Is it Cheaper to Make your own Almond Milk?
A friend of mine recently asked me to breakdown the cost of almond milk for making it and for buying it. Her family has cow milk issues, so they primarily use almond milk and drink it daily.
Almond milk seems pretty easy to make at home and doesn’t really require any expensive equipment, so let’s break down the cost to see if making it yourself is worth it to save money!
How much does it cost to make almond milk?
The basic premise of making almond milk, is that you soak almonds in water until softened, and then you put them in a food processor to make almost like a thick pulp. This pulp is then strained giving you almond milk.
| Homemade Almond Milk Ingredients | Total Cost | Cost for this Recipe |
| 1 cup of almonds | Great Value 16oz bag= $6.23 | $3.12 |
| 4 cups of water | tap water | free |
| Total Cost: $6.23 | Cost for this Recipe: $3.12 |
I priced out the main ingredient of almonds at my local Walmart because they tend to be the cheapest in price compared to other stores. Depending on where you source your almonds, your price will vary.
This formula results in about 4 cups of almond milk which is 32 ounces. In order to compare our homemade almond milk to the store bought kind, we will use the price per ounce.
For homemade almond milk our total cost was $6.23, but the cost of the actual recipe was only $3.12. This comes out to a cost of $0.09 per ounce.
How much is almond milk at grocery store?
Now let’s head out to the grocery store and get some prices of different brands and sizes of Almond Milk so we can make our cost comparison.
| Store Bought Almond Milk & Size | Store & Price | Cost per Ounce |
| Great Value, 64oz | Walmart, $2.44 | $0.04 |
| Publix, 64oz | Publix, $3.33 | $0.05 |
| Almond Breeze, 96oz | Food Lion, $4.99 | $0.05 |
| Friendly Farms, 64oz | Aldi, $2.55 | $0.04 |
| Kirkland (6 pack), 192 oz | Costco, $9.94 | $0.05 |
| Sprouts, 64oz | Sprouts, $3.29 | $0.05 |
| Member’s Mark (2 pack), 128oz | Sam’s Club, $6.70 | $0.05 |
| Good & Gather, 64oz | Target, $2.99 | $0.05 |
| Diversified Foods, 32oz | Dollar Tree, $1.25 | $0.04 |
| Simple Truth, 64oz | Ralph’s, $3.19 | $0.05 |
| Open Nature, 64oz | Vons, $4.69 | $0.07 |
| First Street, 64oz | Smart & Final, $2.99 | $0.05 |
| Simple Truth, 32oz | Food 4 Less, $1.99 | $0.06 |
| Average Cost per Ounce: | $0.05 |
This was truly fascinating to me that it didn’t really matter where we shopped, the brand, or the size, and the cost per ounce of store-bought almond milk was about $0.05 per ounce!
When we compare cost side by side of the homemade almond milk being $0.09 per ounce and the store bought being $0.05 per ounce, it is clear that it is cheaper just to buy it.
Is making your own almond milk worth it?
If we look just at the cost savings of making your own homemade milk, it is just not worth it. It costs almost twice as much to make it ourselves!
Now let’s look at some other pris and cons of making our own almond milk:
Pros of Homemade Almond Milk:
- you can control the ingredients and the flavor
- less preservatives and additives
Cons of Homemade Almond Milk:
- very short shelf life (storebought can be good for multiple weeks, where homemade only last 5-7 days.)
- time that it takes to make it
- find the right flavor for your family (some people liek the original almond milk, and other like it sweetened or with vanilla flavor
- after the milk is made you have the by-product of the almond mush
One of the reasons that Almond Milk manufacturers can keep their cost down is that they either use or sell off their almond mush by-product. So after all the liquid is squeezed out they are left with a thick paste like almond mush.
This almond mush is then made into different baked goods like cookies or even cereals. The mush being used for other products or sold to other manufacturers, allows almond milk to be sold for less than the true cost of the almonds used to make it.
Unless you also have a plan for this almond mush, you can’t really lower the overall cost of your homemade almond milk. Yes, you can make cookies and baked goods with it, but if you are making a lot of almond milk, you will reach a point where you have way more mush than you could ever use, and it eventually will be tossed or composted.
So, unless, I was able to secure almonds for an insanely cheap price or was given a ton of almonds, I doubt I will be making my own almond milk to save money!
