We did baby-led weaning (which is I think different what what you are planning, though you might look into it because it was great and so much easier), but I did make homemade food generally.
The reality is that starting weaning does require extra work, no matter how you do it. Your LO can pretty soon start eating exactly what you eat, especially if you wait until 6 months, they can literally have the same exact things as you, even if you decide to puree them. Before 6 months, it's just veg, fruit or baby rice (no added dairy, wheat, nuts, meat, etc.). But even when you start, you do have to make separate things as something will be too salty or too spicy, etc. If you want to go the fruit and veg puree route, you just have to eat lots of fruits and veg yourself and make extra to keep. You don't necessarily have to cook separately. If you are making roasted carrots and parsnips and mash for dinner, then just make extra. It forces you to eat lots of veg yourself too.
The only downside I can see, if you're doing purees, is that there is more cleaning involved in terms of cleaning and storing your blender. Personally, I hate doing this and I often forget to do it until it dries and gets yucky the next day, which was one of the reasons we did BLW, because I couldn't bare to be purreeing things everyday and having to clean that thing.
It will definitely save money if you just offer baby extra food from what you're making anyway. The cost of an extra half a carrot is like 5p, compared to 20x that for a jar of carrot puree. The reality is that there will be A LOT of wasted food for the first 6-8 months of weaning. A lot is spit out, chucked on the floor, generally just disliked. So better to waste something that's less expensive than something you've paid way too much money for. The only time I spend money buying pre-made food is for snacks for when we're out and it isn't easy to bring food along (those baby puffs were great, as were some of the pre-made smoothie pouches).
The reality is that you'll be cooking for your child for the next 18 years. It doesn't get easier as they get older, so you might as well start now in learning ways to cook for both of you. Really, it just takes cooking healthily for yourself and finding creative ways to make child-friendly meals. Vegetable soup made for dinner can be blended into a puree or served chunky like you'd have it with buttered bread if you do BLW. Pasta with sauce is an easy favourite and it can be blended as well, after 6 months obviously. If you opt to start early, just make extra of your usual vegetables. In this sense, I think the benefit is that you just get used to doing it and how to squeeze it into your day. Doing meal prep while your partner gives your LO a bath or while they have some quality play time together, cooking extra on the weekends, and using a slow cooker have helped us. The benefit really is that if you cook yourself, your LO gets used to the kinds of foods and flavours you eat in your family, so they'll be more likely to want to eat those kinds of foods as they get older too.
x
