That is one question we rarely ask ourselves. Instead we ask, “How much can I afford?”

We used to buy a gallon of milk, once a week, for years. A couple of months ago I noticed we had milk left over when we purchased our weekly jug. Last month I had to dump milk that had gone bad, twice.

Now there are still four people living in the house, so I was sure we could not get by on a half-gallon of milk. I hated dumping milk, so I switched to the smaller size thinking we could pick up another half-gallon later in the week.

That half-gallon of milk lasted all week.

Why?

Since there was only a half-gallon, I didn’t fill my cereal bowl as full of milk as I used to and when I made cheese sauce I used nonfat, dry milk. My cooking is healthier and my food budget was reduced.

It makes me wonder – am I buying too much of anything else?