My experiments with homemade baby food

I am frugal. OK, a better word is cheap. In an attempt to save money, I thought I'd try my hand at making some of Eli's baby food. My ONLY motive for making it by hand was to save money. I don't care about the supposed nutritional benefits; just saving money. I know. I'm bad.

My expectations were that I'd be able to save money on some of the cheaper veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots) but not as much, if any, on the fruits (peaches, pears). I used the cheapest ingredients I could find and compared it to the cheapest baby food I could find--Del Monte brand at WalMart, which for runs 46 cents for a 4 oz jar. Here are my very unscientific results:

CARROTS
Difficulty level: medium
Savings: 4 cents/oz; 16 cents/jar
Verdict: Even after food processing, the texture was not as smooth as jarred. But still, I'd give it a PROBABLY WORTH IT.

SWEET POTATOES
Difficulty level: easy
Savings: 7 cents/oz; 28 cents/jar
Verdict: I scored some super cheap sweet potatoes. Both Eli and Micah love mashed sweet potatoes, so we use them all the time. DEFINITELY WORTH IT.

ACORN SQUASH/BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Difficulty level: easy
Savings: 5 cents/oz; 20 cents/jar
Verdict: DEFINITELY WORTH IT. We all eat squashed squash!

GREEN BEANS
Difficulty level: medium to hard
Savings: 3 cents/oz; 12 cents/jar
Verdict: The texture is grainy no matter how much I blend them, and Eli won't eat them. NOT WORTH IT.

PEARS
Difficulty: easy
Savings: 1 cent/oz; 4 cents/jar
Verdict: NOT WORTH IT

APPLESAUCE
I sometimes make this from apples given to me (definitely worth it obviously). Usually, though, I buy a big jar of the unsweetened applesauce in the canned fruits section.
Savings: 7 cents/oz; 28 cents/jar
Verdict with jar of applesauce: DEFINITELY WORTH IT

BANANAS
Difficulty: super easy
Savings: I have not calculated the savings of just mashing a banana, but I guess it to be significant.
Verdict: Sadly, Eli doesn't like the texture. We haven't tried the jarred because i keep hoping he'll come around. But for Micah as a baby, it was DEFINITELY WORTH IT.

APPLES AND BLUEBERRIES
Eli loves the HyVee brand of this flavor, which is 50 cents/jar. It is tricky to know what the ratio is of apples to blueberries, so it's difficult to know if you're saving money. Supposing the ratio is half and half. . .
Difficulty: medium--and very messy
Savings: If the jar is half blueberries, I am losing money making it myself. If it's less than that, I would break even or maybe save a couple cents per oz.
Verdict: NOT WORTH IT.

So my suspicions for the most part were confirmed. It helped that we had a small food processor. I did spend $1 on ice cube trays to freeze the food. If you have to buy a bunch of equipment to get started, that may negate any money you end up saving. I know several of you readers have made baby food yourselves, so please feel free to share your own experiences!