I have considered different options with milk. The reason UHT milk is cheaper for me is that I can buy up at a cheaper supermarket and also buy up when it’s on sale. It was cheaper to buy UHT than fresh locally here but I will have to recheck that now. I know they like to swap and change things to catch people out.

I used to mix powdered milk with our fresh milk and when I went to UHT milk the savings weren’t as great so I got slack. I probably should look into that again now (do some calculations) and see if it’s worthwhile. Now that DD is eating 4 weetbix in the mornings and DS (who eats 5) has switched from mostly hot water and some milk to all milk, we are going through a lot more milk.

Emma - I think you just have to keep at it and refuse to give up. I’ve always worked on 1 or 2 ideas at a time so that I don’t get overwhelmed and give up. I also think it is more of a challenge if you have a tight income and can’t stock up on specials. It’s not so bad with pantry stuff as I buy nearly all generic brands. But with meat I can go weeks without buying any and all of a sudden have a big stock up on sales.

I think stubbornly refusing to spend money unless you have it will help though. I’ve also found switching to using cash has reduced my spending. It makes me more aware of what I’m spending. Although I do still use credit card when I do a BIG stock up shop though. Partly because it’s almost impossible to estimate how much cash I’d need and partly because we get flybuys points using our card in Coles (but not locally obviously).

With the UHT and fresh milk - here it’s always cheaper to buy fresh. I keep a couple of UHT in the cupboard for real emergencies (flooding etc), but have you thought about mixing it? That was how I got my kids to drink powdered milk, I would mix half powdered and half fresh and then lower the fresh until it was all powdered. Just add a little UHT to each bottle of fresh so they remember the taste

Good Going!

We do have a breadmaker (a wedding present that’s still going strong 11 years later). These days though I tend to mostly use the dough setting. I make rolls for the kids and buns with icing and sprinkles. We find on the full setting, the loaf is a difficult shape for cutting and the end bit gets wasted. Instead I’ve been using a soy and linseed mix and baking it in 2 loaf pans. It stretches further, is easier to cut and gets all used up before it goes stale. Even better, the soy and linseed mix doesn’t have preservative 282 in it. The kids will eat the soy and linseed bread but they do prefer the white. They do love freshly baked bread but will eat any kind of bread. We go through quite a bit of bread in this house.