I am curious how much formula costs per month

[cjeanette]

You have to boil in some areas I guess. I used tap water. I didn't heat them.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using proboards

[pugz]

Squirms is going through one large Costco size container of Similac a week right now. They are $27 each but I use a $5 off Similac check on each. So about $90 a month currently. That will just go up as she gets older as she will eat more.

We do not warm our bottles. We prep them ahead of time and keep them in the fridge so Squirms usually gets them cold. If we make one fresh it is room temp. This way she never rejects a bottle based on temperature, which makes feeding her when we are out and about easier.

After she starts a bottle the clock starts ticking, at 1 hour the bottle is no longer good and we toss it. Fortunately the longest she takes to eat a bottle is 45 minutes. It's usually closer to 30 minutes.

[anonnani]

My son refused to bf unless in the mood so we used formula 99.9% of the time.
There is also ready to use as opposed to the powder and it already a liquid and its just pure and go no mixing etc., and is 6.99 each and last 2.5 days so in a month its a little less then $111

[atouchofklasse]

A big can at Costco is $16-17. So less than $45/month.

FF is a relatively small cost if you're paying for daycare IMO.

[pugz]

uggh I need to switch to generic

[pugz]

I don't really have a reason not to, just kinda got to hoarding Similac I will quit hoarding and make the switch when my stash runs out.

it's the whole "giving your kid the best" myth the name brand formula companies tout, playing on my mommy guilt that BF didn't work out. I know it's stupid.

[Redpoppy]

DS was at about a big BJ's container of Similac a week. They ran around $25-30. I did try Good Start one but didn't like how it smelled or clumped.

We just made them straight from the tap with a filter. While I was still pumping we only warmed bottles enough to get them to mix the fat back in.

[sometimesrunner]

DS is on formula because of stomach issues, and his formula is $39/can. A can lasts us three days...so yeah it sucks big time.

[CloudBee]

Oct 11, 2012 22:14:05 GMT -5 sometimesrunner said:

DS is on formula because of stomach issues, and his formula is $39/can. A can lasts us three days...so yeah it sucks big time.

Geez, I'm sorry.

[whitepicketfence]

We used Target's Up&Up brand and generally went through around 4 of the largest containers a month (can't remember what their exact size was). They were $21.99 each if I'm remembering correctly, so $87.96 a month. I generally had coupons for $1 off and saved my 5% with their debit card, but that savings was pretty negligable when looking at overall costs.

These costs did decrease, however, as the baby started eating more solids.

ETA: We didn't use tap water since we have a well. We do have a reverse osmosis system and used water from that.

[vanillacourage]

We use Target brand sensitive, $21.69/can and he goes through 5-6/month. We make them with water straight from the tap.

[starlily]

We used Enfamil & DD was a string eater.

Formula averaged $110/month for us when she was EFF.

I don't know what your mom is talking about. We just used filtered room temperature water.

[mollybrown]

We used Costco brand at $16 a can, and she went through one a week. So around $60 a month.

We never boiled or heated the water. When we had a fridge with a water filter, we would sit it on the counter and let it get to room temp. Once we moved and didn't have filtered water, we just used straight tap.

[Deleted]

If insurance didn't cover our amino acid based formula it would have been between 500-750 a month on the highest use months. I don't know how we would have managed. Luckily it is 100 % covered in MA.

[marclovesme]

When we were supplementing we used Similac because my husband had the same "give our DD the best" mentality.

I went way overboard when Target had a sale - had a Target coupon that I stacked with manufacturer's coupons and formula checks (and free can coupons) bringing the cans from $15 or $20 to $4 or $5. I think I ended up buying 10 cans... Ended up mixing formula with BM for awhile and I donated the rest.

If we exclusively FF I'm pretty sure we would have switched to Up & Up based on the good things that I heard on MM.

[twinsinmd]

We used Target Up & Up brand (Gentle version) at first, and then when they raised the price of it, it was worth it for us to go to Sam's Club to get it. FYI-PBM nutritionals makes Up & Up, CVS, Parent's Choice, Sam's Club. It's the same formula, just under different brand names. You can also call once a month and request a coupon-they were good about sending one but *I*had to call every 30 days.

I used to be able to get Up & Up for $19.99 - $2 for coupon, but then they raised it to the $21.99 and were only giving $1 off coupons, so we switched to the Sam's bigger version (an extra 12 oz of formula) for $23.89-and 1 $5 off coupon. We went through 4-5 containers of it a month with the 2 babies.

[arch01]

DS is about to start on formula FT. I have been getting formula checks from friends, and at Target you can use as many as you want in one transaction. Last time they were running a sale, I bought 3 Enfamil and 1 Similac tubs-$24 each, got $10 in GCs and used $40 in checks and $8 in coupons. That comes out to $9.50/23.4oz tub, which is cheaper than the generic Up&Up. We have a BJs membership and the cost per ounce on Enfamil, Similac, Gerber and the store brand is more than when I shop deals elsewhere.

Each container was lasting us about 10 days, but now that I am about done pumping due to another supply drop it'll probably last us 8 days.

[imimahoney]

It costs a lot!

LO is on a special formula for his MSPI. Pre- formula coupon it is $35 a container and the container lasts 5 days.

Thankfully we have yet to pay full price for one because of formula checks. But that is only $5 off per container.

[dcrunnergirl]

We used Target Up and UP version of Gentlease, which was $20/can at the time. At the height of FFing, we were going through a little over 2 cans/week. I calculated at the time that we were spending about $44/week.

[arch01]

Oct 12, 2012 7:17:17 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

It costs a lot!

LO is on a special formula for his MSPI. Pre- formula coupon it is $35 a container and the container lasts 5 days.

Thankfully we have yet to pay full price for one because of formula checks. But that is only $5 off per container.

Is your LO on Nutramigen by chance? If so, you can call them and they give rebates between $10-15 per 1-2 cans (we were on it for a bit and got rebates of varying amounts in the mail).

[birdmom]

We started on Enfamil, and I switched to the Sam's Club brand. Never noticed a difference at all. They even have one for sensitive tummies. It was $20 for a canister, and we went through probably 3 a month, maybe 4.

We just used bottled water, never warmed it up. Made it easy when we were out. DS wasn't used to a warm bottle. Also easy for the middle of the night. After an hour, though, if it wasn't finished, we tossed it.

[hannamaren]

The generic brand constipated Layla. She only seems to be okay with Nestle Goodstart that has no generic here.
We used to spend $45 a week (we are weaning now - yay!) and we use distilled water because our tap water has too much fluoride.
We used to prepare bottles in advance but now we just do it as needed (unless we are going out) and it is so much easier.

[imimahoney]

Oct 12, 2012 7:49:30 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Oct 12, 2012 7:17:17 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

It costs a lot!

LO is on a special formula for his MSPI. Pre- formula coupon it is $35 a container and the container lasts 5 days.

Thankfully we have yet to pay full price for one because of formula checks. But that is only $5 off per container.

Is your LO on Nutramigen by chance? If so, you can call them and they give rebates between $10-15 per 1-2 cans (we were on it for a bit and got rebates of varying amounts in the mail).

He is! Thanks for the tip, I will check it out.

[dragonfly08]

Depends on what formula you're buying and how much your kid eats.

My girls, at their peak, went through about one can of Kirkland brand formula per week. I think it ran about $15-$20/can at the time? (my kids are 9 and 6 now, so it's been a while!) DD #1 was on soy formula for about 4 months and that was 1) smaller cans so more needed per week, and 2) more costly per can. I was glad when she outgrew the lactose intolerance issues and could go back to the regular stuff!

[pinkdutchtulips]

About $90/month using either Target generic or our own grocery stores generic version. Thank god DD has an iron stomach !

[everam01]

The boys were supplemented with Similac Organic, which was $24/can at Harris Teeter. We constantly got coupons from Similac and usually had $5 off per purchase.

[drloretta]

I think we spent around $80/months. A decent sized can of powdered formula is around $12-15 for generic, $20-ish for branded.

We were huge cheaters. We used filtered tap water. We only heated bottles because DD wouldn't take cold formula for the longest time.

[pugz]

uggh when we were doing boob+bottle it would take well over an hour.

[pugz]

if you sign up on the similac or enfamil websites they'll send you checks (really they are like coupons) to use on their products. $5 off a can. So I take a stack of them to Costco and use one per each can.

[faith194]

We supplemented at first, and rarely spent a lot of money due to formula checks and the pedi office giving us samples. When we had to go to Elecare exclusively due to MSPI(normally 600 dollars a month), we were thankful our insurance company covered it. We ended up paying 10 dollars a month, for 10 months.