I’m 2.5 years into cloth diapering. According to this website I would have spent approximately $2000 by Bean’s second birthday on diapers. Just on diapers, not wipes, creams, etc, etc. So let’s guesstimate that I’d have spent $2500 just on disposables. For the record, my boys have ridiculously sensitive skin. Both got terrible rashes in the Pampers Swaddlers the hospital sent home with us. What works for Bean is the 365 brand and BabyGanics. So roughly $11 for a 30 pack of sposies, or $.36/diaper.
I was lucky enough to have a few people really support my idea of cloth diapering, so luckily we received some things as gifts, but let’s look at the cost breakdown. I also bought things on sale as often as possible, but I’m going to list full prices.
36 small prefolds $84
18 medium prefolds $48
18 large prefolds $52
8 small overnight fitteds $65
8 large overnight fitteds $65
hemp liners (12) $57
Thirsties Size 1 covers (6) $70
Thirsties Size 2 covers (7) $85
Snappis (4 packs) $30
Pail Liners (2) $30
Flushable liners. This is my biggest cost in cloth diapers. And it’s time for it to change. We aren’t through all the ones we’ve purchased, and I’ll probably continue to use them when we are away on a random weekend. 40 packs over 2+ years. $320
Total Cost $906
What I’m not including:
Wipes – same as a disposable user would use. Maybe less, maybe more. I did amazon subscribe and save and now I’m in the process of switching to cloth wipes. We’ll see.
Ointments – Everyone uses something at some point.
Random diapers I bought and tried and didn’t use. Want to include that? Probably add $75ish max.
Homemade fitteds. I made them…
Some of these things I bought more of because of having 2 in diapers (more snappis, covers, hemp liners, overnight diapers). Take out those extras and I probably reduced my total by $100. Add in the covers that I sold from my stash (oh yes, there is a market for EVERYTHING cloth diaper…I should put an effort into selling those almost never used AIOs and AI2s) $24. So that covers me for the random diapers plus some.
$906 for cloth diapering for 2.5 years. I saved over $1000. That doesn’t make that $320 on liners seem so bad anymore. Of course, my total could have been more like $580.
And this is for 2 kids! Safe to assume I’ll buy some more covers eventually as Bug grows. Unless Bean wants to potty train before I need those size 2’s.
$450/kid through potty training!
Maybe there will be a #3 that can use these too… $350/kid! (Assuming again I’ll buy more stuff.)
$1000 for 3 kids to go through their diapering years vs. $6000.
Oh… and that brings me back to these liners. Thanks to a wonderful friend, I now have a diaper sprayer free of charge. I’ll tell you about Bug’s poop sometime if you really want the story of why I needed a diaper sprayer. So I have a sprayer and I have messy diapers and I need a solution to not spray feces all over my bathroom.
What say you crunchy moms? Potty Pail or Spray Pal? Or do you have a better solution?
I will be using cloth diapers when my 1st baby is born in 8 weeks. But what about the cost of washing, water usage & detergent? Shouldn’t that be included in your cost above?
Congrats on your growing family Kim! The extra 2-3 loads of wash a week doesn’t add much to my detergent costs. Maybe $20 over a year? I’ve discussed water bills with neighbors in the past and ours typically seems pretty on par with those who don’t use cloth diapers. We now have a top loading HE machine and since I do less standard loads thanks to this, and the machine is using the proper amount of water for each load (vs. my old machine that I would fill to the top with water), I think the cost of running the wash is honestly negligible. I think when people break down the cost of cloth diapering, they want to nickel and dime every aspect of it. The same isn’t done with disposables. Simply the cost of the diapers. Not the extra trash bags needed, or the diaper genie, or the diaper genie refills, extra ointments because rashes are more common with disposables, etc, etc. We don’t use dryer sheets either, so that’s one more money saving thing for us over most disposable using households 😉
Spray pal
I just make sure to get the part of the diaper I’m spraying below the rim of the bowl, and I rarely have any overspray that needs to be wiped up afterwards. I’d give it a week or two and see how it goes before buying something else for this purpose.