Momstheword asks:"Do you use your powdered milk just in cooking or for drinking too? Recently I priced it and it wasn't much cheaper than regular milk."
Thanks for the question!
The answer? It depends.
We're not big milk consumers. I don't drink it at all or put it on cereal, but I cook with it. When I lived alone, I used powered because I could make it a cup at a time- no waste! Even a quart would go bad in my fridge in my single days.
I continued the powered tradition when I got married. The price gap was sizable in those days, so we were a powered milk home exclusively.
Now the gap is starting to close. I buy our powered milk at Aldi's for $5.99. One box makes two gallons (which lasts us quite awhile.) That would be $2.99 a gallon.
Let's price compare. Note: all of these prices are for skim milk:
Aldi's Powered Milk per gallon: $2.99
Aldi's store brand gallon: $2.97
Kroger store brand gallon: $3.39
Horizon Organic Milk gallon: $6.29
Walgreens brand gallon: $2.99 (sale price)
Kroger store brand gallon: $3.39
Horizon Organic Milk gallon: $6.29
Walgreens brand gallon: $2.99 (sale price)
Aldi's store brand is cheapest by two cents. However, since we do not drink much milk, I still buy the powered. We make up small portions at a time. The exception is when I find organic milk at manager markdown prices. The half gallon pictured is .99 cents on manager markdown. I've gotten organic milk as cheap as .50 cents for a gallon on about to expire manager markdown. When organic prices beat the powdered milk price, I buy organic. Otherwise, we stick with powered.
Milk freezes well, but takes awhile to thaw. When I see organic milk at a good price, I stock up and fill my freezer. I pour out what we'll use into a pitcher and then refreeze the rest. We still have three gallons of organic milk in our chest freezer, so we're good on fresh milk for quite awhile! When that milk is gone, I have four boxes of powered milk waiting in our pantry.
Readers- how do you save money when buying milk?
5 comments:
Thank you answering my question! I really appreciate all the work you did. I had no idea organic milk was that inexpensive, I always thought it was more.
Hi Catherine, I enjoy your blog a lot.
I use powder milk for cooking for convenience--I can bring fewer of the heavy gallons home. It doesn't save all that much-I was initially surprised how little it saved. Oh well, it is a convenience for us.
To save on milk, I buy it at a local mini-mart. They consistently have prices on 1% milk about $1-$1.50 less per gallon than my grocery stores. I never find any real milk sales or clearence items. I don't know why others are able to find it.
Anyway, I am enjoying your Eat like kings series! Keep it up.
Andrea
We buy our milk from a local dairy for $3.75 a gallon for whole, 2%, or skim. I have three little kids and am expecting a fourth, so we drink about 2 1/2 gallons a week. I still use powdered some for cooking, but find it cheaper to use whole regular milk and dilute with water, especially in baking.
Amy- I've heard great things about buying milk right from the dairy!
Anon- I've never considered local mini-marts. I'll have to check and see if that's true in our area as well. :)
Momstheword- thanks for the question again. It used to be true that powdered was cheaper. It's important to notice price increases and to check every now and then! I only find organic milk cheap on about to expire special, and I only seem to see it at Kroger stores. Otherwise I would not buy organic so often. I often wonder how families who go through tons of milk manage to afford full price organic!
We bought a huge box of powdered milk. I used it for baking mostly (since I do a lot of baking). I don't eat dry cereal very much anymore. I do keep a few small carton of milk in the fridge just in case I need it.
I love powdered milk in chowder/cream soups. Makes it so creamy.
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