Meal times on a budget

Breast is best... and cheapest! - Feeding your baby in the first six months needn't cost you a penny, breast milk is all she needs, and, in fact, the World Health Authority recommends that babies receive no food other than breast milk for the first six months. You may be tempted to introduce first solids earlier than six months purely for the novelty aspect but unless your health visitor or doctor recommends you try early with solids there's no real reason to spend money on expensive baby foods at this stage. Once your baby is weaned onto solids you can still save money by keeping up a few breast feeds a day rather than switching to formula for the milk part of her diet.

Sterilising - If you do need to sterilise many bottles and other baby equipment then a simple steam steriliser will probably save a lot of time. Look for a steriliser with a short cycle to save on energy (microwave sterilisers are often cheaper than electronic sterilisers and have short sterilising cycles) - try Ebay for good second-hand offers too. Boiling for several minutes in water is also an option if you don't want to buy a steriliser, but it only takes one forgotten and ruined pan to make this a false economy.

Milk has got a lotta bottle- Baby bottles are often included with related products such as sterilisers and breast pumps, so see how many freebies you notch up first. Also, your baby might not get on with your first choice of bottle and teat, so it's best to road test before bulk buying.

Make it yourself - Once your baby is ready to start with her first tastes of purees you'll be dazzled by the array of jars beckoning from the supermarket shelves. You'll also be dazzled by the prices for something so small and so simple: Do you really need to pay a premium for someone else to puree a carrot for you? Making your own first baby food is really simple - just steam lightly and puree. Some foods can even be given raw but mashed or pureed. It also needn't be very time consuming if you batch prepare vegetables etc. and store them in the freezer. You can make life easier and reduce wastage by using a flexible ice-cube tray to freeze small portions and then taking out only what you need at each feed.

HiPP Weaning Starter Pack (£9.99)

As your baby gradually eats larger and more varied portions you can use small plastic airtight containers to store whole delicious meals in - these are also just as handily portable as jars for out and about.
As your child gets to the toddler stage she'll be able to eat more or less what you do, making family cooking even easier and more economical. When cooking for the whole family make sure you hold off the seasoning during cooking, adults can add their own salt at the table.

Keep it simple - When you do buy pre-prepared baby food of any kind, look for the simplest and least adulterated that you can find. Your baby doesn't need spaghetti carbonara, banana cereal, or flavoured biscuits, and these expensive concoctions may well contain sugars and flavourings that she's actually better off without.
Heinz do a range called Simply Organic which, like Hipp Organic offer small jars of simple fruit and vegetable combinations. They usually cost about 52p a jar (a jar will last a new eater two meals, or for, say, a ten-month-old, one meal) but in the chains like Tesco and Sainsburys, there is almost always an order on, eg buy six for £2.50 or buy 5, get one free.

Bibs and Stuff Stay Put Cutlery (£9)

A lot of crock - When it comes to giving your baby solids there are all kinds of feeding accessories that you can save on. You only really need one or two baby bowls for food, for example: A very simple bowl will do, but it might make sense to get one that you can suction to the table for when baby starts to feed herself later. Peter Rabbit china is all very lovely, but it's plastic that won't break when it (inevitably) ends up on the floor.

You won't need more than a few baby spoons either (they do tend to go walkabout), check your baby finds a particular spoon comfortable before buying several of one kind though. Supermarkets and highstreet chemists often do their own line of baby cutlery, just be sure that you avoid very thin, hard plastic that might irritate baby's gums. Again, if you think ahead to the kind of spoon your baby will find it easiest to feed herself with later on then you can save a few pence.

Bibs are another thing you can save on in the first months of spoon feeding, those muslins you used to catch posset after milk feeds are ideal for giving you good clothing coverage and wiping baby's face up afterwards.

So there are a few money-saving ideas for starters, any others then do share them on a forum thread below!