Money Saving Mom®

Guest post by Adrienne from Whole New Mom

Milk alternatives are really filling up the grocery and health food store shelves. That’s due mostly to the many people (like some in my family) who have dairy allergies or who are lactose intolerant. And if you have someone in your family with food allergies, you know how finding (and affording) substitute foods can be really tricky.

Well, today I’m sharing how you can save a lot of money by making your own rice milk. Even if you don’t have someone in your home with a dairy allergy, this is a great tip for all of us who love to cook and bake. The next time you run out of milk while you are baking, just whip up a batch of this rice milk and you’ll be able to finish your recipe–no problem!

I figured this out one day while shopping at a health food store. While looking at the options in the “milk substitute aisle”, I noticed that the only ingredients listed on the boxes were–grain, water, and occasionally sweetener and flavoring. There just had to be a way to make this myself and save a lot of money.

So I went home, got out my blender, estimated the amount of rice and water I should use, added a dash of salt and a tablespoon of sweetener, and the rest is money-saving history!

Make Your Own Rice Milk or Milk Substitute

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked rice (I prefer to use brown organic for a more nutritious option. We buy it in bulk to save money.)
• 4 cups water (filtered, if possible)
• Dash salt (I recommend RealSalt)
• 1 Tablespoon sweetener (or to taste; optional)
• Additional flavoring (optional; vanilla for vanilla-flavored milk; to taste)

Method

1. Place all ingredients in blender.
2. Blend for four minutes in a regular blender, or two minutes in high-speed blender like a Vitamix.
3. Enjoy!

Tips:

• Use less or more rice, depending on how thin or thick you like your rice milk to be. Standard rice milk is thinner than regular cow’s milk.
• Filtered water is extremely important. You can read my post on Is Your Water Safe? to see more about water quality concerns.

• Add other flavorings like chocolate too. Makes a great alternative to chocolate milk.
• If you’ve been thinking about a Vitamix and someone in your family has an allergy to dairy, you won’t believe how much time and money this machine will save you. And clean up is a breeze!
• Prepare extra rice ahead of time, portion it conveniently (like one cup in each bag) into small plastic bags and secure with a Twixit Clip (you can use any kind of clip, but these clips are amazing. They last basically forever, and have a lifetime guarantee! Good-bye pesky twist-ties!) Just thaw out your rice whenever you need rice milk, and if you have a Vitamix, it can handle the rice frozen.

How much money can you save?

A 32-oz container of rice milk costs about $2.70 each (even at a good price on Amazon.com). Assuming that a typical family would use about 2 of these containers each week, I calculate your savings as:

Buying boxed rice milk:
If you bought two 32-oz. containers of rice milk at the store at $2.70 per week for 52 weeks, you’d be spending $275.08 per year on rice milk.

Making rice milk:
It takes 3.25 ounces of rice to make 64 ounces of rice milk. Our family purchases brown rice in bulk at $1 per pound, which comes out to a cost of $0.20 per week for rice milk or $10.40 per year for the rice needed for a year’s worth of rice milk.

Annual savings: $264.64.

And you save even more when you add in the savings in car use and gas by not making another trip to the store!

Want more money saving tips? You might want to check out my posts on:

• Homemade Coconut Milk
• Homemade Lemonade (with sugar-free option)
• Easy & Moisturizing Foaming Soap
• Homemade Taco Seasoning

Adrienne, of Whole New Mom, is a wife and homeschooling mother of two boys, one of whom has Asperger’s Syndrome and life-threatening food allergies. She has a passion to help others navigate the sea of information on the road to healthier lives. She specializes in frugal living and simplifying special diets. You can also find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

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