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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Smart Shopping

Last weekend I carefully went nowhere on Saturday. Everywhere I thought of going would've cost me money. I was not so careful today. I made the normal trip to the farmer's market, but this evening I headed to JoAnn Fabric's. It might be almost 15 years since I've been in there. It was one of the first places I went after I got my driver's license. But I digress.

I went to JoAnn's to search for flannel in the remnants bin. I found a nice piece of bright red and picked up a bit of t-shirt-like cotton in black. I'd decided to sign up for Crunchy Chicken's Cloth Wipe Challenge and needed some material for the job. Following Crunchy's advice I used pinking shears to cut small squares of fabric. My new cloth wipes are in the laundry right now. I still need to work out the details of storage after usage. For those of you that are squirming in your seats as you read this, I'm only commiting to trying this for pee.

After JoAnn's I walked over to the new organic market where I found the peppermint oil I was hoping for so I can make Riana's homemade toothpaste. Now I just need to find a container to store the toothpaste in and I'll be ready to mix it up.

Then even though I was loathe to go there, I popped into Kmart to check for back-to-school clearance items. I like to use 3-ring binders to organize my unit plans for teaching, so I picked up 3 of those that were marked down.

So even though it was smart shopping, it was still spending money when I shouldn't be.

5 comments:

Momma Val said...

Huh. Well, I was just wondering if people make wipe cloths for the potty. I know that they make reusable baby wipes but had never heard or seen of reusable toilet wipes. I think it's a good idea, but not sure I can do it. With a family I am already drowning in laundry. You will have to keep us posted on your, uh, results. It will probably be much nicer to use them over toilet paper (not sure about the washing and storage of dirties? What will you do if you are out? Bring some in your purse and then put the dirty in a baggie? I'm very intrigued & fascinated.

Smellyann said...

My friend Stephanie uses cloth wipes for herself. I believe she keeps them in a lined covered basket until she washes them.

a/k/a Nadine said...

To start I only plan on using them at home. Perhaps if/when I become comfortable with the process I would expand to usage outside the home. Baby steps! :-)

I was thinking of a nice lined basket for the clean ones. Some people use little trash cans with lids for the dirties. Still thinking about that...

BerryBird said...

To start with, you might be able to just use an empty yogurt container for storage of the used wipes, which has the bonus of being free, since you eat the yogurt anyway. Then if the experiment works and you need something bigger, you could find a more permanent solution with a better idea of size needs.

I am curious about the laundry side of things. I do all my wash in cold water, as I know you do as well. I know most folks who cloth diaper use hot water for washing the soiled diapers. Is that just because of the poo factor? Is cold water adequate for pee?

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

she even says (Riana) that the salt kills bacteria.

After 55 years or so, I may have to try this again.