Can I afford to cloth diaper?
If you can afford to purchase disposable diapers each week, then yes, you can definitely afford to cloth diaper.
One of the most common things I hear from parents who are considering cloth diapers is "I can't afford it."
But when I listen to someone say that particular phrase, all I hear is, "I can't afford cloth diapers right now."
One of the biggest misconceptions about cloth diapers is that you need to purchase a huge stash of five dozen diapers upfront.
This isn't true. What you do need to purchase is enough cloth diapers to get by based on your family's needs. We recommend starting with 24 diapers. This number is based on changing an infant 8-10 times a day and washing every other.
I know, it's extremely hard to resist buying every color bumGenius Freetime before your new baby arrives, but fight the urge and register for those diapers before your baby shower ;)
Cloth diapering your baby without splurging is feasible. Here's how.
So you're cloth diapering a newborn. Easy. Start with 24 infant sized prefolds ($36), one Snappi ($3.95) and six pairs of Dappi Nylon Pants ($30). Need overnight diapers? Purchase two bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers for an additional $35.90. You have spent around $100 to get all the diapers you're going to need until your baby is approximately four months old.
When your baby is four months old, you'll need more diapers. You can spend another $56 to get 18 premium-sized prefolds and four larger-sized Dappi Nylon Pants. You can re-use the infant-sized prefolds as doublers for naptimes and overnights. The bumGenius diapers grow with your baby and prefolds can be used as additional stuffing if needed.
Before your baby is a toddler, you'll probably need to size up on the covers again, so figure another $10 for two more packages of Dappi Nylon Pants.
Now, do the math. Or, we will spare you a few minutes and do it for you.
With approximately $170 and everything we listed above, you have everything you need to diaper your baby from birth to age two. This is a very inexpensive "no frills" diapering system, but it is fully functional.
Ready for the logic?
With a newborn, you're going to change at least eight diapers per day, a relatively average figure.
Imagine you're diapering your baby with a package of 92 Size 1 Pampers Swaddlers which, on Amazon.com, is $23.99 as of May 28, 2013.
At eight changes a day, that 92-pack of Swaddlers will last about a week and a half (11 days) and cost you around $0.26 per diaper. And after that $0.26 gets thrown in the trash after use, it is likely that it will sit in a landfill for 500 years.
It's time for math again.
Every baby will have around 2,900 (8*365) diaper changes a year. Multiply that figure by $0.26 and you will finding yourself spending more than $759 per year on disposable diapers.
Seven-hundred dollars will get you a very decent stash of cloth diapers.
The math above is for one year. Now do it for another. So in two years, your baby will have over 5,800 diaper changes and, in three years, 8,700.
Can you imagine throwing $0.26 in the trash can EIGHT. THOUSAND. TIMES? I sure can't. I can't even imagine throwing $0.26 away on any occasion. That's more than $2,000 and, in my case, $2,000 would go pretty far. It could pay off an entire student loan I have looming.
Back to the original question, "Can I afford to cloth diaper?
I think the real question is can you afford not to.
*Since every baby is different, these numbers will vary depending on the amount of diaper changes and brand of disposable diapers used.
The upfront cost is what makes it not really affordable. I was able to only have to buy disposables every other month for about $100. I was forced CD due to my baby's allergy to something in disposables, and I only could get 6 pocket diapers for the cost what we would normally buy 200 dispoables. Our family hates prefolds and flats, so that option is a no-go. By the time I finish my stash, my baby will be 12 months and we start potty training at that age. So not cost-effective for my family, but since I am forced without choice we are required to shell out that cost.
ReplyDeleteI asked for BG 3.0s for my baby shower. My mother-in-law bought me 18 diapers. I diapered my son with those 18 diapers for 2 years. I bought an additional 12 when I was expecting my daughter because I had a period where I had both kids in diapers. This time they were BG 4.0s. Frankly, it KILLS me to spend $20 on a box of disposables on the few occasions we need them. I have found this option to be VERY affordable!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I live in pretty humble circumstances, I just graduated from college but am staying home with our daughter and he still has a year left of his undergrad. We were still able to afford 11 bumgenius 4.0s to start out with (I shopped ebay, cotton babies seconds sale, etc.) and they were enough for our daughter (at the time she was 2 months old), I just had to do laundry everyday. Honestly though I don't see how people can afford to not cloth diaper because the up front cost is more, but you get years worth of diapers instead of months worth of diapers. The cost of disposable diapers, wipes, and Desitin is definitely more than the cost of cloth diapers, wipes, and washing them everyday or every other day. I'm never going back to disposables! :)
ReplyDeleteAt this point I will only use my diapers for 6 months on 1 kid. That is not really cost effective. The cloth costs more or equal to what we would have bought in disposables. This is our last child, so the save for future kids arguement is not valid.
DeleteI love cloth diapering and do it pretty frugally. I'd say my whole setup from birth to potty training cost around $125 and that includes some things I didn't have to have. I spend $44 to get 4 BG 4.0 as seconds to use as nighttime diapers, since using prefolds wasn't working well for me, but I could have gotten by without them. But other than that I use prefolds, receiving blankets, homemade prefolds made out of T-shirts, and a couple of flats. Then for covers I have 3 Flip covers, which I purchased for $27 in the buy 2 get 1 free sale, and then later on I added 2 Econobum covers to my stash as well to make it easier on vacations, although I was able to get by just fine with 3 covers and rotating through them. I did also buy a pack of dappi's nylon pants in each size to have as backups.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible to cloth diaper very cheaply if people need to, although many people I talk to refuse to use prefolds or flats saying they are nasty or too much work. Often times thrift stores have prefolds, flats, or receiving blankets for $0.25-0.50 each and at certain religious run thrift stores if you say you are looking for cloth diapers they will often set them aside for you and give you a good deal. Sometimes you can luck out and find nice covers there as well, I've found a practically brand new Bummi's Super Whisper Wrap for $0.25 before, just have to keep on the lookout for those. I also made many of my "prefolds" out of old T-shirts. I use the same dimensions as prefolds and make them 4-5 layers thick, use the newspaper fold and they work great. Many thrift stores give away old T-shirts that don't sell, like ones that have local advertisements on them, from races, etc. So with some simple sewing you can have those made up, and those can be sewn by either hand or machine.
And most people won't do this. But if money is a huge issue and you can't afford going to a laundrymat or don't want to run your washer and dryer you can hand wash diapers. Either using a plunger and a bucket or plastic tub, or I use what is called a mobile hand washer, which works better than a plunger and can be bought online for around $15. While many people would think this is nasty, it is a way to wash diapers for really cheap and then they can be line dried or hung up on a drying rack in the house.
And this blog post does mention dappi's nylon pants as a good cover option. I do have a pack in each size and I know some people have great luck with them on sizing and others don't, but I can honestly say the sizing on the ones I got is horrible. The legholes on the newborn size were gigantic, and one of my newborn covers, actually marked newborn is way larger than the small, and the mediums are the exact same size as the small, my daughter was over a year old before she managed to outgrow the newborns and move onto the smalls, and she isn't a super small kid. So just an FYI if you opt to get them, the sizing may not be great.