Frugal shopper seeks cheaper milk after 25-cent price hike puts it at $6 a gallon

A Dollar Tree shopper is looking for a more affordable way to buy milk after a 25-cent price increase pushed their go-to option to the equivalent of $6 a gallon.

The buyer turned to Reddit's r/Frugal community for advice from other budget-minded shoppers.

Here's what to know

In the Reddit thread, the original poster explained that their shelf-stable milk had increased from $1.25 to $1.50 per quart, a 20% jump. OP wrote, "one of my frugal food favorites is not so frugal anymore."

The poster then added, "I always bought the shelf-stable milk at Dollar Tree, because I don't use much milk, and it was always spoiling, even in half gallons. … For those of you who freeze milk, what do you use to freeze it?"

OP explained that a friend's method involved partially freezing milk in freezer bags, flattening the bags, and finishing the freeze so they could be stacked, but wrote, "I'd be afraid to do that. What if the power goes out? Can you imagine the mess?"

Commenters quickly added suggestions for ways to keep milk from spoiling and to get it on the cheap.

One of the top comments read, "We started using lactose free milk which has a much longer shelf life and find ourselves not wasting as much."

Another explained, "I use an ice cube tray to freeze my milk, then put the cubes in a big ziplock freezer bag. 5 milk cubes is about 5oz of milk for me. I plop them in a jar, close the lid, and put in my fridge, then the next day it's thawed perfectly into liquid milk again."

A third commenter wrote, "I use powdered milk and just make what I need. Lasts for a long time." One user suggested, "You could also try evaporated milk (in cans). It's cheap, usually around $1-1.25."

For cooking, another commenter advised keeping canned evaporated milk on hand. They used shelf-stable milk for coffee, while powdered milk served their baking needs. Still, not every option suited the shopper, who already used evaporated milk and found the suggested smaller shelf-stable cartons more expensive than Dollar Tree's offering.

Where can I learn more?

Even a 25-cent increase in milk prices can strain an already tight grocery budget. These stories cover costly staples in Alaska and Florida and shoppers' spending trade-offs.

• In Bethel, Alaska, residents say $14 milk and $8 gas are making life unaffordable.

• Florida grocery prices rank among the nation's highest, and record diesel costs could push them higher.

• A North Carolina mom's frustration over grocery prices sparked a thread about shoppers' financial stress.

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