Monday, November 29, 2010

Thrifty Thoughts - BABY EDITION part II

1. Use homemade baby wipes.  Someone gave me the recipe for this four years ago.  The instructions filled a recipe card front and back and looked so tedious and time consuming that I thought, "what the world, why bother?  I think I'd rather buy them!"  Fast forward four years to baby number three.  Another friend passed me the recipe and I thanked her and tucked it in my coat pocket.  A couple weeks passed and I'm changing little sweetie pie's stinky diaper when, ohhhh no, I'm down to my last wipe!  This was Monday.  I had no plans to go in to town until Wednesday night (go ahead and laugh at that one, but just remember how much gas money I save!).  I ferociously started ripping apart paper towels and made a big stack in no time.  Used my dull scissors and cut through the stack, quartering them.  Piled them all up in the container and dumped a mixture of mostly water with a little baby oil in it.  They worked okay but seemed to be missing something.  Then I came upon the official recipe in my coat pocket a few days later - light bulb goes on inside my head - I was missing baby shampoo!  Much easier than I thought it'd be, and now I just made my third batch.  The downside - they don't separate very easy!

quarter a stack of paper towels
pour mixture of 1 cup water, 1tbls baby oil, 1 tbls baby shampoo over paper towels in plastic container.
2. So I already mentioned making baby food in a previous post.  Another cheap baby food is applesauce!  I can't believe people buy a little 4 oz jar of Gerber applesauce for $.60 when you can get a huge jar for a little more monies than that.  Just because it doesn't say "baby food" or "Gerber" doesn't mean it ain't the same thing!  Also, bananas are easy to mash yourself.  Don't buy banana baby food! 

3. A changing table is not necessary.  You can buy a contoured changing pad and put it on the top of a dresser.  Don't have a dresser to put it on?  Find one for about $10 on Craigslist or in a junk shop somewhere and paint it cute!  The drawers can hold diapers, sleepers, and all your other baby paraphernalia.

bath time at Grandma's
4. Fancy baby tub for bathtime?  Sure, they are probably nice.  But what's wrong with the kitchen sink? You already have one, I assume, so no need to spend any money there.  Some of these fancy shmancy tubs now a days even tell you if the water is too hot for baby.  What, don't you have any feeling in your hands?  Can't you just stick your fingers in there yourself and judge the water temp?  Really now, people. :)  Chances are, you were bathed in the sink as a baby. I know I was!  And so are my kids.  I used to use one of those big bath sponges for my babies that they could sit on while in the sink, but they start to stink after using them awhile.  Now baby number three just sits in the sink with nothing and doesn't mind a bit.  I take that back, my mom found her a little bath chair at a garage sale that has suction cups on the bottom and sometimes I use that for her.  Works great!

Purse for .50 at a garage sale.  Perfect diaper bag! 
5. Diaper bag?  I think not.  There are soooo many huge purses out there that there is no need to spend voo-coo bucks on a diaper bag.  What works for me personally is a purse that is divided in three.  Very standard for a purse.  One side is for me, the middle zipped compartment is for diapers/wipes (I keep a few wipes in a plastic ziplock bag to save space), and the other side is for baby.  I've bought a couple really cool ones at Dollar General for *gasp* $10.  I splurged, but hey they were zebra striped, and super cute!

4 comments:

  1. Great post, Kammy! I've been a sucker for each baby item - baby bathtub, wipes, and we just got an expensive Baby Bjorn. I think the simpler way- homemade wipes and your other suggestions - are probably ultimately better for the child and the environment - less chemicals, plastic and additives.

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  2. to save time you can actually use a paper towel roll size tupperware container - put the entire roll of choose your size paper towels in it and soak it with solution and then pull the cardboard center out when its wet enough and then pull from the middle of the roll - works pretty good.
    also a bumbo seat works great in the sink esp when they arent quite old enough to sit up or its a bit slippery.

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  3. hey kam :) another thing i found about these homemade wipes... when my baby's got a mean diaper rash, regular wipes make her scream and cry whereas these homemade wipes don't seem to hurt her a bit! just thought i'd give you another benefit besides cost savings :)

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