Cloth Diaper Question

eclaires · June 2009

This is sort of completely out of left field, but was wondering what all of y'all thought since so many of you are planning to CD or are CDing.

Anyway, we were talking about this the other day and I had wanted to CD w/ Jackson but was really overwhelmed w/ the choices and at the time didn't have any friends with babies and as most of you know, I spent my online time on the IN knot board. So there was really nowhere for me to question and learn about them at the time w/out really searching it out.

We're planning on trying for #2 next summer, but my question is this - do you think the price savings would actually be there if I only have one more kid and just CD that kid? This will be a big part of selling CD to Jeff... and I think that the initial outlay will be mitigated (in his mind) if we can save money on diapers long term. But I wonder if we'd really save if we only use them for one kid. Right now we plan on playing # of kids by ear, see how #2 goes an then decide on 3.

And I'm sure I could talk out of my ass and assure him we'd save money on them for just one kid - but I'd rather really know that. I figure you experts might have a few thoughts on this.

fruitcakes · June 2009

Obviously I'm no where NEAR an expert, but...

I think it's definitely a price savings, even if you only use them for one kid. We've spent right around $600 for diapers and that's without actively searching for deals and buying all-new. I put $1000 down in the budget for diapers, just in case I find my stash to be too small for doing laundry every couple days. From what I've read and by talking to friends with kids, most people spend around $60-$75/ month on disposables.

You could always try to recoop some of the money by selling the used diapers too.

DomerJenC · June 2009

yes, definitely. the nice thing about CD's is that there is a great aftermarket for them, so you can sell them afterwards. I have heard that the one-size AIOs and pockets only last 1 kid, but if you did prefolds or fitteds w/ covers, or sized pockets or sized AIOs I think you could definitely sell them afterwards for 40-60% of what you paid.

and if you stick w/ prefolds or the cheaper fitteds, it's pretty cheap regardless. i can send you our spreadsheet of what we've paid so far if you want.

lemen99 · June 2009

This could be a dumb question, but I wonder what the cost is associated with the CD laundry...

It's neat to know about selling them used!

kat.in.the.hat · June 2009

We've seen an increase of $10 to $20 a month in our water bill since Marion arrived. Mostly due to the number of washings CDs take, but it also includes extra laundry (when she was itty bitty, I washed her clothes separately from ours) and extra showers.

Our electricity has also gone up somewhat, but not enough for Josh to notice (or complain about at least.) However, we almost exclusively line dry our dipes (a perk of being in Houston) and I just toss on high for about ten minutes to fluff. Electricity costs have increased mostly because we run the a/c all the time now, whereas before she came, we turned it off at night and slept with the windows open.

We do use a bit more detergent than before, but since we just use All Free & Clear, Small & Mighty, it's not that big of a deal. I just buy it at Target instead of having to special order something like Charlie's or CC. We do about three loads of diapers a week, so that's something around $0.15 - $0.20 a load.

So if you figure on the high end, an extra $15 a month on water, $10 on electricity, and $3.00 on laundry detergent, our usage costs for CDs is about $0.93 a day.

We've spent approximately $350 on her dipes since she's been born and won't have to buy any bigger ones until she's a year old. So even if she only uses them for a year and we don't reuse or resell them, that means we'll have spent about $1.00 a day on cloth. With our usage costs, that's spending $1.93 a day.

Our disposables cost us $0.25 each. We buy the natural care Huggies in regular sized packages at Target and usually use a coupon.

We change her (at almost nine months) eight times a day (sposies or not.) If we did only sposies, we'd be spending $2.00 a day vs the $1.93 we've spent on cloth.

It's not a huge savings, but if you look at the ability to reuse the diapers (we've bought mostly GN or boy colors) and resell them, that certainly helps recoup the cost. And for use, it wasn't as much about the cost savings as it was the environmental factors, the ability to support local businesses (several of her dipes are made by people I know), and the ability to reuse the dipes, particularly the prefolds with other children.

-Stephanie- · June 2009

Great information by the pp's! If you want to do more reading, Simple Mom just did a Cloth Diapering 101 on her blog last week. Everyday there was a post about some aspect of cd'ing. I thought it was very useful.

https://simplemom.net/tag/cloth-diapering-101/?

eclaires · June 2009

kat.in.the.hat:
We've seen an increase of $10 to $20 a month in our water bill since Marion arrived. Mostly due to the number of washings CDs take, but it also includes extra laundry (when she was itty bitty, I washed her clothes separately from ours) and extra showers.
Our electricity has also gone up somewhat, but not enough for Josh to notice (or complain about at least.) However, we almost exclusively line dry our dipes (a perk of being in Houston) and I just toss on high for about ten minutes to fluff. Electricity costs have increased mostly because we run the a/c all the time now, whereas before she came, we turned it off at night and slept with the windows open.
We do use a bit more detergent than before, but since we just use All Free & Clear, Small & Mighty, it's not that big of a deal. I just buy it at Target instead of having to special order something like Charlie's or CC. We do about three loads of diapers a week, so that's something around $0.15 - $0.20 a load.
So if you figure on the high end, an extra $15 a month on water, $10 on electricity, and $3.00 on laundry detergent, our usage costs for CDs is about $0.93 a day.
We've spent approximately $350 on her dipes since she's been born and won't have to buy any bigger ones until she's a year old. So even if she only uses them for a year and we don't reuse or resell them, that means we'll have spent about $1.00 a day on cloth. With our usage costs, that's spending $1.93 a day.
Our disposables cost us $0.25 each. We buy the natural care Huggies in regular sized packages at Target and usually use a coupon.
We change her (at almost nine months) eight times a day (sposies or not.) If we did only sposies, we'd be spending $2.00 a day vs the $1.93 we've spent on cloth.
It's not a huge savings, but if you look at the ability to reuse the diapers (we've bought mostly GN or boy colors) and resell them, that certainly helps recoup the cost. And for use, it wasn't as much about the cost savings as it was the environmental factors, the ability to support local businesses (several of her dipes are made by people I know), and the ability to reuse the dipes, particularly the prefolds with other children.

Thanks, Kat - that's exactly what I was looking for. The diapers we use for Jackson run about the same as what you use for Marion, so that really helps.

I think, for me, the environmental factors, as well as some of the other things you mentioned, will be persuasive to me - the saving of money is the only thing that will persuade Jeff.

On a funny note, my mom used CDs with all of us and she said on Wednesday when we were talking about it, "you know why I used CDs? Because at my shower for you, almost everyone gave me cloth diapers." Isn't that funny considering how now most people bring disposable diapers and how I think most of you have had to have special registries if you want CDs? Ah, how times have changed.

kat.in.the.hat · June 2009

eclaires:
On a funny note, my mom used CDs with all of us and she said on Wednesday when we were talking about it, "you know why I used CDs? Because at my shower for you, almost everyone gave me cloth diapers." Isn't that funny considering how now most people bring disposable diapers and how I think most of you have had to have special registries if you want CDs? Ah, how times have changed.

Oh that's hysterical! When my mom was here a few weeks ago, she kept saying how much she wished she'd had a sling when I was a baby. I was like mom, they've been around a lot longer than strollers!

And honestly, I think the cost savings is most noticeable if you are on a super strict budget, like moms who can only afford to buy prefolds and covers and a few fitteds for over night. Because if you don't have super strict budget and you have money to spend on the cute stuff, you'll spend it and it really really adds up. But still, it's totally worth it.

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