Diapering: Budget Recalculation 1

Savings: $1000 per year

If it's one thing I've learned, people (especially moms) are opinionated about diapering. There are those in the disposable camps and those in the cloth diaper camps and the reasons for each vary.

We used disposable diapers for our first 3 kids. We considered cloth diapering with our 3rd, but we just couldn't get it together for many reasons. I did get the feedback from older moms that asked why I'd possibly WANT to cloth diaper when there are disposables available? They remember the cloth diapering age when it was the only option and it was messy and leaky. Their shock at my considering cloth diapering was, admittedly, an influence in not cloth diapering with my 3rd dd.

But cloth diapering is different today. There are so many alternatives and I've found them to be LESS leaky when you follow a good diapering system (yep, it's a whole system, not just a diaper). But just as no two moms would agree which disposable diaper is best, no two cloth diapering moms would agree on which cloth diapers are best.

And then there's the cost factor. I'm a mom on a budget, so cloth diapering is not just for the environment and the cute factor, but also because it's much less expensive. However, it's very easy to get caught up in the cute factor and you could end up spending just as much, if not more, on cloth diapering if you get caught up in the hype.

One way to watch your pennies is to keep track of your actual expenses. Fortunately, we received some Chinese prefolds in two different sizes and a medium diaper cover before we had our 3rd dd. I found a ProWrap AIO at a 2nd hand store in great condition for $6. And at Wal-Mart I discovered a 5 pack of Kushies AIOs for $40 (including tax) and they have proven to be great diapers. I've been making soakers (for overnight): one side is fleece and the other is terry cloth (from a towel) and those are costing me about $.50 each, and I need only 3 or 4. I need to buy a supply of snappys (I'm not using any right now because babyL is only 2 months old and doesn't move around much) and a couple diaper covers in the current size and a few in the larger size--grand total of $100 to get through the entire year for our newborn.

We have 4 girls under 6. Our 5.5 year old sleeps very heavy and still has accidents at night. Our 3.5 year old rarely has accidents, but we still put on pull-ups for the off chance. Our 2 year old tends to get wet at night, but is mostly potty trained during the day. We also have a 2 month old.

I calculated our costs of what we were spending on paper/disposable products for diapering (and I'm a bargain shopper who finds the low prices and buys generic when cheaper): $111.25 per month! Thus, the move toward cloth.

I won't be able to avoid buying wipes completely, but I have completely cut them out at home. I had some really inexpensive baby washcloths that were on clearance that I'm now using for wipes. I also have a bunch of flannel I'll cut and sew for wipes. My goal for the year is $20 for wipes.

But what about the cost of washing the diapers? Where does that factor in?

You can go to the FEMP website and download an excel spreadsheet to help calculate washer costs: Energy Cost Calculators.

I calculated our washer costs, and with 3 loads per week (max) X 52 weeks, the grand total is $27.00. Most of the diapers are air dryed and the rest are dried on low in an HE dryer.

After factoring in purchasing a couple overnight pull-ups for our 5.5 year old and a couple more training pants for our 2 year old, we will spend $200 to build our cloth diaper supply. Add $27.00 for the year in energy costs and another $70 for disposables + wipes (inevitable for certain times where a washer is unavailable, like camping) and our total expenses for this year are about $300. Compare this to what we were spending: $111.25 X 12 months = $1000 savings for the year.

Budget recalculation: After the initial investment of $300 in the first 3 months of 2008, we will put away 111.00 per month for the remainder of the year.

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And now to the earthy crunchy part of our choice:

Why Cloth Diapers

Aside from the economical aspect, these are some of our other reasons:
from ForEveryMother.com

Environmental concerns:

*18 billion disposable diapers are generated in the US as solid waste every year.
*1 ton of solid waste generated for every baby who uses disposables for the entire diapering period.
*disposable diapers contribute to 2-3% of the total solid waste in landfills and are 30% of the total non-biodegradable waste.
*disposable diapers do not degrade in landfills
*disposable diapers use more trees, land and produce more solid waste than cloth
*disposable diapers contain traces of dioxin, a known carcinogen.