We recycle. We have always recycled cans but this year we have added plastics, paper, and glass to our recycling bins. Did you know that you don't even have to separate your curbside recycling in our valley?? Brilliant!
We try and keep the heat a bit lower than normal, and conserve where we can, but cloth diapering in all honesty had to do with the dollar signs. The green factor is a big bonus, but the dollar savings are remarkable really.
We decided to purchase the "Cadillac" version of cloth diapers, so if you are really awesome and like the less expensive cloth diapers then you will see even bigger savings.
are not what most people imagine when they think of cloth diapers which is why I wanted to show you one! They have snaps so you don't have you use pins, and they don't need to be folded to fit because they are already in "perfect" diaper shape. These are no fuss when putting on which has really helped my husband to get on board the cloth diapering chain. Also these diapers have fit Addy since she was one month old and will continue to fit her to potty training because they adjust width and length. She is almost ready to move up to the third size (which you adjust with the snaps).
This diaper is about $18, but I bought them when they were on a buy 5 get 1 free sale making them a bit cheaper. Our entire stash cost us about $400 which was diapers, pail liners, wetbags, and a diaper sprayer. Now considering a package of size 3 diapers (36ct) is $8.97 at walmart (or 25cents a piece) you can see that it's pretty easy to make up that investment!
Say you change an average of 6 diapers a day (which is a LOW estimate) you will have spent $400 in disposable diapers in 266 days. I'm figuring the low estimation of diaper usage probably will compensate for the small rise in your utility bill from doing 3/4 loads of extra laundry a week.
The average age of potty training for a girl is 29 months and for a boy is 31 so lets use 30 as our average. If you use 6 diapers a day that is approximately 180 diapers a month, which is approximately 5 packs of diapers (or $44.85). So if you have made up your initial cost in the first 9 months of using them that means you have 21 months left of free diapers or $941 dollars saved. Now that is if you buy the most expensive cloth diaper (like us) and only use them on one kid. You can use the diapers for your other kids, so you are saving money there too.
Some may say that it's not worth $1000 to deal with poo, but for us it has helped me be able to stay home more. Before we had Addy we had more income so we were able to easily drop the $400 on the cloth diapers (not to mention use gift cards that we got) to save us the monthly expenditure of $50 (low estimate once again) post baby.
Now that we do use them, I think I actually would keep using them even if it didn't save us money. Some of the unexpected "joys" of cloth diapering have been.
1. Addy has had diaper rash 2 times in 11 months of life (and really it was gone within a day)
2. I love the feeling that we are not filling landfills with diapers (how Green of me!)
3. Less blowouts - in her breast milk poo stage she would ALWAYS blow out in a disposable when we traveled, but never blew out in her cloth.
4. They make her bum look cute and large.
5. The bright colors are fun and adorable.
6. They really are super easy once you figure out your system.
If you are interested in cloth diapering I'd encourage you to check out Jillian's Drawers. They have lots of basic info for getting started which was super helpful to me. Also if you are pregnant and have not had your baby yet - give yourself a month of disposables. I think if I would have started cloth right away I would have been too overwhelmed and given up all together.
If you want to save money you NEVER buy diapers in packs of 36, you buy in bulk & use a coupon so this savings isn't a far comparison at all. My baby is 9 months and I've spent $100 on diapers so far so $400 would last me till 36 months and that is after your quoted potty training age
ReplyDeleteWow!! That's awesome. I coupon a lot and the lowest I've been able to get a diaper is 9cents a piece and that's buying in bulk with coupons as well. You need to share your couponing secrets cause I'm running low on my disposable stash (for travel). The average person doesn't score that kind of deal though so I think my analysis is still somewhat fair though ;) It think coscto prices are about 18cents a diaper??
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