SO I joined a few weeks ago and I love this site. So much info here and very helpful people. Thanks for everything. I made my first starter over a week ago and last night I went out to replenish my flour supply because I had an itching to make something. I saw that the starter was doing well and had a sour smell by now and looked right. I began making a sponge by scooping out 1/4 c of the starter and into a sanitized mason jar for future growth. (I use StarSan a food grade sanitizer used in Brewing) I followed a sponge recipe to make about 2c of sponge for a few loaves. The bread turned out awesome, but I think I did not let it rise enough on the final rise. The loaves were not as tall as my commercial yeast ones, but I got the best crumb and best crust ever. And those holes!!! Love it.

My question. I want to keep this starter going so I added 1/4c water and 1/4c bread flour to the new mason jar. If I keep this up, like I did before I will easily burn through another bag of flour. Are there any solutions for keeping a starter fed but not wasting so much flour? I hate mixing up the starter and then tossing 1/2 of it away daily. Just curious.