the Renaissance Housewife
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Saving >
      • Kitchen >
        • Food >
          • Recipes
      • Bath & Laundry
      • Medicine Cabinet
      • Office
      • Electricity
      • Gardening
      • Foraging
      • Animals
      • Weekly F. A.'s
      • Printables & Downloads
    • Earning
    • Investing
  • Books
  • About
    • RH Recommends
    • Newsletter & Updates
    • Travel
    • Beta Readers
    • Legal Stuff

ROI of Making Yogurt

6/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Making your own yogurt is a great way to stretch those food dollars. It doesn't take special tools or skills, plus it is something healthy that you can make every week. Making yogurt is as easy as stirring and boiling water. You can read my tutorial here. 

Finding The Savings
How much money is there to be saved by making yogurt? As always, it depends on how much yogurt you go through, as well as how much you pay for milk. We tend to use about two quarts of yogurt per week, and the milk is free because I get it from my goat. At Walmart, I would pay about $2.67 per quart.

($2.67 x 2 qts = $5.34) - $0.58 (cost for a small container of yogurt to use as "starter culture) = $4.76 weekly savings for Bethany

Let's say I make theoretically make yogurt 50 weeks out of the year (exclude two weeks for vacation).

$4.76 x 50 = $238.00 yearly savings for Bethany

For the People Without Goats
I know that most people don't have access to free milk, so in that case is making yogurt still economical? Let's do the math.

$0.58 starter + ($2.00/gal. divided by 2 = $1.00) = $1.58 (divided by 2 qts. = $0.79/qt.)

$2.67 (store bought qt.) - $0.79 (homemade quart) =  $1.88 potential savings for every quart.

So, depending on how much yogurt your family goes through, you could be saving:

1 quart = $1.88/wk ($94.00/yr)
2 quarts = $3.76/wk ($188.00/yr)
3 quarts = $5.64/wk ($282.00/yr)
4 quarts = $7.52/wk ($376.00/yr)
5 quarts = $9.40/wk ($470.00/yr)
6 quarts = $11.28/wk ($564.00/yr)

Hourly Wage
It takes about 15 minutes of actual hands-on work to make yogurt. As I said before, that work involves heating milk, stirring in yogurt starter, and dumping the mixture into a yogurt container to incubate. If you don't have a yogurt maker, you will have to use the "mason jars-in-a-cooler-with-hot-water" method, which may take 30 minutes.

Hourly wage with yogurt maker (2 quarts): $3.76 x 4 (15 minute increments) = $15.04
Hourly wage without yogurt maker (2 quarts): $3.76 x 2 (30 minute increments) = $7. 52

However, keep in mind that it takes just as long to heat and cool a whole gallon of milk as it does to do a half-gallon, if you are using mason jars. With this in mind:

Hourly wage without yogurt maker (4 quarts):  $7.52 x 3 (30 minute increments) = $15.04

ROI of Making Yogurt
In my case, I got my yogurt maker and milk for free, so the only "investment" is the $0.58 yogurt starter.

$5.31 worth of yogurt = 915% ROI for Bethany

For everyone else making four quarts per week without a yogurt maker:

$0.79/qt. x 4 qts = $3.16 investment
$10.68 worth of yogurt = 338% ROI

Some Side Notes: One serving of flavored yogurt from the store contains more sugar than a chocolate chip cookie. I'm not kidding! However, this is to our advantage if we use store bought yogurt as a starter culture. I find that those 18 grams of sugar spread out over two quarts of yogurt gives just enough sweetness so that I can eat my homemade yogurt without adding sugar or honey or maple syrup. This too, saves money.

Some of you may be wondering how to use up a whole gallon of yogurt every week. Some people use yogurt to soak fresh-ground flours and grains with. We eat it for breakfast with granola or in smoothies. Yogurt can also be used as a condiment or in dips and dressings. Last night I used it as a spread on Greek-style lamb sandwiches. Speaking of Greek, you can make your own Greek yogurt by using a cheesecloth to strain out the whey. Greek yogurt can be strained even longer to make a kind of "yogurt cheese", which can be used to replace cream cheese in recipes.

Lastly, the price of milk fluctuates all the time. This is important to keep track of. If milk is $3.00 per gallon, your cost to make yogurt is going to be $1.00 per quart. If you can buy yogurt for $2.00/qt., or on sale for even cheaper, it may not be worth your time to make it. At the time of this writing, I believe it is still very much worth your time. But circumstances change, so keep an eye out. I've always wondered why Amy Dacyczyn (author of The Tightwad Gazette) recommended powdered milk when it is actually cheaper to buy real milk. Recently, while reading her books, I discovered that her cost per gallon of milk in the early 1990s was $2.19-$2.59. Earlier this year- 25 years later- you could get a gallon of milk for $1.89. Crazy!!!
​
******

Til next time,
-Bethany
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Bethany

    Housewife, happy wife, and mama to one. :)

    Picture

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food
    How to Eat for $10.00
    ​per Week

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning
    A Weekly Menu to Save
    Time & Money
    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to
    Frugal Fruits and Vegetables

    No Garden? No Problem!

    Watch Meals From the Bunker:

    Picture

    Check out my Youtube Channel!

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Baby Girl's Birth Story
    Picture
    8 Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Clothing
    Cooking
    Couponing
    Education
    Ego
    Electricity
    Farmers Market
    Finance
    Foraging
    Frugal
    Frugal Accomplishments
    Frugality
    Garage Sales
    Gardening
    Gifts
    Grocery Budget
    Grocery Shopping
    Herbs
    History
    Hobby Farm
    Home Based Business
    Home-based Business
    Home Decorating
    Housekeeping
    Industry
    Languages
    Laundry
    Marriage
    Meal Planning
    Medicine
    Minimalist
    Network Marketing
    Organization
    Plants
    Product Reviews
    Quotes
    Recipes
    ROI
    Rv
    Sewing
    Simplicity
    Spanish
    Spending Report
    Travel

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Full Disclosure & Disclaimer

    Picture
    Picture
    I get cash back for many online purchases including wedding gifts and Ebay stuff!

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from dasWebweib, amanessinger, thewritingreader, diakosmein