Saving on milk

**Valerie in WA** · 10-10-2005, 11:16 AM

Does your family go through a lot of milk? If you have children, the answer may be yes. Milk, while nutritious, can use up a fair amount of your grocery budget.

I know this to be true, perhaps even more so, because I buy organic milk at a cost of $5 per gallon. Recently, my family was using two gallons of milk a week, bringing my monthly milk expenditures to just over $40.

This did not include cheese, yogurt, sour cream or milk for cooking (I use powdered for cooking). Nor did it include me (I don't care for milk). I wondered if buying and feeding my own cow might be cheaper!

Fortunately, I found a better solution.

First, I did a bit of nutrition research.

I found that two to three servings of dairy per day are recommended. I also did a search to find what amounts of milk, cheese or yogurt are considered a serving for my (fairly small) children. Since we often eat yogurt and cheese, I decided to reduce the amount of fluid milk that my children drink.

Instead of serving them milk at each of the three meals per day, I began serving milk at only one meal. I serve water at one meal and juice at one meal. I usually look at the day's menu and choose to serve milk at the meal with the least protein. For example, if the children have muffins and fruit for breakfast, I serve their milk then. On the other hand, if they have oatmeal for breakfast, I give them juice or water (or even no beverage), as I use powdered milk in cooking the oatmeal. If breakfast includes eggs, I'll save the milk for lunch or dinner.

My dh continues to drink milk as he always has: a 12-16oz glass with dinner each day.

And guess what! Over the last month, instead of using 8 gallons of milk, we used only four.

Granted, I spent about $4 on juice, but saved $20 on milk. A fine investment, in my opinion.

**QuilterMom** · 10-10-2005, 11:45 AM

I'm curious.......... are you using organic powdered milk for cooking/baking or non-organic. I would love to find an affordable source for organic powdered milk. It's so outrageous at the one health food store here that carries it, that it's cheaper for me to use just reg. organic milk for everything.

**Valerie in WA** · 10-10-2005, 11:52 AM

I do use organic powder. It is not significantly cheaper - about $4.60 per gallon, but it is a more convenient way to store more milk, rather than the liquid kind that needs refrigeration. I also use several homemade mixes (cream soup, oatmeal, hamburger 'helper') that rely on dry milk. And while I don't (yet) specifically have dry milk in my disaster supplies, the idea remains in the back of my head that in a disaster, we could use it for drinking milk.

**QuilterMom** · 10-10-2005, 12:03 PM

Wow - $4.60 beats the price I can get it for here! It comes out to around $7/gallon for org. powdered. Ugh! The only org. gallons available here is Organic Valley brand for $5.39 (price may have gone up recently) so that's definitely cheaper, but we have found it goes bad in about 4 days.

I am currently buying Organic Valley half gallons for $2.44 (I have coupons), which is cheaper anyway. After those coupons expire, the next cheapest I can buy is Stonyfield Farm half gallons for $2.73 each, so not many cents more than the OV gallons. I would love to have org. powdered in my stockpile for drinking though in the event of emergencies.

**Valerie in WA** · 10-10-2005, 12:34 PM

Where abouts are you? Do I recall correctly that you are in the US? I order from www.azurestandard.com. I live in an area where, with a $400 order, I can get free delivery. Check them out. That's how I've been able to convert us over to mostly organic foods (we started with just produce and dairy). Here's my thread about my first order: Questions about amounts of bulk foods to order.

Azure is based in Oregon and has established trucking routes thru the Western states. If you are not in one of those areas, you can order and pay for UPS shipping, which may or may not be less than your local health food store.

**Valerie in WA** · 10-10-2005, 12:37 PM

One more thing, for liquid milk. Call 1-800-SHOPTJS to see if there is a Trader Joes near you. That's where I get my gallons for $4.99. (And lots of other yummy not-so-frugal things).

**QuilterMom** · 10-10-2005, 12:52 PM

Nope, extreme southeast and no Trader Joe's here. In the over 3 years we've been eating organics, I've checked out every possibility I can find about ordering online through various companies and none of them come out cheaper so far. There are also no co-ops here unfortunately. Our main health food store has some awesome sales on many things we use as does a local grocery store that carries some organics (their sales are far and few between though). It's the org. powdered milk that's the biggest frustration for me.