rice cooker if you fancy another gadget. I was always very sceptical then I discovered all the locals have one in Singapore - reliable, consistent and keeps rice warm.
Fortnightly slow cooker user here, awesome machine. Also weekly rice cooker user, simple easy and fast, it was less than £15 from Wilkinson's, probably 7 years old, still doing it like a pro.
Won't cook pulses/beans I guess?
Slow cookers are awesome. Put on delicious dish that is best cooked slowly for hours at breakfast time. Clear off out for the day doing fun stuff and arrive home to a delicious hot meal. What not to like?!
We have two. One is a minute maid that's probably older than me. Well fitting lid, nice low even heat. The other one is some cheap "item" from Argos. It's ok when it's loaded up near the top with a massive bit of meat and sauce but it's really slightly too hot even on low and the lid is a crap fit.
I think what I'm saying is buy the right size and don't go too budget.
As for bread makers I had one and even the worst loaf it turned out was better than any packet loaves from the local convenience shop. If you have a decent baker nearby who is open whenever you want bread then great but I didn't. It was lost in a "splitting of the possessions" over a decade ago and much missed. Maybe I should buy one!
Breadmakers have 2 disadvantages.
They can't ever make a proper crust, and they can't make bread as good as the bakery bit of my local lidl does.
So, I'm out.
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Thanks all. Might see what's left in my local Aldi tomorrow
Slow cooker = Orsum
Bread maker = Wasted cupboard space. Far better to have a Kenwood (many other uses) and just make bread yourself.
Both have there a place, even a cheap slow cooker though is more likely to be used/effective. I’m intrigued by the aldi bread maker - if it has a custom program for that price it could be very good. Otherwise you will struggle to adapt general recipes.
I doubt many people are using either to save money. They are used either for convenience or because the end result is better than the alternative.
Finally, beware many are family sized - if slow cooking for one you’ll either want to freeze the left overs or find it wasteful. Fresh bread doesn’t last as long as mass produced shop bread. Depending on size of pan you may struggle to eat that much.
We’ve had bread makers since the late 1990s. Various ones over the years, some better than others. We have a Panasonic now, not one of the all singing ones, and it’s the best one so far. Very consistent and makes a nice loaf. In all that time ours have been used pretty much daily.
I'm using our bread maker daily at the moment - but I just use it for making and rising the dough, for which it's excellent. Then just chuck it on a baking sheet and oven bake. Baking the dough in the breadmaker is a bit hit and miss and gives the pan-shaped loaf.
Slow cooker - definitely. We upgraded recently to a combined slow cooker and pressure cooker, double good. Had some awesome stews, briskets, last week's chilli con carne using slow cooked brisket was a masterpiece.
Breadmakers - in theory good but we don't eat enough to make it worthwhile, and if I want fresh bread then quick (you can be eating it in 40 mins) soda bread is my go-to which needs nothing fancy* and tastes great.
* OK, buttermilk but I usually have a pot in in case, and you can do it with milk and bicarb or yogurt if you need to. Google recipes, I use BBC ones.
We've got a cheap slow cooker. It's ok, but I'm pretty sure it runs too hot, so it dries out the meat a bit of you're not careful. As far as i can see it's not thermostatically controlled, it just gives it constant heat at a certain level. I've measured it at over 90 degrees on low, which is far too hot. My advice would be to get one that's thermostatic.
Bread makers? I'm a purist with this one, I've never had a loaf made in one that's anything like a good as a home made loaf, however you can't deny how much easier it is, and I can't do fresh bread anything like as early in the day as you can with a bread maker.
If you want to cut out the kneading but then you can just use a food mixer if you've already got one.
I don't really understand the point of slow cookers. The worst time of day for me to prepare any sort of food is in the morning before work(morning rush) etc.
I work from home one day a week if I want to cook casseroles or for example my 6 hour ragu sauce, otherwise there is the weekend or overnight cooking in a normal cast iron pot in the oven or on the hob. What do they actually offer?
+1 slow cooker
-1 bread maker
Our bread maker has been used daily since buying it 5 or 6 years ago (actually it might be longer than that). Fresh bread in the morning, plus it gets used for dough making for posher looking bread, and pizza bases. Ours is a Panasonic and have never tried a cheaper version, but have heard results can be variable between brands - so not sure how good the Aldi option would be.
In comparison our slow cooker gets used once a month.
wait for an offer on a rice cooker if you fancy another gadget. I was always very sceptical then I discovered all the locals have one in Singapore - reliable, consistent and keeps rice warm.
This. I can't cook rice for some reason - it's simple enough, heaven knows! Bought a small rice cooker, job done. As jamba says (sort of), a billion Chinese can't be wrong!
Both great I'm best case scenarios.
Bread is fab with panny and the correct flour. No additives or sugar is great for me.
Flavour is fab.
We use it every other day.
Slow cooker as and when. We have star chef and it's been around for 10 years.
Juicers however which are much much better than shelf orange juice are a faff.
I don't really understand the point of slow cookers. The worst time of day for me to prepare any sort of food is in the morning before work(morning rush) etc
Certain cuts of meat really respond to very long low temperatures, nothing else but a slow cooker will give the same easy result every time and cost pence to run. They’re damn cheap to buy too. Ours is 30 yrs old and gets used twice a week.
Great if you’ve got kids too, you can be entertaining the little delights off in the woods whilst dinner takes care of itself. They may of course, not suit your very exact lifestyle but for most ^ I think they’re near enough essential.
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