Thursday, October 11, 2012

Cloth Diaper Savings

And the baby laundry continues!
Can you appreciate my rigged clothes line?  I'm sure you wish you were my neighbor right about now.  The plan is to have a clothes line by next summer, but right now, what's the point?  It's almost winter.  My purpose for putting the diapers out in the sun is to help bleach them, not necessarily to dry them.  I only plan to do this now and then if I need to throughout the year.  Otherwise I will hang-dry inside or put them in the clothes dryer.

Two nights ago I found a listing for cloth diapers on a local forum website and scored 20 more BumGenius and FuzziBunz pocket diapers for just $100!  I also grabbed two wet/dry bags for an additional $35.  This was an amazing find.  These diapers retail for about $18 a piece and are in excellent condition.  For right around $5 a piece I think we won. 
When you combine our new 20 one-size diapers with the stash of all-in-ones and prefolds, and the new pocket diapers Melis bought us for my shower, I believe we are prepared for anything!  We have a great variety of diapers to choose from, we have a great supply so we will never run out, and best of all we will never have to spend anymore money on diapers...ever! 

I get that cloth diapers just could not work for many people.  Our reason for doing it is strictly financial, although I have a hard time watching all that waste end up in the landfills as well.  It can also be debated whether cloth diapers are best for the environment when considering all the water involved in washing.  That heated debate is for another time, and on another website.  So for now, I will just focus on the savings. 

Of course the amount of savings depends on how much you invest in your cloth diapering.  As mentioned above some diapers can retail upwards of $18 a piece and even more.  Considering you probably need 18 to 24 diapers in your stash, this can become a pricey upfront investment. 

There are many other options.  Like us, you can choose the used route.  After all, isn't that part of saving the environment?  You can also register for them, and encourage your friends and family to buy cloth diapers for you.  Therefore, your investment is smaller.  And there are cheaper ways of cloth diapering than using expensive pocket diapers or all-in-ones.  The prefolds (these are like the old-school diapers) are the most cost-effective and certainly what we would have chosen if we weren't lucky to find used diapers and be gifted so many! 

Different websites will mention different cost savings depending on which route you go, but even buying the most expensive cloth diapers (including the cost of washing, which typically isn't much more than what you already spend) you can still save an average of $1000-$1500 in the span of 2 1/2 years.  Not to mention the 6500 diapers you are saving from the landfills!

I don't bring all this up to lecture you on cloth diapering your own child.  I am a lucky momma who gets to work from home and therefore can do loads of laundry in between meetings and conference calls.  For the average working mom, cloth diapering would be a much more difficult journey.  I'm not sure that I would choose it for myself if I didn't work from home.  In fact, I am so grateful for the gifts of disposable diapers we have received as well.  We are planning a two-week road trip less than a month after Eleanor is born.  Those disposables will definitely be coming with us.  So I mention all this to describe why I am so committed to cloth diapering and why it will work for us.  And if someone out there is interested in trying it for themselves, that they will have the encouragement and resources from other moms attempting the same thing. 

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