Thrifty Thursdays: Make Your Own Baby Wipes

Weekly Savings: $1.24
Monthly Savings: $4.96
Yearly Savings: $59.50

Last October I got in a "crunchy" mood, and decided to try making my own baby wipes. I just recently sat down and did the math on whether or not it actually saves us money, and was surprised at what I found. Even though I'm not a money-saving genius, I did use the word 'thrifty' in my blog name, so here is a thrifty tip from me to you: try using cloth wipes! Not only are they less expensive than disposables, but they are super cute (since you can choose whatever fabric you want for them -- ours have froggies and duckies and Curious George on them), and they also clean poppy bottoms more effectively than disposables.

There are lots of websites that can tell you how to make your own wipes, if it's something that you want to try. But this post is about the thrifty side of doing it yourself, so without further ado, here is what it cost me to make a bunch of baby wipes:

• 1 yard of flannel (made 65 wipes, approximately 5"x6" each) = $2.99

I already had the thread that I used for zig-zagging the edges, so I didn't include that cost.

The cost for making a batch of cleaning solution is as follows:

• 1 Tbsp. baby shampoo (I use Aveeno or Burt's Bees; 8oz. for ~$5.00 = $0.32/Tbsp.)
• 1 tsp. mineral oil (16oz. for ~$4.00; $0.04/tsp.)
• 2 C. water (negligible)
• a few drops of essential oil for fragrance (negligible)
• Total = $0.36 per batch of cleaning solution

Since I use Nature's Miracle Stain and Odor Solution for both soaking the wipes after use and also in the laundry when I wash them, I am including that in the cost. I use ~1/4C. in the soaking solution and ~1/4 C. in the wash, so that's a total of 1/2 C. per batch of wipes.

• Nature's Miracle Stain and Odor Solution (1 gallon bottle for ~$25.00 = $0.78 per 1/2 C.)

Adding up the cost of the wipes ($2.99), the cleaning solution ($0.36), and the additional soaking/washing cost ($0.78), the initial outlay for the first batch of cloth wipes cost me $4.13 cents. That is a cost of approximately 6 1/2 cents per wipe, which is almost twice as much as I was paying per wipe with the disposable brand that I had been using.

BUT!

Those initial 65 wipes that I made will get us through an entire week. So, let's look at the cost of re-using these wipes for an entire month (four weeks). The cost of the wipes remains the same ($2.99), the cost of the cleaning solution is quadrupled ($1.44), as is the cost of the soaking/washing solution ($3.12). Therefore, the first month of using homemade wipes cost me $7.55, or just under 3 cents per wipe. Already cheaper than buying disposables!

Just for fun, six months of cloth wipes costs me $30.35 (almost 2 cents per wipe), and if I use the same flannel wipes for one year, my total outlay is only $57.71, which is under 2 cents per wipe and just under half of what I would have paid for my old brand of disposable wipes over the course of the same year. And these numbers don't take into account the fact that cloth wipes clean better than disposable wipes, so although I can get away with using only 65 wipes per week with my homemade wipes, I would be using probably 100 or more disposable wipes in the same amount of time.

I am really glad that we switched from disposable to reusable wipes. $60 may not seem like that much money over the course of a year, but that $60.00 could pay for an extra date night with my husband, or 25 movie rentals, or a care package for a relative who lives far away, or... who knows? If I found $60.00 in a jacket pocket I'd be thrilled to pieces, so I think it's a worthwhile amount to shave off of my yearly expenses. :-)

Random Ramblings

- I found a FOUR YEAR OLD frozen roast in my mom's freezer this week. And I'm using it to make dog food. I've never made my own dog food before, I hope the dog likes it! :-)

- A crabby almost-two-year-old-boy's spirits can be improved immeasurably by the simple "privilege" of being allowed to play in the bed of his daddy's parked pick-up truck for half-an-hour.

- I think I'm getting a sinus infection. I hate being sick while I'm pregnant, because Nyquil is off-limits, so I can't just sleep until I'm better. :-(

- Oreo cookies are good.

- I am really enjoying my 11 year old lately. This is a big deal, because for quite a while there we were not enjoying one another at all.

- I desperately need to clean my living room.

Matrimonial Monday

I don't intend to have a theme for every day of the week, but at least if I did it would give me something to write about, right? Right! And because I am a fan of alliteration, I need a "M" word to go with Monday. Money? No thanks. Moody? That would turn into a weekly pity-party right quick. Mercurial is a fun word to say, but not terribly inspiring. But since I am married, and most other people either are married, will be married, or have been married, marriage seems like a good choice of subject matter! "Matrimonial Monday" sounds much better than "Marriage Monday," so there we are. Problem created and solved in less than 3 minutes.

Now, what would I like to say about matrimony today?

I like being married. I really, really do. We're still shy of the 4 year mark, so I know our happiness in being married to each other is often attributed to still being "newlyweds," but regardless of why we're happy (and it's not just because we haven't had time to learn to hate each other yet), we are HAPPY.

So today's post is just a shout-out to my wonderful husband, who puts up with a LOT -- being married to me can't possibly be all sunshine and puppy dogs like he says it is -- who loves me to pieces, who is always patient, always kind, and almost always knows when to stop tickling before I start to honestly get mad about it. He is also a fantastic father, plays a decent game of Scrabble, and never forgets to put the seat down.

I love you, honey!

Tot School Sunday #1

This week was kind of crazy, with school programs to attend in the middle of the day, Daddy's work schedule changing, and just life-in-general sorts of things, so we only did one real "sit down" Tot School time this week. But I did get lots of pictures, and we had LOTS of fun!

Nathanael has been very interested by the refrigerator magnets for quite some time, so I thought it would be neat to let him play with some "real" magnets and see what he would do with them. I had wanted to take a picture of all of the supplies that we used, but I can't bring them out without him wanting to play with them, LOL. So instead of a photograph, here is a list:

Obvious caveat -- most if not all of these things are NOT items that small children should EVER have access to without constant, vigilant parental supervision. I made sure that I knew exactly what we had out and that everything was put away properly afterwards.

• Magnetix from big sister's collection (two bars of each color and four balls)
• a large-ish screw
• a large-ish nail
• a metal lid from an old cookie tin
• a large washer
• a bell
• a scrap-booking brad
• a binder clip
• a pair of tweezers
• a small wrench
• an adapter from a socket wrench
• two magnets from our fridge.

It was really fun watching him figure out that the colored magnetix bars were necessary to hold the other pieces together... at first he would get really frustrated when, for example, the tweezers wouldn't stick to the wrench, but then he would figure out that a magnetix bar would hold on to the wrench, and then he could stick the tweezers onto the same bar and make a little stack. So much fun to watch those connections being made!


He became really frustrated by the way like ends of the magnetix bars would repel each other. But after a few attempts to force the bars to attach, he figured out that by turning one bar over and using the other end, they would do what he wanted them to do! So after a bit of trial and error, he was able to use all of the bars and build this tower:

So there it is! Our very first official Tot School post! I'm looking forward to next week... not really sure what we're going to do yet, but I'm sure it will be great!

Tot School

So.

This weekend, I was aimlessly surfing the internet, minding my own business (more or less), when I stumbled across....




Oh. My. Goodness.

My nerdy little heart went pitter-pat, and I fell in loooooove. I had been thinking that I wanted to do some more focused, intentional play with Nathanael, and this website has so many incredible ideas! The only problem that I have with it is that it makes me want to spend lots of money on things for our own Tot School, LOL. I do have some ideas for things that we already have that I can use, and since the grandparents will (most likely) be spoiling him rotten on this upcoming birthday, I can use his birthday money for "school supplies." :-)

I am so excited!

The Nifty Thrifty Mama Blog Mission Statement

This is not a "how to save 50% on your grocery bill" sort of blog. This is not a "never pay full price for anything ever again" sort of blog. Nor is it an "I bought all of my kids' school clothes for less than $20 by shopping garage sales" sort of blog, a"how to shear your own sheep, weave your own yarn, and hand-knit all your own clothing" sort of blog," or even a "we grow and eat all of our (100% organic) produce, and you can too!" sort of blog. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those things, it they're what you're into.

This blog is about one person's desire to learn how to give her family the best home life possible by jumping in and doing things... not making every decision based on how much money it's going to cost, but on how much it's going to benefit our lives in the long term. It's about taking the extra time to learn how to do something myself if that is a practical decision. It's about learning how to be more appreciative for the things that I have and the people I'm surrounded by, and about making more conscientious decisions about how I spend my time, energy, and money. Ultimately, I suppose it is about trying to be better where there is room for improvement, and being gracious when I make mistakes (because I will make mistakes). It's a blog about cooking, cleaning, parenting, shopping, crafting, loving, and living.