Can someone help me crunch the numbers?

mopsie

I've wanted to CD for a while, and DH was always against it because he didn't want to deal with washing them (even though I told him I'd take care of that).  We went out for lunch today with his work friend who has a 20-month-old and he said that it's really easy (his wife does all the dirty work, too), but when he said "it really saves money", DH's eyes lit up.  He said the magic word!

So DH agreed to try CDing if I can prove to him that it'll save us $.  DD is 3 months old, and she goes through at LEAST 10 disposable diapers a day.  

Can someone help me crunch the numbers to prove that we'll save enough money to make it worth doing?  I know some people use disposables at night or when they go out (we don't do daycare, and both grandmothers will probably be ok with doing CDs as long as I show them how).

 Also, is there a certain brand you'd recommend, both in terms of cost and ease of use? 

StephanieDM

DiaperPin.com has a savings calculator. https://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp 

We really love one-size pockets and AIOs (all-in-ones). Those are the most daddy and sitter friendly and super convenient. One-size pockets make up the majority of our stash because they grow with her so we don't have to constantly buy new CDs when she grows. 

For brands, we love several: BumGenius, Blueberry/Swaddlebees, Fuzzibunz, etc. But what works for one kid/family may not work for another so don't buy a bunch of one kind of diaper before trying it.

As far as DH-friendly, I know both myself a lot of mamas here have voiced that aplix worked better for their husbands. My DH is scared of snaps. No joke. He avoids the snap diapers, and if he uses them he tends to put them on too loose so I always make sure to have plenty of aplix diapers clean for him.

As far as finding what you'll like best for diapers, a few sites out there have diaper trials so you can try them without buying a ton of different ones. Jillians Drawers is a very popular one: https://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10/tryclothfor10

Basically, you try a bunch of diapers for 21 days, keep and pay for what you like and return what you don't. If you return everything in then you're only out $10 as a program fee so there's not a lot of risk. 

 

roundtheworldgirl

It's already been done.  Check out this site for a very detailed breakdown.  It would be quite difficult, I think, not to save money using cloth diapers unless you used only the most expensive ones and bought many more than you actually needed.  My stash has cost me a bit over $1000 (but this is a two-baby stash and I have not limited myself to the cheapest options).  I should not need any more diapers before both DD and #2 are potty trained.  The common estimate is that a baby will go through $2000-2500 in disposable diapers before potty training.  So we're saving at least $3000.

Sarahbear621

I have a mix of BumGenius One Size fits all in 3.0 and 4.0.  I have 17 of them total so I have spent around $275 on diapers.  DS has used them since he was 1 month old.  Since they are one size fits all they are very easy to use...my only issue is that you have to stuff the prefold in them.  But once again it takes an extra 4 minutes to stuff all 17 of them.  DH doesn't mind the bum genius at all...they are easy to use and easy to clean.  My neighbor has a daughter who is 3 months older then my DS.  They easily spend $60 a month on diapers.

 Also with 17 diapers I can wash them pretty much every other day so I"m not doing laundry all the time. 

HSartteach

I use flips and I did a cost breakdown in one of my blog posts.  Here is what I spent on diapers...it's a little more now that I have bought 2 more covers and another bag...but you get the gist...

This is the investment for the cloth diapers:

• 4 Flip day pack (2 covers/6 stay-dry liners/pack):  $203.93
• 6 organic inserts:                                                       $47.70
• 4 wet bags:                                                                $35.50
• 2 garbage cans:                                                         $22.99
• laundry detergent:                                                     $17.50
• diaper rash cream:                                                      $9.99
• 3 baskets to hold it all:                                             $17.97
• diaper sprayer:                                                          $34.90
• 18 organic inserts                                                     $120.60

• TOTAL:                               $511.08

• box of 208 size 3 Kirkland disposables:      $49.95
• package of Pampers baby dry (overnight):  $10.00
• diaper ring (X2) for diaper Genie:               $  9.00
• TOTAL                                     $68.95-ish/~month

We cloth overnight too and use washcloths for wipes.

 

As you can see--in less than 8 months we will have recouped our money.  You can go cheaper and you can go more expensive than this.

jlewis121186

good night, thats a lot of money on cloth, lol...i spent $120 on ebay, and got 30 one size pocket diapers with inserts...i have two in them and wash every day or every other day. 

so...

$120 for 30 one size pockets

$5 on cloth baby rags at dollar tree that i use for wipes

$5 on an open top trash can that i throw them in when wet/dirty

$6 at ross for a shower head to use for spraying solids when needed (we just hold over toilet and use the sprayer from the shower- toilets drain automatically when extra water is added to the bowl...

$7 for wetbag for outings

$2 every 6 months for baby soap to use as baby wipe soap mix

$15 every 3 months for a bag of rockin green detergent...

our water bill is less than $30 every month and didnt go up when i started washing diapers, and our electric bill didnt go up at all either

my husband was unsure of them at the beginning, but loves them now, lol...we use Babyland on eBay, they have the snaps and that makes it really hard for the little ones to take the diaper off...we use them as swim diapers and for the older one (2 years old) we use them as pull ups as well.  we were using the store brand paper diapers- 100 of the target diapers were about $15 a box, and we were going through at least a box and a half a month per kid...so for us, the switch was logical, and we have MORE than used $120 worth of diapers in the year weve been using cloth