Yogurt that keeps on giving

Save money by making your yogurt -- then putting even your expired to good use!

Fri, May 15 2009 at 4:31 PM EST

Eating local, healthy foods is apparently helping Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin save money too. At GOOD, Xeni shares her easy yogurt-making instructions: “It takes maybe 20 minutes of actual work and attention, zero equipment beyond stuff I already had in my kitchen, and yields a yummier, healthier, and yes, “probiotic” product that costs five to 10 times less than the store-bought stuff.” (via lifehacker)

Sterilizing the equipment seems like the toughest part of the process. Unfortunately Xeni uses a lot of disposable plastic cups to make her yogurt [correction: Xeni does not use plastic cups! The GOOD people decided to use Flickr photos from someone who used plastic cups, which confused me] — but I’m sure you can find more eco-friendly reusable substitutes.

Made too much yogurt — or let the yogurt you bought expire? Reader’s Digest has some great advice for using up old yogurt (via good human via allie’s answers). The article has instructions to:

Make moss “paint” — basically a moss-yogurt mixture that’ll beget more moss.
Make a face mask
Relieve sunburn — if you’re able to time your accidental burning with your accidentally letting yogurt expire
Make fingerpaint
Cure pet flatulence

Depending on how much yogurt you usually buy, these tips could end up saving you quite a bit of money -- and keeping a lot of packaging out of the waste stream! Enjoy the yummy yogurt, the painting fun, and the extra cash –

Photo: Leamington Malfoof