We have never really used a budget in our house. I feel really bad admitting that. Neither one of us has ever had a credit card and we have always been smart about our spending. Smart, but not intentional. Now that Quinn is not working and we have a little more than two months until we will (hopefully) have a salary again, we are having to be intentional.
This may seem small, but there are many reasons that my most recent project was making my own baby wipes:
1: Cost. It makes less than a box of wipes would, but it basically costs whatever half of a paper towel roll does (plus a few pennies for the minute amount of baby wash and baby oil used).
2: Convenience. I honestly made some for the first time the other day because I was stuck at home with a kid I knew was going to poop that morning, no car, and no wipes. So I looked up the site I pinned here and made my first batch. I've been using them on Selah and they work well! I've actually found that, even though each wipe is smaller than the store bought ones, I use the same number because I only end up doing about one wipe regardless of the size (since I'm trying to avoid getting ooey gooey breastfed baby poop on my hands). This batch I just made will be for Abram's room and I think they will hold up just as well with toddler poop :)
3. Space. We are living out of suitcases for the next two months and packing a ziplock is easier than a tub of wipes. PLUS! If I really didn't have space, I could just leave the wipes and make more at our destination. Probably not going to need to do that, but it's possible.
So here's the process:
-Cut paper towel roll in half. I used Viva brand select a size because I love how soft they are and they make smaller wipes, which I wanted. If you wanted bigger ones, you could do the non-select a size. I would assume you wouldn't want to use a serrated knife or you would have bits of paper towel everywhere. It takes a little effort and patience. Saw away.
-Now you have a choice: You can either put the roll standing up directly into the ziplock or whatever container you want to use (one of those cylindrical cleaning wipe containers would work really well) Or you can unroll it and accordion fold it up (which I did on the second batch shown in the pictures). If you do the former, you will pull out the center roll once it has gotten sufficiently soaked after the next step and continue pulling wipes out of the center. If you do the latter, you should put the stack into a dish so that you can pour the mixture straight on top of it and then move it to the ziplock.
-Mix 2 1/4 cups water, 2 tbsp baby wash (whatever kind you want), and 1 tbsp baby oil or mineral oil. Pour mixture onto paper towels, either in bag or dish (be careful of splashing). Try and spread out the pouring, even around the bottom so it can get evenly soaked.
-Let sit for a bit. If it's in the bag, seal it up and tip it around to get the water to absorb. If it's in the dish, flip the pile over once or twice (you may even want to compress the pile to get the middle of the stack to absorb the liquid).
-Move the pile to the bag or remove the tube, depending on which process you went with.
-Wipe away!
I know that the time and effort it takes to do this (which I have to say is not much at all) would be worth paying for the store bought wipes for some people. For us, I think this may be our standard bum-cleaning material from now on! Thanks again, Pinterest :)
This may seem small, but there are many reasons that my most recent project was making my own baby wipes:
1: Cost. It makes less than a box of wipes would, but it basically costs whatever half of a paper towel roll does (plus a few pennies for the minute amount of baby wash and baby oil used).
2: Convenience. I honestly made some for the first time the other day because I was stuck at home with a kid I knew was going to poop that morning, no car, and no wipes. So I looked up the site I pinned here and made my first batch. I've been using them on Selah and they work well! I've actually found that, even though each wipe is smaller than the store bought ones, I use the same number because I only end up doing about one wipe regardless of the size (since I'm trying to avoid getting ooey gooey breastfed baby poop on my hands). This batch I just made will be for Abram's room and I think they will hold up just as well with toddler poop :)
3. Space. We are living out of suitcases for the next two months and packing a ziplock is easier than a tub of wipes. PLUS! If I really didn't have space, I could just leave the wipes and make more at our destination. Probably not going to need to do that, but it's possible.
So here's the process:
-Cut paper towel roll in half. I used Viva brand select a size because I love how soft they are and they make smaller wipes, which I wanted. If you wanted bigger ones, you could do the non-select a size. I would assume you wouldn't want to use a serrated knife or you would have bits of paper towel everywhere. It takes a little effort and patience. Saw away.
-Now you have a choice: You can either put the roll standing up directly into the ziplock or whatever container you want to use (one of those cylindrical cleaning wipe containers would work really well) Or you can unroll it and accordion fold it up (which I did on the second batch shown in the pictures). If you do the former, you will pull out the center roll once it has gotten sufficiently soaked after the next step and continue pulling wipes out of the center. If you do the latter, you should put the stack into a dish so that you can pour the mixture straight on top of it and then move it to the ziplock.
-Mix 2 1/4 cups water, 2 tbsp baby wash (whatever kind you want), and 1 tbsp baby oil or mineral oil. Pour mixture onto paper towels, either in bag or dish (be careful of splashing). Try and spread out the pouring, even around the bottom so it can get evenly soaked.
-Let sit for a bit. If it's in the bag, seal it up and tip it around to get the water to absorb. If it's in the dish, flip the pile over once or twice (you may even want to compress the pile to get the middle of the stack to absorb the liquid).
-Move the pile to the bag or remove the tube, depending on which process you went with.
-Wipe away!
I know that the time and effort it takes to do this (which I have to say is not much at all) would be worth paying for the store bought wipes for some people. For us, I think this may be our standard bum-cleaning material from now on! Thanks again, Pinterest :)
Comments
Post a Comment