Matt and I have never enjoyed a time in our relationship when both of us were working full-time jobs. Either one was in school while the other worked, or we were both working part-time jobs while attending school. In Rhode Island, I worked full-time while Matt finished his Ph.D. and, currently, I’m at home with the boys while Matt works to repay all the money we borrowed for all that school! In retrospect it wasn’t the best plan, but it’s too late for that now . . .
All this is to say that we aren’t new to the frugal lifestyle. We’ve known for a long time that there is often a less expensive way to do things than the way everyone else is doing it. When we talked about parenthood, long before we were actually pregnant, we knew that we wanted to do it on the cheap. With the money we saved, we could pay down debt and save for a house.
As with most frugal lifestyle choice, there is no one-size-fits all approach. Some things that work wonders for us–like being a 1-car-family or not buying Christmas or birthday presents for our young children–might not work for another family. That being said, two things that have saved us a lot of money over our almost 3 years of parenting are cloth diapering and making our own baby wipe solution. Based on figures about the cost of cloth diapering as well as our personal energy costs, investment in cloth diapers, and our wash and dry routines, I would conservatively estimate that cloth diapering and using cloth wipes has saved our family at least $4000 so far. And our diapers can still be used on future children!
When I decided to make a cloth wipe solution, I consulted this list of recipes I found on Google, but I didn’t have all of the ingredients. So, I adapted the Olive ‘n’ Tea Tree recipe to what I call World’s Easiest Wipe Solution:
Mix together the following:
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon baby shampoo
Put the solution in a spray bottle to spray directly on baby’s bottom (or let’s be realistic . . baby’s legs, hands, etc) or spray directly onto baby wash cloth. Launder wash cloth in your diaper laundry. Repeat the process for the next 3 years.
I like to mix together a big batch of 8 cups at a time and then just refill the spray bottles as necessary. I also keep a mini spray bottle, small enough to pass through airline security, in my diaper bag for clean up on the go. It is also a great use for that olive oil that isn’t as pure as I originally thought it was . . .
thiscrunchylifeblog 
I definitely want to try this, you have great ideas Jennifer! What type of cloth diapers do you use? We gave it a shot when Sophia was born but were a little overwhelmed. Now that she’s a little bigger and dirtying fewer diapers, we want to try again and cloth diaper at least when we are home. There is a local company I love called “Bee Changed”, that donates a diapers to orphanages around the world for each one you buy. I’ve heard though you can buy them used a lot cheaper!
Yes, used is definitely cheaper. For both Pete and John, we waited for a few weeks to start cloth diapering. I registered for bum genius diapers and received most as shower gifts which was very helpful. I was determined to go with a one-size diaper I could use for many years. I’ve been happy with my choice, but others enjoy using the many other styles–like prefolds and covers. Our velcro diapers eventually stopped sticking well even after following all washing instructions so my MIL is replacing the velcro for us. If I started all over again, I would buy all snaps.
Originally, I thought we would never cd while traveling, but we’ve found that we love cloth diapering and prefer it to disposables, so we even travel with cloth diapers and wash them on our travels!