I've been thinking about buying an inexpensive bread maker. Anyone here have one and do you like it? Is it worth the effort?

I cannot tell you how many partial loaves of bread I end up throwing out. We don't eat that much bread and there's no option to buy 1/2 a loaf. I've tried freezing it but it seems to dry it out so badly.

I thought if I could just make my own whenever I needed it that might be cheaper. I've googled bread makers and looked at lots of different ones. There's so many! I know I would like a horizontal loaf. Many of them don't make that.