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Milk prices are already high in some states, upwards of over $4.50 per gallon! What’s more important is that there is an issue that may make milk prices to increase to over $8 per gallon by the new year! The Washington Post wrote an article explaining all the details about WHY milk prices may go up and here’s the nitty gritty about it.
Why
Congress has not renewed the “farm bill” that renews federal support for dairy farmers
When
Congress has to make some sort of effort on the bill by Dec 31st
What
What happens IF Congress and the Government do nothing: the Agriculture Department would have to buy dairy products at $40 per hundredweight (about twice the current price). This would drive milk prices up to as much as $8 per gallon at stores all over
Now another factor in the milk price rise is there is not as much demand for the dairy product as there once was. The generation that drank mostly milk has now since hit retirement age and older. Newer generations have since come up with milk replacements like soy milk, juices, and more. A perfect example of the supply and demand struggle.
Even with the prices of milk going up you can STILL get it and save money.
- Walmart allows overage to be applied to the cart so you can always use that overage to cover milk
- Use ECB, UP Rewards, and Balance Rewards Points
- Shop around, sometimes convenience stores have milk at a cheaper price
So if prices do go up on milk what will you do? Stop buying milk or find a milk alternative?
I’ll continue to buy milk to make items at home, but I can tell you that I won’t be paying 7 dollars for a drink at Starbucks!!!
That is just crazy!
This is Nuts on so many levels!!! Just pass the bill. They all need milk just as much as the rest of us!!! However people trying to buy their own milk cow get a Ton of flack from the FDA because they may just want to Drink their own cows milk. Good grief!!!
Soy milk time 🙂
we already pay about $6.50 per gallon because i buy organic milk. if prices rise i will just adjust our household budget to accommodate the change.
Thats crazy. My kids will learn to like something else. They go through 2 gallons a week. Cant pay 8 per gallon at that rate
You can’t use UP rewards etc in all places. RA here in my town sells milk at “state minimum” (price our state sets as the minimum resellers are allowed to sell milk at), because of this I am not allowed to use coupons or anything else to bring the price below the state minimum… so if this goes into effect I will be forced to pay whatever the price of milk is set at at RA. Right now RA has milk for 3.60 a gallon, the grocery store across the street if 4.30 for the same gallon. Either way I am in trouble we drink 20 gallons of milk a month 🙁 we might be going off the milk!
It’s really sad to see this incidentally, since milk is already more expensive than juice and soda and therefore people are giving infants and small children more of the sugared drinks than they should 🙁
Where are you that milk is so expensive? I pay $2 at Walmart and $2.49 at Jewel. IMO, the rate hike will never happen so I’m not too worried about it. If it does then I’ll adjust our budget, my 3 and 4 yr olds love their milk and will always have it avail. I wonder how school would adapt. We paid $55 flat rate for my son in pre-k to have milk at lunch everyday. On Fridays they pick from white or chocolate milk. I’m pretty sure the cost of milk was already locked in with a contract for the school year.
Wow Meredith! We are in TX and pay same as Nicki. Where are you located that milk is still $2 for a gallon?
@Amanda, I’m about 70 miles outside Chicago close to the WI border..maybe because it’s the midwest so milk is cheaper? That’s crazy that you’re paying so much more.
Here in MA, the prices are pretty similar to Nicki’s… I’ve seen milk prices upwards of $4.69/gallon for regular cow milk. $2.50 is a diehard steal here and VERY VERY VERY rare..
I live in Western Ma, Worcester county, and at Cumberland Farms and CVS, I have never paid more than $3.50 per gallon, and its cheaper than that @ Walmart. Thankfully, I am lactose intolerant, and my daughter drinks milk at school, 2-3x per day. I hate soy, and all the other alternatives too. I love milk, but my belly doesn’t. I guess if milk goes up though, cheese, yogurt, sourcream, etc, all the products I do use will increase also. That would not fly well here….
Wow! That is ridiculous. I have 3 kids under age 6 who drink about 2 gallons per week. I would have to cut other things out of our grocery budget to allow for this price increase. We would still buy milk but we would have to cut out some other items.
This is fueled by a lot of media hype. The price will go up, but not $7-8 a gallon. They create a mass panic for parents of little kids who need this stuff and no one says a word about it. I love phrases like, “as much as”, because they get to speculate and report it as news. If all the speculation ceased and they were forced to report the actual news, we wouldn’t have to look at them 24 hours a day. It’s like recently, when we had a snowstorm here in Ohio. They popped on the television 15 times in one hour to tell us about the snow storm. Yeah, we know it’s snowing. We live in Ohio. Seen it! All this hype and worrying and usually for nothing. I don’t even watch the news anymore. If I want news, I’ll find what I’m looking for online.
This is exactly right, Heather. Sensationalism sells, and this is just another example.
You are so right Heather. The Media makes things so much worse than they really are!!
Drink Almond or Soy milk instead!
ALDI’s usually has lower prices than my local chain store for milk 🙂
We buy our milk from a local dairy that delivers (Smith Brother’s Farms in Kent, WA) and love their milk. We don’t even buy store sold milk anymore. We are currently paying 2.79 per half gallon, so we’d probably just switch to store bought milk which would still hopefully be less than $5.60 a gallon.
I will buy a cow
Thank God my husband is raising goats. We will be ready to start milking soon. Goat milk may be an acquired taste, but it will be cheaper than our current (or future) milk prices.
ummm my almost 4 year old drinks about a gallon every 2-3 days herself… and when my 9 month old turns 1, that’s what she’ll be drinking too – my guess is just as much as her sister! YIKES!
I already drink and love Almond milk!
I live & work on a dairy farm. Were struggling to keep farm going. Money is not going in the farmers pockets.
We need to get some regulation in the milk industry obviously because the companies that sell the milk are getting all of the profit and barely paying the farmers anything.
WOW… To hear the prices some people are already paying are that high??
We live in Elgin, NW sub about 40mins outside of Chicago and we pay $1.89 for a gallon of Milk at Aldi and $2.00 at WaMart.
When I lived in Chicago (Forest Park area) the most I ever paid for a gallon of milk was $2.69 and I usually paid $2.19.
Then we moved last year to a small town in Oklahoma and I was shocked to find the cheapest milk in town was $3.20/gallon.
Right now it is $3.80 for a gallon of milk in Northern Virginia. I have cows right outside my back door and we are living in one of the top 6 dairy producing counties in this state and yet we are still almost $4 a gallon. I have 2 children and my oldest just turned 3. We go through 4-5 gallons a week which has already made sticking to my $200 monthly budget difficult. If it goes up we might be getting a cow also and hopping the HOA doesn’t notice.
I’m surprised to hear that Elgin is so low. I am close to Rockford and even our generic brands run as much as $3.69 a gallon. Walmart hasn’t been much better lately. I try to buy milk at CVS or Walgreens when it is on sale for $2.78 but with a small child, I can’t wait for sales.
THere is a really good soy milk called very vanilla its yummy…beside soy, rice, almond, coconut is better for you : )
Wow. We go through a gallon a day at my house. There is no way I cannot buy milk. Its the first thing my kid asks for when she gets up.
We go through 5-6 gallons a week… We are a milk loving family. I can’t imagine having to pay that much for a gallon of milk, we would go broke if we didn’t cut back. And the thought of cutting back makes me sad!
I think its time to buy a cow!!! I am a mom of 6 boys and go through about a gallon a day, thats 1 glass in the morning with breakfast and 1 glass with dinner for each of them 🙁
we live a very isolated area, within a 75 mile radius there is only 6 grocery stores, 2 quiky mart kind of stores, and 4 dollar stores….so we already have to a problem with stuff being over priced. Milk about here is around $4.50 a gallon right now. I have already cut us back on milk twice in the last year cuz the prices keep going up… this time last year milk was $3 a gal for us… Back then we used about 25 gallons a month, now we are cut back to 20 gals …. and its very hard to do home cooking without milk. My husband grew up having cows so he was used to being allowed to drink as much milk as he wanted, now we have to be very careful will all the milk, to be sure its there when we need it.
And yes I agree – it’s time to get a cow!! I have always wanted a cow, I want a miniature Holstein …. they are so cute!! they are about the size of a large/extra large dog (stands about 3 ft tall) and only weighs about 300lb (+/- 100), but they still give about 1 to 2 gallons a day!!! If you got a backyard big enough for a big dog you have enough room a mini cow … everyone should get one.
I guess we will shop the sales when we can. We won’t ever stop drinking milk. My 20 year old son just moved back home and we are now buying 3 gallons a week. Maybe he will just have to chip in and help buy some milk!!
Agreed Jessica K. Why is milk so crazy some places? I live in McHenry and can usual get a gallon for $2 too!
Here’s something to think about. USDA is the one in charge of this. USDA runs the WIC program. They control the prices of many items that are WIC allowable foods. If a store is a store that accepts WIC they can’t charge more than the maximum amount allowed for those foods. So will the price really go up?
We only use 1-3 gallons a week so we will just have to deal with it, milk is good for you. I’m more concerned about the government tryin to take away our guns!
We do not drink cow milk anymore. We have swiched to coconut and Almond milk. We do not eat cereal but oatmeal and fruit/veggie smoothies and occssionally waffles family of 4 with 2 kids. Check out the documentary ‘Folks over Knives’ on Netflix or online. With all the couponing I have been doing, we can affort to eat fresh live foods. We do not eat meat as well, and dispite the farmers feeding candy to cows since there is a shortage of corn, make sense to go back to nature and consume fruits and vegetables. Organice if possible.
In my area, rural area in MO, milk is 3.89/ gallon for 1% and $4.39/ gallon for whole milk. If the price goes up by double, we’ll start drinking more water and buy much less milk!!!!
Milk was on sale here this week for 2/$5. I’ve seen a decrease in milk prices.
I pay 4.50 to.4.79 per gallon for milk in Bay Area California. It would be really bad if it goes up.
Read the “China Study.” Milk isn’t good for you anyway. SOY MILK all the way!!!
there is always powdered milk you mix with water. Not fun, not the same taste, but it works. I’d rather do that than overload my kids with juices and stuff like that.
Any milk product or milk based will go up as well. Powdered milk included.
I don’t have any problems because we drink Coconut Milk – much better than GMO cows “milk”
As long as Walmart price matches and HEB still sells it for $.98 a gallon we are good.
Maria, what HEB sells milk for $.98??? San Antonio HEBs are $3 and up.
Milk for $.98 a gallon at HEB? Never seen that before!! Where??
I already pay over $8 a gallon. We’re at a military base overseas and pay $4.26 for a half gallon. :o(
Switch us all to Silk. My hubby & I are lactose intolerant so we are used to it already. It’s really good!
Here we all are trying our best to save money grabbing at free samples and coupons only to have our impotent congress pull crap like this on us. I know my little son is gonna go nuts without his chocolate milk. Oh, but I’m supposed to just make due!
Some places in Hawaii sell milk at around $7 per gallon. If we are lucky, we can get it around $4.59.
What does it mean that walmart allows overage applied to the cart? We already “ration” our milk so it will last longer since it cost $3.50 a gallon, guess we won’t buy it if it goes to $8. Will have to stop having it in our coffee, cereal and with my kahula. Wish I lived where it was 98 cents, what is HEB?
Who this will hurt the most will be us with little milk- drinking kids. I have a 3 year old who loves his milk and it’s not uncommon for us to go through almost 4 gallons a week.
Wow, if you’re 3 year old is drinking 4 gallons of milk a week you have serious problems.
*Your. Darn autocorrect.
Well that was rude. Our whole household drinks and uses a lot of milk. I don’t give my son juices or sugary drinks except occasionally. His pediatrician along with others recommend children only drink milk and water as opposed to the sugar and empty calories of other drinks. I don’t see my providing for his nutrition as “a serious problem.” And I save money in other areas to make sure I have enough money to buy the things my family needs.
I do realize that my original post makes it sound like he is the only one drinking the milk but that’s not the case. I also use it for cooking and my hubby is a huge cereal eater. I limit my son’s milk to 3 cups a day as recommended by his doctor. I read ur other posts after I responded and saw ur a nutritionist. If he was the sole person consuming that much I would definitely be concerned. Lol.
What she said was still really rude..nutritionist or not.
Aldi’s has the cheapest milk around, we got milk today for $2.84 per gallon. I usually buy several and throw them into the freezer. At our local grocery store milk is at least a $1 more.
Just at our Aldi’s in MN milk was 2.28 a gal But even Sams club has gone up 50 cents a gal. b/4 christmas. We prob only use maybe
a gal a week since our 4 kids are gone and I drink almond. But hubby will have to get use to Almond as I will not pay 8.00 a gal thats highway robbery. LOL
I get milk at BJ’s. The one closest to me has it for $2.19, up from $1.99 last year.
Heb is a grocery in texas
Yeah, we have many HEB stores in our area…but I have never seen a gallon of milk for $.98!!
I pay $13 a gallon for grass fed raw cow’s milk already here in AZ, I wonder how much more that will go up. I would not recommend any powdered milk, better drink juice instead, read labels people, powdered milk is not good for your health, and as for soy, soy is not good for your health either, do some research, coconut and almond milks are a good alternative.
Definitely don’t switch to drinking juice! Soy is a great alternative to cow’s milk (as a registered dietician though, I can definitely say I do not recommend it for males). Almond milk is also a great alternative, the lowest in sugar.
New studies conclude that soy isn’t good for human consumption unless it has been fermented. Which soy milk has not been fermented. Plus most soy is GMO. You have to be very careful, read the new literature, soy isn’t healthy. Almond and coconut milk are a good alternative if you do not want to drink dairy, and cannot afford to buy grass fed raw milk from healthy happy cows.
As a nutritionist, I’m going to point out that you are incorrect. Who funded this study? Who conducted the study? There are thousands of studies, each with contradicting information depending on those things. While they have to state facts, they also interject a lot of opinion and facts to back up those opinions. In contrast, there are many studies that show the benefit of soy.
Ultimately, you have to do the research yourself, consult with your physician and make the best decision for your family on your own.
Please send links to the studies you are referring to regarding soy. I am always doing active research and have not seen any true scientific studies with these facts and would love to read them if they are really out there.
It has been a while since I came across these articles which had references to these studies, yes, every time I read something I make sure they are not just making things up… I will see if I can find them, but you are welcome to google the information too, the thing is that soy is very good for you, as long as it has been fermented, but nowadays most of the soy in our food supply has not been fermented and is GMO.
Well this will suck for my home daycare and daycare’s since we have to serve milk and I go through about 3 gallons a week.
I have my own daycare as well and agree completely. The nearest Aldi is 30 miles from me. I’ve found it’s cheapest to buy milk at Rite Aid ($2.99 a gallon minus my 20% discount makes it $2.39 a gallon) and use my UP rewards.
Almond milk is great for cereal. I don’t know about cooking, never tried it, but we love it on our cereal. It’s a little more expensive than regular milk right now, but if cow’s milk goes up to $8 a gallon, it won’t be!
Man!! gas is high!! milk going to $8 !!! that hurts, have a few ideas for our government, 1 let them try to live any what the average american makes just for a couple of months take away their limos ,planes $1000 plate dinners and see what happens then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2LETS JUST STOP SENDING CRAP INTO SPACE AND USE THAT MONEY TO HELP THE ECONOMY
I usually buy milk and other dairy products at Trader Joe’s you get no hormone added and GMO milk for either cheaper or about our normal grocery stores. I paid about $3.30 for 2%. I stopped using Organic due to our budget. I can’t imagine $8 a gallon. We have 4 kids and luckily they go through spurts of wanting milk. But this morning they drank 1/2 a gallon.
I would still buy cows milk, my family uses way too much of it to cut us off cold turkey..LOL. I probably would try to use a few milk alternatives in between gallons of milk however to help adjust to the rising cost.
Maybe we should all just buy a cow lol
our milk in Madison Indiana Aldis is .99 right now. Hope it stays that way doubt it though. Its been this price for about 3 months now
what heb do you buy milk for .98 at? i live in arlington, texas. please let me know.. thanks
Easy! I;m going to buy a cow! or better a goat! you know..space..