A Sam's Club Run saves

Frugal Tip for the month:  Baby Food.

MAKE YOUR OWN YOU IDIOT!

Making baby food is one of the simplest and easiest ways to save on costs of those cute little bundles of joy.  Here are tips of my process you may want to consider installing into your monthly routine.

First, check your local freecycle, craigslist, or daycare for empty jars of baby food that you can have. 

ZERO DOLLARS investment AND environmentally friendly.

Next, I had my sissy take me to our local Sam's Club (or any bulk store in your area) and I purchased both of these cans for around $6.  (None of the fresh fruits and veggies looked okay to me this time).  Ideally this would be best if you had your own garden and could eat from your own plot, however with the one tomato plant I attempted to grown (and from which not one tomato grew and even the bugs thought it was too sad and dead to try to eat it away for me), I've all but given up on food gardening.  Maybe someday I'll resume when the hubbs will help since he is a food connoisseur.

Ok digress....two huge cans for around $6. 

Open and drain all juices.  These are extra salty, sugary, etc.  Your baby doesn't need them.

Pour in blender (I kept some aside for sides at dinners and lunches for the toddler and adults). 

The pears had enough juice to sustain the blender.  If you need to add any juices to veggies I always use V8 instead of the juice in the cans.  Its chalked full of salt. 

Any wal-la you have.......

126.5 ounces of servings (roughly 19 dinners for the baby) and 6 sides for dinners for the adults/toddler.

The average US wide cost of baby food is $.60 per 6 ounce jar.  This would have cost me $12.65 in baby food and about $4.00 in adult canned veggies.  I paid $6.00, or saved $10.65 AT MINIMUM.  I've never really priced baby food because this way works for us.

Ice cube and muffin tin trays are AWESOME for freezing baby food (or breast milk!) and  you don't have to spend money on the freezer bags.  One cube or small muffin tin is about 1 ounce of food/milk.  Just pour, cover in Saran Wrap, pop out when frozen, and store in a Ziploc or container of your choice.  I've also just left them in the trays of I'm not going to be making up any other food for awhile.

Don't hesitate to save any dinner leftovers either.  I've blended up left over Mac & Cheese, Beef Stroganoff, squash, etc.  If you just blend what the adults eat that will give you even more savings! 

Super easy and a huge savings.

On a related note, I found an article about the cost, labeling, and nutritional facts of store bought baby food vs homemade.  Check that out HERE.