Homemade yogurt costs more than buying it at the store
Making yogurt at home can cost up to 50% more than buying it. Price data, electricity consumption and alternative methods for those who insist on making their own.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Homemade yogurt costs more than buying it at the store
Making yogurt at home costs between 20% and 50% more than buying the store brand, according to calculations by fans of "lonchafinismo" (Spanish extreme frugality culture). The yogurt maker, the milk and the electricity add up to more than the price of industrial packaging. But nobody makes yogurt to save money.
The math nobody wants to do
A basic yogurt maker costs 23 euros at El Corte Inglés and uses between 12 and 60 watts for hours. One liter of milk yields seven yogurts. At Eroski, eight natural yogurts cost 0.95 euros. The math is stubborn: homemade yogurt can't compete on price with the industrial kind. Not even with Lidl's Greek yogurt, at 2.09 euros per kilo.
Low-cost methods: kefir and residual heat
Kefir takes the crown: it needs no yogurt maker or electricity, just live grains and patience. But even there, the cost of the milk never pays off. For those who insist, the residual heat of the oven or a thermos with hot water lets you make yogurt without spending an extra watt. The energy savings are real, but the raw material is still more expensive than what the industry uses.
Health, taste and the savings fallacy
The discussion then shifts to the territory of quality. Without preservatives or colorings, homemade yogurt wins on taste. Kefir advocates argue for greater bacterial richness and better lactose digestion. But at the supermarket, a 1.30-euro pack offers the same thing without scrubbing jars.
"Extreme lonchafinismo" isn't about saving money, it's about something else. It's sovereignty over what you eat, the nostalgia for a flavor the industry can't imitate, the pleasure of a process that the industrial cold chain has mechanized. Is it worth paying more for that feeling? Everyone adjusts their shopping basket their own way.
Related discussions in the forum
Making yogurt at home costs between 20% and 50% more than buying the store brand, according to calculations by fans of "lonchafinismo" (Spanish extreme frugality culture). The yogurt maker, the milk and the electricity add up to more than the price of industrial packaging. But nobody makes yogurt to save money.
The math nobody wants to do
A basic yogurt maker costs 23 euros at El Corte Inglés and uses between 12 and 60 watts for hours. One liter of milk yields seven yogurts. At Eroski, eight natural yogurts cost 0.95 euros. The math is stubborn: homemade yogurt can't compete on price with the industrial kind. Not even with Lidl's Greek yogurt, at 2.09 euros per kilo.
Low-cost methods: kefir and residual heat
Kefir takes the crown: it needs no yogurt maker or electricity, just live grains and patience. But even there, the cost of the milk never pays off. For those who insist, the residual heat of the oven or a thermos with hot water lets you make yogurt without spending an extra watt. The energy savings are real, but the raw material is still more expensive than what the industry uses.
Health, taste and the savings fallacy
The discussion then shifts to the territory of quality. Without preservatives or colorings, homemade yogurt wins on taste. Kefir advocates argue for greater bacterial richness and better lactose digestion. But at the supermarket, a 1.30-euro pack offers the same thing without scrubbing jars.
"Extreme lonchafinismo" isn't about saving money, it's about something else. It's sovereignty over what you eat, the nostalgia for a flavor the industry can't imitate, the pleasure of a process that the industrial cold chain has mechanized. Is it worth paying more for that feeling? Everyone adjusts their shopping basket their own way.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (60 replies).
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