Make it Or Buy It? Homemade Wet Ones

For the last week, I've been scouring the internet for recipes to make my own homemade Wet Ones. I like to keep them in the car to wipe off shopping cart handles, or to wipe my daughter's hands at the park. There were several recipes, but I decided to go with the simplest one, with the ingredients most similar to the actual Wet Ones I purchase.

Just baby lotion, rubbing alcohol, and paper towels...I can handle this, right?

I spent 10 minutes trying to whisk the lotion and alcohol, and got something akin to cottage cheese.
"It's okay," I told myself hopefully, "Maybe the paper towels will absorb everything."
So, I threw the paper towels into the wipe container and allowed them to sit.

Ten minutes later I came back to an unabsorbed mess of paper towels, lotion, and alcohol. To my credit, this concoction smelled like Wet Ones!
Again, my hopeful mind exclaimed "Looks can be deceiving! Try it out!"
So, I wiped my hand with a wipe, hoping I would feel sanitizing goodness followed by gentle moisturization.
Instead I got a congealed mess of...stuff. My hands were left greasy and gross. I had to wash my hands just to get the goo off. The whole container went into the trash.

There are several other recipes for homemade Wet Ones, but judging from the ingredients, I would guess those to leave my hands greasy as well.

Rubbing Alcohol-$0.50
Paper Towels-$0.15
Baby Lotion-$0.80
Total Price for 24 homemade wipes (that ended up in the trash)-$1.45 or $0.06/wipe
Price for 20 wipes at the store-$1.29 or $0.06/wipe (though you can find coupons to make them cheaper)


Bottom Line-Buy It
One half penny per wipe is not worth the odd texture and greasy feeling of the homemade variety. Plus, using coupons that often come out for Wet Ones and pairing with a sale, you can actually get them several cents cheaper per wipe than homemade.

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