Buying in bulk?

A lot of blogs say to save money buy in bulk. I’m not totally convinced this is always the case. I don’t really buy things in bulk as I usually buy whatever brand is on sale. There are a few products that I will buy brand specific but with most other food items I don’t care what brand I buy. Whatever is cheapest really.

One thing I do buy in bulk though is spices. I went to Davis Trading yesterday and bought some new spices. I love Davis Trading they sell so many great products at a fraction of the price of the supermarkets especially imported goods. This definitely saves us money and I’m all about that. 

I’ve found that buying spices in bulk is so much cheaper than buying the spice pots from the supermarket. I do keep the spice pots though and refill them with the bulk spices. The spice pots fit perfectly into my spice rack in the pantry. 

We go through a lot of spices since we cook everything from raw ingredients no premixes or ready made sauces for us. Though I think I may have gone just a little overboard on the huge bag of turmeric I bought.

Leftovers

Yummy, leftovers for dinner tonight. I love eating out of the freezer. It’s a great feeling as not only do we not need to cook it also means there are no dishes to wash! I know lazy aye. Though Mr Ecochick does all the cooking anyways - I’m so spoilt! He loves cooking and is so good at it though I’m sure he’d love it if I did more and now that I’m at home full time I guess I’ll do more.

Vegetarian spaghetti in a

reused takeaways container

Mr Ecochick cooks from scratch as he wouldn’t have it any other way and always makes loads extra so that we can freeze a few meals or at least have enough for lunch the next day. When I worked I generally took leftovers everyday so no need to buy lunch. 

I love that we always have a freezer full of leftovers so no food is wasted and also means no extra resources are needed to make an extra lunch/ dinner. It’s especially great now that I’m at home and breastfeeding so lunch is just a matter of heating some food out of the freezer. 

When we’re using the oven to make dinner I occasionally put a cake or muffins in the oven as well so the oven is on for two different dishes rather than only cooking one meal. I make a large batch of muffins and also freeze some for later. So bring on leftovers night.  

Accessories

I found when using cloth nappies a few extra “accessories” are useful.

I like to dry pail my dirty nappies. This means no soaking of nappies is necessary.  Dirty nappies, wipes, etc get thrown in the nappy bucket and every morning I just throw the nappy bucket contents into the washing machine.  I’ve found that the dirty nappies don’t smell. After emptying the bucket I wipe it out with a cloth and some tea tree oil.

I like to use flushable liners in my nappies since this means that the poohs are captured in the liner which can then be flushed down the toilet. I prefer Popli liners as these can be ripped in half and then fit perfectly inside the Itti Bittis. These wipes can also be washed in the washing machine and reused if wanted.   

I have a wet bag for when out and about to put dirty nappies in. I bought one from Itti Bitti because I couldn’t help myself. I only put clean nappies, liners wipes, etc in it to keep everything all together so I don’t need to search all through my bag. I bought a cheap wet bag off trade me to throw dirty nappies in, which is washed each time it’s used.

Lastly, I love Yours Naturally Baby Balm. This is a great product which can be used anywhere on the skin as a moisturiser. I  generally use this as a botty balm with every nappy change. The balm creates a nice barrier that makes cleaning really easy, smells great and is actually edible.

Wipes solution

When we first started using cloth wipes we just used water on the wipes which worked really well. Though we had a very small case of nappy rash so I decided to make the wipes solution I had been told about. The solution was made by Wendyl Nissen; the Green Goddess and can be found on her website. You can now buy a readymade wipes solution and kit from the green goddess. 

The solution is nice and easy to make which I like as other solutions I’ve read about are all too complicated for my liking or use too many products.

Green Goddess’ wipes solution:

½ cup water

1 Tbs rosewater

1 Tbs witchhazel

Mix together and pour over wipes.

Rosewater and witchhazel can be cheaply bought from the local chemist. I buy a premixed bottle of rosewater and witchhazel as this is cheaper than buying them separately.

I actually use 2 cups water and 4 tablespoons of both rosewater and witchhazel. To make it even easier I have an old mayonnaise jar that I’ve draw on to indicate how much water and rosewater/ witchhazel I need. We then pour the mixed solution into a container and dip our cloth wipes in at changing time. I have a small bottle that I’ve put some solution in for when we’re out and about. 

Since using this solution we’ve had no nappy rash at all and also the redness in his skin is no longer present. It also smells great as when you enter the room you get a waft of roses. Not many people can say that about their change table. 

Update: Actually we've had an ongoing issue with nappy rash due to an infection and also every time John teethes we get nappy rash. I have gone back buying the rosewater and witch-hazel in separate bottles. I buy a better quality one off trade me. This costs more but I do believe it helps. Even with buying the better quality (more expensive) product I believe it is still cheaper and better for the environment than buying wipes. 

Cloth wipes

Now that I had my nappies sorted I hadn’t really thought anymore than that until my girlfriend mentioned cloth wipes. She said that you can save about $500 a year if you use cloth wipes. I am ALL for saving money.

Like my nappies I wanted organic cotton, bamboo or hemp for my wipes. I thought I’d have a go at making my own wipes. I mean I haven’t really sewed before but how hard can it be to overlock some squares?

my wonderful Ecomoon
bamboo wipes

My mother can make anything and I’ve helped her plenty of times so I figure it won't be that hard. However, finding the material to sew turned out to be the difficult part and also at a price that made it worth making my own. So I found a woman on trade me who made wipes cheaper than I could buy the material. She made me some beautiful hemp and bamboo ones.

Later from my favourite store Ecomoon I bought some organic bamboo velour ones and these are my favourite. I do so love bamboo velour. Amazing product! It’s really soft on baby’s skin, cleans so easily and stays looking fantastic. I recommend these to everyone now as my wipes of choice. Once I've used them for a nappy change I just throw them in the nappy bucket with the dirty nappies. No big deal.

I use the white wipes for nappy changes and the red ones for face or hands. Though I wash them all together along with my nappies so not sure what a difference it makes but it seems like a good idea?

True cost of nappies

My Itti Bitti stash

A lot of people buy a few different styles of nappies to see what suits or fits their baby best but not me! Once I had decided on Itti Bittis when I saw sales I bought Itti Bittis to my heart’s content. I bought 8 smalls (2 from trade me – second hand ones are great as the more bamboo is washed the more absorbent it becomes), 12 mediums as I figured he’ll be in them longer and 1 large limited edition nappy (because I couldn't help myself). Plus some extra snap ins as that’s what I love about the Itti Bitti snap in ones (SIO) is that if the nappy is wet and not dirty you just take out the inside and snap in a new liner. I figured this would last me about a day and a half so enough nappies to do a wash everyday or so. 
 

So I figure I’ve spent about $700 on nappies so far. So how does that compare?

Baby #1 SIO Itti Bitti nappies 24 SIO Itti Bittis $840 (RRP $35pn) 24 SIO Liners $336 900 Washes $108 900 Scoops Laundry Powder $450 Total $1734 900 Tumble Drier (optional) $365   Baby #2 $558 Total two children $2292

Baby #1 Disposable nappies 281 Packs of Disposable Nappies $3934  (ave $14 pp) 128 City Rubbish Bags$320  (1 bag/ week $2.50 pb) Total $4254 Baby #2 Disposable Nappies $4254 Total two children $8508

 

I’ve worked these figures out using an average of 8 nappies per day over two and a half years and washing everyday.

Wow that means that Disposable nappies are 3.7 times more expensive than Cloth nappies!!!

My hunt for the perfect cloth nappy

Yes it’s a hot topic.

I decided early on in my pregnancy I wanted to use cloth nappies (for the baby not me). To me cloth seemed to be the only option as I wanted to save money, not increase our rubbish output and also reduce the chemicals on my child’s skin. The more I read about cloth nappies (and I “researched” the topic thoroughly!) the more convinced I was that cloth was the way to go.

When I started reading about cloth there was a lot of lingo and so many different types of nappies and it seemed so overwhelming and confusing. The Nappy Network does a great overview of types of nappies.

I first decided that I wanted a natural material cloth nappy ie: organic cotton, bamboo or hemp and I also wanted a New Zealand made product. The hunt was on.

I read loads of pages and forums to try to find out what nappies were out there.

There are so many great companies out there check out Nappy Network for a huge list that I discovered much later on.

I wanted an easy nappy system as I didn’t want to be folding or putting a few different layers on. So the weeks and hours went by and I thought I had found the nappy especially when they released an organic range. So I was all set now just to wait for the baby to arrive. Then reading more I realised a pocket nappy was not the way I wanted to go so I kept looking.

A month or so later I truly found what I believed was the perfect nappy for us (though these are an Australian product but I couldn’t find what I wanted in a NZ made product). It was mostly organic material, had snaps in it (that were colour coded!) and it came in super cute colours. 

My obsession with Itti Bitti nappies began…

Some quick tips for today

Some quick and simple ideas that might save you money and not really take any time to do or don’t cost much money:  

- Turn off lights when you leave the room.

- Use lamps with energy bulbs in them rather than the main lights.

- Use energy bulbs.

- Motion senor light outside.

- Wash and reuse plastic sandwich bags.

- Turn off tap when brushing teeth.

- Turn everything off at the wall. Ie; microwave\ oven – the clocks in older models waste electivity.

- Hang washing out to dry.

- Have a shower rather than a bath.

- Wash in cold water.

- Close curtains when it starts to get dark.

- Open curtains during the day.

- Insulate your hot water cylinder.

- Put an extra blanket on the bed or put on a jersey rather than turn up the heating.

- Pay your bills online or set up APs as you then get discounts and also get the bills sent to you online and you’ll save some trees too.

- Put left overs in plastic containers or in a bowl with a plate on top instead of using glad wrap.

- Use your hot water cupboard for drying clothes.

- Clothes and towels don’t always need to be washed every time you wear/ use them.

- Do full loads in the dishwasher and washing machine. 

Some of these ideas are no brainers as in New Zealand we have loads of these ideas almost drummed into us or they are just normal for our country ie; hang out the washing. 

Some of these ides won’t really save you much or any money but I figure that it’s wasteful to have my cell phone charged plugged in when I’m not using it. I know they don’t use much electricity but it still seems a waste to me to have it plugged in. 

Mr Ecochick doesn’t always remember these things so I’m often walking around the house and turning off lights or unplugging things. Though funny he never seems to complain that things are off and more often than not he now does these things too. I guess as with everything else it’s just habit forming.  

Look what turned up today!!

I so love hand made items/ toys and well everything hand made/ home made really. I love to receive and give home made gifts and treasure them so much. I used to make a lot of my own gifts and cards but I haven’t done that in years. I think I’d definitely like to get back into it. There are so many amazing women out there who make so many wonderful items. I love that a mum can be at home (WAHM) and still make some extra money or even make a living to support their family.

I just love the new elephant cube taggy that Fluffy Fings Baby Items made can’t wait till John’s old enough to play with it.

Now to reduce 1/3 of our rubbish

First item on the list: buy a compost bin. That will have to come off trade me as I hate to buy things new and much prefer to buy second hand. The reasoning not only is second hand cheaper (which I love!) but also it means that new products don’t have to be made for me and that in my mind is better than recycling as I’m reusing what another person doesn’t want, need or use.

Ok so found one on trade me in Napier. Luckily mum and dad were in Napier that weekend so they picked the new bin up for me. Great. So the bin arrived. I was very excited and set it all up and put it out in the garden. I was so proud of my new bin and how green we were beginning to be.

Now to get ice cream containers to put on the bench so that we can have a container full of stuff to go into the compost bin rather than have scraps all over the place. Got some from family members. Great more things being reused.

I read the other day that according to the Auckland rubbish people one third of all rubbish in rubbish bags is green waste. Sad really so if we all had compost bins we would reduce our countries waste dramatically.

The real reason I have a bin is to reduce my rubbish not really to make my own compost that’s a by product.

Well compost bin is going strong, even though the bin was my idea I’m really naughty I leave the container emptying for husband. I do it sometimes but more often than not when the container gets full I grab another ice cream container and we start filling that. So feeling guilty today I went and emptied it.

The journey begins with a pregnancy...

Well it kind of really started about 16 years ago with an article on animal testing but hey. The result of this article was I became vegetarian and a total greenie.

So anyway the journey begins with a pregnancy…

I decided early on in my pregnancy I would use cloth nappies for Grape and so I read loads of information on cloth nappies (will do another post on cloth nappies another day as that’s a whole other story). My girlfriend recommended a book called The Sustainable Baby and once I had read that I realised that I thought I was doing well in our home greenwise but boy could we do better so off I went changing things to make them more green and sustainable before Grape arrived. 

Buying “green” baby products was a no brainier as I’m not into plastic or using a lot of things anwyays so buying only what we though we needed was easy. It was a bit harder when I looked at the rest of my home and realised that I wasn’t quiet as green as I could be. I mean we did the usual stuff we recycled, we hung out our washing and didn’t own a dryer, had energy lamps in the house.  The basics right. So I thought I was pretty clever.

Downside and things that needed changing; we owned two cars and used them often (though Andy’s new job meant he carpools most days so that was ok), didn’t compost, use disposable products and didn’t think too much about throwing food or other items away. We could only recycled plastics 1 and 2 in our area so everything else went in the bin. I prided myself on the fact we only had a rubbish bag every two weeks so we were doing well right? 

Well as I said so the journey begins to reducing waste in the rubbish and in our lives really.  

Well here goes…

Well I’ve been thinking of writing a blog for a while so here goes. I’m a stay at home mum who is really intent on being environmentally friendly and would love to be self sufficient one day (we’ll see how that goes as I do like my mod cons as well). 

I think this blog will be a mixture of our journey towards living more environmentally friendly, how to live frugally (I’m Dutch so I’m pretty good at that part) and just general rumblings.

Welcome on our journey...