How much do you save by CD-ing?

[MuslimMama]

Is it *really* a savings? I mean, once you calculate washer/ dryer. I line dry in the summer, but obviously cant do that in the winter or when its raining. So I am wondering if we actually save money at all.

[Vancouver Mommy]

I've thought about this a lot, but I have no idea how much disposable diapers cost (we don't buy them very often), so it's hard to make accurate calculations. We do about 2 loads a week and I don't know what that costs either. All I'm really sure of is that approximately $450-500 worth of cloth diapers have done two kids start to finish (works out to about $10/month or less).

[EdnaMarie]

Depends how much utilities cost, but I know for sure that a package of Huggies that costs around $10 (at a minimum) has, on average because they change them as the diapers get bigger, only 35 diapers. That would last me three days tops if I did disposables and my kid did not poop often. So that's an absolute minimum of $25/week, or $100/month.

Considering the fact that we spend around $250 on utilities ALL TOLD (including phone and cable, Internet, water, sewage, garbage, electricity), and diapers only make up about 1/3 of my washing, possibly 1/2 if you count the double rinse, and that washing is only part of my water usage, I'm thinking we save, for sure.

Hah, I bet I was right- from a random site:

If you plan to use disposable diapers, plan on spending between $1,600-$2,300 by the time your baby is potty-trained. Expect your baby to go through at least 7-8 diapers a day on average and spending $80-$130 a month on diapers alone (especially in the first few months, when changes are more frequent.) Cloth diapering can be just as expensive as disposables if you use a diaper service. If you launder them yourself, you can save money. It is estimated that cloth diapering cost approximately $800-$1,100 by the time your baby is potty-trained (without the diaper service.)

I think the author assumes potty training by two, which we know is NOT the case for many, many children in disposable diapers. Because if you go all the way to three, that's 36 months at $100/month, or $3,600.

We have a whole set of diapers with covers up to medium for $350. We EC but let's take for the sake of argument the average child that is wearing diapers until three, to compare with the 'sposies. I'm guessing laundring costs about $50 / month. That's $1,800, plus $350 for a set of one-size diapers from Motherease, with covers. Add in another $50 for more covers later on. That's $2,200.

[octobermom]

I'm in many ways starting from scratch with CDs so I wont consider the fact I could have used my old diaper for my upcomming baby (7 year gap I eventually sold off pretty much everything.. I figure that with diapers accessories ect I'll spend around $500 or CD to diaper from birth to potty not counting any resale. I never noticed any increase in our water or electricity when I CDed VS when we stopped so that for us at least isn't even enough to notice. I do know we spent a TON on disposable diapers with my DD in jsut the first few months because she was so small we had to use preemie disposables which are small packs and we were averaging at least 15 a day. I think a pack ran like $8 but only 30 to a package we needed like 4 packs per week not counting wipes and we did this for a month before going to actual NB sized If I remember right we figured we used over $250 worth of sposies before we finially made our first real CD buy around 3 months after that I think we would have averaged around $40 a month for diapers and wipes averaging around 8 changes a day and around $9 a package.. Lets say $600 for the first year and $400 per year for second and third just to be fair and more consertive... (coupons gifts ect) I was then ohh so blessed to have a child born with some sensory processing delays which severly delayed PT of any kind something as much as I love CD hope wont be repeated so I got to add in another 1.5 years of CD but honestly I did go through fewer diapers maybe 5 a day as a consertive average so lets say $22 a month (I'm always giving an averge 60 pack count) so well say $400 for the next 1.5 years....
So I figure if I'd done sposies for the 4.5 years we diapered I would have spent at least $1800 I think thats an honest consertive fair amount.. Assuming this time I have a child who PT say by 3 years then I can knock $400 at least off that so more like $1400..
So yes I beleive CD will allow me some saving of course I could go crazy buying cute diaper fluff and that saving would quickly disapear.. I could stumble across some generic brand of sposies that allows me to have 120 diapers for like $4 and might find thats eccomically kinder but thats not likely at least not here I've serced high and low and $9 is really the cheepest I've seen anything including Walmart/target ect.. Wil I save enough to provide my childs future college or pay for a new car umm no. but yes I do believe I will save.
BTW my stash will does include mostly prefolds/flats and wraps along with some AIOs. accessories include diaper sprayer wipes a few wet bags 2 pail liners and some cloth friendly cream. and a big box of detergent bought about every 4 months.

Deanna

[momoftworedheads]

We do pf's and covers - your figure that is pretty cheap! Even if you get a wool cover or two, it is way cheaper than sposies.

We would spend 30.00+ a week if we needed sposies. It does not cost that for the water/electric to wash and dry diapers. I would say that we have saved $1500 a year using cloth (so that's $4500 in 3 years). We've used our CD's for three children and this time we bought some smaller PF's in the beginning, and that was only $15.00 and we can use them for a long time.

I'll try to figure out how much it costs to wash cloth but I still think you are not spending $12.00/load to wash diapers, multiple times a week. One pack of diapers would be $12.00 and you need like 3 a week.

Take care!

[lifeguard]

I've never figured out my water & electricity (& really the way we are billed here for electrical is almost pointless to try to reduce 'cause most of the bill is "base charges"). But we have a garbage restriction & a few weeks ago when my washer was broken & we did disposables exclusively for a couple weeks I had to buy extra garbage tags & that would cost me $65 for the year if I wasn't using cloth! My whole stash cost me under $150 so in 2 years just the extra garbage tags alone would just about come to my total cloth diaper cost.

[leavemealone]

I really don't know how much is saved by using cloth. I haven't noticed a big jump in utilities since starting cloth. I've noticed our water bill has gone up maybe $5 every two months. The initial outlay is of course greater with cloth. I can get name brand diapers on sale with a couplon for about $7 (about $10 regular price) store brand regular price about the same (store brand on sale is cheaper, but there aren't many coupons). Those containers last about a week (maybe a little less). There is almost always one brand on sale and my kids can wear most any brand with no problems so brand is not an issue for us. I have sometimes thought: the price of a cloth diaper = how many packages of disposables, but haven't ever sat down and figured it out.

[EdnaMarie]

If you do pre-folds, and we did before, then one cloth diaper is the price of five to ten newborn disposables! If you use one-size fitted diapers, not organic cotton, then one is the price of a pack.

But of course, this is the NOW cost. The total cost our children and their children will pay because of pollution, over-use of petroleum, etc. is much larger and is never calculated.

[carmel23]

here is a cost calculator from Diaper Pin.com :

http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp

Just plug your info in there, and you will see how long it takes to make your money back on your investment in diapers, and then how much you will save.



Pretty cool!

[DevaMajka]

I think consumer reports says that "the most inefficient washer and dryer system costs approximately $0.78 per load and more efficient modern models cost approximately $0.44 per load." That's from the FuzziBunz site, but I found that on a site unrelated to cd'ing (I think). I can't find it again.
If you wash every other day, that's about $100-$150 a year.

CR also says sposies cost $1500-$2500 for one child (quoted here)

Honestly, when laundry cost is added in, I've about broken even (with the low end of the estimate) But I'll admit that I'm obsessed with finding the perfect diaper. Now that I've found it, I'm pretty much done shopping. So I won't spend more than sposies would cost.

But I think it's really easy to spend less with cloth, especially if you're not super picky and keep buying more until you've found the perfect diaper. lol

[Ifluffedthree]

I don't remember the specifics this late in the game but I remember calculating out my costs.
I received several dozen prefolds as shower gifts for my first child and again 10 years later for my second, which went onto the third.

I totaled my savings out to a little more than $3,000.00 for all my children combined.

That was almost one year of her tuition. Investment in my child----------not the CEO of Proctor and Gambles pocket.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by Ifluffedthree

That was almost one year of her tuition. Investment in my child----------not the CEO of Proctor and Gambles pocket.

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by Ifluffedthree

That was almost one year of her tuition. Investment in my child----------not the CEO of Proctor and Gambles pocket.

Good point.
I don't know that I've saved much (if any) but I keep thinking that I'd rather give money to a WAHM or other small business owner than big companies like P&G (that likely conduct animal testing, too).

[seraf]

I spent $50 on cloth diapering my first and then $10 on my second. I used hand-me-downs and towels, fleece and flannel from the thrift store to build my stash. The cheapest disposable dipes I've seen are 15 cents each (I've been curious recently) so, to break even with sposies, my first would have had to be out of diapers by 6 weeks and my second around 8 days. The cost of laundry and electric? I used to get $12 electric bills. My water bill never went above $30 a month when I had babies in diapers, but now that I have 2 who flush, it's $40.....

Seraf

[octobermom]

Originally Posted by seraf

I spent $50 on cloth diapering my first and then $10 on my second. I used hand-me-downs and towels, fleece and flannel from the thrift store to build my stash. The cheapest disposable dipes I've seen are 15 cents each (I've been curious recently) so, to break even with sposies, my first would have had to be out of diapers by 6 weeks and my second around 8 days. The cost of laundry and electric? I used to get $12 electric bills. My water bill never went above $30 a month when I had babies in diapers, but now that I have 2 who flush, it's $40.....

Seraf

I want to live where you are. Our electric bill is flat rated at $189 a month we never bother using heat during winter but AC during summer spring is a must. Its been that high since we first came here CD or not it hasnt changed. Our water bill is around $200 and we are billed every other month also the same before and after DD was cloth diapered.
But we get a $6 electricity discount cause of our income rate ()

Deanna

[lovebug]

thanks ladies!

[bbrandonsmom]

I used cloth from the start as well, since we wanted to and both boys are allergic to sposies, so...I used prefolds to start, then got fuzzibunz on discount from another mdc momma, so saved quite a bit in purchase cost. For ds2 I needed new fb, but couldn't find any and bought another pocket which wore out pretty soon. I watched my water and elec and noticed no real change in it. About 6 months ago I had to toss the pockets that just weren't working any longer and didn't replace them. I started to use pull ups on ds2-which he's still allergic to, but not as bad as reg dipes, and it's a lot of $. $10 for 24 and that doesn't last too long. I had to buy both day and night, so they last a little longer, so that's $20 for both at 48 dipes total. He usually wears underwear during the day mostly, but before he was I was spending about $60-$80 month in sposies. I can't imagine how much it would cost for sposies for a baby who uses way more dipes.
I should have just bought him something cloth for trainers, but with so much going on I didn't research for one.