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December 2010 Moms
kikijones
member
Do you really save money making your own baby food?
kikijones
member
We spent $40.00 on 48 jars of food this month and that's worrying me a bit, because she's just going to start eating more and more every month. So here's my question. I don't have a bullet or anything like that so I would probably need one to make my own, and secondly would she get as much variety with making it myself? The jars I bought are organic mixes of banana/mango, apple butternut squash, apricot sweet potato etc.... I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to get my hands on all that many organic foods. Hmm...So many questions. Thanks so much if you give me your personal input.
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Re: Do you really save money making your own baby food?
I think so, but I don't buy organic. I bought 2 sweet potatoes for $2.50 and it made about 20 one ounce cubes.
I buy frozen veggies for $1 a bag. They make between 15 and 24 cubes depending on how big the bag was.
I buy banana's fresh and mash them right before he eats them. If he's only going to have half, I put the other half in the freezer for him to gnaw on later. It really makes his teeth feel better.
For some variety, I mix 2 different cubes. Yesterday he had peas & carrots mixed.
You really don't need to buy a bullet. If you have a blender or food processor you're fine. I use the food processor or stick blender that I already had. It takes no time to make at all. And per wholesomebabyfoods.com, I just buy a jar of organic applesauce. It is much cheaper than making your own apples or buying the little tubs of baby applesauce.
I do think we save money by making it ourselves. I haven't calculated it or anything. I do know that I spent about $1 something on peas and made the equivalent of 6 jars of baby food with it. Not to mention that they have about twice the nutrients of the store bought food.
You can make all those mixes yourself, but I do have some trouble getting good, organic food. I can't even find good, organic peaches around here.
I make what I can, and we buy some. Store bought food is good for traveling, etc. Also, I just bought a small food processor, which I think is a better and cheaper investment than something designed only for making baby food.
Dx MTHFR (C677T & A1298C, Compound Heterozygous)
it probably depends on what kinds of markets you have around.
i spend about $20 a month for O's veggies/fruit. i shop at a co-op market where they have lots of organic fruits/veggies that are farmed locally. they are fairly inexpensive. so far weve done all different types of squash, carrots, parsnips, green beans, sweat potatoes, etc. also, they carry all of the fruits you mentioned. HOWEVER, if they only place i could go to shop for organic foods was Whole Foods market, im not sure if id be saving money.
i think places like trader joes, henry's market, etc have a decent variety as well. OR...if you have farmers markets around....
also, i just use my old blender. it works fine.
ETA: do you have a costco or something similar near you? if so, you can get bags of fresh or frozen veggies for super cheap. they wont have as much variety, but its something!
Making is definitely cheaper. If you don't have a blender or food processor you could definitely use one anyway for yourselves.
You also don't have to buy organic all of the time. Regular fresh or frozen can be totally fine.
I think our plan is to make anything that's available and that we'd be eating ourselves, and get jars of everything that is more rare. And jars for travel, which we have already done.
Dx MTHFR (C677T & A1298C, Compound Heterozygous)
I definitely think it's cheaper. If you pay retail, I saw a 2 pk of carrots cost over $1. I bought an entire lb of organic carrots for .49 cents a lb.
I had a mini food processor already (which cost me less than $20 brand new) so really the only thing I bought to make Avery's food was freezer bags and ice cube trays.
Absolutely. I can make 2 weeks worth of food (he's eating 3 meals a day) for about $6. I go to the farmer's market and "pick your own" place in addition to the supermarket and shop for sales.
And honestly, the biggest difference between organic and "regular" foods is the name. At the farmer's market, the food isn't necessarily organic since that's just a label the government gives food that meets a certain checklist. That doesn't mean it wasn't grown without pesticides and fair practices.
The way I keep things interesting is by only making single food cubes to freeze. Then, when it comes time to defrost, I'll grab different things to mix. Sweet potatoes and apples? One cube of each. Blueberry apple banana? One cube of each. We put the cubes in the fridge the night before and they're defrosted by the time we need them the next day.
Ginny DX 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Charlie DX Specific Antibody Deficiency & ASD
It definitely does save money. I had a blender and ice cube trays, so that was no cost.
If I'm remembering correctly I figured the other day that I spent $1 on a bag of peas and it made 18+ oz. Every 2 tubs of Gerber at our store costs $1 and is about 4 oz. So instead of spending $4 I spent $1. I saved way more money when he was eating less at each meal though lol.
I don't buy organic, but overall I feel better about feeding him homemade food. We're on vacation right now and are giving him jarred, just for the convenience. Even my DH said "wow, your homemade food is so much better than this jarred stuff"
My little man at 0-1-2
Buying bags of frozen organic will definitely save you money.
Like a PP, I make what I can & buy some b/c Gerber is convenient for traveling, etc.
Farmers' markets are just starting to open up around here since it's the season, so I plan on buying a lot of fresh organic & freezing it.