Cheap Mama pt 3

This is the most difficult of the three money-saving tips for being a Cheap Mama. I will, however, try to convince you with numbers if nothing else.

Cloth Diapers.

Diaper Shell, Indian Prefold Liner, and Poop Shield (not the official name).

 I love cloth diapering my baby for many reasons, some of which include: I'm not contributing to land fills, cloth diapering can promote early toilet training, they are WAY cuter, baby doesn't get diaper rash, they don't smell as foul as disposables, and they are ridiculously cheaper.

Before I get into the numbers that will make you tingle with money-saving fervor, I'll share how we do cloth diapering.

After a bath every night, Husband puts her in a set up like the one shown above. A thick nighttime diaper with a poop shield in a snap-closure diaper shell.

In the morning I throw away the poop shield (if it has poop in it, it will take away the solids and just leave the diaper underneath wet and I throw it in the toilet). I grab a new daytime insert like this:

And an optional poop shield. This is a mesh-like bamboo liner that will catch the solids but is completely flushable.

When I change her diaper, I just unsnap the shell, pull out the insert and replace it. Because there are no dyes and chemicals, it is not even necessary to wipe your baby with just a wet diaper. I put the wet liner in a Lowe's bucket with a laundry bag inside like this:

At the end of the day the whole shell and insert get thrown into the bucket before bath.

When she wasn't eating solid foods, I didn't use poop shields and the whole insert would go in the bucket -poop and all.

Now that she is on solids, when she does poop (and she's not wearing a poop shield), it is not advisable to throw it in the washer like that.

So I grab a plastic grocery bag (you know you have a million in your kitchen right now) and use it as a glove to rinse the poop off the diaper into the toilet. The rinsed diaper goes into that bag and then into the bucket. It takes 30 seconds.

This blog just reached a whole new level, the level where you post photos of poop.

I wash the diapers 2-3 times a week depending on how many she's gone through. We do a pre-rinse cycle on cold and a hot wash cycle.

I use this detergent. It's about $17.

You can dry the liners (not the shells) in the dryer, or you can hang them on the line like I do. It doubles as drying and bleaching (thanks sun!).

When they're dry, I fold them up and assemble all the nighttime diapers. I have a box of nighttime diapers and a box of prefolded inserts for easy diaper changes.


So that wasn't so bad, right? If you aren't convinced that it is easy enough, let me tell you the real reason I wanted to do this: the cost. My goodness diapers are expensive. So let's break it down.


Disposables:
First -did you know you are supposed to throw the poop in a disposable diaper into the toilet before you throw it away? Yes, that is real. Has anyone ever done that? Probably not.

Diapers range in price from the bare bones cheapest at $0.14 to the largest and nicest $0.50. A newborn can honestly go through 20+ diapers a day -really really. Even at 6 months, Vera is going through 7 or 8 a day.  Throughout your baby's time in diapers they will average 8-10 diapers a day.

At the cheapest you are spending about $1.40 per day on diapers (just for a newborn size). If your baby is not toilet trained until 3, then you have spent about $2,500 on diapers -for that one child (price averaged over growing diaper sizes). $2,500! Are you reading that?

Not to mention, your baby gets diaper rash (pass that Boudreaux Butt Paste this way), you are contributing to massive amounts of diaper landfill, they smell really foul, and are full of chemicals.

However, they are way more convenient and you don't ever have to deal with poop, and most babies use disposables and are toilet train-able and healthy and fine.

But this is about the cost.

Cloth:
You will spend more money upfront on cloth diapers, but you can use them as long as you'd like -even over multiple children.

A cloth diaper shell averages $8 -$15. You need at least 8 of them to have a functioning cloth diaper system.  Average cost -$95

There are dozens of different cloth inserts. I use Indian Prefolds, Econobum Prefolds, Flip Stay Dry inserts and some Gerber cloth diapers.
Indian Prefolds are about $1.50 each. Econobum Prefolds are about $8 each, Flip inserts are about $1.30 each, and Gerber cloth diapers are about $1.

Our total diaper insert inventory costs about $75

Washing does cost money. Our detergent is $17 for approximately 70 loads. So about $0.25 a load. We do about 2-3 washes a week, so over a year our detergent cost is about $33.

But the washing machine costs money! We have a high efficiency washer that averages $0.40 a load. Just diaper washes would equal about $52 a year.

If my baby isn't toilet trained until 3 (heaven forbid please!) then washing cloth diapers will cost $255.

Total price of diaper shells and liners? $170
Total price of washing costs? $255

Total price of cloth diapering: $425. But we can round up to $500 for drying costs and for having to touch poop.

Even still. Disposable diapers will cost you $2,500 per child over their diapering life. Cloth diapers will cost you (very conservatively) $500 for the first child and only the washing costs for subsequent children. You would have to have 8 children in cloth diapers before your costs were equal to one child in disposables.

Seriously. Cheap Mama says go cloth.

cottonbabies.com is probably the best resource for all your cloth needs.