Provident Mom

Try these tips for cutting your laundry costs:

1. Make your own fabric refresher (like Febreze). Use this recipe:

1 part fabric softener
1 part baking soda
2 parts water

Add the baking soda to boiling water. When baking soda is dissolved, mix in the fabric softener. When the liquid is cool, put it in a spray bottle. If you want to change the scent, add a few drops of essential oil.

2. Use coupons for detergent. You can often find coupons for laundry detergent in the Sunday paper. Couple these coupons with store sales and you should never have to pay more than $2 for a good-sized bottle or box of laundry detergent. When you find these good deals, stock up.

3. Dry cleaning. Dry cleaning bills can easily make your laundry bill skyrocket. When purchasing clothes, make a point of staying away from items that require dry cleaning. If you must buy “dry clean only” items like suits or silks, shop around for a reasonable dry cleaner. Many dry cleaning operations don’t post their prices, and you could be shocked by the price when you pick the item up, so ask ahead of time.

4. Fabric softener. Cheryl Mendelson, author of Home Comforts, says that fabric softeners achieve their effect by leaving a waxy coating on fabrics. She recommends using fabric softener sparingly and to never use it on towels, underwear, t-shirts, sheets and pillowcases because the waxy residue can irritate your skin. Many people use fabric softeners because they love the smell of it, but you can get the smell by using it only so often or by using a very small amount. This saves you money in the long run.

5. Stain removal. Stain removing products can be quite expensive, but you have some things around your house right now that will work at least as well.

Ammonia is useful in removing fresh perspiration stains and stains from deodorant and antiperspirants. It’s also useful for removing fresh urine stains.

Vinegar is effective for treating old urine and perspiration stains.

Bleach can be used to remove stains caused by coffee, tea, soft drinks, Popsicles, children’s medications, grass, mustard, fruits or fruit juices, ink, or blud.

Lemon juice is effective with rust stains.

I received several responses from my article “I Delight in Drippy Diapers” regarding the practical side of cloth diapering. How do you do it? Where do you start? So this article gives the details on how to use cloth diapers for your baby.

Buying Cloth Diapers: The first time you buy cloth diapers, you may think to yourself, “This can’t possibly be a good deal,” because each diaper costs about $1.00. But the least expensive disposable diapers cost about .25 each. So you’ll have made up the difference in four uses.

You can find cloth diapers in places like Wal-Mart or Target. They come in packages of six or twelve. Buy about 4 dozen diapers to start with. You’ll find two types of cloth diapers, pre-folded and regular. I highly recommend the pre-folded diapers. The others are so big and I think they’re not as absorbent. The store will probably offer different types of fabrics also. Choose the diapers that look thickest.

Over the Internet or through specialty catalogs, you can find cloth diapers with built-in elastic and Velcro sides (so you don’t have to use pins). I’ve used several types of these, but I still prefer the good old-fashioned diapers. The Velcro sticks to the fabric in the washing machine and can actually tear the other diapers. And these fancy diapers are very expensive.

You’ll also need about four diaper pins and six pairs of vinyl pants. The most economical and most leak-proof vinyl pants come in packages of three or six usually. They look like vinyl underwear, with elastic around the tummy and leg holes. Near the vinyl pants in the store you’ll notice a product called something like “diaper wraps.” These go over the diaper like vinyl pants, but they have Velcro on the sides and feel soft like cloth on the outside. Not only are they more expensive, but they’re also very leaky. Avoid “diaper wraps.”

In the same store, you can find diaper pails. I advise buying a diaper pail with a foot pedal so you don’t have to unscrew a lid while you’re carrying a wet diaper (and possibly a baby). Also, look for a diaper pail that locks. This is a safety feature to keep small tykes from falling head first into the pail.

For you real bargain hunters, try looking at thrift stores for this stuff. I’ve found diaper pails, diapers, and vinyl pants in thrift stores, some of them never used.

Getting Started: Now you’re home with your cloth diaper supplies. On the back of the diaper package there will be a diagram showing how to fold the diapers. If there isn’t, here’s a quick lesson.

Lay the diaper flat as a tall rectangle. Now fold each bottom corner in, so the sides slope in at the bottom. If your baby is very young and small you may need to fold the top down to make the diaper small enough. Put the baby on the diaper, and fold the bottom up to cover her. Then pull the wider ends around her from back to front and attach the diaper with a pin on each side. Then cover the whole thing up with a pair of vinyl pants.

At first, this may seem cumbersome. But in no time you’ll be doing cloth diaper changes as quickly as you did with disposables.

Clean Up: When the diaper is just wet, all you have to do is toss it in the diaper pail until laundry day. If the diaper has poop in it that will fall into the toilet, dump the stuff into the toilet. If it sticks, just swish the diaper around in the water. Sometimes I flush the toilet and let the suction pull some of the gunk off, but be careful to not let go of the diaper! I’ve heard some cloth diaper users say they put their hands in the toilet water, but I don’t know why. I’ve never had to do that.

Keep the diaper pail close to the toilet so you don’t drip toilet water on the floor when you transfer the diaper. That’s all you have to do until laundry day.

Laundry Day: A standard-sized diaper pail will fill up in about four days if you have just one kid in diapers. Drag that heavy diaper pail to the washing machine, and fill your washer with hot or warm water. If you’re using standard, non-velcro diapers, bleach is acceptable. Those expensive, Velcro types don’t like bleach. If your baby has sensitive skin, use a mild detergent like Arm & Hammer or Dreft. My first baby got rashes if I used anything but Arm & Hammer.

As the water fills up, take the lid off the pail and dump the whole mess in the washer. Don’t use fabric softeners on cloth diapers as they will decrease absorbency. Some people will advice you to add vinegar to the water or to add an extra rinse cycle. I’ve never found these measures to be necessary, and the diapers come out as clean as can be. After they’re done washing, dry as usual, and you’re ready for another half-week of diapering.

Four days of diapering doesn’t fill up the washing machine—only the diaper pail. So you can decrease your laundry buy using two diaper pails to one load of wash; you’ll just need two diaper pails.

Benefits: I mentioned some benefits in the previous article I wrote, but here are a few more. Besides saving tons of money, your child may potty train earlier. Disposable diapers hide moisture so well that many children don’t even realize when they wetted their diapers. With cloth diapers, however, they can feel the wetness right away, so their muscle control develops sooner.

The environmental aspects of cloth diapers can’t be overlooked. Each disposable-wearing baby produces over a ton of non-biodegradable diaper trash before she’s potty trained. Although more water is used with cloth diapers, the water is turned around and cleaned—recycled. And one set of cloth diapers can be used for all of your children if they’re not bleached too harshly.

Clothing growing kids can cost a fortune, especially if you want them to look stylish and neat–and who doesn’t? But when you’re sacrificing one income to stay home with your children, it isn’t always possible to buy adorable outfits from department stores or out of those colorful catalogs stuffed in your mailbox.

Fortunately, your kids don’t have to run around looking like ragamuffins, even if your clothing budget is minuscule. With a few new bargain-hunting skills under your belt, your children can parade around in beautiful clothes, and you can enjoy the peace that comes from knowing you haven’t overspent on clothes they’ll quickly outgrow.

Along with the classic bargain-hunting strategies of thrift store and garage sale shopping, you can add a few more. If you have a group of friends with varying ages of children (family or friends from the neighborhood, church, or playgroups are good sources) you can start a clothing coop. And if you have Internet access you have access to some pretty great closeout prices from major manufacturers, the same manufacturers that send you those catalogs with the overpriced, adorable clothes.

A clothing coop consists of a group of people with children of varying ages. If you have brothers or sisters with children, you can start a clothing coop within your own family. If you don’t, or if your family lives far away, you can start one among your friends in the neighborhood or at church. The clothing gets passed around as the kids outgrow them. Everyone takes responsibility for keeping the clothes clean and in good repair.

The key to a successful clothing coop is organization. If the clothes are organized by gender and age and kept somewhere accessible, the rest should be easy. The easiest way I’ve found to keep kids’ clothes organized is to separate the clothes into piles and then store them in bags or, better yet, plastic storage boxes. Label them by size and gender: 2T Boy, 3-6 month Girl, 5/6 Boy, etc. Once your organization system is established, just rotate the clothes among your group as the children need them. With so much wear and tear, you’ll probably need to go through the clothing between kids and throw out any that are worn out before they get to the next kid.
You needn’t feel obligated to throw all of your kids’ clothing into the coop basket. You’ll have some sentimental ones you’ll want to make sure stay in good repair. But if you’re feeling like all of your kids’ clothing is too precious to share with the cousins or neighbors, you may want to step back and reevaluate your motives in dressing your kids. If you convey to your kids the message that “you are what you wear,” especially in regards to designer labels, clothing may well become a status item before you know it. And in the long run (especially in the teenage years), you can pay a hefty price for those status duds you may have unintentionally conditioned them to crave.

If the coop options seems like too much work, consider buying closeouts to save money on your clothing budget. Although Internet access isn’t necessary for finding closeouts, many manufacturers use the Internet as their main way of getting rid of overstocks, closeouts, and off-season items. Unfortunately, you usually have to pay for shipping when you order over the Internet, but this added cost may not seem much when you consider the deep discounts, the gas money you save by staying home, and, of course, the convenience.

How do you find these precious overstocks and closeouts? There are several ways. Try different keywords on any of the Internet search engines: discount clothing, closeouts, overstocks, last season, etc. You will probably come up with thousands of sites, some of which are not directed to public consumers. Another, perhaps faster and more direct route to the good stuff is to go to some of your favorite manufacturers. Think of the catalogs you love to thumb through but never actually buy anything from.

Land’s End, for instance, has a well-done section on their website (http://www.landsend.com) specifically for overstocks. Oftentimes, their selections are off-season, but it never hurts to stock up for shorts in December for the following summer. You’ll be ahead of the game. And the Land’s End site will actually send you updates to their overstock list if you really want to get ahead of the game.

I’ve also found that some sites offer free shipping during certain times of the year. If you will be purchasing many items at one time, back-to-school shopping perhaps, you might want to look around for a free-shipping offer.
Between clothing coops, Internet closeouts and overstocks, and the old traditional thrift stores and garage sales, you should be able to clothe your kids for a fraction of the cost the retailers would have you spend. And your efforts in saving money on their clothing not only teaches them the value of money and the frivolity of always buying top-of-the-line, but it allows you to stay home from a full-time job and give them the most precious gift of all: You.