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VideosOne of the reasons we use cloth diapers is to save money. I've been curious to know how much we've saved in Alleke's first two years, so I crunched the numbers.
Cloth Diaper Costs
Indian Cotton Prefolds (infant size) - $2.25 x 20 = $45
Chinese Cotton Prefolds (premium size) - $2.75 x 20 = $55
Proraps Classic (small) - $8.95 x 4 = $35.80
Proraps Classic (medium) - $8.95 x 4 = $35.80
Bummis Super Whisper Wrap - $12.25 x 4 = $49
Bum Genius 2.0 - $17.95 x 4 = $71.80
Fuzzi Bunz - $19.95
Kissaluvs Fitted - $11.50
Thirsties Hemp Insert - $5.00
Snappi Diaper Fastener - $2.99
Kushies Diaper Liners - $8.99 x 2 = $17.98
Bummis Tote Bag - $6.99
Water - $12.50
Total $369.31
Disposable Diaper Costs
7 disposable diapers x 364 days = 2,548 diapers x $.045 each = $1146.60 a year.
Total: $2293,20
The total disposable diaper costs ($2293.20) minus the cloth diaper costs ($369.31) comes to a total of $1,923.89 in savings in the past two years.
Notes
1. I grabbed the prices for all the cloth diaper products from Thanksmama.com and cottonbabies.com
2. The math for the disposable diaper costs is from naturalfamilyonline.com.
3. Here's how I calculated how much water we use to wash our cloth diapers:
1 liter of water = 0,00173€
1 wash cycle (19 liters) = 0,03€
5 wash cycles a month = 0,16€
24 months = 7,90€ or $12.50
Saturday, June 28, 2008
I saved $1,923.89 using cloth diapers
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6 comments
I'll brag right along with you in that I only spent $150 on all of my diapers as I bought them either second hand or made them myself! Woo! People always think I'm so crazy, but it's (as you know) so easy and SO much cheaper!
Just saying, Getting the cost of disposables from a cloth-didy's site might raise an eyebrow or two.
We did cloth dipes and homemade wipes for our first and second. When #3 came along, reality raised its ugly head.
I've changed diapers for ten years; about 10,000 diapers all told.
All done now.
anne - If I could do it all over again, I would just buy the cotton prefolds and proraps, which happens to be the least expensive option as well. One of our friends has even been making diapers out of t-shirts from Goodwill. We experimented with a number of different kinds of diapers, which means we spent more in the end.
anonymous - I thought the same thing when I came across the naturalfamilyonline.com website. However, after looking at a number of different sources, I felt like this one was the most comprehensive.
For the sake of comparison, here are some other estimates on disposable diaper costs:
www.surebaby.com/costs.php
$1600-$2300
www.thenewparentsguide.com/diapers.htm
$1200-$1920
www.perc.ca/waste-line/articles/diaper.html (quoting Consumer Reports)
$1500-$2100
So, based on all these estimates put together, our savings are somewhere in the neighborhood of $830 to $1924. It looks like the disposable diaper estimate I used is high in comparison, although my guess is our savings are still about the same since I used retail prices for all the cloth diaper products, and in reality we spent less because we bought diapers secondhand or on sale, and some were given to us.
FYI, here's an online cloth/disposable cost calculator if you want to check costs for your own household:
www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp
What about the cost to wash and dry cloth diapers? And the time it takes you as well.
After diapering five children, my opinion is that the estimates for the cost of disposables by companies pushing cloth diapers is outrageously high. It costs me about $300 per year for diapers (Huggie's from Costco) and wipes, and my children typically wear them for 2.5 years. Total: $750
Hey guys,
So we have a joke around here that our son is the fastest trickler this side of the Sierra Nevadas. Well, we did a bit of math tonight and using Cosco's prices (which by the way we do not have one anywhere remotely close to here), we figured that Abraham has at 7 months already gone through (low estimates) $645 worth of disposable diapers (Abraham currently goes through about 12 diapers a day sometimes a lot more, rarely less). Mind you, as you know, we use cloth diapers and have about $315 invested in diapers and this should take him through potty training. Then we can start over with the same diapers on the next Shupe. Figuring in electricity we have already at 7 months made a considerable Return on Investment. And we aren't filling up landfills. Thanks for your help and advice.
-J&A
apparently, this is a touchy subject. :) isn't it amazing what excrement can do for human anxiety levels?
boy, oh boy, I'm glad you didn't mention elimination communication... that could've had some interesting comments....
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