So I Cheated…But It Saved Money

I have been a mother for nearly 10 years. I have always fed my babies Gerber brand baby food. To me, I tend to trust Gerber products above all others so I buy Gerber baby food exclusively. That is, until yesterday…..

Yesterday, I headed out to the grocery store to stock up for two weeks. Since we are broker than broke grocery shopping on a budget, I was trying to be as frugal as possible. I had made my menu, working off of items we already had in the cabinets/fridge/freezer and made a fairly short shopping list. I was trucking through the store, buying sale items and saving money. I was feeling pretty good. Then I came into the baby food aisle…..

Being a Gerber snob, I started picking out all of Bean’s favorite foods (pretty much all of ‘em). I pulled out my handy-dandy coupon organizer to see which lovely Gerber coupons I had filed away recently. To my surprise, the only Gerber coupons I had were for juice and spoons and sippy cups! I was screwed! I continued to pick out enough breakfasts for two weeks, adding up the cost as I was tossing the containers into my cart when something caught my eye. It was all those little red tickets they hang off of the shelf to draw your attention to items on sale, you know the ones? Well, it worked because it had definitely gotten my attention. It was for Beech Nut baby foods, 10 jars for $4.00. I’m no rocket scientist, but I can figure out pretty quickly that two jars of Stage 2 Beech Nut baby food for $.80 is way cheaper than two plastic containers of Stage 2 Gerber baby food for $1.19! And, two jars of Stage 3 Beech Nut baby food for $1.00 is much better than paying $.89 each for a jar of Stage 3 Gerber!

Just like that, I cheated on Gerber! I tossed neatly arranged all those Gerber foods that were in my cart back onto the shelves and filled my cart with Beech Nut baby food. Since I only buy groceries twice a month, I buy a lot of baby food at a time – 66 jars to be exact! I know, that’s insane! I’ll be so glad when Bean finally gets some teeth so she can eat more table foods.

As I filled my cart and headed to the register, I was so proud of the money I had saved by cheating on Gerber. But, on the drive home, guilt began to creep in. How could I have done this? What if Bean was also a Gerber snob and didn’t like the 66 jars of Beech Nut baby food I had just bought? What if Beech Nut was inferior and tasted yucky? What had I done? Maybe I had made a terrible mistake!

I brought in all of the groceries and put everything away, except for the baby food. Instead of putting it in the cabinet right away, I divided it into groups (I always group it in the cabinets) and counted the jars and added up the cost.

16 Stage 3 Beech Nut @ 2/$1.00 = $8.00

50 Stage 2 Beech Nut @ 10/$4.00 = $20.00

Total spent on Beech Nut baby food = $28.00

Then I figured the cost of the same amount of Gerber baby food:

16 Stage 2 Gerber @ $.89 each = $14.24

50 Stage 2 Gerber @ 2/$1.19 = $29.75

Total I would have spent on the same amount of Gerber food = $43.99

I SAVED $15.99!!! This seriously lessened my guilt.

My guilt slipped further away when I thought back on this post and this post by Mrs. Fussypants in which she discusses the dangers of plastics. Gerber baby foods are packaged in polycarbonate plastic containers. Beech Nut foods are packaged in glass jars. Yes, they are harder to stack in my tiny cabinet but they are safer for my Bean.

My guilt was hanging on by a thread. I continued to worry over whether or not Bean would like this new brand of baby food that her frugal mama insisted on buying. Supper time came and I pulled out a jar of Stage 3 Tender Chicken & Stars for dinner. She tasted it…..

And the verdict????

She loved it!!

After seeing her devour Tender Chicken & Stars and Banana Apple Yogurt last night and then Cinnamon Raisin Granola this morning, I am totally guilt free! I’m really glad she likes it, because I would hate to have to take all this back to the store:

So, how about you? What brand of baby food to you use (or did you use) for your little ones? Is there one particular brand that you use? I’d love to hear from you!

No longer a Gerber snob,