Keeper of our Home

Apr. 18, 2008

Grocery Budgeting Part 7

How I make our yoghurt.

We eat yoghurt 5 nights of the week as our dessert. I like to do this as it's high in calcium for the children, as we don't drink a lot of milk.

I use the easi yo sachet but not fully! I take 2 heaped tablespoons of the easi yo powder and add 1 1/2 cups of full milk powder( cost about $1.50). I prepare it in the usual way. When I mix up the set yoghurt for dessert I first take out several tablespoons, and set this aside to use as my starter for the next litre of yoghurt.

So the next time I make yoghurt I don't use the easi yo powder, but my 'starter'. I use a new starter each day from the set yoghurt.

This costs about $1.50 per litre- really just the cost of the milk powder ( which is very expensive at the moment). This is still far cheaper than buying ready made yoghurt. I think the cheapest would be about $4 for a litre. By making it this way I save at least $12.50 per week, a saving of $650 per year!

We used to have tinned fruit with our yoghurt every dessert, but I decided to make bulk apple sauce seeing that I could buy apples for 30-40c per kg from the local orchard ( seconds).Everyone loves the thick, chilled apple sauce on their yoghurt- it has become a hit in our family! This is great, as it saves me 5 tins of fruit each week @ 70-90c per tin. The apples sauce for the week would be about 60c, so a weekly saving of $3-4, a saving of $150-200 per year.

So by making our own yoghurt and fruit toppings this way we save up to $850 per year. So is it worth the extra effort of pealing all those apples and cooking them, preparing the yoghurt every night? Yes, it is! Many of these ways to save some $$$ does involve extra time investment. The children and I peel and cook up the apples together, and talk as we work- time well spent I say!

I need to start making apple sauce again as my supply is nearly finished for the year. I try and make over 50 litres over the winter months for the freezer which lasts us until the apples are cheap again.

On Saturday and Sunday evenings we have a homemade dessert usually served with ice cream. This would cost us more, about $3 per time...but it's yummy!! And for 8 people that's not even 40c each per serving.

What do you do to save $$ on desserts? Many of you would say- well, we don't have desserts. As I said earlier I think it's important for us to have the yoghurt as we don't have milk on cold cereal, or drink a lot of milk.From my research also yoghurt is better for you than cow's milk hence we don't drink it.

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Comments

Jun. 3, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by praiseherinthegates

Guess what? I made my first batch of yogurt last night and it came out beautifully... I am so excited! We also have a beautiful, big patch of rhubarb growing in the garden which I am busily harvesting. I even made rhubarb sauce and put it away in the freezer.

Thanks for the encouragement.

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I love being a stay at home mum with our six beautiful children from the Lord. Each day we strive to live faithfully for Him in thankfulness for His gift of full and free salvation.