Cloth Diapers vs Disposable Diapers

There are so many views out there and when my baby Girl was born I wasn’t even thinking about cloth diapers.. Eww.. who would use them.? Only weird people,right…? I’m a cool mom I don’t use cloth diapers… Well that’s how I was thinking,too.

When my Baby Girl was about 4 month I started to freak about money, no particular reason, and both my husband and my job are secure and haven’t changed, BUT I freaked and started to research as much as I could about saving money, so I started with coupons and then somehow between researching for coupons and me still in the money saving mood, I came across Cloth diapers. I don’t remember how, where and what, but I found them. Looked into it and got kind of fascinated with how cute they looked and my question was, will they save me money??

So I did the math, We need about 6 diapers a day ( or more, just a guess) and the average diaper is about $.25 each, so we will be in diapers for about 2 ½ years, that’s an average of 5400 diapers roughly $1350 give or take a few more Hundred $$… Wheee… what a number and that’s just the diapers… really??

That is a HUGE number and will be even bigger if you don’t shop sales or use more than 6 diapers a day, well I had to come up with a plan, because at the rate I was going my money was going down the drain, and Ms. Cheap here won’t let that happen.

I found some really cute diapers called FuzziBunz, I told my hubby about them and his first words were “NOOO way I will let you get those, I rather work two jobs and buy diapers then using cloth, are you out of your mind??” well I guess I kind of was, still not sure what I was doing but I was fascinated with the idea of saving money. I finally convinced him and we agreed on  buying 2 diapers.

I was excited and while I waited for those two to get in I came across bumGenius and I knew they were calling my name, so quietly I ordered 6 BumGenuise diapers without even telling my husband or anyone else in the family, they all thought by now I lost my mind and I got weird looks from everyone when I just mentioned cloth diapers.

So, here I’m with 2 orders of cloth diapers about to arrive. By now, I was excited to try them. I know, I’m a dork and crazy, who gets excited about diapers.

Well they got here and they did NOT leave my house till Baby Girl potty trained. We were hooked on the diapers; even my husband got hooked on the Bumgenuise diapers. We had one incidence where MIL was watching baby girl and we forgot the cloth diapers at home, MIL didn’t think of anything and went to Walgreens and bough a box of diapers ( not even on sale!!!) and as soon as Hubby found out he made her return the diapers to Walgreens and told her were the hid a key was for the house so she could come over and pick up OUR CLOTH diapers… He was raving and telling everyone about the cloth diapers and that this is the BEST thing ever… now enough about my background story, time to make your own picture in this  Cloth VS. Disposal Diaper saga.

VS.

Disposable:
Over a 2 ½ year life span you need about 5400 diapers on average (don’t count me to the tee, this is just a rough guestimate on 6 diapers a day for 2 ½ years) You will spend $ 1350.00 on diapers in 2 ½ years (that is for $.25 per diaper if you find a sale maybe a little less, maybe a little more.. again rough guestimate)

Cloth:
You can start with about 6 diapers, what I did and I washed them every day start up cost was about $110 for 6 diapers and then my favorite item a sprayer was about $40.00 so for $150 I was ready to go. I did go on 6 diapers for a few months till I had enough money saved up to get 6 more diapers and so on, in the end I had 24 diapers with a cost of roughly $ 490.00 for 24 diapers and the sprayer…

Once I had my stash of diapers up to 24 diapers, I washed about every 3 days and it didn’t take no time at all, the machine did it all for me. Once washed and I put them to dry in the dryer they were ready to go. The diapers all came clean in each wash and always looked like new. I know some people said to use Special diaper soap, I never did, I used Tide or All Free and Clear and never had a problem, one Bottle of Tide will last you about a 1 year or 1 ½ if not longer and that is the small bottle of Tide, you will use such a small amount ( 1 teaspoon per wash with 2 rinse cycles to follow the wash cycle), but it will come clean and won’t smell at all. If you are worried about the perfume in the Tide you can always use All free and clear and use very little amounts as well… never had a problem. None of my diapers ever leaked or had any smell problems at all.

Best part we spend roughly $450-$500 on our stash of cloth diapers, used them for 2 years and once we no longer needed the diapers I was able to sell all of them and made over $300 cash back !!!!!! So in the end we spend about $200 or less for 2 years worth of diapers. Not a bad deal at all is it…???

So you can spend $1350 on disposable diapers over 2 years or $200 … what would you do?? Also Cloth diapers can be used on more than one child if you plan on having more or already have little ones that are in diapers.

There are lot of different diapers out there, some are pre-fold, some are pocket diapers, some are size specific some are one size fits all. I used the One size fits all and they went from Newborn till potty train all in one set, it’s all up to your liking and how much time you have to invest. I was a work outside the home mom and needed it simple for Babysitters and grandparents so the One Size pocket diaper was my diaper of choice, but you may like a different one. Lots of options lots of great products out there and remember we tried the Fuzzi Bunz in the beginning??

I did not like them at all on my baby girl, other mommies LOVE them.. it really is a trial and error and once you find the one you like and works best for you, you are hooked. There is a forum where you can buy or swap diapers called Diaper Swappers, they have lots of Cloth diaper information, sales, trades and lots more if you want to find out more about cloth diapers. This is where I started and it was well worth the time to read up on stuff and invest a little upfront.

I know it may not be possible to bring up $150 right of the back, start saving a few $$ every month till you have enough, you still will save money even if you only use them for a year. The re-sale value is HUGE and they sell great.

Also with cloth diapers you never need any Diaper rash lotion, my baby girl only once had a rash while in the cloth diapers and she had it because I used too much soap, I changed soap and we had no problem after that. So you don’t have the expense of Diaper rash lotions on top of that.

Now you probably think, Cloth diapers must be HOT, actually they are not. We are in central Florida and it gets HOT and Humid here, and baby girls bottom was as dry as can be, not wet at all even after she wore the diaper for ½ day if needed, it all stayed nice and dry.

I heard children who use cloth diapers Potty train quicker. Not sure if this is true or not but my Baby girl potty trained in a day, yes I’m not making this up. She was not interested in the potty business at all, till one day, just a few month after her 2nd Birthday she came up said “I Big Girl I want to go Potty”, and that was it, no more diapers from then on, even at night she is dry. Did the cloth diapers help her with that, maybe, but I will say that I do believe they made a world of difference.

Now what do I need for cloth diapers:

• Pick your favorite Cloth Diaper ( Fuzzi Bunz, Bumgenuise, … )
• A Diaper Sprayer that will attach to your toilet so you can clean the diaper ( I know I know, but believe me it sounds worse than it is and with it being your little one it won’t bother you at all, it never did me, now if it was another kid maybe.. but not my own..this is a MUST have and a LIFE saver!!!!)
• A bucket whit a lid where you can keep the dirty diapers till you wash them, you can buy fancy diaper pails that will run about $20 and up, But why ?? Run to Wal-Mart or Target and get a cheap plastic container for like $5 with a  lid and you are good to go.
• A wet bag or a bag that is waterproof in case little one needs a diaper change while out so you can bring the diaper back home ( grocery bags work well, too..lol)

Where can I find Cloth Diapers or get info?
1. Diaper Swappers – Forum for anything you ever wanted to know about diapers
2. Cotton Babies
3. Google.com is a great option for cloth diaper search
4. Fuzzi Bunz
5. Diapers.com
6. Amazon.com 

I hope this post was a little informative about saving money with cloth, I did not try to sell any specific brand, I just used the brands in this post that I used, please keep in mind the diaper that worked for us may not work for you. Do you research before you invest in a set of diapers. Once you make the choice to go Cloth, I promise you will love every minute of it.. we sure did…. Enjoy your little ones …