I think I’ve made it pretty clear in previous posts that I am seriously into SAVING MONEY! It’s sort of turning into a game these days and while we can certainly afford diapers, toilet paper, food on our table, etc. there are just some things in this world I HATE spending money on. So here’s the list of things that I think are utterly boring to spend our hard earned dollars on.
- Diapers
- Diaper Wipes
- Laundry Detergent
- Dishwasher Detergent
- Toilet Paper
- Paper Towels
So I still haven’t figured out a way to eliminate spending money on #5 ( not ready to start making my own toilet paper….YET) and #6 (although we do use hand towels 99.9% of the time). I have my husband decently trained, but when we have visitors they still prefer to use those darn things even though I buy THE cheapest most rough paper towels I can find. I can’t break family and friends from the habit of grabbing a paper towel and I’m not going to lie, I cringe every time I see someone going for one of them. So for all you paper towel users in my home, this is to you… the fresh, clean, plush, Williams Sonoma hand towels are in the drawer to the left of the sink!!! But this post isn’t about paper towels. It’s about the ways that I have found to spend minimal dollars on the first 4 items that I hate to spend money on! Since these recipes are lengthy I have split the blogs into 3 parts. Today is all about diaper wipes, but tune into tomorrow for Laundry Detergent and next week for Dishwasher Detergent!
I’ve already shared my love for cloth diapers so I won’t bore you again… you can read all about cloth diapering here.
Here’s how to make homemade diaper wipes:
I was having a Starbucks date with the Austin Moms Blog crew this past Saturday and one of our new guest contributors mentioned that you can make your own diaper wipes. What?????????? How? I had no clue this was possible! I immediately went home on Saturday and googled how to make your own diaper wipes. There are a couple of different methods in making your own diaper wipes and one includes using paper towels. Since I just went on a 3-4 sentence rage above about my disdain for paper towels, that was clearly not an option. So I went with the option where you use cloth. You can make your own cloth wipes with material and they can all match or be different, but since I didn’t have any fabric and once I decide to do something it has to be done ASAP, I decided to use baby wash cloths. I also wrote a blog about the top 10 registry items you DON’T need and if you read it or want to here, you know that I don’t use those teeny tiny little pieces of wasted cloth for anything. So here’s what I did although there are a dozen variations of solutions:
- 1 old diaper wipes container
- 1/8 Cup of Baby Soap: I use California Baby Calming Shampoo and Baby Wash, but you can use any kind.
- 8 drops of Lavender Oil: you can buy this from your nearest grocery store in the natural foods department. I got mine from HEB in Lakeway. It’s about $8, but you can also use it for the homemade laundry detergent so it’s well worth the expense.
- 1/8 Cup of Olive Oil
- 1 ½-3 Cups of Water: I used 3 full cups, but you can use less to make the solution a bit stronger
All you do is take a bowl and mix all the ingredients together. Dip your wash cloths in the solution making sure to frequently stir the solution, because the oil will separate. Wring the solution out of the wash cloth and place in the old wipes container. I wash the wipes with my cloth diapers. The solution actually made too much so I’m storing the remaining solution in a mason jar in the fridge for my next batch of wipes. 
If you aren’t a cloth diapering mom you can still make your own diaper wipes! You just use paper towels. Get a brand that is thick and soft otherwise they won’t absorb the solution very well and thus, won’t work on your baby’s tush. You just cut the paper towel roll in half with a bread knife, put the ½ paper towel roll in an old wipes container, pour the solution over the towels, and there ya go! It’s so easy!!! And here’s the cost savings if you use some old wash cloths or spare plush fabric lying around!
- 384 count of Huggies Wipes from Target: $16.99 + tax
- I use at least 10 wipes per day and I don’t even have a newborn, which means the big box of wipes would last me about 38 days give or take.
- I’m saving at least $15 per month for something that was virtually free, because I already had all of the ingredients. Sure I may run out of olive oil and baby wash a bit sooner, but I’m helping save our environment, these are more hypoallergenic, and I’m doing laundry anyway so I might as well throw the wash cloths in the load!
Let me know if you try making your own diaper wipes and how it works out for you. Or if you use a different method we would love to hear about it!
Check out tomorrow’s blog to see how you can save money making your own laundry detergent… this one has me all excited!
This is great!! I’m totally going to try it! Thank you!
Let me know how it turns out!!!
So do you dip the washclothes into the solution after you wash them each time?? This sounds awesome!
Yes! I don’t make too many at a time, because I’ve read online that after a week or so the moist cloths can start to get musty. So I do about 20 or so at a time. Since I wash diapers every 1-2 days this is a perfect number. I have 2 old diaper wipes containers. 1 has the moist cloths in it and the other container is used for storage for the cloths as they become clean. I wash diapers more frequently so wipes are getting washed, but I still have some in the moist container (if that makes sense). As soon as I’m out of moist wipes and I have a full container of clean dry wipes, I just dip them in the solution, wring them out, put them back in the container and start the cycle again. You can simply pour the solution over the wipes while they are in the container, but I found some of them are too wet and others aren’t wet enough. It’s tedious, but easier to just dip them in one by one and wring them out! And they smell sooooooo much better than the disposable wipes. I will forever make my own wipes. It’s super simple!
Yay! Aren’t they awesome!?! You are seriously on a roll 🙂
My solution is 1 cup water, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp castille liquid soap
I use Dr.Bronner’s Pure Castille Soap Almond for Alice’s babywash anyway so I had it handy and I really like the light scent of the Almond. They make different scents and a unscented version as well. I have to be careful of which essential oils I use on Alice.
When I am out and about I bring dry wipes and a spray bottle with the solution in it. Or you can prewet your wipes and store them in a small wetbag and bring that in the diaper bag, both work great!
Good for you for continuing to find ways to save money and the enviornment! I am on the same quest!
Yes I hate paper towles as well. I don’t buy them anymore. I actually have some Gerber prefold diapers someone gave me that I never used so those are what I use for spills and what not in the kitchen. I have hand towels for drying off hands. I am going to sew some nice fabric to the prefolds so they look a little nicer in the kitchen;).
I used the old wipes box for several months with the cloth wipes and then remembered that I had a Prince Lionheart wipes warmer. So now I store the wipes in the warmer. I was just wetting the wipes with water and putting them in the warmer which keeps them moist. But I recently read some different homeade wipe solutions as well and started adding that to the wipes. The olive oil really makes a diffference !! I also store the solution in a Mason Jar ;).
GREAT idea about storing the clean dry wipes in a wipe box. I have had them in a basket on the diaper table but Alice, LOVES to get into them and strew them about her room.
I too can’t stand spending money on paper towels. What I really like, way better than those little wash cloths, are cut up old receiving blankets. If you don’t have any to cut up, you can buy them real cheap at yard sales or thrift stores. I used to soak them in the solution and in the warmer but they turned musty too fast. Now I just keep a container of water with a few drops of tea tree oil in it with the stack of dry wipes by the changing table. I change the water every 4-5 days to keep it fresh. One thing to be VERY careful with is your choice in brand of essential oils. Most brands are not therapeutic grade, only perfume grade, and are toxic to the body. The best brand I’ve found, and is recommended by several midwives I know, is young living. You pay more but they are the safe