31 Days of Baby Saving Tips: Day 17 - Make Homemade Baby Food

Not only is making your own baby food healthy for your baby (since you control what goes into it), it can save you a TON of money.  Pictured above are some carrots and sweet potato baby foods that I made last week for Howard.  The carrots were 1-1 lb baby of organic baby carrots from ALDI that I cooked and pureed in the food processor with a little water.  They cost $0.99. As for the sweet potatoes, I purchased 1-3 lb bag from ALDI for $1.29, this made almost 18 (3-4 tbsp) meals for Howard.  If I would have bought 18 pouches of sweet potatoes at the grocery store, it would have cost me at least $18, and that's if they were on sale.  I took me almost no time at all to make the food.  I washed the potatoes after doing dishes at lunch.  Then I left the skins on, and cut the two potatoes into about 3 chunks each, as they were a little large, and covered them with water.  While I was cooking dinner, the potatoes simmered on the stove.  When dinner was ready, the potatoes were done too, so I drained them, and let them cool while we ate.  After eating dinner, but before washing dishes, I got out the food processor, and popped the taters out of their skins and into the processor bowl.  I pureed the potatoes with a little filtered water, and stuck them in labeled containers in the fridge.  Then I washed the food processor with the dinner dishes.  Since I multi-tasked, it took me only a few minutes to get 3 or 4 days worth of food ready for Howard, and it saved me a LOT of money - almost $20, which is about $1500 a year!

31 Days of Baby Saving Tips: Day 16 - Use Promo Codes

Once I found out I was pregnant I started to sign up for every newsletter/baby site I could find baby related.  So, I received a boat-load of things in the mail, including a coupon strip for things like a free nursing cover (pictured above), a carrier, baby leggings - 5 pairs for free, and a few other items.  I only had to pay shipping (about $10 or so dollars), which in my opinion was a GREAT deal!  Instead of paying the normal $40 or so for a nursing cover, which I use a LOT (like every time we are out anywhere) I paid about $10.  An AMAZING savings in my opinion, especially for something I use a ton, and probably wouldn't have bought without the deal.  So, use those promo codes to save money on things you need, or want :-)

31 Days of Baby Saving Tips: Day 15 - Use Old Socks to make Baby Leg Warmers

 had received a free promo code for baby leggings (which I ended up using, and got 5 pairs for just shipping), but before I made a purchase, I wanted to see if Howard was going to like wearing them.  I had a pair of socks that had a huge hole in the bottom that was un-mendable, so I cut that part off, and tried them on Howard.  They were amazing!  He liked having his legs warm, and I LOVED the fact that I didn't have to take his pants off and then put them back on with every diaper change!  This picture is before I hand stitched a piece of elastic in the bottom, and put a small stitch in the top to make them fit his leg better.  The ones I bought online are nicer, but for FREE, I can't complain, and they work just as well.