The Cost of Diapers (CD Part 2)

Did you know that disposable diapers through potty-training usually costs $2000-3000?! That's a lot of money! A simple cloth diaper system (I'll explain all the types another time) can be very inexpensive but $300-500 is probably most realistic. That's a savings of at least $1700 on the first child. Once you add additional children, the savings are even higher as most cloth diapers will still be in great shape for years of use. As I mentioned yesterday, this was the primary factor that had me sold on cloth.

There are a ton of different types & brands of cloth diapers. The most economical choice in CDing is always prefolds with covers. Basically this is the typical white cloth diaper like what some parents use as burp cloths. Covers vary, but the wrap style is most common. A basic prefold costs $2 each and a typical velcro-type wrap costs $10. (There are a ton of articles and calculators on the costs of diapers, but I'm going to use what I've seen or paid myself at my favorite and most frequented companies). Prefolds usually come in two sizes, infant & toddler, while covers can come in all sorts but normally S,M, & L. We have about 30 prefolds which is more than enough to get through 2-3 days, plus you need at least 3-4 covers in each size (depending on your laundering schedule). So thats $120 for prefolds & $120 for covers from newborn through potty-training, at a total of $240! This is the most basic system and the costs obviously go up as you add quantity or more variety. Some of the most popular (and what we use at night-time) are BumGenius and FuzziBunz which are easy to use and require no folding. These usually are about $15-20/each but even with splurging on a few of these, cloth is still very inexpensive.

If considering it, you should also take into consideration laundering. We found our water bill did not increase at all in the 5 months we've been CDing. Our electricity bill has been slightly higher in these 5 months compared to the same time last year. But, we've also been home at lot more often including cooking at home more and keeping the A/C cranked, so it's hard to say how much of the increase is from the the washer/dryer. If you want to be sure, there are calculators online that will help you figure out the cost of the extra loads, we just didn't think it was worth the effort to calculate.

The other day a friend asked me if it was still financially beneficial at this point to switch over to cloth from disposables (her son is 13mos). My gut reaction was that yes it would be, but let's figure it out. She purchases diapers today at a club warehouse for $32 which covers about 35 days of diapering (176 diapers/pack). For ease, we'll only calculate the cost up to the start of potty-training which WebMD says usually will start between 22-30 months (ending at about 38 months for boys & 36 months for girls). So my friends baby has at least 9-10 months of diapers left at a cost of $288-320. If she goes with the simple prefold system I outlined, she'll only need 30 prefolds in the toddler size and probably 4 covers in large. That's $60 for prefolds and $40 for covers at a total of $100. Is that worth it? Well yes, financially it is definitely cheaper and even leaves some room for some nice FuzziBunz. Of course there is more to it that just the money...