@studerc Awesome deal. I just wish it was from Amazon... Target I tend to forget to spend my gift cards as we're the only state in the nation without a target :( But please tag me in the future!
@sohmageek A thought. You could send your target gift cards to me via email delivery and i could compensate by purchasing an amazon gift card for you. The wife lives at target anyway.
@studerc If you see this at target with this exact card in it... Buy... The card is worth $30, you can get $15 for the card alone easy, it comes in a 3 pack of sealed cards... It's a misprint, so it may go up in value or down... It's most frequently showing up at target. :) I appreciate the offer and I hope this deal (slick deals post) lasts for a few days... I have to wait a little bit :)
@sohmageek Blame Act 250. Plus, it isn't like you're in Montana - the State is less than 40 miles across at its narrowest . . . Curiously, however, how far are you from a Target?
@medz we're sure. Did you know that you're not supposed to leave poop in disposable diapers when you throw them out? But no one bothers. The economic and environmental cost of disposables is so much greater than cloth - it's a no brainer for us. But we're willing to spray out poop into the toilet so that's the trade off.
@medz I believe so. It's something like, "Do not dispose of human waste in garbage" or "Flush solid waste in toilet before disposal" This has more examples.
@Pavlov if I take the ferry it's about an hour and a half plus about $30 in ferry fees about 30 miles . Driving I'd go to queensbury NY. It's about 2 hours 20 mins or so. I guess I could drive up to alburg and its 77 miles to Plattsburgh then.
@Thumperchick Our city compost system accepts baby diapers packed with all the excrement therein. And the environmental cost of washing and disinfecting cloth diapers is a toss up when compared to disposables. Cloth diapers use a tonne of energy and water. Just something to think about. Basically, you clearly need to move to Toronto so you can use disposables with a clear conscience, and so I can babysit.
@curtise Cloths do increase water usage a bit, but it doesn't have to be by an insane amount, especially if you grew up in a drought state and have deeply ingrained water conservation habits. Keeping thousands of disposables out of landfills does seem a fair trade off for the extra laundry for me. The detergent is not as much of a factor - as I make my own and avoid perfumes and the like, resulting in slightly lower toxicity and manufacturing impact. (We've been using it for a few years and it does a kick-ass job of getting clothes clean.) As far as "disinfecting" - I'm wondering what you mean? Sure, you should use a hot cycle and a decent detergent, but you don't have to "disinfect" them with anything special. When possible - CD's should be dried out in the sun - helps keep stains at bay. Meaning the cost to dry them is... sunshine? Though, I'll be straight up here and say that in winter, they're going through the dryer, with the dryer balls that reduce the need for heat and cut drying time to a fraction of "normal" use. In other words, since part of the commitment to CD is for environmental impact, we'll be making the effort to not add to that impact more than necessary. While some studies have stated that CD & disposables are pretty much neck & neck for impact, in different ways - they didn't take efficiency machines, or CD longevity into account - nor did they actively account for the sheer mass of landfill space that disposables take up (about 2% of all garbage in the US is disposable diapers.)
There are some cities with modern landfill designs that allow for safe disposal of solid human waste, but let's face it, most landfills aren't - and that's a recipe for messing up ground water supplies.
TLDR: After a ton of research, cloth diapering is the way we're going. For our pocketbook, for the environment, for the damned cute designs. I'm not looking to preach anyone into doing it - nor are we going to change our course on this. I only mentioned it because people keep thoughtfully tagging me on diaper deals - and I want that to continue, but especially if they see a deal on cloth!
@KDemo it's magic cards. Every year wizards puts out a holiday card prints up a limited number of them and it usually says happy holidays or has a date printed over the image in the bottom right corner. They then give the card out to vendors certain players that meet some kind of criteria (my guess is high level tournament winners) employees, etc. very limited print but it's like the company Christmas card but in a highly collectible card that does crazy shit.
I'll see if I can find an image to post of what it should look like. But it seems that somehow a stack of these got into the packs. Weird but so far not deemed counterfeit. Not sure about how many were printed. But some people have been able to snag the 3 pack for $15 at target (very limited have been found at walmart and other retailers that sell that kind of pack target was the most popular place it was found at thus far) and flipped them on eBay for $40 or so. Here's a picture with "happy holidays 2013" which is the 1st printing and the one that is more valuable but the 2nd misprint without this is still worth money.
@Thumperchick I love that you did your research and found what works for you, while not being self-righteous about it! I'll throw in my two-cents of unwanted advice, but I know a few people who clotth diaper that said that disposible were better for the first few weeks (or maybe first month, I'm not sure), and that they are nicer for traveling. I wish you the best in your journey of cloth diapering, as someone who didn't want to make that commitment! My sis-in-law was deadset on using cloth, and bought all sorts of different typs, and hardly used them (self-righteous attitude about it, so that makes it more amusing to me!). She bought even more cloth for her second, and the same thing happened...she still uses disposable.
@MrsBeckett A lot of the "one size fits all" cloth diapers don't do so well for tiny newborn bodies - so many people go with disposables for the first month or so to keep their sanity. The other option is to specifically buy a full set of cloth diapers in newborn size... which totally kills any savings from CDing. It's a balancing act. We'll probably do disposables for the first weeks, until the kid fits in their cloth without leaks. I genuinely hope this is something we will stick with as planned - otherwise we waste a huge amount of money - no bueno.
We'll probably do disposables for the first weeks, until the kid fits in their cloth without leaks. I genuinely hope this is something we will stick with as planned - otherwise we waste a huge amount of money - no bueno.
@Thumperchick What's your laundry soap recipe? We tried a couple but my wife didn't like the smell of the cloths...didn't work as well as the regular expensive stuff.
@tightwad I'll find the link for you. It does use borax, which some people are iffy on, but after poking around, we're comfortable with usong it. The hardest part to get used to was the lack of scent! I didn't realize how much the perfumes and scents in commercial detergent were masking clothes that weren't quite clean.
@tightwadThis is the recipe we use, mostly - I've adapted some things over the past few years. I prefer the Dirty Jobs version of OxyClean - it's cheaper and gets the job done. I skip the scented stuff altogether - it now weirds me out when our clothes smell like anything - means they're not clean. If stuff is extra soiled, or you find it's not coming out smelling neutral, add another tbsp of detergent to your wash load.
@mikibell - I don't have an HE, but if you look down in the comments of my link, you'll find that the recipe poster does and this is what she had to say:
Yes I have a HE frontloader. I removed the little cup thingie for liquid (read the manual on that one..ha ha) so that I could use powder. Its been working perfectly fine for me. I use 1-2 tablespoons of this detergent max with this recipe, you just don’t need too much of this detergent. A little goes a long way.
We've used this detergent for a few years now - with great results.
@Thumperchick That's the same recipe we used, we didn't use the scent stuff. I don't think it got our whites as white as normal. @mikibell We had no issues with our HE washer, knowing how much to use is the tough part, we just used a couple tablespoons. Each batch made about 1 quart (per bar of the Naptha) and we made 3 batches as I recall before my wife switched back.
@tightwad Ahh, I think I would've upped the oxiclean for that, or maybe added more to the whites loads. We haven't run into it - but neither of us has a ton of whites. @humper's job has him in arc-flash gear and I'm home, so maybe we just didn't have reason to see that issue.
@tightwad Your issue with whites made me go hunting for info in a new way - so thank you! You may have saved me from a real problem in a few months. The DIY laundry 'detergent' recipes out there all have one huge thing in common - all of them rely on laundry 'soap' rather than 'detergent' - there is a difference between the two and the way they clean. A soap will get the dirt and such to lift away from the clothing, but doesn't have the surficants to really break them down, leaving them in the water - which is why you end up with 'dingy' whites - the dirt and soil lands right back on your clothes when the water drains. A detergent however, does not have this issue - as it cleans a bit differently, breaking down dirt and such in a more effective manner. Leaving it to rinse away with the water. Diapers need detergent, because poop. Thanks for sharing your issue with DIY soap - it probably saved me from a huge headache next year.
@tightwad nope. You just can't make real detergent at home - which sucks. I also learned that the laundry bar soaps used in DIY recipes leave a waxy coating on machines, potentially damaging the washer and creating a lovely fire hazard for the dryer.
@luvche21 Spectrum out the sizes. My daughter is currently in size 2 and has been so for about a month. Went ahead and got 2 boxes of size 2, 4 boxes of size 3. They even have Pampers pull ups on the same deal. Just a thought.
@MrsBeckett We moved my daughter to size 4 when she was still a little under the weight limit on it.. She had too many blowouts on 3's, so we decided it was time to move up.. haha
@studerc OK, I gave in a bought them! :) 3 3's and 3 4's should do it. May need more 3's before he gets bigger though, we'll see. But that's what that $65 gift card is for, right?
@thumperchick @sohmageek @lichme to name a few off the top of my head
@studerc Awesome deal. I just wish it was from Amazon... Target I tend to forget to spend my gift cards as we're the only state in the nation without a target :(
But please tag me in the future!
@sohmageek A thought. You could send your target gift cards to me via email delivery and i could compensate by purchasing an amazon gift card for you. The wife lives at target anyway.
@studerc If you see this at target with this exact card in it...
Buy... The card is worth $30, you can get $15 for the card alone easy, it comes in a 3 pack of sealed cards... It's a misprint, so it may go up in value or down... It's most frequently showing up at target. :) I appreciate the offer and I hope this deal (slick deals post) lasts for a few days... I have to wait a little bit :)
@studerc thanks for the head's up! (we're cloth diapering, but checking out a deal is never bad.)
@Thumperchick Are you sure? Baby poo is yucky, you know.
@sohmageek Blame Act 250. Plus, it isn't like you're in Montana - the State is less than 40 miles across at its narrowest . . . Curiously, however, how far are you from a Target?
@medz we're sure. Did you know that you're not supposed to leave poop in disposable diapers when you throw them out? But no one bothers.
The economic and environmental cost of disposables is so much greater than cloth - it's a no brainer for us. But we're willing to spray out poop into the toilet so that's the trade off.
@Thumperchick i did not know this. Is it on the diaper packaging?
@medz I believe so. It's something like, "Do not dispose of human waste in garbage" or "Flush solid waste in toilet before disposal"
This has more examples.
@Pavlov if I take the ferry it's about an hour and a half plus about $30 in ferry fees about 30 miles . Driving I'd go to queensbury NY. It's about 2 hours 20 mins or so. I guess I could drive up to alburg and its 77 miles to Plattsburgh then.
@Thumperchick Our city compost system accepts baby diapers packed with all the excrement therein.
And the environmental cost of washing and disinfecting cloth diapers is a toss up when compared to disposables. Cloth diapers use a tonne of energy and water. Just something to think about.
Basically, you clearly need to move to Toronto so you can use disposables with a clear conscience, and so I can babysit.
@sohmageek What kind of cards are those? Is it supposed to say "stalking tiger"?
@curtise Cloths do increase water usage a bit, but it doesn't have to be by an insane amount, especially if you grew up in a drought state and have deeply ingrained water conservation habits. Keeping thousands of disposables out of landfills does seem a fair trade off for the extra laundry for me. The detergent is not as much of a factor - as I make my own and avoid perfumes and the like, resulting in slightly lower toxicity and manufacturing impact. (We've been using it for a few years and it does a kick-ass job of getting clothes clean.)
As far as "disinfecting" - I'm wondering what you mean? Sure, you should use a hot cycle and a decent detergent, but you don't have to "disinfect" them with anything special.
When possible - CD's should be dried out in the sun - helps keep stains at bay. Meaning the cost to dry them is... sunshine? Though, I'll be straight up here and say that in winter, they're going through the dryer, with the dryer balls that reduce the need for heat and cut drying time to a fraction of "normal" use.
In other words, since part of the commitment to CD is for environmental impact, we'll be making the effort to not add to that impact more than necessary. While some studies have stated that CD & disposables are pretty much neck & neck for impact, in different ways - they didn't take efficiency machines, or CD longevity into account - nor did they actively account for the sheer mass of landfill space that disposables take up (about 2% of all garbage in the US is disposable diapers.)
There are some cities with modern landfill designs that allow for safe disposal of solid human waste, but let's face it, most landfills aren't - and that's a recipe for messing up ground water supplies.
TLDR: After a ton of research, cloth diapering is the way we're going. For our pocketbook, for the environment, for the damned cute designs. I'm not looking to preach anyone into doing it - nor are we going to change our course on this. I only mentioned it because people keep thoughtfully tagging me on diaper deals - and I want that to continue, but especially if they see a deal on cloth!
@KDemo it's magic cards. Every year wizards puts out a holiday card prints up a limited number of them and it usually says happy holidays or has a date printed over the image in the bottom right corner. They then give the card out to vendors certain players that meet some kind of criteria (my guess is high level tournament winners) employees, etc. very limited print but it's like the company Christmas card but in a highly collectible card that does crazy shit.
I'll see if I can find an image to post of what it should look like. But it seems that somehow a stack of these got into the packs. Weird but so far not deemed counterfeit. Not sure about how many were printed. But some people have been able to snag the 3 pack for $15 at target (very limited have been found at walmart and other retailers that sell that kind of pack target was the most popular place it was found at thus far) and flipped them on eBay for $40 or so.
Here's a picture with "happy holidays 2013" which is the 1st printing and the one that is more valuable but the 2nd misprint without this is still worth money.
@sohmageek also the grey silver is due to that being a stock photo the actual card has a border that is the same as the other card in the 3 pack.
@Thumperchick I love that you did your research and found what works for you, while not being self-righteous about it! I'll throw in my two-cents of unwanted advice, but I know a few people who clotth diaper that said that disposible were better for the first few weeks (or maybe first month, I'm not sure), and that they are nicer for traveling. I wish you the best in your journey of cloth diapering, as someone who didn't want to make that commitment!
My sis-in-law was deadset on using cloth, and bought all sorts of different typs, and hardly used them (self-righteous attitude about it, so that makes it more amusing to me!). She bought even more cloth for her second, and the same thing happened...she still uses disposable.
@MrsBeckett A lot of the "one size fits all" cloth diapers don't do so well for tiny newborn bodies - so many people go with disposables for the first month or so to keep their sanity. The other option is to specifically buy a full set of cloth diapers in newborn size... which totally kills any savings from CDing. It's a balancing act. We'll probably do disposables for the first weeks, until the kid fits in their cloth without leaks.
I genuinely hope this is something we will stick with as planned - otherwise we waste a huge amount of money - no bueno.
@Thumperchick
The kid? @thumperchick The kid?
@Thumperchick What's your laundry soap recipe? We tried a couple but my wife didn't like the smell of the cloths...didn't work as well as the regular expensive stuff.
@sohmageek yes... The kid. Smallish human? No name yet? The kid.
@tightwad I'll find the link for you. It does use borax, which some people are iffy on, but after poking around, we're comfortable with usong it. The hardest part to get used to was the lack of scent! I didn't realize how much the perfumes and scents in commercial detergent were masking clothes that weren't quite clean.
@Thumperchick can this "recipe" be used in front loader HE washers, do you know? I struggle with the scented laundry detergents..
@tightwad This is the recipe we use, mostly - I've adapted some things over the past few years.
I prefer the Dirty Jobs version of OxyClean - it's cheaper and gets the job done. I skip the scented stuff altogether - it now weirds me out when our clothes smell like anything - means they're not clean. If stuff is extra soiled, or you find it's not coming out smelling neutral, add another tbsp of detergent to your wash load.
@mikibell - I don't have an HE, but if you look down in the comments of my link, you'll find that the recipe poster does and this is what she had to say:
We've used this detergent for a few years now - with great results.
@Thumperchick That's the same recipe we used, we didn't use the scent stuff. I don't think it got our whites as white as normal. @mikibell We had no issues with our HE washer, knowing how much to use is the tough part, we just used a couple tablespoons. Each batch made about 1 quart (per bar of the Naptha) and we made 3 batches as I recall before my wife switched back.
@tightwad Ahh, I think I would've upped the oxiclean for that, or maybe added more to the whites loads. We haven't run into it - but neither of us has a ton of whites. @humper's job has him in arc-flash gear and I'm home, so maybe we just didn't have reason to see that issue.
@tightwad Your issue with whites made me go hunting for info in a new way - so thank you! You may have saved me from a real problem in a few months.
The DIY laundry 'detergent' recipes out there all have one huge thing in common - all of them rely on laundry 'soap' rather than 'detergent' - there is a difference between the two and the way they clean. A soap will get the dirt and such to lift away from the clothing, but doesn't have the surficants to really break them down, leaving them in the water - which is why you end up with 'dingy' whites - the dirt and soil lands right back on your clothes when the water drains.
A detergent however, does not have this issue - as it cleans a bit differently, breaking down dirt and such in a more effective manner. Leaving it to rinse away with the water.
Diapers need detergent, because poop. Thanks for sharing your issue with DIY soap - it probably saved me from a huge headache next year.
@Thumperchick That makes sense! Any options for "roll your own" laundry detergent then? With 4 kids we spend a small fortune in laundry expenses...
@Thumperchick darn I was trying to bait you to share ;)
@tightwad nope. You just can't make real detergent at home - which sucks.
I also learned that the laundry bar soaps used in DIY recipes leave a waxy coating on machines, potentially damaging the washer and creating a lovely fire hazard for the dryer.
Damn hippies, leading me astray!
@mikibell You want to get detergents that are marked Free & Clear/Free & Gentle (Tide's name) (perfume & dye free).
But then I have to buy $150 worth of diapers at once... I don't know how long the little guy will be in size 3 anyway.
Thanks for posting!
@luvche21 Spectrum out the sizes. My daughter is currently in size 2 and has been so for about a month. Went ahead and got 2 boxes of size 2, 4 boxes of size 3. They even have Pampers pull ups on the same deal. Just a thought.
@studerc Size 3 has lasted forever...
@luvche21 How old is your little guy? My little girl has been in size 3 for what seems like a year now!
@MrsBeckett He's a year and a half (as of yesterday!) and has been in size 3 for over a year. He sure flew through those other sizes quick though!
@MrsBeckett We moved my daughter to size 4 when she was still a little under the weight limit on it.. She had too many blowouts on 3's, so we decided it was time to move up.. haha
@studerc OK, I gave in a bought them! :) 3 3's and 3 4's should do it. May need more 3's before he gets bigger though, we'll see. But that's what that $65 gift card is for, right?
Thanks again!
I love this deal thank you so much. I'm saving so much.