I always thought jarred baby food was more expensive than making it yourself but, now that I'm making it, I feel like it might be cheaper to buy jarred! Jars are about $1 or less each. Some items like apples and pears are not that cheap per item and you lose the core and the skin when you peel, chop and steam them.
What do you think?
hostess / wonderful watermelon / 39513 posts
I thought it was cheaper and more convenient to buy purees for daycare. Produce is expensive!
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
You're probably right depending on the item but I like knowing what goes in her food.
grapefruit / 4400 posts
It's cheaper for us to DIY. We go to a lot of Vietnamese/ethnic markets for produce and get really good deals (3 lbs of Fuji apples for $1, 5 lbs of sweet potatoes for $1, etc.).
squash / 13199 posts
@mediagirl: I think its cheaper to make your own. pears and apples cost about $1.49 per lb so with $10 I can get a big batch that she can eat for days, definitely more than 10 jars worth of food.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@regberadaisy: I do like making my own purees when it's a combo (protein + veggie). If it's just a produce item, I'm wondering if it would be cheaper to just buy the jar (when the jar says it's just (example) apples + water, then I know what's in it at least).
coconut / 8234 posts
It's cheaper to make your own, at least for me. When I make her food I can make enough for a week or so for cheaper than the jars. I would only buy the organic baby food, so definitely cheaper.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
It depends on how good of an eater your LO is. I made most of LO's food and a lot of it was wasted because she wasn't a good solids eater. For us it would have been cheaper to just give her jarred food. Jars are nice because you can take them with you too. It was a pain having to carry around fresh food when we went out, having to ask for hot water so I could warm it up, etc.
persimmon / 1205 posts
I think it definitely depends on what you are buying. I found mangos for $1 each the other day and definitely got more than one serving per mango. I also will give her 1/3rd or 1/2 of a mashed banana and that most certainly costs less than a dollar. But I'm sure the chicken, broccoli and potato mixture I made cost a lot more than that, as did my spinach and chicken combo as the baby spinach steamed down to such a small amount.
It does take quite a bit of effort, but I like making what I can and honestly, I think a lot of it HAS to taste better - especially the meat items. I do keep a stockpile of fruit and veggie jar/pounches though, because they are great if I run out of something or want something that travels well.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
I'm sure it depends on the season, too! EVERYTHING is so much pricier in the winter! But during the summer, cheap produce is everywhere!!!
I'm hoping to water can/preserve when stuff is at the peak of flavor and ripeness (and the lowest price!). She won't be eating solids until September, but I will start making stuff in July/August and canning it up.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
I think it would depend on how much the produce is. I just buy jarred right now though and get it when it's on sale and use coupons. We have a thrifty outlet near us and I can get jars for .30 for organic and .20 for Gerber.
pomelo / 5093 posts
Waaaaaaay cheaper. The only real reason to buy baby food is if you don't want to make it - which is totally legit. If I hated cooking, I'd probably not feel like it was worth my time to make it.
clementine / 878 posts
It depends. We bought a giant container of natural applesauce since it's the same ingredients as jarred food and a lot cheaper (and I figured apples would be tough to deal with.
We're at the point where if its possible, we just puree our food (like if we're steaming carrots for our dinner). Or if I want to feed her something that's not readily available in jar form - like avocado.
But, we do keep a few jars on hand in case we forget to thaw meals for the next day. And if there's a sale, it's often cheaper to go with jars (plus, you can save the jars and re-use them for your own DIY purees!).
At daycare, they provide jar baby food.
pear / 1570 posts
To be honest, I'm not sure. We just do waht works for us. I do a mix of organic purchased pouches, homemade purees and BLW. We are dealing with some food allergies so during the week is usually jars/pouch of something I know he won't react to, on the weekend BLW with whatever we are having.
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
I shopped at the farmers market and it wasn't too expensive. Plus.... it was worth it to me because I just felt like I was doing it for health reasons, not just money.
hostess / papaya / 10540 posts
I mostly found things to be cheaper. I made a ton of baby food, but LO wasn't too into purées so I lost money making it. At least if I bought jars or pouches I could have returned.
pomelo / 5331 posts
IDK but I have tasted baby food (what? It was a baby shower game) and... ew. Really so gross. It just did NOT taste like what I feel like a regular just... pureed apple would taste like. So, I'd rather make my own for that reason. But I don't even know if my daycare allows us to bring in homemade purees so we'll cross that bridge later.
squash / 13199 posts
@ladyfingers: yep this is another reason, I dont even understand the smell of some of the baby food jars, it doesnt smell like it should. I guess because its preserved somehow?
clementine / 959 posts
@ladyfingers: i agree! Baby food is nasty! I'm not going to feed LO something I wouldn't eat!
I've never done the math to see if making my own food is cheaper, but to me it makes more sense for my family. I do keep cans of pumpkin purée and jars of applesauce on hand for something quick, but not the kind marketed to babies.
honeydew / 7444 posts
@ladyfingers: it does taste gross! Even LO won't eat the packages, which makes me sad because i was hoping to use them as backups when i am out.
I think for the mixed pouches, homemade may be cheaper. The packages SAY it is chicken-rice-veggies, but do we really know what the ratio is? I know many moms were not happy with Ella's Kitchen because they changed one of the veggie ingredients to corn, which is cheap and low on the nutrition scale. It made me wonder how much of the more expensive ingredient is in the food!
pomelo / 5331 posts
@caffeinated: @duckduckkristen: @Mrsbells: I wonder if (and hope) some of the organic brands taste better than the Gerber I've tasted, because if daycare doesn't let us bring in our own homemade food (and I suspect they don't) then I'm going to be really pissed sending my kid off with food that doesn't even taste like real food.
honeydew / 7444 posts
@ladyfingers: we only have one brand in Canada (baby gourmet) though i know Gerber does have an organic line. They should definitely allow homemade food! I would be pissed if they didn't!
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