Buying milk can get expensive. I don't even have kids yet, but between the two of us, we consume our fair share. Hubster drinks at least one glass a day with dinner (usually more) and I have a smoothie for breakfast most days along with the occasional glass of milk here and there. Add to the milk that is used while cooking/baking and we can zoom through a bag of milk in no time at all.So, over the past few months I've tried to reduce the amount of money we spend on milk by replacing fresh milk with dry milk powder in cooking and baking and saving the fresh milk for drinking. I got my inspiration to do this from Gayle over at The Grocery Cart Challenge. It is pretty amazing what she can do with relatively little money, and this is one of the ways she cuts costs.
I have really noticed a difference with how much milk we have to buy. So far, I have purchased about $8.00 worth of dry milk powder once at the bulk store in January and have used about 3/4 of it. I would also say I've reduced our fresh milk purchases by at least half. Instead of buying two 4-litre bags/week I am now buying one 4-litre/week or every two weeks. This is something that perhaps many of you already do but I'll be completely honest and tell you that I was pretty excited when I realized how much milk (read: $$$) I could save by doing this. If you want to try using dry milk powder in place of milk just mix 1 part powder with 4 parts water. (Did I say that right? ... It's late and I'm tired.) For one cup of water add 1/4 cup of powder.
Happy Thrifty Thursday! I'd love to hear any quick and easy money saving tips that you have.
6 comments:
that's neat! we don't go through that much milk... neither of us are big milk drinkers... but we do cook with it a lot. I use powdered milk in my breads, but I'll have to try it in other recipes too. thanks for the tip.
My mom used to do that. I've checked it out here, though, and it wouldn't be cheaper for me...go figure.
We drink gobs of milk- I will have to look into this!
I have never thought to do that! Do you use the powdered milk in your smoothies now? Great idea. Between my 1 year old and 3 year old we go through a ton of milk!
I should drink more milk...shame on me, I know. So we can hang onto a bag of milk for quiet awhile. Does the powdered milk taste the same in your cooked/baked items?
Holly - at first I thought it wasn't going to be cheaper for me either because powdered milk is quite pricey in the grocery store. However, I've found it's cheaper in bulk food stores.
Amanda - no I haven't tried the powdered milk in my smoothies yet .. maybe I should give it a try and see if it tastes the same?
Mandi - I have yet to notice a difference in flavour when I used the powdered variety in my cooking/baking. I like it because if a recipe calls for half and half or whipping cream, I usually just mix more powder to make the milk thicker and it's been working fine for me so far.
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