Milk Math

The last few weeks I have been walking a financial tight rope trying to keep two households running while we orient ourselves and figure out what we are going to do in the future. It has been more than a headache. One of the most unexpected parts has been the inability to keep enough milk in the fridge.

I don’t know about every other family but my family has never been easy on the milk supply. I remember our fridge always having at least one gallon of milk if not two. Everyone in our family LOVES milk and at almost $3.65 a gallon it is not inexpensive- especially in large quantities. At the moment I cannot think of one member that does not. (We even have a family photo that was used in a national milk commercial in the thirties.)

I guess our love affair with milk has had its advantages. What my parents spent on milk they gained back in low doctor and dentist bills. I have never had a cavity and if my memory serves me right, Jason has not had one either. Neither of us have ever broken nor sprained any bones- except for that nasty little nose thing with Jason a few months ago. Of course if you really want to get technical, it was only cartilage that he broke- not bone.

Even when I moved out of my parent’s house I bought milk by the gallon. It always was used by the expiration date for sure. We are milk drinkers.

Lately this concept is being realized in a whole new way- and not nearly as appreciated this time. Since we have been back in Wichita Falls- Jason was married on the 7th of July- I have purchased a total of seven gallons of milk and my grandfather has purchased four. That comes to a grand total of ELEVEN gallons of milk in just over two weeks. That is almost ONE GALLON A DAY! At $3.65 the total for all eleven gallons comes to $40.15. Talk about needing a budget!

I am just amazed. How can one twenty-something, two sixteen year olds, and one seventy-six year old drink eleven gallons of milk in just that short amount of time? It’s not like I allow my brothers to have a glass during the day or at anytime they want. My parents didn’t either. I have no idea how we are drinking this much milk?

I do know that my grandfather has two glasses a day, give or take one, which averages out to fourteen glasses in a full week. This would be essentially one and three-fourths gallons of milk each week- not all that much.

That being the case, occasionally I will have a bowl of cereal in the morning, but not always, as I am not a morning person. So, assuming I have one bowl a day- lets round up and make the bowl a whole cup of milk- that equals seven cups a week. What I sometimes do is have a glass in the evening. (I do not do that every day by any means.) So let’s tack on an extra four glasses to my tally. I am now at eleven cups of milk in a week. This would put my intake at approximately one and three-eights of a gallon each week.

So, my grandfather and I can be held responsible for almost two gallons of milk in a week. Let’s round up and multiply that number by two to have a grand total of four gallons. (Remember- so far we have rounded up in every situation.)

Assuming that my numbers are somewhat correct; David and Brandon are responsible for each downing three and a half gallons of milk- a total of seven- since we have returned on July 7th.

That is totally outrageous! How on earth did my parents keep milk in the house and money in their pocket?

With all the problems that have come up- the milk situation, where I feel as if I am buying a gallon every other day- has been the most astounding. It may do a body good, but goodness… this is ridiculous!