Save on Frugal Milk and Dairy Products
I started buying milk from the store again after I sold my goats… and I really miss their fresh milk but the cost of keeping goats wasn’t sustainable for my family. It was wonderful to make our own cheese, yogurt, kefir, and other dairy products and I liked having control over the ingredients in my dairy products. So I still make these dairy products from frugal milk I purchase at the grocery store. This allows me to save money and reduce our plastic waste… win-win!
You might be interested in my articles The Easiest Way to Make Yogurt, Homemade Ricotta Cheese, and Queso Fresco ~ Easy to Make Cheese.
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Saving Money on Frugal Milk Purchases
Our grocery store reduces the price of milk (and other dairy products) when it has just a few days left before it expires. I don’t always find deals like this, but when I do, I buy as much reduced milk as I think I can reasonably use. This past week I bought 2 gallons of reduced-price skim milk. I made two batches of yogurt, and a batch of queso fresco, and then pasteurized the rest to keep it a little bit longer.
If you pasteurize the milk and chill it quickly, you can usually keep it for several days longer than the expiration date. You can also use the milk to make cottage cheese (or use it in baked goods) if it goes sour. Read my article How to Make Cottage Cheese from Sour Milk for instructions.
You can use these tips for using up milk that is about to pass the expiration date if you haven’t used it up in time!
Frugal Tip: Our grocery store has more space dedicated to single-serving containers of yogurt than they do for milk! (Even with the various kinds of soy, almond, coconut, lactose-free, organic, and other specialty milk.) I never buy these small containers because they are much more expensive per serving than buying a 32oz tub. So if you don’t have time to make your own yogurt, buy the larger tubs and divide it up into small glass or plastic containers to pack in your lunches. Add a little jam, honey, or granola for flavor!
Do you buy ‘reduced for quick sale’ milk? How do you use it? Leave a comment!
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We love cheese and homemade cheese is so good! Actually, pretty much everything taste better homemade, doesn’t it? 😉
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The best thing I’ve found to do with extra milk is to make paneer.If you cut them in small enough cubes and make brine with the whey you can use it like feta cheese in greek salad.Mozerella takes alot of work and the failure rate is high.
I haven’t tried Mozerella, but I love it. So someday I hope to try making it. The paneer sounds like a great idea too…Feta is awesome 🙂 Thanks for sharing, AfterThoughtFarms!
Thanks for your reply. I didn’t realize a gallon doesn’t make a ton of cheese. LOL. I made mozzarella, and then ricotta from the whey so far. The mozzarella was enough for the pizzas I made tonight, with a little left over. I am really enjoying the experience of making my own cheeses. 🙂
Oh yes…you end up with a lot of whey compared to the amount of cheese! I’m glad you are enjoying the cheese making, Rebecca!
I just bought raw milk over the weekend, so I can try out the cheese making supplies I ordered. Do you know if I can freeze some of it and thaw to use in other batches? Or should I make cheese and freeze what I can’t eat right away? I don’t want to waste any of the milk.
Hi Rebecca,
In my experience, raw milk doesn’t freeze very well. However, I never froze it to make cheese, so I don’t know if it will affect the recipe. I think that cheese will freeze well, although it gets a bit crumbly…so if you have the time to make the cheese and freeze it, that might work best.
Best wishes!