By Belinda Castles
Researcher | Kairangahau
Some things just taste better with butter, but it's not cheap these days. Our top tips will help you get more bang for your butter buck.
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Ways to save money on butter
While we can’t predict if butter prices will drop any time soon, here are 10 things you can do to help keep your butter costs down while prices are so high.
Butter blends, which are made with cream and vegetable oil, are cheaper and still give the buttery taste. They’re also easier to spread than pure butter. For information about the different brands, check out our butter versus margarine report.
Use a food processor to make your own dairy spread by mixing butter with a tasteless oil like canola. If you need to buy a food processor, check out our food processor test results.
If the steep price of butter makes you avoid baking, add the words “without butter” when searching for recipes online. These will usually bring up recipes that call for oil, margarine or yoghurt instead of butter. You could also look for recipes that replace butter with pureed apple, pumpkin or beans!
Vegan recipes don’t use butter as it’s an animal product. You won’t have to buy eggs either!
If you need some butter quick smart but don’t want to buy a whole block, you can make some from cream. You’re unlikely to save money if you have to buy the cream to make your butter, so, this is only a good idea if you have some cream that’s going unused or can get some for cheap. You’ll also be left with buttermilk, which you could use in your baking. There are instructions for making your own butter on Anchor’s website.
You don’t want to be throwing out expensive butter because you haven’t stored it correctly. Pop it in the dairy compartment of the fridge door if you’re going to be using it in the next few days – it'll keep it soft and away from pungent foods that can change its taste. If you want it to last longer, store butter wrapped and not in the fridge door.
You can freeze butter and just get out what you need from time to time. Chop it into pieces and wrap it before you put it in the freezer so you can grab a knob at a time or use a grater or peeler to take what you need from the frozen block. Salted butter can be frozen for up to 12 months; unsalted butter up to 6 months.
The Grocer app can show you where to find the cheapest butter near you on the day you need to buy it. The Warehouse is an affordable option for butter – its Market Kitchen brand regularly sells for $6.90 for a 500g block.
Don’t forget to compare brands by unit price as not all blocks of butter weigh the same. You might think you’re getting a cheap block only to realise later it’s 400g rather than 500g. Unit pricing will show you how much you’re paying per 100g. Read our article on how unit pricing can save you money.
Ignore the brand – butter is butter, so nutritionally, all brands are similar. Any taste difference between them could be down to the season, the cow’s breed, the cow’s feed and the processing of the butter. Our supermarket store survey found there’s usually one cheaper butter brand on sale each week.
How to save money at the supermarket with unit pricing
Our guide to unit pricing and how the small print can help you save big.
