Tip Number Two

My second tip for the newly thrifty person is to make what you can make  yourself.  Now there are some crazies on pinterest who can do superhuman things it seems with a ball of twine and a number two pencil. These MacGyver like women, if you don’t know who MacGyver is stop reading my blog, all have like 13 children run businesses from home and cook all homemade organic food that they grew themselves.  Just to make you feel like a larger piece of crap then they actually have time to take pictures of what they did and give you step by step instructions on how to do it yourself.  Ya ok!
So for the regular human I offer this piece of advice there are so many things that you have around your house that you can make into other things that you spend money on. 
For example I have a child and another on the way.  I have recently begun to make my own baby wipes, it takes me about 5 minutes and I always have all the items I need to do it.  Rather than have one more thing on my list that I have to remember to buy I can just make the new wipes when I need them.

Baby Wipe Recipe:
1 roll of paper towels cut in half (use a bread knife) and remove the cardboard roll in the middle
1 and 3/4 cup to 2 cups of hot water (you will need to play around with the amount a little depending on the types of paper towels you have on hand.  My general rule of thumb is cheaper paper towels need less water, more expensive ones tend to need a bit more.)
2 Tbs baby soap (whatever you use to bath the little cherub)
1 Tbs Baby Oil ( I never have baby oil so I use olive oil)
Scent (if you have a scented oil like lavender or something else you can add a drop or two to the water. 

Cut the paper towels in half and remove the cardboard roll in the middle.  Keep the second half of the paper towels for future baby wipe use. 
Combine the liquid ingredients in a tupperware container that is large enough to fit the paper towels.  Put the paper towels in the container cut side down.  Put hte lid on the container and wait 10 minutes for the liquid to mostly absorb into the paper towels.  Turn the container upside down for 5 minutes.  Flip the container back over and use as wipes.
You will pull the paper towels from the middle and becuase they are mostly damp will just come apart as you pull on them at the perforated edge. 
For Daycare I am making them their own container of wipes, they will let me knwo when I need another.  For travel you can either take out the wipes you will need and put them in wipes travel case or you can always keep a package of the store kind in your diaper bag. 
Cost savings … and yes I’ve done the math isn’t really that high I’m not going to lie to you.  You are probably looking at about $20 a month on average.  Some would argue that’s enough, others would argue it isn’t.  I’m not necessarily doing this one to be super thrifty there are other things I do that save more money but what this does save me is having to worry about purchasing wipes.  Plus I like knowing that there are basic things in my wipes and I never have to worry about running out of them.  Sometimes my piece of mind is priceless ….