Feeding Baby for Cheap...well cheaper

So since I am a stay at home mom I always try to get the best deals when I am at the grocery store. My newest challenge was trying not to blow the whole grocery budget feeding the smallest member of our household. Let's face it babies are EXPENSIVE between all the stuff they need then you add diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, and snacks and I am probably leaving out a couple of things that cost big bucks.

So I found a couple of corners you can cut to prevent needing a second job to feed your tiny tot.

1. Buy generic formula. I know some parents think this is "not doing the best for your child" but read the ingredients and nutrition labels, it has all the same stuff and costs almost half of the name brand stuff. I pay $11.49 for target brand formula vs. about $22 for the name brand. Wal-mart brand "Parents Choice" even has an organic formula for about $14 a can!

2. Buy the baby cereals for breakfast. When Carter first started baby food I was thinking he needed to eat only stuff out of a jar so he was going through sometimes 6 jars a day and eating mostly fruits and veggies. I started feeding him baby oatmeal with some rice or wheat cereal mixed with fruit and saved a TON. It is also super easy to make as you just add water to the flakes and you are done!

3. Starting at around 8 months (ask your baby's Dr.) they can eat yogurt and cottage cheese so take advantage. I buy ANYTHING that he can eat that is not from the baby section. It seems as though when you step away from baby-land EVERYTHING is cheaper. Keep in mind they need as many calories as they can get so find the whole fat products, and larger quart containers are cheaper as well.

4. Natural no sugar added applesauce is no different than baby apples. I buy a big jar for about $3 and it lasts a long time.

5. Make baby food whenever possible. This does not have to be labor intensive. I get ziploc steamfresh bags and frozen veggies and then use my submersion blender or food processor to make it the right consistancy.


I hope these little tips help, and if you have any other tips please feel free to share in the comments.

Look at the Big Boy!

Finally we have freedom from the baby carrier!

I never realized how heavy that carrier would be once Carter started getting bigger, and I am not a big person either. At just over 5 feet tall it was hard if not impossible to see over the carrier when it was in a shopping cart. And then there is the added stress of the carrier not fitting in all carts, for example his carrier would fit fine in the top section of the Target carts, but it wouldn't fit in the Wal-mart carts, so I would have to put the carrier in the bottom part which would inhibit how much grocery shopping I could actually do because half the cart was now full of carrier and baby.

So officially yesterday we graduated to riding in the cart without the carrier! I was worried how he would do since he barely started sitting on his own and he still tumbles over from time to time, but the little seatbelt held him nicely. I did have one of those cloth covers and this one actually has it's own strap that you can strap to the cart and also has toys attached which helped keep a teething baby occupied. Now towards the end we started to have a meltdown as he got tired of holding himself up, but all in all I would call it a success!