A lesson in economics

Or how sometimes making food from scratch can cost less (but not always).

I drink almond milk, the unsweetened unflavored kind. I usually get it from Trader Joe’s but I’m brand-agnostic and will pick up a half gallon wherever I happen to be.

Three weeks ago, a half gallon cost $1.69. Two weeks ago, the price was $2.69. Saturday, the price was $3.69. 

Well that’s a big jump in price and yes, I know all food costs are rising. This one just happened to catch my attention. So I decided I would make my own–while there are recipes all over the internet, I used the one in my Bad Manners cookbook. 

To be honest, the flavor blew both Kent and me away. It’s creamy, rich, and utterly delicious. It’s also a lot of work as after soaking the almonds, and then blending them in a very high powered blender (so glad we have our Vitamix), you have to strain all the nut pulp out. That was a real chore.

Still, the milk is amazing and I suspected we were saving money. I ran the numbers and no, no we were not saving money. At least not using that recipe.

Bad Manners uses two cups of almonds per batch, which yields six cups of almond milk. All the other recipes I found use just one cup for the same yield. So today I added more water to our current batch of milk and it still tasted just wonderful.

Here’s the cost breakdown if you’re interested:

Commercial almond milk (76 ounces): 

• At $1.69 a carton, it’s 2 cents an ounce
• At $2.69 a carton, it’s 3.5 cents an ounce
• At $3.69 a carton, it’s 4.8 cents an ounce

Homemade almond milk–the almonds cost $10.99 a package. If I use two cups per batch, I get 27 cups. Dropping the almonds down to one cup means I get 54 cups.

• Using two cups of almonds per batch yields 216 ounces at 5 cents per ounce
• Using one cup of almonds per batch yields 432 ounces at 2.5 cents per ounce