Now, honestly, this here post would have been better off written in the summer, back when the cost of gas was significantly higher, but I was busy, you know? I mean, I’m still busy, but when is that ever going to end? So here’s the thing: I don’t get why people whine about the cost of gasoline. We Americans have it pretty easy, after all. Have you SEEN what a litre of petrol costs in the UK? Seriously, don’t do a google search on that one, because I’m not sure your little hearts can take it (and to my friends in the UK – bless you for not whining about the cost of petrol, because honestly? I’m about sick of hearing about it on this side of the pond). (Okay, I’ll save you the trouble, last I checked it was £1.46 per litre, which if you convert to dollars, then to gallons, carry the 2, account for my bad math skillz, subtract 70, add the cosign of 84, and turn around three times clockwise, I think converts to a little over $8 per gallon, so suck it up Americanos)
Now, here’s something to actually complain about – have you seen the cost of a gallon of MILK? A gallon of whole milk costs $3.75. That’s for plain, boring whole milk. If you want 1% milk, it’s going to run you $3.99. Now, say you want organic milk – now it’s going to cost you $5.79 and up per gallon. That’s for the store-brand organic variety, by the way. No fancy-schmancy organic varieties here. What if, like my husband or the J-man, you can only tolerate lactose-free milk? Well, then you’re looking at $4.39 per half gallon or $5.99 per 96 ounces.
Now seriously – with the cost of gas here in my neighborhood hovering around a dollar and a half per gallon these days – well, I see nothing to complain about. Heck, even when the cost of gas was hovering closer to $4/gallon, I’m not complaining, but that’s because I’m a giving soul who has better things to complain about – like the cost of milk. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out why no one else is complaining about this! I looked in my refrigerator and saw the piles of money staring back at me – mocking me, mostly – and I was mortified. Where does it all go?
And then it hit me – NORMAL people aren’t filling three toddler’s tummies with milk every day. Plus a five year old. Plus a 6’2″ giant. (Me? I don’t drink milk – you couldn’t pay me to touch the stuff) As it happens, the triplets aren’t drinking much milk anymore, not comparatively, anyway. They drink about 10-12 ounces per day, each. But that’s upwards of 36 ounces per day just for the babies. Plus whatever the J-man drinks. Plus whatever Seth drinks. Plus whatever goes into anything I cook with. We’re going through several gallons of milk per week. I’m guessing… that’s probably not normal, is it?
*Note: When I told Seth I was going to write this post, he said I had to look into “milk price supports” which just got me all kinds of confused and made even less sure I understood the whole issue. Suffice it to say, whether or not the government is artificially inflating the cost of a gallon of milk and whether or not it is for good reason IF they are doing so and whether or not that money is doing good things IF they are doing so, well, I’m still whining about the cost of a gallon of milk this week, because, by golly, I can. And next week, I will stop whining about it, because I’m sure I’ll have something better to whine about. I’m sure you all have perfectly good reasons to tell me I shouldn’t be whining about this and blah blah blah. WhatEVER. I don’t feel well and I spent my week getting puked all over. Give a girl a break, will ya?
Milk is expensive, and we go through a lot of it. However, compared to the cost of formula for triplets for a year, it is cheap. You have no idea how much money you saved by breast feeding as much as you did. After a year of formula, milk seems like a bargain at any price to me.
I’m with you! Except, I’m coming from using formula which is HOLY CRAP expensive. So although I cannot believe how much milk we consume and how expensive it is per gallon, its still much better than how much I was spending on formula. But I can imagine that YOU are really feeling it since you weren’t using formula (breastmilk is FREE!!!) and what a jump to paying for milk! I am just glad that mine are off the formula!
I so hear you on the complaints of gas prices! WE used to drive an SUV so don’t think this is Jones jealousy…but really who was it doing the complaining? Do you NEED a $500+ car payment PLUS at $100 bill for gas a week???
Now if you NEED the SUV or Mini Van get it…but if you don’t get a smaller car and shut up.
The flip side of that…I have no idea what we pay for milk. Its just like gas. We need it, we buy it, we pay what ever it costs and move on. If we can’t afford gas or milk then there is a problem with our priorities (as well as the economy but mostly our priorities).
I would love to pay $3.75 for a gallon of milk! We pay just over $6.00 for 4 liters here in salty Nova Scotia! (4 liters = 1.05668821 US gallons)
We have the second highest price for milk in Canada, after Nunavut (way up there in the land of cold and ice where a cow would never dare set foot)
So enjoy a tall cold glass for me! I reserve it for Kiddo and my coffee!
It is funny that you wrote this post about the same time my husband and I were discussing our weekly milk bill. We go through (on average) 7 gallons of milk a week. Chris and I drink about 3 gallons of skim milk and the girls (and Isabela) drink about 4 gallons of whole milk a week. My husband went to Costco with me last week and was shocked when I filled our cart with milk. It is incredible how much we may for milk… but I must second the opinion of one of the comments above regarding being thankful the girls are not on formula any longer since the price for formula was $13 per day for us. Yikes… it is hard to believe that milk is more than twice the cost of gas now.
I whine about the cost of milk way more than I do about the cost of gas. When in Ioway I go through more gallons of milk than of gasoline and I am single! My family goes through a LOT of milk, we are milkoholics, lol.