Price of Baby food

So I am getting ready to go grocery shopping, and I figured I'd go ahead and pick up enough baby foot to last until we get home for vacation (we leave the 30th, plus a couple extra days of food). This is the first I'll have bought all jar baby food...I'd made a ton and used that for the last 2 1/2 months, with a few jars here and there...but it's just easier to do the jars, so I figured I'd for those this time.

So I counted it up...5 jars a day for 20 days (they get a jar of fruit and then oatmeal for breakfast, and a jar of veggie and a jar of fruit for the other 2 meals)...that's 160 jars! And I figured it to be about $.40 a jar, which makes it out to be $64!!!

HOLY CRAP! Is this sounding right??? How much food do you actually go through and spend a month?? I'll thank my lucky stars we have WIC and get our formula through there, and cloth diaper...I cannot even imagine the costs monthly!! :wacko:

 

It is expensive! It's why I made so much of my own! I stocked up last summer when I stayed with my parents for a month (bought at the commissary since it was cheaper) and brought a huge box with me! Just wait till they start eating all of the Gerber snack stuff like Puffs and YoMelts. It is super expensive!

 

So glad you posted this!
I've just started feeding my boys solids...and I've been making my own...now, I"m really glad we are doing this! We use formula and disposable diapers, and they are really expensive!

 

I found it was cheaper to buy ORGANIC produce and make all my own food than it was to buy jarred. Even .40 a jar is on the cheap side where I live.
Sure ist not as convenient but its well worth the savings and knowing what your babies are ingesting.

We switched to cloth diapers at 1 year of age, and I was able to breastfeed too with little supplementing -- I continously try to remind DH of the savings!
Baby stuff is so expensive. Its nice now that ours eat all tablefood because they eat what we eat

Are you able to make any food on your trip? or pack an extra suitcase w/freezer packs of food you've made? Not sure I have any good ideas but get creative!

 

With my singleton, I never realized how much baby food cost. With twins - holy cow!!! I'm so happy to get them transitioned to table food! We tried to make our own too, but the boys wouldn't eat it. <_<

 

.40 a jar is expensive? You're lucky. It's .85 a jar for the stage 1 foods. It's 1.29 a jar regular price for the stage 2 foods. There is only a few cent difference between the organic and not organic foods.

I'm definitely getting into making the baby food.

 

My girls aren't eating food yet. After hearing those costs, I think I want to make some of my own food.

But do any of you have recommendations on good websites with recipes for homemade baby food? I just got a food processor that I am dying to use!

 

QUOTE(rebecca_lynn78 @ Apr 14 2009, 01:32 PM) [snapback]1272585[/snapback]
But do any of you have recommendations on good websites with recipes for homemade baby food? I just got a food processor that I am dying to use!


wholesomebabyfood. com is a great website

And Ruth Yaron's book Super Baby Food is a big help too.

 

i made homemade stage 1 apples this weekend. $4.29 for a 3 lb bag of organic gala apples. the batch made 38 servings. i compared that to 57 cents per jar of commercial organic stage 1 apples and i would have spent $21.66 for the equivalent amount of food.

i also steamed 2 big sweet potatoes and used the sweet apple cooking water to thin it. two potatoes (98 cents per pound, probably came out to 1.5 pounds so a total cost of $1.33) thinned to stage 1 consistency made 32 servings. which would have cost over $18 in jarred form.

i'm sold on making baby food. there's just no comparison.


although i will say it took about 3 hours spread out to get the apples done because i kept having to attend to the needs of two boogers. so there is a down side, i guess.


edit: also, i recommend the magic bullet blender for making purees.

 

a few other tips, in addition to making your own..

1) buy regular applesauce, you don't need to buy baby applesauce
2) Target has some good deals
3) Gerber puffs and stuff...move them to Cheerios as soon as possible, better value (my husband actually loved the puffs)
4) some places offer a discount if you buy a case (like whole foods)

I actually found food was cheaper when we were on jars and formula, making them people food has been more $$$$ for us.

 

Okay, so I bought the Earth's Best baby food at our commissary, and it was $0.35 a jar, even for the bigger stage 2s which I was surprised, cause they are the same price as the smaller stage 1s (vs Gerber which was $0.85 a 2pk and the same amt of total oz as 1 jar of stage 2!! Whoa.). Does anyone know how much jars cost at walmart? I bought a few there once a while back, but I can't remember. That is probably where we would go to buy food on our vacation (or else ShopNSave).

I don't mind making my own baby food, and it is cheaper, but it does take awhile to do, and I have trouble motivating myself to do it...and we are on the go a LOT, and taking it along tends to be a pain for me. Plus, DS does so much better on jars...I think he has a texture issue, like I do. DD loves anything, almost, so she eats either.

 

I always see that the "beach nut" brand is cheaper, is it just as good?- any difference?

 

It is expensive! I made the twins' baby food just because I feel like it's healthier and tastes better than baby food. Plus they liked it thick so I always made it much thicker than the stuff you can buy. Formula is insane and I've been lucky that they have been on 100% BM since day one, and still going strong on my frozen supply.

I sure wish I could get some type of government assistance to help with the costs of things. But I guess I had the babies and should be able to care for them. So far no problems!

 

Yes, thank god for WIC! It is extremely expensive, so I'm glad there is a program that helped out with that when I needed it the most. For those of you who don't have assistance, I would check out a local wholesales market and buy in bulk because it always seems like the better deal.