Stop Spending Extra Money On Yogurt Drinks: Make Your Own With One Simple Step

If you're always looking to pack more protein into your diet (join the club), it's likely that yogurt drinks have caught your eye at the grocery store. Yogurt is typically loaded with protein, and most of the drinkable options taste pretty good. That being said, they can get expensive fast, especially when you compare them to the price of the standard, non-drinkable stuff. Thankfully, you can easily use the regular kind to make yogurt drinks, for a fraction of the price that you'd pay for the bottled stuff at the store. 

While it's not quite as convenient as grabbing a single-serving bottle (although you can meal prep these), it can be worth your while if you're trying to save some cash. At Walmart in Pennsylvania, a single-serving 14-ounce Chobani yogurt drink that contains 30 grams of protein retails for $3.67, bringing the per-ounce price to 26.2 cents. Meanwhile, a 32-ounce tub of Chobani yogurt retails for $5.37, bringing the per-ounce price to 16.8 cents.

To make drinkable yogurt, all you need to do is add liquid to standard yogurt and shake or blend it until it hits your desired consistency. If you want to go the uber-cheap route, you can certainly just mix it with water, or you can use milk or fruit juice. You can also customize the protein content of your drink. For instance, if you're using plain Chobani Greek yogurt, you'll get 16 grams of protein per ¾ cup of yogurt. Double the serving to get a bit more than the protein content of Chobani's yogurt drink.

Now that you realize you can take whatever yogurt you love and make it drinkable with just a little bit of liquid (and some elbow grease from giving your container a good shake), you can also easily customize your drink to achieve the taste and nutritional benefits you're looking for. Any flavor of yogurt works, but using plain yogurt and adding flavor or sweetener allows you to control your drinkable yogurt's sugar content. If you're willing to whip out the blender, a tablespoon or so of jam is a particularly delicious addition.

While water and milk both work just fine, they aren't your only options for thinning out your yogurt. You can also switch up the taste and nutritional profile by selecting another liquid. If you're focused on loading up on protein, create an upgraded protein shake by adding a pre-blended shake to your yogurt (choosing a flavored option can be especially delicious). You can also add a bit of fruit juice. Orange juice, for one, is a surprisingly delicious addition to vanilla yogurt — it creates a homemade Orange Julius-style drink. Whichever ingredients you choose to add, customizing your own yogurt drinks is a great way to save some money.