Powdered milk? Really cheaper?

[Shellie]

I bought some powdered milk. Went with a case of Bob's Red Mill (Amazon.com has it discounted if you sign up for their subscription program) and paid about $4/pound after the discount. Carnation brand would have been $3/pound from Sam's but Red Mill is supposed to be better and I try not to buy Nestle products.

Anyhoo...I've already gone through one of the four 24oz packages that came in the case. And the only thing I've used it for is milkshakes a few times! The normal milk I now buy is only $2.50 per gallon and I can get ice cream pretty cheap too...I'm failing to see how using $6.50 worth of powdered milk in a week saves me $$.

I can't even figure out how many oz of milk a pound of dry milk makes?

[kimnt]

I read that powdered milk is very unhealthy - it contains oxidized cholesterol. Personally I don't skimp on nutrition.

http://www.realmilk.com/moreraw.html

[Shellie]

Thanks for your thoughts...but I'm still trying to determine if it's cheaper. Hence posting in frugality rather than nutrition.

(I'm not using it as a primary source of nutrition by any means. What I read in that article does concern me but it also states that pasteurized milk is unhealthy as well. I've read that before and considered raw milk since I can get it here, but I decided against it for various reasons.)

[MomToKandE]

I know that "back in the day" it used to be cheaper but I'm not sure any more.

[Sarah8Jane]

Try calculating how many gallons of milk you can make with the whole box of powder. Then do the math. My box says right on the side "makes 10 gallons".

For me a cheap gallon of fresh milk is $3.50, sometimes I have to pay $3.89+. I can get 10 gallons worth of powdered milk for about $25.00. So that's a savings of $1 - 1.39+/gallon.

We were using powdered milk for everything last summer but DH has an IBD and had a flare up so we chose to switch back to fresh milk. I still use the powdered milk for baking or soups/sauces.

[Nursingnaturalmom]

I buy powdered from www.grandmascountry.com. I get a #10 can and it comes out to be about $2.79 a gallon.

I think a lot depends on what brand. I also have gotten Sanalac. Thats about $6.29 for a 3lb can.

Amazon has another brand that sounds pretty cheap. Have you odne a search under Powdered milk??
Chandi
As far as cheapness, i think its pretty even these days.

[MamaPam]

I kept reading how wonderfully cheap powdered milk was and if you at least halfed it with regular milk you'd save a ton of money. Well, after purchasing it and actually looking at cost per serving it is the same price as whole milk on sale. And even when milk is not on sale here it is barely cheaper. For us it is not a worth it.

[PrettyBird]

I checked the last time I was at the store because I had read about this on Hillbilly Housewife and it was the exact same price at the store. Even more expensive considering milk goes on sale. The only advantage I see is to keep on hand for emergencies.

[llamalluv]

It's really one of those "Your Mileage May Vary" kind of things. I keep hearing about $4/gallon milk, but I've never seen it where I've lived. Most of the time I buy milk for between $1.99 and $2.69 per gallon.

[Shellie]

Originally Posted by Sarah8Jane

but DH has an IBD and had a flare up so we chose to switch back to fresh milk. I still use the powdered milk for baking or soups/sauces.

Did he feel the powdered milk contributed? My 3yo dd has IBD and this is a concern for me as well....

[Shellie]

Mine doesn't say how many gallons it makes but it says the serving size is 1 cup as prepared and that there are 36 servings.

So I am assuming that means it makes 36 cups of liquid milk?

There are 16 cups in a gallon so this makes 2 gallons + 1 quart. So that makes this MORE expensive or equal to the milk I buy (2/$4.97 at Sam's for hormone/antibiotic-free).

So I guess after I use this up I'm not buying more! LOL!

And btw, I did get the idea from Hillbillyhousewife.com. I also used canned milk in recipes for a while per that site, but also figured out it's not cheaper.

The "Frosty" recipe is really yummy, but you could do the same with fresh milk...using ice instead of ice cream to get that frozen texture.

[SusannahM]

It's cheaper for us since we go through milk very, very slowly and it goes bad before we finish it. Since dry milk doesn't go bad, we save money with it.

[bigeyes]

It isn't cheap at all where I live.

[EnglishRose]

Originally Posted by SusannahM

It's cheaper for us since we go through milk very, very slowly and it goes bad before we finish it. Since dry milk doesn't go bad, we save money with it.

:

[Sarah8Jane]

Originally Posted by Shellie

Did he feel the powdered milk contributed? My 3yo dd has IBD and this is a concern for me as well....

Well, it's hard to say. He was eating cracked wheat with powdered milk for breakfast, chocolate whey powder drinks with lunch, and way too much cheese (and fat) with dinner. He said it was the powdered milk, but (I think his overall diet was just plain, pretty awful) I just revamped both our diets - higher quality protein was the big thing for us.

It definitely sounds like fresh milk is a better deal for you. And I suppose it's no surprise we save a little here on powdered since it ships easier than fresh.

I just read on my sister's blog that she's buying 4% milk and cutting it with water. Anyone have thoughts on that?

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by Sarah8Jane

I just read on my sister's blog that she's buying 4% milk and cutting it with water. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Besides being gross, you are loosing the nutrition of the milk especially the calcium.

[APBTlover]

I've never really figured up how much it costs us... we always keep some stored A) for emergencies and B) to cook/bake with until our organic milk goes on sale again. When we run out of fresh milk, we just don't have cereal/milkshakes/etc.

[wannabe]

Originally Posted by Sarah8Jane

I just read on my sister's blog that she's buying 4% milk and cutting it with water. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Since the % refers to the fat content, not the amount of everything else in the milk, she might as well drink the water and milk seperately.

[Ruthiegirl]

It works out to be cheaper for me, but milk is very expensive where I live. Not sure why we pay so much more for milk....

We pay $8 for a gallon of organic, $7 on sale.

We pay $4.69 for a gallon of conventional.

So yah, dry milk saves me a few bucks.

[Pancakes]

A 2lb box of Publix brand non-fat powdered milk is 7.99* where I live. The box makes 2.5 gallons of milk. I use powdered milk very rarely and have it on hand because.....well, I don't know why. Lately it's been to make the hillbilly housewife shakes. (which honestly wig me out with the cooking spray)

Publix brand fat free milk is 3.79 per gallon*. It is not organic, but is hormone free.

So by using powdered milk, one would effectively save 1.49 with every box of nasty tasting, less healthy, and possibly hormone laden powdered milk.


*Prices as of last Friday when both items were purchased.