A thing or two about diapers…a little math, and a LOT of savings!

So I’ve made the switch and have started using cloth diapers. I only have a handful so far so I’m not using them 100% of the time yet, but I plan to when I have bought enough to do so.

For those of you know really know me, you know I don’t do math, or at least I don’t like to. (and most days I don’t do it well either, ha!) Well, I’ve crunched a few numbers and here’s what I came up with. Keep in mind these are all averages and sometimes I averaged up (like on the #of diapers we use a day, to account for the unexpected poopy blow out and those sorts of fun adventures…)

Our little guy currently uses between 7 and 9 diapers a day(ish). We have been using Pampers and have been paying around 0.26 per diaper. I’m now using an average of 2-3 disposable diapers a day, one of which is for the night, until I have enough cloth diapers. I have bought 7 cloth diapers and along with accessories have spent about $110 so far. (including free & clear detergent, diaper liners, diaper wipes spray.) I’m going to guess and say that I plan on spending about $300 on all things diaper related, once I get a few more diapers, a wet bag, and a few other misc. items that I don’t necessarily need but would be nice to have.

Ok, now back to me not being great at math… Here goes, if we were spending ~0.26 per diaper (which comes out to $2.34/day at 9 diapers/day). – in a year we’d spend almost $900.00 (and closer to $1300.00 in 1.5 yrs!) not to mention all the garbage we’ll be making with all those disposables.  So, by spending an initial $300ish on cloth diapers, we’ll save about, oh I dunno, around $900.  I don’t know about you but not spending $900 on diapers sounds pretty fabulous to me! =)

Cloth diapering really hasn’t been that hard, and considering I’ve only been doing it a few weeks I think that says something. (Meaning even a person with no experience can do it!)  If you’re interested in cloth diapering, feel free to pass along the questions, I’m no expert but I’ve found a handful of really good cloth diapering websites & blogs that I would be glad to provide you with! Also, check me out on twitter as I’ve been tweeting lots of giveaways for cloth diapers! (I think I’ve entered 80 billion giveaways, but have yet to win one!) Maybe you’ll have better luck than me!

A few diaper resources:

The Cloth Diaper Whisperer

Kellys Closet (make sure to sign up for their newsletter so you receive all the good coupons!)

And you can find all cloth diaper brands on FB so you can recieve info/ask questions that way too!

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A story about diapers…

Before our little guy was born I did a bit of research on diapers trying to decide what I wanted to use, what kind would be best, cheapest, easiest to buy, etc. I thought about using cloth diapers, but when I started looking around online there were so many options that I was completely overwhelmed and my preggo brain just couldn’t handle it. I decided I’d start out with disposables and then maybe rethink cloth diapers after a month or so. A month went by and by then we had a newborn in our house and a lot less sleep to go on. Not to mention we were moving in a month and this time with a newborn! The idea of cloth diapers went on the back burner as we packed up our house and drove across several states with newborn & kitties in tow.

Fast forward to last week where at playgroup, a friend came in to show us some cloth diapers and give us all sorts of info. Suffice it to say she gave me a lot of great information and a ton to think about with cloth diapering. Our little guy is almost 9 months now (where DOES the time go?!) and although I feel like I’m late in attempting this, better late than never, right? Not to mention, I feel much more equipped to do research now that I’m not running on minimal sleep and can actually focus! I’ve still been doing research and trying out a few diapers that a friend let me borrow, but I’m very close to purchasing my first set of cloth diapers.

I have yet to do the number crunching but I know we’ve already spent quite a bit of money on disposable diapers, so I figure every disposable diaper I don’t use in the future, it’s money in our pocket, not to mention good for the environment.  Right now I’m leaning towards Fuzzibunz diapers, but I’ve changed my mind about 3 times already so who know what I’ll choose by the time I order them.  I’ve also considered Flip diapers as well as the bumGenius diapers.

If you’ve used cloth diapers and have comments/suggestions/helpful websites, please comment, I’d love the feedback! =)

I will post more when I finally decide which ones to go with and approximately how much $$ it will save us in the long run!

And if you’re reading this and poo-pooing (ha) even the idea of cloth diapering, I just want to say that cloth diapering has come a long way and it’s not that much harder than using disposables! (Give or take a few extra loads of laundry). These aren’t the cloth diapers that your grandma used to fold and pin and bleach and do all sorts of crazy stuff to. They come in pretty colors and designs, have different absorbancy, and oh man the options are endless.

Seems silly to say it, but I’m totally looking forward to putting our little guy in cloth diapers and seeing how it goes. Here’s to a cloth diapering adventure!