My cloth wipe solution

Cloth wipe solution

Ingredients:

-2 cups water
-2 squirts Dr Bronner's liquid castile soap (I use unscented)
-1 squirt natural baby lotion of your choice (for now, I use Burts Bees Milk & Honey, which I think has been "reformulated," and the reformulation is not worth buying--but the old version makes my wipes smell divine. You could also use a drop or two of essential oils if desired, or a plain unscented lotion.)
-Empty jar

Combine in  jar and shake well. Place 5-6 fleece wipes (=cut a cheap fleece blanket into squares; or can serge your own, or use baby washcloths) into a ziploc or other waterproof bag, and pour a small amount of solution over. Squish to equalize coverage. Use within a few days, and replenish as needed. Cute label optional!

I love this because:

• the ingredients are customizable to what your baby does or does not tolerate well (Eve's diaper area looks stellar since we switched back to cloth wipes)
• they're easier to keep "juicy" than disposable wipes, which kept going dry on me
• no questionable or unpronounceable ingredients (even 7th Generation wipes seemed to me to have way too many ingredients)
• there's no more sorting disposable wipes out of the cloth diaper pail
• it's cheap and easy!

Latest challenge: No-spend month

Ever on a quest to save money, we had gotten a bit lax as of late and so with no births on the horizon for November, we've resolved to make it a No Spend Month to try to keep our budget balanced. Well, no extra or nonessential spending. Gas and food are non-optional; as, I've found, is parking if I'm to make any money by working at the hospital. (Getting dropped off would be the only other option, but would cost more in gas than it would save in parking.) But anything else strictly nonessential is out. I meant to keep a tally of how much we've saved, but ha! In my free time, right? So I'll just rattle off a few of the things it's occurred to me to buy, and how I've circumvented it:

-Baby wipes (I know, I know): switched back to cloth.

-Greeting cards: called or emailed instead.

-Groupon, LivingSocial, et al: did without.

-Ditto for eating out (a particular Achilles heel) or getting coffee.

-Buying lunch at work: brown-bagged it (the usual, but tempting to skip when I'm running late, which is always).

And the month isn't even half over yet. Stay tuned for updates, including a fantastic recipe for a natural solution to use on cloth wipes!