One of the main reasons I started this blog is to share what I’ve learned about baby and kid products, routines, etc. And, if I can, how to save money on these things.
I bought my first LifeFactory bottle in 2011. I was looking for a bottle that could hold hot or cold liquid and could be put in the dishwasher. This is critical. I am so tired of various “eco” bottles that need to be hand-washed. My life is not about hand-washing (and, for a great look at why dishwashers actually save time, check out Rob Cockerham’s detailed analysis on Cockeyed.com).
I used to be a daily reader of Young House Love, and it was there that I first learned that LifeFactory made baby bottles. I thought the Petersiks were crazy, however, for just buying something like 3 bottles. And the price looked to be insane for me.
Fastforward til when I had a one-year-old. By then, we’d been through two generations of Tommee Tippee bottles and sippy cups (which, btw, were really good bottles overall). No matter what we did, the plastic would just break down over the course of several months–I would estimate we got about 6 months of good use out of them. The bottles weren’t too costly when using sales and coupons at Target or Babies R’Us, but the frugal side of me just cringed at spending that kind of money regularly.
I finally decided to pull the trigger on getting a few LifeFactory bottles at Amazon and our local food co-op and I have never looked back. These things are near indestructible! From the start, they’ve been thrown, bashed, fallen from various heights–nothing seems to break them. Which totally messed with my head…somehow I thought glass bottles would be so delicate (picture over-anxious mother constantly checking for glass shards in the first month…). The only thing that wears out and cracks upon impact is the plastic sippy cap. Each bottle comes with a standard nipple and cap set-up–we saved these in case we have another baby but had already moved on to the sippy cap.
How Do You Save Money on These Expensive Bottles?
First off, the prices at Amazon are not bad–pretty good if you don’t have access to a food co-op. I’ve yet to see them come to a lot of major chain stores, so there aren’t a lot of good deals to be had. However, if your local co-op offers a case discount and any other owner discounts, they can come out to be a great deal that actually beats Amazon price. These are still pricey bottles–roughly 3-5 times what you’d pay for a regular bottle. But since you can use these over and over again, even through childhood as a water bottle (they sell flat caps), I think they more than pay for the initial expense.
The bottles are packed in a case of 4 (either large or small–no mixing). For the large bottles, they run about $14.99–nearly the same price as Amazon. With a case discount of 15% and a seasonal owner discount of 10% (occurs once per quarter), the savings look somewhat like this (cheaper if you get lucky and hit a sale, too):
$14.99 x 4 = $59.96 x 85% = $50.97 x 90% = $45.87 or $11.47/bottle
The sippy caps come in a case of 6 boxes (2 per box). While this is a greater number than the bottles, I find it useful to have a few on hand since this IS the one part that will break.
$7.99 x 6 = $47.94 x 85% = $40.75 x 90% = $36.67 or $6.11/box of 2
How Many Bottles Should You Buy?
We have 6 small bottles and 4 large; I just recently purchased 2 more large bottles (split a case order with another mom). When my daughter was younger and we fed mostly with bottles, we needed a LOT more bottles in rotation. In summary, here’s what I would recommend:
- Nursing almost full-time: 1-2 small, 1-2 large bottles
- Mostly bottle feeding: 6 small bottles, 6-8 large bottles
- Toddler: 4-6 small bottles, 4-6 large bottles
We currently use the small bottles for milk and the large bottles for water.
