Today, I found myself thankful that I have stocked up on supplies for mixing things together. I ran out of  commercial diaper wipes, I had no wash cloths. I had a moment of panic and then pulled myself together.

 I made some wipes out of paper towel, a bit of water, body wash and oil. Whew.

 And since I am there, why bother picking up more wipes, eh?

Brandy -

Isn't it just amazing when you have an "ahh-haa" moment and "make do" with what you have.  I'm like you...why bother going back to the old way once you have found a cheaper (oops, i mean more frugal) way to handle the situation?  

Lin 

I did something like that just recently. I was out of teabag tea and didn't want to go to the store for just one thing (as if!), so I took some scrap loosely woven nylon, cut it into circles and hemmed them, then made a big running stitch around the edge with embroider thread. I left the ends of that long so I could pull them and close my new teabag after I put in a bit of looseleaf tea. Better than a real teabag! I now use them over and over and wash them. Looseleaf tea lasts longer and has a better flavor, so I have the best of everything.

I got fancy after that and tied beads to the ends of the embroidery thread so they wouldn't slip back through the material.

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say! 

At one time I had a nice little stack of cloth wipes but convenience called and I answered with commercial ones. It seems like a great time for a new plan.

Neat idea, Pat.

Hi, Pat!

I just wanted to thank you for the idea. Loose leaf tea tastes so much better than tea bags, but tea bags are so much neater. I'll have to try your idea.

Now if they would only come out with decaffeinated loose leaf tea--I'd buy stock in the company!

Sharon

Sharon:

Now if they would only come out with decaffeinated loose leaf tea--I'd buy stock in the company!

I understand that. I have to be careful of how much caffeine I drink.  

Dear Pat, What an ingenious idea you had about sewing your own teabags!

I think that the following depends on what kind of coffeemaker you own (if any), but my electric cone-type one, if used with a superior kind of filters (which cost me $3 for a box of 100 paper filters, at Peet's Coffee & Tea Company) can be used to make loose-leaf tea.

Yours in thrift, Deb 

Deb, my coffee maker is stored away in the basement as I don't drink coffee any more. I could make looseleaf tea in a teapot and strain it, but I'm lazy that way.

Have you ever thought of buying a reusable filter? Or do they make them for your coffee maker? I'm sure they'd work for tea as well as coffee. Saving $3 may not seem like much, but it all adds up. But then, I'm a hard core corn cobber, they say.

Sharon:

Now if they would only come out with decaffeinated loose leaf tea--I'd buy stock in the company!

Sharon

Caffeine is very water soluble.  Boil twice as much water as you need, make a cup of tea like you normaly do, wait 30 seconds and pour that water off.  Then make your tea as normal with the rinsed leaves.  Not sure what to do with the caffeinated water though, other than to water plants with.