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There's no getting around the fact that your baby's bottom needs to be cleaned several times a day. And as many a new mom finds out, baby wipes can really put a dent in your wallet. But that doesn't have to be the case. There are some easy things you can do to save your money—and put it toward more vital baby essentials.
1. Use a wet washcloth. This is the best way to save on wipes and it does the trick just as well. To cut down on laundry you can give it a quick hand wash and rinse after each use, but you'll probably want to use a fresh one for a poopie diaper.
2. Make your own. It's not very hard at all (see recipes below) and it will save you some serious cash.
3. Tear store-bought wipes in half, if you have a favorite brand that you can't bear to part with. They're so big to begin with, you'll be generating less waste. Plus they're easier to use on smaller babies.
4. Re-think your brand. Juju_Mommy, a blogger at The Dollar Stretcher, says to check out the toiletry section in Walmart. You'll find cheap wipes there that aren't sold in the baby section. She reviewed them all and found that the best cheap brand is White Cloud Cotton Soft Cloths, which cost about $1.25 for a pack of 80.
5. Check out thrifty mommy blogs like Deal Seeking Mom. This week she gives links to coupons for Huggies Wipes (46 cents after coupon) and Seventh Generation Wipes (should be free after coupon!). There are deals there for lots of other baby products as well.
MAKE YOUR OWN BABY WIPES
Who knew there were so many ways to make baby wipes? These three recipes come from members of the Green Organic Natural Simple Living group. You can find more recipes by joining the group.
"I use an old wipes box and put about a cup of warm water in it, then add 2 to 3 ounces of coconut oil (it's gentle on sensitive skin and effective against rashes), an ounce of vegetable glycerin (natural skin protector and preservative), about five drops of vitamin E oil (a skin-soothing natural preservative), and a few drops each of rosemary and tea tree essential oils. I just use cloth wipes with this solution." — KayMMIV
"Put 1.5 cups of water, 4 to 6 drops of tea tree oil, and 2 to 3 drops of apricot oil (optional) in a spray bottle. I also just poured it into a wipes warmer for the first few weeks after my son was born, it keeps the solution nice and warm. The tea tree oil is a natural anti-microbial, but I would replace it once a week if you don't run out. Take two layers of flannel and sew them together to make wipes, they are about 4"x6". For solid food poops,you can make wipes with fleece on one side and flannel on the other (it falls off the fleece). Throw them in the laundry—no problem." — AlaskaMommy47
"I make this recipe and my baby has never had a rash or dry skin. You'll need 2 cups of boiled (filtered or distilled) water; 1 Tbsp castile soap; 3 Tbsp soybean oil; 4 to 5 drops of lavender essential oil. Add castile soap to slightly cooled boiled water. Whisk for a few seconds; then whisk in 1 Tbsp of soybean oil at a time. Let cool for a few minutes: Add 4-5 drops of lavender essential oil. Saturate paper towels (about half a roll; double the recipe for an entire roll) with this solution. Keep wipes fresh in fridge." — ellieT
How do you save money on baby wipes? Do you have a recipe you'd like to share?
Comments (23)
What kind of paper towel (or something else?) could you use in the recipes to make a disposable wipe?
I made my own. And now that we have twins coming, I'll probably make my own again. (I'm actually considering making them and sticking them in the freezer to prepare in advance because I'm sure we are going to go through a TON with 2 babies. Any thoughts on that?) I use VIVA paper towels. I felt they held up the best. I folded mine accordian style and cut them in half because I didn't prefer the big round "pull from the center" method. I then used water, my favorite mild baby soap, and some vitamin E oil. Never had any trouble.
Tessa - just do NOT buy the cheap paper towels. They are awful. You can experiment and see which paper towel you prefer by purchasing one roll at a time of various brands, get them wet, and see how they hold up. I never found anything I liked as well as VIVA. Plus, because I cut them in half, I got 2 batches of wipes out of one roll. We actually ended up liking our home made ones better than the store bought.
You can take viva paper towels cut the roll in haf before you start.Put them in a round bowl with some mild baby soap and warm water over night.The next morning take the cardboard holder from the middle after soaking and pull the towels starting at the middle one.You now have disposable wipes.You could proball add vitamin d or some of the other ingredints also.
If you use "good" paper towels is it actually cheaper? We use cloth wipes around the house and I love them! We use warm water .....that's it!
I would think that using "good" paper towels and adding your own vitamin E etc. would be just as expensive as buying the cheap wipes.
No, its still much cheaper by at least half. The 8 pack rolls of Viva cost aprox $7.00. You get 100 wipes per roll when you cut them in half so you are getting 800 wipes for $7.00. I keep the vitamin E oil on hand. Its cheap. I use maybe a teaspoon of the oil and a squirt or two of the baby soap. I think we paid $7.97 for approximately 400 of the Walmart brand wipes. I haven't made any in a while since my youngest is potty trained so my numbers might not be 100% accurate anymore. But that is pretty close.
For those that use the cloth wipes, do you use a separate wipe every time you clean up from a pee diaper? Or do you just rinse and reuse? Obviously you wouldn't re-use the poopy cloth wipe. I'm trying to imagine how many cloth wipes you go through in a day. I'm in an apartment and still have to pay to do my laundry. I don't think I would be willing to use cloth wipes on poopy diapers but it sounds like it wouldn't be too bad on pee diapers especially with having twins and going through twice as much of EVERYTHING. (Really - trying to wrap my brain around buying diapers and wipes for 2. I'm not succeeding!!)
I've been making my own wipes for two years now.
Flannel fabric and some water mixed with different oils. Kiddos never have diaper rashes!!!
YAY!!!
Well, we use cloth diapers as well, so the cloth wipes just get washed with those.
I don't go through very many at all. We bought 2 yards of flannel and cut them into wipe sized pieces. That made about 100 reusable wipes.