How to Save Money on Baby Food

Being frugal is about making the most of your resources, whether that’s time or money.  I can’t buy fresh fruits and veggies cheap enough to beat the prices I can get on jar food. That is why I choose not to make baby food for Little One.  The minimal savings, if any at all, do not outweigh the time it takes me to cook and puree the foods and clean up the mess, even if it’s just once a week.  (I do mush bananas however, but that is preference because I can’t stand to feed Little One jar bananas that smell so nasty)  Here are a few tips to save you money on food for your baby. 

1. Don’t waste money buying stage 1 fruits and veggies.  There is no difference in the texture or thickness of stage 1 and stage 2 foods.  Stage 1 foods just come in 2.5 oz jars because babies learning to eat solids can’t eat as much at one sitting.  Buy the stage 2 jars and pour the food into a bowl so that you can save the rest in the fridge for another feeding (up to 2 days later).
2. Mix up an ounce or two of baby rice/oatmeal/wheat cereal and add that to the jar food.  This not only makes the more expensive jar food last longer, but is a great way to get babies to eat those grains that many are not so fond of.
3. Don’t buy jar foods that are mixed with grains if you can buy that fruit or veggie alone. 
4. Buy a brand that is readily available to you, but that has a coupon out also.  With Turkey we used the Nature’s Best brand because there were Qs out for $1/8.  I had several people save me their Qs and saved a lot!  Currently we use the Beech-Nut brand for Little One because there were  $2/12 and $2/16 Qs out until 12/31/10.   By combining these Qs with sales prices I ended up paying $.23 or less per 4 oz jar.  That’s hard to beat with produce prices.  I stocked up and won’t have to buy any more jar food for Little One. 
5. Be sure to sign up for e-mails from the brand that you choose to use.  I know that Beech-nut and Gerber both send out coupons in their e-mails, some of which yield free products when paired with a sale. 
6. Besides bananas, another jar food that I often skip is applesauce.  It is much cheaper per ounce to buy naturally flavored applesauce from the regular food section. 
7. If you don’t have access to great Qs on baby food another option is to simply mush whatever table food you are serving at each meal for your baby.  I would recommend this only after you have introduced all the jar foods available though as you don’t want to introduce multiple foods at once.  It seems like the babies feel more a part of the meal if they are eating the same foods as we are.  The other night Little One was quite upset that she wasn’t eating pizza like the rest of us!  This is also a great option instead of buying stage 3 mixed jars. 
8. Once the babies master finger foods like puffs, move on to regular brands of the same items instead of baby ones.  Cheese puffs and puffed wheat cereals work just as well and are only slightly less healthy.  You’ll pay about the same for one whole bag of “adult” puffs or cereal as you will for that teensy little baby version.

If you do have access to fresh produce from a garden and want to make your own food, it is super easy and in your case would be financially worth the effort because it would be only a cost of your time.  Lucky you!

Any ideas I missed ladies?