Diaper costs

legaleagles · December 2013

Right now we CD my DD and I'm hoping she'll be potty trained by the time the boys arrive. We use Bum Genius and wash at home (my mom who watches her 3 days/week helps with this). It's not a huge deal, but it is added laundry, which will now be increasing dramatically with 2 new babies. I'm looking at our local diaper service and am wanting to compare the cost for disposable diapers. We just don't buy them that often, but I'm not sure I'm ready to add the time for that many more loads of laundry to CD and wash at home so I'm looking at the service as an option, but if it's much higher than the average disposable cost, I'm not sure we'll do it and will reevaluate.
So do you remember what you were spending on diapers/week or month with your twins in their first 6ish months?

TIA!!!

PurpleIris30 · December 2013

We bought preemie sized disposables until they were big enough to fit into the newborn cloth diapers. (I have prefolds and covers and will likely eventually do bumgenius.). We were going through a package a day, so about $10/day.

Honestly, if you are used to cloth diapering, I'd totally just stick to what you did with your older child and save some serious money that way. One extra load of laundry every 1-2 days is no big deal, especially if you have done it before.

pinkmickey24 · December 2013

We go through a pack about every 3 to 4 days.

LottaLattes · December 2013

I have CDd my twins (and did my singles too), it is a little more laundry but not hard as long as you have a good routine already and aren't trying to figure out problems. A service will cost about the same as disposables, if that helps!

24karat · December 2013

I use disposables for DD (2yrs) and my twins (5 mos). We spend roughly $60-$75 per month on Target's generic brand diapers and they work fine.

LittleLady77 · December 2013

I'm loving all these cloth MoMs. Maybe I'm not so crazy to want to do cloth after all.

LottaLattes · December 2013

@littlelady77 It is totally doable and so frickin adorable to have two little cloth bums running around. I used some disposables with my older two, but so far have only used CDs on my twins and love it! I did compromise on getting all AIOs in the end, just easier and less to mess with (plus the husband is easily annoyed with bits and pieces).

legaleagles · December 2013

Thanks folks. DH is not totally on board and hasn't been great about using CDs (and leaves me the poopy ones to spray/dunk) and having my mom help is awesome. We'll likely also have some help from a nanny and I can put that in the job description so maybe we'll just stick with the CDs. It has saved us so much money for sure and with 2 will save even more.

Glad to hear there other other MOMs CDing.

DH would have a hard time with prefolds and covers, though we'll likely have to do some version, it took DD about 4 months to fit into the BG because she was skinny and never really got chubby legs and it took her a while to fill in.

I think we'll give it a go for a few months with what we have - boys are going to be wearing a lot of pink and purple diapers - lol - and see how it goes - we will luckily have a lot of help and can easily get help with laundry.

Thanks, all!

CaliCarly77 · December 2013

legaleagles said:

Thanks folks. DH is not totally on board and hasn't been great about using CDs (and leaves me the poopy ones to spray/dunk) and having my mom help is awesome. We'll likely also have some help from a nanny and I can put that in the job description so maybe we'll just stick with the CDs. It has saved us so much money for sure and with 2 will save even more.

This exactly in my home - I will not find any help or sympathy with cleaning out dirty cloth diapers. I also work long hours and would rather spend my time at home with my LOs than doing laundry. So I am getting a cloth diaper service.

We just bought about two weeks worth of disposable diapers and it came to $140 (10 per day per baby) - of course this was a mix of preemie and newborn so I am sure as you don't need the smaller ones, the cost goes down, also they use less diapers as they get older. That said, the diaper service is $100 a month for twins (we have a local service that charges $20 a week for one, and a second baby is just $5 per week, so its one of the few places where having two = savings)

I also pay for water, gas and electricity and running my washer and dryer is expensive, so I like to add that in to factor in savings versus doing it at home or with a service.

Ultimately, I think that if we tried to CD on our own, we would give up pretty fast as I would be the only one cleaning the diapers and washing them. With the service, you put the whole thing into a pail without cleaning it and they pick it up and replace it once a week. As convenient as disposable but less wasteful.

My point is, don't talk yourself out of a service if that will work for you.

Rynleigh · December 2013

We were "gifted" almost our entire first year's worth of diapers, but based on how many they used and the cost of the diaper boxes, it's been an average of $30/mo for the early months. We use Huggies and Kirkland - they both run the same price at Costco. A box lasts about a month and a half, and costs $39 with free shipping (the costs are higher now that they're both in size 3 - but those size 1-2 were like $40 for 272 of them at $19.99 for 136ct boxes). That's between both boys. Some babies go through way more diapers, though. Don't forget that you can get a whole lot of $2 off coupons for a lot of the brands, too.

LottaLattes · December 2013

And you'd still save money if you CD part time, and use some disposables!

Snugly Ael · December 2013

My b/g twins are 4 months old and we've been using Kirkland (Costco's brand) diapers since the day they came home. Costco diapers are pretty cheap and the quality is good as well. You get 135 diapers for $20. The first few weeks we had spent a lot on their diapers - newborn days , but as days passed the number of diapers we used/use reduced. Now, as they are 4 months old, we buy two boxes of diapers, that's 270 diapers. There are days when we use more diapers and days when we hardly have to. It all depends on how many wet and soiled diapers they have. HTH! Good luck.

lwatkins12 · December 2013

I'm CD my 9 week old twin boys. We use flip covers and a mix of prefolds as inserts and the flip stay dry inserts. I do a load of about 30 every day and it really doesn't take that much extra effort. My boys are EBF and only poo once or twice a day now. Even in disposables, they didn't like wet diapers so we change often. CD is super easy and produces so much less trash and it's nice to not just throw money away every week on disposables. We spray off the pop and even if my husband doesn't do one it's not that much extra work.

ashleighlt · December 2013

We have been cd our twins since day one. We leave a not on the laundry door reminding us what step is next in the washing process, and every time we walk by the washroom we continue the load until they are dry. It works great for us and has saved us lots money.

legaleagles · December 2013

Thanks for all the input ladies. DH still rolls his eyes at me now after 2 years of CD our daughter and doesn't want to do it with the boys, but I think we should at least attempt it part time since we're already in a routine (though hoping for a short break if DD PTs soon).

For DD we used preemie and nb diapers for a while because she was small and skinny, but I think we'll try to get some NB size CD or even use the service for the first month or so just for the convenience and then start back up with the BG we have. I'll probably have to get more and want to try some of the newer versions.

CaliCarly77 · December 2013

legaleagles said:

Just thought I would check in - This morning I signed up for the first month's worth of cloth diaper service. It is 160 diapers per week (640 a month), that they pick up and drop off, and 6 preemie/newborn covers that we keep, and it came to $114.99. That is pretty damn good considering we will literally just put the soiled and poopy ones in a bag for them to whisk away every week. (and we will get a 10% discount if we decide to stick with it and sign up for 12 weeks)

Just to compare, a box of 130ish newborn diapers is $20 (per posts above for the cheapest diapers) so that would be 5 boxes for 640 a month, so $100. Not much of a difference if you buy bulk disposables.

If you are worried about the environment (as I am) there is always Honest: https://www.honest.com/baby/honest-diapers-bundle That is 320 diapers a month for $80 (so double that, for 640 a month and it is $160/month).

In sum:
Service - $114/Mo.

Disposable - $100/Mo.

Honest - $160/Mo.

legaleagles · December 2013

CaliCarly77 said:

legaleagles said:

I'm going to go into our boutique shop that also does the diaper service (it's the same service my mom used for my sister and I 30+ years ago) and work out the costs. I'm looking for a happy medium of good for the environment and ease on me. our local service does drop off and delivery, too which is awesome!

Rynleigh · December 2013

CaliCarly77 said: Just thought I would check in - This morning I signed up for the first month's worth of cloth diaper service. It is 160 diapers per week (640 a month), that they pick up and drop off, and 6 preemie/newborn covers that we keep, and it came to $114.99. That is pretty damn good considering we will literally just put the soiled and poopy ones in a bag for them to whisk away every week. (and we will get a 10% discount if we decide to stick with it and sign up for 12 weeks)

Just to compare, a box of 130ish newborn diapers is $20 (per posts above for the cheapest diapers) so that would be 5 boxes for 640 a month, so $100. Not much of a difference if you buy bulk disposables.

If you are worried about the environment (as I am) there is always Honest: https://www.honest.com/baby/honest-diapers-bundle That is 320 diapers a month for $80 (so double that, for 640 a month and it is $160/month).

In sum:
Service - $114/Mo.
Disposable - $100/Mo.
Honest - $160/Mo.

OH geeze LOL I panicked for a moment - I read that first sentence too quickly and thought you said it COST $640 a month! $114/mo is much more reasonable.

(There has never been any point, like, ever, that any of my four kids have actually gone through 10 disposable diapers in one day.. even while sick... so I can't imagine ever having to actually spend $100/mo on disposables when buying in bulk... and if you watch for the sales that happen about once a month and use the $1.50 - $2.50 off coupons that you can print online or clip from fliers, you can spend even less... not saying you shouldn't go with cloth, but the cost savings really just aren't there unless you're doing the laundry yourself)

CaliCarly77 · December 2013

Rynleigh said:

CaliCarly77 said: Just thought I would check in - This morning I signed up for the first month's worth of cloth diaper service. It is 160 diapers per week (640 a month), that they pick up and drop off, and 6 preemie/newborn covers that we keep, and it came to $114.99. That is pretty damn good considering we will literally just put the soiled and poopy ones in a bag for them to whisk away every week. (and we will get a 10% discount if we decide to stick with it and sign up for 12 weeks)

Just to compare, a box of 130ish newborn diapers is $20 (per posts above for the cheapest diapers) so that would be 5 boxes for 640 a month, so $100. Not much of a difference if you buy bulk disposables.

If you are worried about the environment (as I am) there is always Honest: https://www.honest.com/baby/honest-diapers-bundle That is 320 diapers a month for $80 (so double that, for 640 a month and it is $160/month).

In sum:
Service - $114/Mo.
Disposable - $100/Mo.
Honest - $160/Mo.

OH geeze LOL I panicked for a moment - I read that first sentence too quickly and thought you said it COST $640 a month! $114/mo is much more reasonable.

(There has never been any point, like, ever, that any of my four kids have actually gone through 10 disposable diapers in one day.. even while sick... so I can't imagine ever having to actually spend $100/mo on disposables when buying in bulk... and if you watch for the sales that happen about once a month and use the $1.50 - $2.50 off coupons that you can print online or clip from fliers, you can spend even less... not saying you shouldn't go with cloth, but the cost savings really just aren't there unless you're doing the laundry yourself)

omg!! ha ha that would be insane!

I am glad it comes to about the same, and isn't terribly more expensive - my bleeding environmental heart needs to be satisfied

AND keep in mind the $114 includes a $24 pack of preemie covers I bought (a friend is giving us her covers so I wont need to buy any more than that, but her baby was 10 lbs so I didn't have any preemie ones!), so next month it will be $90, + 10% off if we pre-pay for 12 weeks.

I hope it works out, and I hope that by doing the service, my husband will be more inclined to stick with it.

legaleagles said:

CaliCarly77 said:

legaleagles said:

Not thread related:

I'm guessing you are also an attorney? I've been in civil defense for 10 years.

PurpleIris30 · December 2013

Rynleigh said:

CaliCarly77 said: Just thought I would check in - This morning I signed up for the first month's worth of cloth diaper service. It is 160 diapers per week (640 a month), that they pick up and drop off, and 6 preemie/newborn covers that we keep, and it came to $114.99. That is pretty damn good considering we will literally just put the soiled and poopy ones in a bag for them to whisk away every week. (and we will get a 10% discount if we decide to stick with it and sign up for 12 weeks)

Just to compare, a box of 130ish newborn diapers is $20 (per posts above for the cheapest diapers) so that would be 5 boxes for 640 a month, so $100. Not much of a difference if you buy bulk disposables.

If you are worried about the environment (as I am) there is always Honest: https://www.honest.com/baby/honest-diapers-bundle That is 320 diapers a month for $80 (so double that, for 640 a month and it is $160/month).

In sum:
Service - $114/Mo.
Disposable - $100/Mo.
Honest - $160/Mo.

OH geeze LOL I panicked for a moment - I read that first sentence too quickly and thought you said it COST $640 a month! $114/mo is much more reasonable.

(There has never been any point, like, ever, that any of my four kids have actually gone through 10 disposable diapers in one day.. even while sick... so I can't imagine ever having to actually spend $100/mo on disposables when buying in bulk... and if you watch for the sales that happen about once a month and use the $1.50 - $2.50 off coupons that you can print online or clip from fliers, you can spend even less... not saying you shouldn't go with cloth, but the cost
savings really just aren't there unless you're doing the laundry yourself)

In the newborn stage, we easily go through 10 diapers per day per baby. They get changed every time they are fed, and some changes require a second diaper if they poop or pee while being changed.

Also, prices of diapers really depend on the size of your babies and size of diapers. We needed preemie sized diapers, which were $10 at target for a pack of 20 some. So for the little sizes, $100 would have gotten us about 10 days. Certainly nowhere close to a month.

Now if you can buy generics in bigger sizes with older babies not pooping as much, then probably a different story . . .

WhiteysWifey · December 2013

IMO stick with the cloth and do them yourself. We had 4 in diapers at once, DD#1 had just turned 2 when our triplets were born. We had around 50 diapers for all 4 kids, and still have about 40 in rotation right now. We're able to do one load of pockets and one load of inserts {we use bg4.0s} every couple of days and not run out.

FYI we don't have the option of a diaper service where we live, but even if we did I don't think it would've changed our decision to continue CDing. We spent around $400 for diapers, and that's it. Diapering multiples in disposables is not cheap, at all.

LegalLadyBug · December 2013

We used gdiapers with DD until she outgrew them at about 12 months...they just aren't designed for long torso babies. We loved them and used the disposable inserts most of the time for convenience. We never had a single issue with diaper rash until we had to switch to regular disposables. They might be an option for you. We tried honest co a few months ago and hated it. They made DDs diaper rash flare up again and leaked like crazy for us.

CaliCarly77 · December 2013

LegalLadyBug said:

We tried honest co a few months ago and hated it. They made DDs diaper rash flare up again and leaked like crazy for us.

Oh! Good to know, I will keep that in mind!! Poor thing

Momof8inSC · December 2013

I CD babies #4,5,6. Loved it. These twins will be #7&8. I also homeschool. I've decided that no way will I have time or desire to wash every day. I washed every other to every 3rd day with singletons. Washing isn't the issue as much as gliding, matching up liners, separating, etc. I just don't have it in me this time.

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