Save Money: DIY Baby Wipes

When it comes to your baby some things are incredibly expensive, naturally. Thankfully we are out of the formula stage which was our biggest "baby expense." Now, it's diapers and wipes. Power to all the mommies who do cloth diapering. It is just not for me. 

So, to bring down our baby expenses a little I decided to give homemade baby wipes a shot. We used to buy the Pampers box of refill wipes. I would get 5 packages (306 wipes) in a box that cost us $11, which comes out to about $.04 per wipe.

The 33% more roll of Viva paper towels gave me about the same number of wipes. When all is said and done, it only costs about $.01 a wipe (math is NOT my strong suit, I made an educated guess on how much baby oil and wash would cost by the tablespoon... still, it's cheaper!)

When you make your own, you'll need:

- Roll of Viva paper towels, gentle for baby bottoms and cost about $1.25/roll (I'm sure you could probably get a better deal buying in bulk/with coupons)

- Baby oil - 1 TBS, the small bottle pictured below only cost me $1

- Baby wash - 2 TBS, use whatever brand you use at bath time

- Water - 2 Cups

- Container

*Note: after our second try with the wipes, we concluded that with the 33% more roll we had to use about... (you guessed it!) 1/3 more of each ingredient for desired 'wetness' of wipes.

Okay, momma, ready to make some baby wipes?! 
Let's do this!

1. Cut Paper Towels in Half

During my research on how to make baby wipes, people suggested using a serrated knife. But I am telling you to NOT. It will give you really ugly edges that are a pain to work with, especially if you plan on folding your wipes (we'll get to that...)

You should end up with something along these lines:

2. Mix Ingredients in Container

Yup. Throw it all in, stir it up a bit. Ooo, bubbles!

3. Place Roll in Container, Let Absorb

Let it absorb until there is no, or little, liquid left at the bottom. Now, a lot of people tell you to get a container let's the roll stand upright and they have you pour the mixture over the top of them. But it's all relative. We did it like this and my kids butt is clean, so it's fine.

4. Flip Roll Over in Container, Cover

It literally took less than a minute for our paper towels to absorb the mixture.
After that, we flipped the roll over in the container so that the liquid could saturate the other dry half of the roll. (The wet part of the paper towels should now be on top so the liquid can move down the rest of the roll). Cover it. Time 15 minutes.

5. Pull Out Cardboard Tube

After about 15 minutes, your paper towels should be saturated by the mixture. If not, for whatever reason, let it sit longer. In fact, you could let it sit for days with no issues. Just make sure the whole roll is wet.

Then turn the roll upright, grab the cardboard tube and pull. It should come out with ease. Then toss it.

And that, my friend, is how I make baby wipes. Easy peasy, right? 

If you made yours in a container where the wipes can be pulled out of the center, you're done! But if you're like me, you can fold them to come out of a pop-up wipe container. You can see a tutorial for that here: Fold Your Wipes.