bonjourhan

(Image source)

Creativity and a little strategy with dairy items is one way I can really save on our grocery budget. How many of us have little containers of sour cream or cottage cheese languishing in the back of our refrigerator because we bought it for a recipe and only used half of it?

Our family has gone through periods of avoiding dairy, particularly when my oldest son was lactose-intolerant for the first five years of his life. If that is you, I will address dietary restrictions in another post. Stay tuned for that!

Substitute

One of the most important things when it comes to saving on milk products is to be flexible. (I see you over there, you with the horrified look and quizzical brow. Just take a deep breath and release your death grip on that recipe.) Don’t be afraid to substitute. If you get a good sense of what you can substitute in different contexts, then you don’t have to buy six different dairy items that barely get used and then sit in the back of your fridge until they finally go bad. For example, we rarely have sour cream on hand. But you can substitute yogurt (Greek or otherwise) in most recipes. We also use plain yogurt instead of sour cream for topping our Mexican food, chili, curries, etc.

I often buy the actual item, but in a pinch, here are some common substitutions I make based on what I have and what I need:

• If you don’t have sour cream:
  • Plain regular yogurt
  • Plain Greek yogurt
• If you don’t have buttermilk:
  • Regular milk with a splash of lemon juice or vinegar to sour it
  • Whey
  • Almond milk with a splash of lemon juice or vinegar to add tartness
  • Yogurt thinned/mixed with water
• If you don’t have milk (for cooking, not drinking):
  • Whey
  • Almond milk
  • Yogurt thinned/mixed with water
  • Cream or half-and-half thinned with water
  • Any other thicker dairy product thinned with water
• If you don’t have half and half or cream (for cooking):
  • Yogurt mixed with milk
  • Milk mixed with a little bit of extra butter/oil
• If you don’t have yogurt:
  • Sour cream
  • Cottage cheese

And I rarely have exactly the kind of cheese a recipe asks for. I substitute cheeses right and left. It may change the flavor slightly, but it’s usually a delicious substitution.

Use it anyway

Has your milk gone sour? Did you find a spot of mold in your yogurt? Don’t throw it out! You can still use expired dairy for baking, as long as it hasn’t gotten really nasty. Get rid of the moldy spot (if there is one) and proceed as usual. The heat of the baking process will take care of it just fine, and you will never know the difference.

Freeze it

Many dairy items can be frozen easily, so if you find a good sale, buy a few extra and stick them in the freezer! For example, one time I found goat milk on sale at a local discount store for $0.99 per quart. My then-lactose-intolerant son could tolerate goat milk in baked goods. You’d better believe I bought 10 of them and stuck them in the freezer! Note: Yogurt does not freeze well.

We’ll dig into this freezer topic a little further in a later post.

Make it

Sometimes it really is cheaper to make it yourself. Making my own yogurt saves us a lot of money. Click here to go to the recipe. Plus, you end up with a lot of whey, which can be used in many ways.

I have only made ricotta once or twice, but you can make it in the microwave out of milk and lemon juice.

As mentioned in the substitutions section, you can make a buttermilk substitute by adding a splash of lemon juice or vinegar (preferably apple cider vinegar or white vinegar) to regular milk and letting it sit for a few minutes.

Do without

Did you know that you can use water instead of milk in my favorite cornbread recipe and it still turns out delicious? You can also use water instead of milk in my favorite bread recipe and it still tastes amazing (because HOMEMADE BREAD). If you’re making macaroni and cheese, then you obviously can’t use water instead of milk (though I have used whey!), but when baking, be willing to try substituting water for milk and see if you notice a difference. You might. But you also might not, and if it is something you make a lot, it can really add up over time.

Do you have any other tips and tricks for saving money on dairy products?

Other posts in the Stretch Your Grocery Budget series:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Meal Planning
• Part 3: Dairy
• Part 4: Breakfast
• Part 5: Freeze It