Dried milk savings??

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I've been wanting to compare the use of dried milk flakes vs fresh milk. I keep reading on other frugal forums that people use the dried milk instead of a fresh milk because it is cheaper.

Please help me do this math--I'm tired today. At our local very inexpensive, no-frills grocery the unit cost for dried milk is 15.5 cents per oz.

If I figure right ( and I need someone to bear this out) there are 128 oz in a gallon. So am I right in assuming this would cost $19 a gallon if you used dry vs fresh (2.62 a gallon)?? or am I crazy? What do you say? Did I read the unit cost wrong?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

Ann, It probably meant 15.5 cents per oz. of dried powder, which would probably make a large amount of milk once you add the water.

-- Marci (Marci@amazingrazefarm.com), January 21, 2002.

Hi Ann

They are likely giving the cost of the flakes themselves per ounce of weight.

You have to figure how many gallons it makes. Divide the cost of the by the number of gallons, for price per gallon. It should save you a little, but not a great deal, considering the change in taste, unless you can find it in bulk.

-- Rick Roane County WV/Stranded in Suburbia (Rick_122@hotmail.com), January 21, 2002.


Your right Rick. Better check that and report back. If you use it in cooking, like bread, pudding, white sauces, etc then you should not tell the difference. When in a pinch I have diluted a gallon with half dried and my family couldn't tell the difference. I use ALOT of milk each week and even a little savings would be worth looking at. Also, we live far from town so there is the gas/car maintenance thing too.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 21, 2002.

Ann, I have a 4 pound box from Aldi's. It makes 5 gallons of milk and costs $6.99 which is a cost of about $1.40 per gallon. I like to use it for cooking and in recipes, but they just don't like it to drink, and to tell the truth I don't either. This is powdered milk, which is what I hope you are talking about.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 21, 2002.

Don't forget to add in the cost of the water where you live (if you are on a well, I don't know how you'd figure the pumping cost for the electricity used per gallon) if you're making up the powdered milk, in some places water is very expensive.

I don't think it is that much cheaper. I usually buy the extra gallons when it is "buy one get one free" at the store and freeze the extra (taking out a cup of milk to allow for expansion). Just a thought.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 21, 2002.



Melissa

That is a great bargain! Does Aldi's have a WWW?

-- Rick (WV) (Rick_122@hotmail.com), January 21, 2002.


Ann, I would be cautious about using only dried milk. Have read that the proteins are damaged in the processing and can result in a less than healthful product. Also, you need some fat (cream) for the absorption of nutrients. I recall a young mother was trying to budget and started giving her one-year old reconstituted dry milk. One day, the baby tumbled off the bed (I remember it as being quite a low bed) and broke her collar-bone. The mom was advised to use regular milk, which she did from then on.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 21, 2002.

ditto the above regarding babies and toddlers and dried milk...from birth through age 5 kiddos NEED fat in their diet and brain development actually is directly related to the fat in the diet..as far as the topic of saving $$$ using dried milk, I think it's a no contest thing..a gallon of milk here in AL is nearly $3.00 (and you KNOW it isn't the farmers making those big bucks, eh?)..I buy powdered milk in the largest sized container I can find...because it is usually just the two of us, it lasts an entire year! I use it for evrything but have to say that I sure can tell the difference when I make biscuits or French toast..it leaves an aftertaste that I really do not like..but since we do not drink milk, it's a waste to buy even a quart..I'd end up feeding it to the chickens when it went bad! When my kids were little (school age), I used to mix 1/2 gallon reconstituted powdered milk with 1/2 gallon whole milk..they never knew it as long as the milk was good and cold. With ll of our own kids in the house as well as a bunch of foster children I was always looking for ways to provide a nutritional tasty meal at a lesser cost..had I lived in the country, I definetly would have had a nice Jersey cow..best of the best!

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), January 21, 2002.

If what you buy is non-fat milk (in gallon jugs) it doesn't make much difference, and can in fact be cheaper than buying dried, depending on where you live. If what you buy is whole milk in gallon jugs, then there is probably a significant difference.

As far as kids and fat, most kids (in the US anyway) are not on low-fat diets by any stretch of the imagination, so they would normally get adequate fat from meat, peanut butter, etc. Would not necessarily have to be milk fat.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 22, 2002.


Rick! Racking my brain on the WWW??? If you mean a website, it is www.aldi.com but I don't think they list prices, just the store sites, and new items.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 22, 2002.


We have young ones, so the husband picks up the milk on the way home from work at WalMart-- we save a dollar.

-- Dawn (olsoncln@ecenet.com), January 22, 2002.

I've found here, that powdered milk is not that much cheaper than regular milk and we don't like the taste. I still use it though-I use it in bread and soup mix and the best use for it is cocoa mix-my kids love the hot cocoa mix with powdered milk and it helps streach the regular milk if we are running low, plus you can keep it on the shelf-for camping or power outages.

-- Kelly(KY) (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

I agree with not giving the powdered milk to the little ones, at least not for their main milk source.

It will taste better if you make it up the day before use, so it is well chilled. Also, a drop or two of vanilla helps the taste.

We use it for with powdered SlimFast for a breakfast drink, also in cooking.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), January 22, 2002.


I believe I pointed out children under age 5..these kids should not be eating lots of junk ,or peanut butter,(kids under 3 for the peanut butter) so the whole milk fat is a good thing..after age 5, it truly doesn't matter if kids drink milk at all.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), January 22, 2002.

Lesley, why no peanut butter (in a reasonable amount and supervised) if the child is not allergic to peanuts? Also, from what I've read, after age 5 children should be drinking non-fat milk (and other non-fat milk products as well) if drinking milk at all.

I would also say that it is not uncommon to still be breastfeeding up to age 2, and in some cultures up to age 5.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 22, 2002.



Visit realmilk.com

Enlightening!

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 22, 2002.


At 15.5 cents per dry ounce ,,, it will cost you $1.86 per gallon of milk...( dry milk and water..)....In our area a gallon of milk at the store costs about...3 bucks...I get my powder milk for free ( such a blessing ..) so I spend about $1.50 per gallon...( I mix half whole milk and half powdered milk...my hubby wont drink it otherwise..)...I mix a gallon to cook with ( mac and cheese casserole and mashed potatoes ect....)...which is free since I get the milk for free....who says you have to buy the cow...!!!!

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

Thanks Melissa (WWW is the World Wide Web or maybe was).

-- Rick (WV) (Rick_122@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.

OK Rick, I didn't think it was World Wide Wrestling!!!!! Which is the only thing that popped into my head! I am awfully slow when it comes to abbreviations as you all can tell by now!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 23, 2002.

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