A mum has shared how she feeds her child for £10 a month by making her own baby food. Leigh Morris, 33, a health care assistant from Gloucester, gave birth to her son, Ieuan, in December 2021 – joining her son Theo, seven, and step-children Imogen, 13 and Leo, nine.
Leigh and partner Bryn, 42, are saving money by making their youngest’s food themselves. "After doing some research on shop food and prices, it would have cost me around £18 a week on the jars and £75 a month if he was having three jars a day," Leigh told NeedToKnow.online.
“I can’t afford £75 a month on jars plus baby milk and nappies on top. On average I spend £10 a month on three meals a day for him.”
She also researched how the jars and pouches were made and why they had such a long shelf life. She added: "I saw that the majority were pasteurised which would mean that the food being exposed to such high heat would have an impact on the nutritional value.
"I’ve also seen a lot of posts online of mums finding mould inside the pouches and it put me off." Having always had a passion for cooking, and making homemade food with her other children, she decided to do it with Ieuan too.
She said: "I love to cook and I watch cooking shows most days, I've also worked in numerous kitchens as a commis chef.
"I want the little one to try as many foods as possible but I also wanted to know exactly what he was eating!" For Leigh and Bryn, the most important aspect of feeding their baby homemade food is the nutritional side of things and knowing what is going into his body.
She added: "I know what he’s eating when I cook for him, I can make sure he gets his five-a-day as well as ensuring salt and sugar free meals! Also I can taste test everything I cook him so I know what flavours stand out the most."
Cost is also a huge factor for the family, as at home there are six of them to feed. Leigh likes to use a variety of vegetables, depending on the season, as well as frozen peas and sweetcorn as they're very cheap.
She said: "Everyday he will have a veggie meal and then a meal with protein included. Breakfast is always blitzed down rolled oats or Weetabix."
For Ieuan's porridge, Leigh buys a bag of rolled oats, which is usually a kilo bag, for around £1. She said: "I put a cups worth of oats in my food processor or nutribullet, and blitz it down to a powder consistency.
"I then store it in an air tight container and use a scoop from his baby formula to measure out the portion. I always do one part porridge to three parts milk."
For dinners, Leigh will roast, boil or steam whatever she has decided to cook for him. She added: "Once the food is cooked and cooled, I will purée it in the blender and portion it into ice cube trays, then I'll freeze it for 24 hours.
"Once frozen I pop the cubes into a labelled bag with a three-month expiry date on and pop back in the freezer. Then when I go to use it, I defrost it in the fridge the night before and warm up in the microwave slowly."
Ieuan also has some favourite dishes of Leigh's, especially the fish-based ones. She said: "He loves salmon in particular, it makes me so happy to be able to cook it for him and watch him enjoy it.
"I do a fillet in the oven wrapped in tin foil, then purée it with a potato, peas and a spoonful of cream cheese. I’d say his absolute favourite meal is chicken, potato and veg.
"I cook a chicken breast in tin foil with olive oil and purée with a potato and add veg." Per meal, it costs Leigh less than a penny for his individual portions, with the ingredients for the whole meal costing roughly £4.50.
- Two x chicken breast - £2.25 (Tesco)
- Frozen sweetcorn - £1.08
- Baby potatoes - £1
Frozen peas - 55p
She said: "On average, this will make 60 portions of chicken and potato, 200 portions of peas and 200 portions of sweetcorn.
"All are ice cube portions at 0.5 ounces and he has, roughly, four cubes per meal at the moment, giving us 60 portions out of chicken!" Leigh usually spends her mornings cooking the fish, chicken and other protein dishes, which last around three months, and does the veg as and when it needs replenishing, as he will have three portions of veg per meal.
Giving advice to any other parents trying to give their baby nutritious food while saving money, she said: "Buy seasonal veg always to keep the cost down. Grab yellow stickers on expensive proteins when you can and freeze that day if you’re not able to cook it.
"Also keep an eye out for Lidl’s £1.50 fruit and veg boxes at the front of their stores as I can make a months’ worth of purée veg on one of those!"
