how to afford cd

[suddenlyamama]

Hi there,
we really want to cloth diaper but are unsure of how to afford it in the beginning. We clearly understand all of the good stuff about CD but we pretty much live pay check to pay check. Our little one is due in 2 weeks. Any suggestions?

[treeoflife3]

well my suggestion was going to be buy a bit each pay check throughout the pregnancy... but two weeks doesn't allow for that!

I'd probably search for some used prefolds since they'd be the cheapest and find a free fleece cover pattern and make my own fleece covers... you can usually get some pretty cheap fleece on sale/clearance at fabric stores. You really only need the first size for now anyway and can slowly work on your stash from there as baby grows (so that a bit each paycheck idea.) 12-24 small prefolds to start out should cover you for a bit I'd think. 12 would be really tight and make laundry hard, but i'm sure you could do it if necessary.

[junipervt]

you can also use recieving blankets (most people have a ton of these) as diapers. just fold like you would a flat. you could ask on your local freecycle for extra recieving blankets. I'm sure you would end up w/ a bunch. if you don't sew there are covers called prowraps that are pretty cheap, but still work well. http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_...roducts_id=284 or dappi nylon pull on covers http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_...products_id=97

then you would just need a snappi
http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_...roducts_id=100
or pins (I found an 8pk of pins at my local $1 store)
http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_...oducts_id=1276

or you could even use old t shirts as diapers
http://www.cloth-diapers-made-easy.c...rt-diaper.html


you could start out w/ enough cheaper/free stuff to get by. then buy other things here & there as you have the extra $. If you use disposables it will cost you even more.

[jeminijad]

The $10 a week that you would spend on sposies can just be spent on one or two diapering items instead... to get something to put your baby in at birth, if you can scrape up $50, you can get prefolds and proraps.

[littlemizflava]

flat diapers or even receiving blankets can be folded in to a cover and work well with newborns. they wash easy dry fast and cheap so you can buy more for less money. maybe a website like kijiji or craigslist you can find things there for cheap or free. this would give you a chance to save up to buy prefolds or used diapers for when the baby needs the next size up.
do you sew at all? do you have things lying around? you can used many different types of fabrics to make dipers with. bet u could even fold a hand towel into a cover and make that work. i actually have diapers made from towels.

[treeoflife3]

yeah, if you sew... you could easily get some super cheap big tshirts from a thrift store along with wash cloths/towels and sew them together to make something you can lay in wrap style covers... that'll definitely give you time til you can buy more of something you actually want (unless you are perfectly happy with this )

[cristeen]

How are you going to pay for sposies? Spend that money on the cloth. For now, use some of that myriad of receiving blankets you probably got as flats. If g'ma or g'pa is willing to get you started, $50 should do it... then save what you would have spent on sposies for 2 weeks, and place an order. Do that every 2 weeks and you should be good in short order.

[Ambystoma]

Hand towels! I bought a pack of cheap hand towels for $5 and used them for a couple of days when I was about to travel and had all my cloth packed in suitcases. He didn't mind one bit.

If you sew, I also made my own newborn fitted diapers-I did buy some cute fabric scraps (but I also used T-shirts). My total expense for the 12 fitted diapers, 5 fleece covers, 12 doublers, and 20 wipes (fleece and terry cloth) was maybe $30. If I had used only old t-shirts and just bought fleece for the covers it would have been closer to $20.

You can also crochet/knit wool covers for pretty cheap. I bought a huge lionbrand fisherman's wool yarn ball for $5 and it made 3 newborn/small covers and a hat. I'd be happy to send you crochet patterns--I've tried out about 5 different kinds of patterns, including 2 types of longies.

[Bokonon]

Definitely check Craigslist. I once got a HUGE lot of fitteds, contours, and covers, several sizes of each, for $35. I couldn't use the small ones because DD was already too big, so I passed them on to a friend of a friend with a newborn, and the remainder was still a great deal for $35!

I know it seems expensive at first when you see $20 AIOs or pocket diapers, but it is possible to cloth diaper for far, far less than disposables cost.

[Sharlla]

i got 2 + years worth of dipes for around $200. check out the used diaper sites
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[Sharlla]

ECing will also save on dipes and is fairly easy to do
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[lunita1]

Originally Posted by suddenlyamama

Hi there,
we really want to cloth diaper but are unsure of how to afford it in the beginning. We clearly understand all of the good stuff about CD but we pretty much live pay check to pay check. Our little one is due in 2 weeks. Any suggestions?

Sposies cost at least $40-50/month. For about that (including shipping) you can buy 2 dozen infant prefolds (seconds from little lions), 2 snappis and 4 dappi nylon pants. That'll get you started, for the first two or three months. You'll be washing very often, and you'd be better off with 6 covers and 3 dozen diapers, but that amount is doable. Buy more as you can.

[littlemizflava]

also for wipes you can use cheap regular facecloths or baby facecloths. i know around here you can get 4 baby washcloths for a dollar at the dollarstore

[gina8177]

You can also purchase "seconds" of some diaper brands. I have some of these, it usually means they have a defect like wrong color thread, an extra snap, etc.

http://fuzzibunzseconds.net/store/Default.asp
http://shop.dapadiapers.com/

[Ola_]

I agree to check craigslist and even freecycle may have diapers available sometimes. Not sure if there are any thrift stores in your area but some mamas have found diapers there also because others didn't know what they were or didn't want to CD. Some diaper selling websites (like diaperswappers and maybe even here?) have a FFS section (free for shipping) which may get you a few things.

And as someone already suggested second quality prefolds are a great idea - Little Lions ones are very good quality (many people have said they can't tell what makes them seconds). They also have ones that need some sewing repair for even less. Add in a few prorap covers or make your own from recycled fleece or wool (thrift stores are good places to get the materials if you don't have them).
http://www.little-lions.com/page50.html

[mountainfeather]

I use Econobums and love them. You can get two sets of Econobums for $100 from cottonbabies. The Econobum is a prefold with a cover that grows as your baby grows, so you can essentially keep your baby diapered from newborn to potty training for $100. Compare that to disposables! I just bought two snappis for anchoring the prefolds and have been very happy.

Gerber makes cheapo baby washclothes that cost very little for a pack of eight. Those make great wipes. But wipes are easy to make from any soft cloth, too.

I also second the person who mentioned buying some prefolds and Dappis. I don't love Dappis as covers, but they do work and they are cheap.

[november]

Honestly, this wasn't something I even thought too much about. Granted, we don't live paycheck to paycheck, but we had to use SOMETHING, you know? If I were really strapped for cash and had a baby on the way, I'd just buy one or two a paycheck until I had enough for a decent stash. Sure, the start up is a little steep sometimes but it saves you tremendously in the long run, even if you use an exensive system like AIOs/fitteds. The Flip system has great reviews and it would be a relatively cheap option if you would rather buy brand new. You could buy 4 day kits for $200 and that would give you 8 covers and 24 inserts. You'd be doing laundry every day, of course, but it would be doable. Flats/prefolds would be your cheapest option. A friend of mine told me Cotton Babies has a sale on some really cheap prefolds right now, I think she said they were $1/each?

[Ambystoma]

Originally Posted by olien

I'd be interested in these patterns also if you dont mind.

Sure thing. Just PM me your email and I'll send it (it's a word doc). Or tell me how to PM an attachment--can't figure that out.

[terese17]

22$ for 12 diapers

I found this when I was looking for cheap options http://www.clothdiaperfoundation.org/ They have you fill out an application, It is an income based thing, but there are different "price packages" The 22$ for 12$ diapers being the one I was going to use. You use the diapers for as long as you need them, can exchange them for a bigger size, and then send them back when you are done. I think it is an amazing program. I would at least check out the website. I think they also have a facebook group as well.

[SilverFish]

we started with 12 prefolds and 3 covers in newborn sizes. we washed every single day, but you do so much laundry with a newborn that it didn't seem like that big a deal (we aren't living paycheck to paycheck, but i certainly didn't want to waste money on something i wasn't sure about). we just did all the diapers (poops and all) with all the other laundry to make a full load. once i was sure i wanted to keep going with prefolds, i ordered 18 larger prefolds, bought some second hand covers, and then later added to my stash with 2 dozen prefolds from a lady on craigslist. we've spent maybe $200 over 4 months, and that's including some nicer new covers in pretty prints.