Impromptu Survey
Our grocery bill (like everyone else's, I'm sure) began creeping up this past year. I decided that we really needed to save a few bucks here and there, so I began to institute a "from scratch" kitchen. As I collect fantastic recipes (see post below) this is becoming a fruitful venture that I have enjoyed immensely! And our grocery bill is actually $20 per week less than it was a year ago, even with milk skyrocketing and a new mouth feeding from the table.
As I was talking to someone about milk consumption the past weekend, they seemed astonished that we go through 4-5 gallons per week for a family of 2 adults and 4 small children. So I am curious, how much milk do you go through? Does this seem like a lot to you? Please feel free to answer in the comments if you are so inclined!
When I began baking (and when milk was still under $3 per gallon), I joked to my husband "Hey, I promise I won't ask for my own cow!". Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to throw out that possibility!
posted by Mom of boys @ 11:38 AM
7 Comments:
From what I know that sounds pretty normal for a family like yours. Consider we go through a gallon. Maybe a gallon and a half. I drink my own skim milk but not every day. Jacob is my only milk drinker and he sometimes has water. Brian sometimes drinks it and uses it with his cereal. I maybe have one recipe a week that uses milk. I don't think you are far off base. We would only need a miniature cow. :)
We usually go through about a gallon a week. And that is for our tiny little family of 4. Katie drinks milk pretty often, and I make both kids drink a glass at lunch and dinner. Nick likes it with cereal in the morning and so do I. Sometimes Mike and I drink a glass but that is rare, and I do use at least a cup a week in recipes I would say.
We go through about 5 gallons a week for 2 adults and 5 kids, but I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast instead of cold cereal and it's summertime which means more water and juice and kool-aid and lemonade gets consumed than milk. I expect when the temperatures cool off that we'll go through about 7 gallons a week, and in cold winter months, maybe even more since I make hot cocoa from milk.
Oh, and we also get our milk at about $2.48 a gallon. United Dairy Farmers is the gas station on the corner, and with every 8 gallons of gas you can buy 2 gallons of milk. They also make the only decent ice-cream here, that is no where close to yummy Blue Bell.
I'd say we go through about one gallon - possibly one and a half gallons - per week. The kids used to drink more milk and I think we may have actually used closer to 2 gallons, but now Nathan prefers juice in the mornings and Alex wants juice over milk about every other day; occasionally they use milk in cereal. Amy still won't have anything to do with it.
We don't ever buy juice (empty calories) or anything else so my kids usually just drink milk or water. We have a milk man who brings fresh, Kemps milk right from the dairy (and if I run out before he comes during the week and go out to the store and buy it, I can really tell the difference now! The stuff from the store tastes NASTY compared!) and he keeps me stocked, even if I'm not there! I have a standing order for about 8 or 9 gallons a week (sometimes my hubs is out of town so we don't use as much those weeks). It seems like a lot but no one in this house has ever broken a bone! My hubs fell from about 10 feet in the winter time when a plank he was standing on slipped. The man he on it with fell and broke all kinds of bones and my hubs just got a bruised hip. I credit years of HUGE milk consumption with his ability to fight off a lot of diseases and stay pretty healthy considering he has chronic athsma and allergies. Probably the milk aggravates his lungs but he won't switch to anything else (stubborn!) so I guess he'll just have to keep working to pay for that spendy stuff! Oh, we have 5 children.
We buy 2 gallons per week and that will last 7-10 days. We don't drink milk. We drink water only. We use milk on our cereal (once or twice per week) and in baking like pancakes etc...we are a family of 8 with 7 at milk drinking age.
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