#98 Make Your Own Baby Food

I have to admit, I didn't do much of this with my daughter when she was a baby. I did it a couple times and couldn't get it fine enough for her and she didn't seem to care for the texture. But this time around I plan to make most of the baby food. This time I have a baby food grinder, which I bought too late to use with my daughter. By the time I bought it she was quickly eating more & more finger food and it was not necessary and then started refusing pureed foods altogether.

Now, by buying baby food you are causing the necessary creation and distribution of the packaging materials (plastic, glass, paper or carboard on the outside of the container PLUS the boxes that each grouping of baby food containers are packaged in). And not to mention that you need drive some place to buy the food and the transportation related expenses and environmental impacts that are involved in getting it to the store.

I know you are probably wondering just how much money you will save and I found this handy comparison chart that tells you. Granted, I must comment that prices have risen on the cost of food, but it has risen across the board for both the frozen/fresh food you will buy & pureed and the jarred baby food. So, even if the cost per ounce is more, it will be more on all of them and the ratio of cost per ounce between them will still be about the same. The average on the chart is 3 CENTS an ounce if you make your own (prices look to be non-organic food) whereas buying jarred food will be 17-23 CENTS an ounce.

Every baby eats solids at a different rate, but if you take an average of 4-8 T of fruit and 4-8 of vegetables a day and use the savings of 20 cents per ounce (there is .5 fluid ounces in a tablespoon), then you will be saving 80 cents up to $1.60 on average a day. And even if you saved $1/ day off your food bill, that's $30/month and during the 6 months you would feed pureed baby food you would save $180. That really adds up. And if you kid eats more, you really start to see even more savings. You could save even more if you factor in making your own cereal, although I plan to buy iron-fortified cereal since I plan to breastfeed as long as possible again. I like to buy the Earth's Best Brand. My daughter loved it.