making my own yogurt saves me $200/ per year.

I have been doing this for close to 20 years, and have been saving $200+ per year. Its fairly easy to do, and provides incredible savings. To outline how much I have saved, I am going to make some simplifications for easy math. Recipe at the bottom.

Initial outlay costs $60

• Yogurt maker ($30) - I use the cheapest euro cuisine yogurt maker. I am on my third in 20 years.
• 7 cup pyrex ($30 for 2) - This fits perfect inside the euro cuisine yogurt maker and makes great yogurt. This size is 1.75 quarts.

Ongoing costs

• Milk ($4/gallon) -
• Non-Fat Dried Milk ($.63 per batch of yogurt) - $10 for 32 servings and I use two servings per batch of yogurt.
• Starter ($17 for 12 packets) - I can make this last a year.
• Electricity ($10/year) - This is probably way high but we should include something,

Yogurt cost

• $4.50 / quart at the store.

Assumptions

• A gallon of milk makes 3 quarts for us. Each batch is 1.5 quarts (technically a bit more) and do two batches per gallon of milk
• I add 2/3 of a cup of non fat milk per batch. This is two servings.
• A batch of yougurt (1.5 qts) lasts us about 5 days.
• I re-use the last dregs of the last batch of yogurt to make the next batch. I usually do this 2-3 times.
• Yogurt consumed per year: 100 quarts (365/5*1.5=109, rounded down to account for vacations

The Savings for 100 quarts of yogurt

• Initial Cost - $60
• Yearly cost of milk - $133 (3 quarts per gallon of milk, 100 quarts / 3 quarts per gallon * $4)
• Yearly cost of non-fat milk - $42 (100 quarts / 1.5 quarts per batch * .63 per batch)
• Yearly cost of starter - $17
• Yearly electricity cost - $10

• Total Yearly Costs - $202

• Cost if I purchased that much yogurt $450 - (100 quarts * $4.5)

• Savings in first year - $188

• Savings in subsequent years - $248.

Now this savings is probably on the low side, as I can get more yogurt per gallon of milk and there are ways to save a lot more on starter.

My Recipe

The 7 cup pyrex fits perfectly in the eurocuisine yogurt maker. If you use their little jars, you will be in for a lot more work for a lot less yogurt. This yields about 1.5 quarts of yogurt.

1. Place pyrex in eurocuise.
2. Put half a packet of starter in a jelly jar
3. Fill milk up about 3/4 of the way
4. add 1/3 cup of non fat dry milk.
5. Close jar and shake.
6. Add to the pyrex
7. repeat the steps above (2-7) one time.
8. Fill the pyrex with milk leaving a 1/4 inch head room. This makes it less messy in the end
9. Cover and let sit for 8-10 hours

When you are finished with your yogurt, don't wash the container just reuse it and omit the starter in the recipe above. You can do this 3-4 times with no issue. You can also use a dab of yogurt in place of the starter if you want to make a 2nd batch before the first is done.

This doesn't make greek yogurt, but adding the nonfat milk makes the yogurt a lot thicker than traditional store bought yogurt. You can turn it into greek yogurt by straining it. You lose about 1/4 of your yogurt this way.

Enjoy