"Desperate times call for desperate measures" as the saying goes. This week I found myself out of milk and with a debit card which was frozen by the bank after I bought something on behalf of my daughter at uni and the bank decided to freeze my card since it was an "uncharacteristic purchase". With very little cash in my purse (now everywhere is contactless) and no way of knowing whether the bank would unfreeze my card immediately or whether I would have to wait for a replacement I was forced to resort to a method that my mum used to use as a single parent in the 1970's. I bought blue milk and then added water to it to make it go further.
In our house we get through about 8 pints a week of semi-skimmed (green top) milk at the cost of about £2.18 per week. But if you buy blue top (full fat) milk at the same price then you can water it down by about a third with no detectable taste difference. I can attest to this as I decanted the milk into a washed green top container and NO-ONE spotted the difference. This despite my husbands assertion that he can tell when I go all "cheapskate". Since most of the milk I use is in cooking (sauces/pancakes/Yorkshire puds) anyway there isn't going to be much of a chance to spot the difference.
So much for milk that I want to use immediately but what about extras "just in case". It is tempting to have some dried milk in the cupboard given the COVID situation at the moment but look at the calculations. One tub of this cost £2 and makes 4 1/2 pints of reconstituted milk which makes it 44p per pint. Doing the maths it becomes £3.53 for 8 pints. (Prices from Tesco website) If you feel you must have some stock for emergencies then buy the fresh milk and freeze. It defrosts with no change in taste at all.
So assuming that I did this on a daily basis how much could I save - approx. 73p per week or £37.79 per year. One to remember for WTSHTF.
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