It will work!

I have always been a 'budgeted' person, but with all the food, energy, housing, etc. crisises we are facing, I have been trying to find ways to keep our spending at the same level. A few things we have done are: recycle more (equals less trash bags we go through), cutting down on unnecessary driving, sticking to a grocery list and using more coupons, and the big, new thing is using powdered milk!

So, most of you are going - yuck, gross, no way, Jose - I can hear it now. But, it is not as bad as you think! I grew up on powdered milk and even used it in college, but David and the girls won't touch it. Here is what we do: we mix it half and half with whole milk. I have been a milk nazi by absolutely refusing to buy more than one gallon a week (very hard to do with David and Pam!), so we tried to see how/if we could stretch the milk with everyone using the same amount. All new recipes must be okayed by David before becoming a 'regular' and he actually likes the 'new' milk! And, a gallon of milk from the store lasts twice as long (I am cheering). Here is the math (simplified): if you were to use straight powdered milk, milk is about $1/gallon and a gallon of milk from the store is about $4, so now we are spending about $2/week in milk verses the $4 before - 50% savings!

I know, I know $2 may not sound like a lot, but over time and combined with other things we are doing, we have been able to keep our bills the same as before.