I purchased the soya joy soy milk maker and 20 lbs of GMO free soy beans toward the end of November 2007. The soy milk maker cost $89.95 and the 20 lbs of soy beans including shipping cost  $17.22 (there was some sort of special the company had running). Total cost: $107.17

Prior to purchasing the soy milk maker and soy beans, we used to get a gallon of silk soy milk for about $7.98 every week. We also purchased tofu about once or twice per month. The cost varied. At the local asian grocery store, each cake was about $1.00. If it came in fancy pants packaging from whole food, it cost more (can’t remember how much). 

Using the 1 gallon/week as a base of consumption we’ve broken even on the soy milk maker + soy beans once we passed 14 weeks.

We also finished the 20 lbs of soy beans this week. So I purchased 30 lbs at $36.86 (including shipping). The shipping costs have gone up.  

While writing this post I found Worsted Witch’s post on silk soy milk where I found this little interesting titbit:

You may even have heard murmurs that Silk started importing organic soybeans from China, Brazil, and Argentina to supplement local beans because of shortages in 2003. What you may not know (and I was until recently blissfully unaware of) is that the practice continues today, likely because imported soybeans cost as much as $4 less per bushel than those obtained domestically. (We have no idea if these beans are traded fairly, either, so don’t look for consolation there.)