Heather says:
With the cost of fuel and feed rising, the price of dairy has been going through the roof. One way to fight back is to consider using nonfat dry milk for cooking. The cheapest fresh milk in my area is currently at $3.59 a gallon. The price for 5 gallons worth of nonfatdry milk, which is shelf stable, is at $10.49.
I don’t know about you, but I find $1.50 a gallon to be a significant savings. I use powdered milk anytime the milk would be heated. I’m a penny pincher, but I am not fond enough of the taste to enjoy an icy glass of powdered milk with a brownie. That being said, I don’t mind it over my oatmeal or in my morning coffee.
If you are serious about trying to replace all of your milk consumption with powdered milk, follow the measurements carefully and for heaven’s sake make sure it is served ice cold.
Some families have great success replacing half of their milk for drinking with reconstituted milk. To achieve this they mix half a gallon of fresh milk with half a gallon of reconstituted dry and chill thoroughly.
With a shelf life of eighteen months, fortified nonfat dry milk is a painless way to stretch those grocery dollars.
photo credit Michael Illuchine
When we moved to Hawaii a few years ago and milk was $4 a gallon, I switched to dry milk. My kids (7 were still home at the time) were not thrilled, but at least we did find a brand that I LOVED and the kids would tolerate. They asked me, “Do we have to do this forever?” I told them, “Hey, when we get Tim potty-trained and I don’t have to buy diapers any more, we’ll switch back. That will pay for the milk!” Would you believe that kid was trained in about three hours? ALL the kids pitched in and he got so sick of hearing “Tim, do you need to go potty? Are you *sure*??” So…our time with the dry milk was short but I still continued to cook with it and sneak it in whenever possible 🙂 Now I can’t find the brand I loved so we’re back to mainly fresh milk…
Hahahaha! Dry milk as potty trainer, I love it!
that is awesome!!!
i found a brand of dry rice milk that saves us significantly (the regular liquid rice milk is about 399 a quart), it works good in recipes, and makes a decent dairy free milk shake. dry milk is cool. i’ve also got regular dry milk powder and buttermilk powder as well (good in biscuits mm).
I love the Aldi brand of dry milk. It is dirt cheap and is great for baking or putting in anything. I use a lot of it around the holidays for making cocoa & chai mixes.
I’ve always kept dry milk around because my parents taught me that it was essential when you’re stocking staples…but I must confess that it’s still sitting there, unopened. I’ve never even TRIED to use it. Guess I’m gonna have to get up my nerve and bite the bullet…it seems such a great way to sneak in a little extra calcium…and I’ve got a toddler, so it’s bound to come in handy sooner or later!
Thanks for this great reminder. I will pick some up!! Heck, maybe we can get the Hungry Toddler potty-trained with this!
In response to the first comment above
Dear Heather: Your comment about $10.49 for a 20 quart equiv. box ?????
I bought the same box for about $6.88
a couple of months ago, I get three at a
time – this time I paid 12.99 which is
$13 bucks for all practical purposes, of course I only bought one this time. If every customer would do that, the price would come down. There are too many Fat-Cats between the producer and the consumer. Can’t really think of a reason why we have farm subsidies. At the present this
could be incorporated under the subject of war profiteering. During
WWII prices were fixed and there was
one fella in Europe who had War Profiteers executed. That of course was a heck of a deterrend when it came to ripping off the consumer. It is unfortunate that some conglomerates can fatten their take and blame it on the cost of energy. I
know that the farmers didn’t get a 110% increase for their product.
You see I do bake my own bread at least three loaves at a time, I dont pay $3.75 a loaf and I know what’s in it (something you probably cannot say about the “stuff” that you take off the store shelf).
So if you know of a manufacturer who does market this product for under $11.- I would certainly be interested to find out.
Thank you in advance
Ralph.