How To Save Money With Raw Dairy

In this post, I will show you how to save money simply by trading in store bought dairy and opting for made from scratch raw dairy products. In doing so, you will help heal your gut and save money in the process.

Why Do People Choose To Drink Raw Milk?

If you have never lived in a rural community, you might not even realize that people drink milk straight from the cow. To be honest, I never grew up doing so. My grandmother always had cows so my mom and her family often drank fresh milk but we never did. In fact, for many years we switched from whole milk, to 2%, and then to skim milk (which really is mostly sugar and water.) We thought we were making the “healthy” choices when in fact we were moving in the opposite direction! So why do people actually choose to drink raw milk?

• Nutrition: Raw milk contains many vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fatty acids 
• Digestion: Raw milk is easier to digest than pasteurized milk 
• Immune system: Raw milk can help build the immune system 
• Allergies: Raw milk can help with allergies and asthma 

Now I will not go into depth about the many health benefits of raw milk or the controversy surrounding it. You can read all about that in this previous post. It is actually quite interesting on how exactly the rumors started about raw milk being dangerous for consumption.

My Homesteading Adventures

Okay, so real talk…we do not currently live on a farm or a large piece of land. I grew up living on one, but now I live in a cozy townhouse in the middle of the city until the amazing day comes that we can finally move into my dream home, THE MANOR! Even so, the country life will always be for me. Our Manor is still in town but in a very rural community. It is my little “Mayberry.” Maybe you have a big gorgeous farm or perhaps you are like me in my current chapter of life. Maybe you are living in the city or even in the suburbs with a country heart. I am here to show you that you CAN homestead in even the most urban of areas. You might not be able to have a dairy cow of your own but you can maybe get access to fresh milk. If you live in an area where it is banned or it is out of reach, organic dairy is the next best thing! You can buy organic cream and learn to make butter with it. Start a small potted garden on your balcony or even an herb garden indoors. You can make your own natural cleaning products or laundry detergent. Do not give up on your dreams of becoming a homesteader. There are alot of fun things you can do!

A Little Homesteading Experiment

I’ve been drinking raw milk for awhile now and our whole family has really grown to love it. We have a new supplier and I have decided to switch all of our dairy products to raw milk grass-fed versions. Luckily, our milk person has had enough milk for us to buy several gallons at a time. This made me start to wonder if I could actually save money buy turning some of the raw milk into our favorite and most used dairy products. I thought I would perform an experiment, writing down the cost of the milk and comparing the cost I would have spent at the grocery store buying the same products, only mine would be organic, grass-fed, and full of gut healthy benefits. Could I save money and is it really worth the work involved in making each of the products. Let’s explore this…

Making Butter

We had bought 5 gallons of milk this last pickup but I decided to just use two gallons for this experiment. The first thing I chose to make was butter. We are usually running low by this time so it is the first thing I will make. I take each of the half gallon jars and scoop out the heavy cream.

Did you know that raw milk has 3 layers? The very top layer is the thickest because it has the most milk fat. This layer is what you need to make butter and whipped cream. All other layers are too thin and it will not set up properly. The second layer still has alot of fat but is still thinner than the heavy whipping cream. This is the “half and half” layer. I love to use this in my morning coffee, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, and cream sauces. When you are scooping the half and half, you’ll know when you are at the final layer, the drinkable milk layer. The texture is much thinner and has a different hue about it. It is less yellow in color. It is okay to leave a tiny bit of half and half in with the milk but make sure you shake it well before drinking.

The heavy cream I skimmed from the two gallons of raw milk yielded about half a pound of butter or 2 sticks, one pint of buttermilk, and it also made two and a half pints of half and half for my coffee!

Making Cheese

We are a cheese family, especially mozzarella cheese. We love our family pizza nights and baked lasagna. It also is added to macaroni and cheese and makes a great caprese salad. Making mozzarella from raw milk is incredibly easy and I will share the process with you in my next blog post!

I left one gallon of milk for drinking and used one of the gallons of milk to make 8.5 ounces of mozzarella cheese and three quarts of whey.

Let’s Do The Math: Was It Worth It?

If you’re not a math person, bare with me…

I purchased my two gallons of raw milk from the farmer for $7 each. 7×2= $14 (amount total invested)

The two gallons of milk provided me with a half a pound of butter (2 sticks). I found Organic Valley butter online at Walmart.com for $7.98/lb. So $7.98÷2= $3.99.

Making butter also provided me with one pint (half a quart) of buttermilk. I found this similar buttermilk from Sprouts for $4.29/quart. So, $4.29÷2= $2.15.

We also yielded 2.5 pints of half and half for my morning coffee. I found this Organic Valley Grass Fed Half and Half for $4.39/pint. So that’s $4.39×2.5=$10.98.

I made 8.5 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese. Online, BelGioioso sells an 8 oz block of cheese at Walmart for $3.94. So we saved a little over $4 with ours.

That mozzarella cheese also made 3 quarts of liquid whey. This one was hard for me to track down. Most whey I found were in powdered form used for protein shakes, etc. and that is hard to compare apples to apples as mine is in liquid form. I FINALLY found this site that listed fresh A2/A2 liquid whey for $5.50/quart. So, $5.50×3=$16.50.

2 gallons created all of this PLUS, we STILL had a gallon of milk to drink! Lastly, if you factor that in, a half gallon of grass-fed organic milk from Horizon brand at Walmart costs $6.37. $6.37×2=$12.74.

The Final Verdict

Okay friends…let’s do this:

$3.99+$2.15+$10.98+$3.94+$16.50+$12.74= $50.30

$50.30 if you bought all of this at the stores!! We spend $14…. PLUS ours has the added benefits of raw milk. I’d say this was well worth the time I put in and these are foods I feel proud to feed my family.

One last calculation: $50.30÷$14= 3.59

This means that we would have paid over 3.5 times as much money buying these items at the store. I cannot unlearn this. That is more money I can spend on our Manor renovation project or at the thrift store! 😅

I hope this little experiment of mine inspired you to try these homesteading projects yourself. It is a fun and fullfilling way to feed your family healthy foods. Homesteading without the homestead…Cheers!