Clean eating

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Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    edited March 2017
    ladyreva78 wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    Plain greek yogurt that's just milk and cultures - you don't gain anything in the "clean eating" brownie points for making it yourself.

    True. However, it's cheaper, and it's satisfying to those of us who enjoy festering our own food at home.

    I love rotting vegetables in jars on my counter! (I do pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, and escabeche).
    My math may have been different, but when I priced making yogurt vs. buying it didn't come out as a big savings, so I stick with non-dairy uses for my lactobacilli...

    How do you calculate the price of home made yogurt?

    milk + price of 1 yogurt (to get the whole thing started) + electricity + amortization investment = price?

    I'm thinking of acquiring the necessary hardware to try considering that together with my mom, we go through about 10-15 of those things per week...

    What's an amortisation investment??

    I use a slow cooker for yoghurt, with a dimmer plug that my electrician dad made me, and an instant read thermometer I had anyway. So no equipment costs, really. The slow cooker uses 30-40 watts when making yoghurt so that's not much power. I just reckon the cost of the milk and the starter (a tablespoon of plain yoghurt).

    You don't need any special equipment, you can just make it in a pan wrapped with towels, like most people do in areas where yoghurt making is common (Eastern Europe, North Africa, Middle East).

    To correctly calculate total cost of operation, you can't just include food price and divide by servings. You would need to include other operation assets (fixed and variable). So you would include both use cost (equipment and even the portion of your house being used (sq ft), and electricity) and all clean up cost.

    ETA: When companies by large equipment, there is an amortization schedule to depreciate the asset over time.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    ladyreva78 wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    Plain greek yogurt that's just milk and cultures - you don't gain anything in the "clean eating" brownie points for making it yourself.

    True. However, it's cheaper, and it's satisfying to those of us who enjoy festering our own food at home.

    I love rotting vegetables in jars on my counter! (I do pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, and escabeche).
    My math may have been different, but when I priced making yogurt vs. buying it didn't come out as a big savings, so I stick with non-dairy uses for my lactobacilli...

    How do you calculate the price of home made yogurt?

    milk + price of 1 yogurt (to get the whole thing started) + electricity + amortization investment = price?

    I'm thinking of acquiring the necessary hardware to try considering that together with my mom, we go through about 10-15 of those things per week...

    What's an amortisation investment??

    I use a slow cooker for yoghurt, with a dimmer plug that my electrician dad made me, and an instant read thermometer I had anyway. So no equipment costs, really. The slow cooker uses 30-40 watts when making yoghurt so that's not much power. I just reckon the cost of the milk and the starter (a tablespoon of plain yoghurt).

    You don't need any special equipment, you can just make it in a pan wrapped with towels, like most people do in areas where yoghurt making is common (Eastern Europe, North Africa, Middle East).

    To correctly calculate total cost of operation, you can't just include food price and divide by servings. You would need to include other operation assets (fixed and variable). So you would include both use cost (equipment and even the portion of your house being used (sq ft), and electricity) and all clean up cost.

    ETA: When companies by large equipment, there is an amortization schedule to depreciate the asset over time.

    I think that quantifying it in terms of square footage of the house being used is a bit overkill for a yoghurt maker...

    Some of these types of calculations only make sense in the context of a business, where it's all about the bottom line and everything there, whether assets, people or floor space, is either consuming or generating money, so money becomes the basic unit by which everything is judged. In a house, where the point is not to make money, but to spend it efficiently in order to maximise, not profit, but quality of life, it makes no sense to express use of space or time or resources in terms of money. You have to express it in terms of fun, enjoyment, relaxation, satisfaction or achievement of life goals. I fundamentally make yoghurt because I like to do it. Any cost savings are a bonus.

    In terms of electricity, 45W (the worst case on a cold day) over 8 hours adds up to 0.36kWh. Prices in my area are maybe 15p per kWh at worst, so you're looking at about 6p of electricity to make 2 litres of yoghurt. Plus the gas I used to bring the milk to the boil.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    psuLemon wrote: »
    ladyreva78 wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    Plain greek yogurt that's just milk and cultures - you don't gain anything in the "clean eating" brownie points for making it yourself.

    True. However, it's cheaper, and it's satisfying to those of us who enjoy festering our own food at home.

    I love rotting vegetables in jars on my counter! (I do pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, and escabeche).
    My math may have been different, but when I priced making yogurt vs. buying it didn't come out as a big savings, so I stick with non-dairy uses for my lactobacilli...

    How do you calculate the price of home made yogurt?

    milk + price of 1 yogurt (to get the whole thing started) + electricity + amortization investment = price?

    I'm thinking of acquiring the necessary hardware to try considering that together with my mom, we go through about 10-15 of those things per week...

    What's an amortisation investment??

    I use a slow cooker for yoghurt, with a dimmer plug that my electrician dad made me, and an instant read thermometer I had anyway. So no equipment costs, really. The slow cooker uses 30-40 watts when making yoghurt so that's not much power. I just reckon the cost of the milk and the starter (a tablespoon of plain yoghurt).

    You don't need any special equipment, you can just make it in a pan wrapped with towels, like most people do in areas where yoghurt making is common (Eastern Europe, North Africa, Middle East).

    To correctly calculate total cost of operation, you can't just include food price and divide by servings. You would need to include other operation assets (fixed and variable). So you would include both use cost (equipment and even the portion of your house being used (sq ft), and electricity) and all clean up cost.

    ETA: When companies by large equipment, there is an amortization schedule to depreciate the asset over time.

    I think that quantifying it in terms of square footage of the house being used is a bit overkill for a yoghurt maker...

    Some of these types of calculations only make sense in the context of a business, where it's all about the bottom line and everything there, whether assets, people or floor space, is either consuming or generating money, so money becomes the basic unit by which everything is judged. In a house, where the point is not to make money, but to spend it efficiently in order to maximise, not profit, but quality of life, it makes no sense to express use of space or time or resources in terms of money. You have to express it in terms of fun, enjoyment, relaxation, satisfaction or achievement of life goals. I fundamentally make yoghurt because I like to do it. Any cost savings are a bonus.

    In terms of electricity, 45W (the worst case on a cold day) over 8 hours adds up to 0.36kWh. Prices in my area are maybe 15p per kWh at worst, so you're looking at about 6p of electricity to make 2 litres of yoghurt. Plus the gas I used to bring the milk to the boil.

    I am not saying its overkill but if you want legit apples to apples, that is how you do it.
  • ladyreva78
    ladyreva78 Posts: 4,080 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    ladyreva78 wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    savithny wrote: »
    Plain greek yogurt that's just milk and cultures - you don't gain anything in the "clean eating" brownie points for making it yourself.

    True. However, it's cheaper, and it's satisfying to those of us who enjoy festering our own food at home.

    I love rotting vegetables in jars on my counter! (I do pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, and escabeche).
    My math may have been different, but when I priced making yogurt vs. buying it didn't come out as a big savings, so I stick with non-dairy uses for my lactobacilli...

    How do you calculate the price of home made yogurt?

    milk + price of 1 yogurt (to get the whole thing started) + electricity + amortization investment = price?

    I'm thinking of acquiring the necessary hardware to try considering that together with my mom, we go through about 10-15 of those things per week...

    What's an amortisation investment??

    I use a slow cooker for yoghurt, with a dimmer plug that my electrician dad made me, and an instant read thermometer I had anyway. So no equipment costs, really. The slow cooker uses 30-40 watts when making yoghurt so that's not much power. I just reckon the cost of the milk and the starter (a tablespoon of plain yoghurt).

    You don't need any special equipment, you can just make it in a pan wrapped with towels, like most people do in areas where yoghurt making is common (Eastern Europe, North Africa, Middle East).

    To correctly calculate total cost of operation, you can't just include food price and divide by servings. You would need to include other operation assets (fixed and variable). So you would include both use cost (equipment and even the portion of your house being used (sq ft), and electricity) and all clean up cost.

    ETA: When companies by large equipment, there is an amortization schedule to depreciate the asset over time.

    I think that quantifying it in terms of square footage of the house being used is a bit overkill for a yoghurt maker...

    Some of these types of calculations only make sense in the context of a business, where it's all about the bottom line and everything there, whether assets, people or floor space, is either consuming or generating money, so money becomes the basic unit by which everything is judged. In a house, where the point is not to make money, but to spend it efficiently in order to maximise, not profit, but quality of life, it makes no sense to express use of space or time or resources in terms of money. You have to express it in terms of fun, enjoyment, relaxation, satisfaction or achievement of life goals. I fundamentally make yoghurt because I like to do it. Any cost savings are a bonus.

    In terms of electricity, 45W (the worst case on a cold day) over 8 hours adds up to 0.36kWh. Prices in my area are maybe 15p per kWh at worst, so you're looking at about 6p of electricity to make 2 litres of yoghurt. Plus the gas I used to bring the milk to the boil.

    I am not saying its overkill but if you want legit apples to apples, that is how you do it.

    Which silly data geek that I am is what would happen... :wink: