Does It Really Save Money?
In a word, yes, although some well-intentioned thrifty mamas will tell you it doesn't, due to the cost of diapers and the cost of water. First, you can always make your own cloth diapers, like one crafty friend of mine did. Secondly, there's always the prefold option, the cheapest way to cloth diaper. But if you want something easy, consider pocket diapers. Confused on all the terminology? I did a series on the subject. Read all about the various types, the stuffins, and my own cloth diapering journey.
I love my pocket diapers, and when I ran the numbers well over a year ago, I discovered that if I purchased 10 cloth diapers at $20 each, I would recover my costs in about 4 months. Any savings after that was money in the bank. I currently have 13 one-size diapers in my diaper rotation (my daughter recently outgrew the sized ones I bought on clearance when I first started CDing). I bought 2 of these diapers second hand ($12 each), 6 were purchased for me by my mother-in-law, I bought one full-priced ($16), and the others were given to me by a friend when her son outgrew his diapers. That brings my total dollars spent to $40, with another $80 spent by my mother-in-law. Now that's a cheap way to cloth diaper! This gives me a two day supply, so that I'm only washing every other day. My favorite brand? Check out this post: 5 Kids, 4 Moms, 3 States, 1 Diaper.
Since then, I've gotten even more cloth diapers, thanks to several friends whose children potty-trained. I now have a huge supply of cloth diapers, but I've still spent very little myself.
If you use a cloth diaper calculator, you'll probably find that you easily spend $40-$60 a month on disposable diapers and wipes. I spent $40. My water bill has not increased noticably since starting to cloth diaper in August of 2009, but it's so hard to tell anyway, when you consider variables like having a vegetable garden, having guests in town, being out of town, or other usage issues. For the sake of argument, if we spend an extra $5 a month washing cloth diapers, you can see how cloth diapering multiple children will save us quite a bit of money. I also made my own cloth wipes using flannel fabric from friends or old baby towels. My wipes work so much better than disposable wipes. I love them. If you don't really know how to sew, then this is a perfect first project for you. Who cares if you mess them up? They're just going to wipe your baby's bottom!
So if you really want to save a significant amount of money on a monthly basis, do your homework and look into cloth diapers. I've seen so many friends make the switch and all of them are so happy with cloth. I would encourage you to talk to your friends who use cloth or talk to me. Ask lots of questions and even check out the diapers in person. You can also read a really great cloth diapering book like this one.
Do you use cloth diapers? Why or why not? How long have you been using cloth?
I bought new cloth diapers on ebay. I found a few pocket ones that I really like for a really good price. But they are made in China, so if you are all about American made you'll have to be careful. I bought the one size pocket with snaps and have been using them for two months washing every other day; so far they are holding up fine showing no wear. I live in sunny So. Cal so I almost always line dry and poop stains fade in the sun. I find I have fewer blow outs with cloth and her diaper rash cleared as soon as we started using them. We still use paper when other people are watching Baby, but I even go out with cloth on her. Love them!
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