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How much would you actually spend on sposies?

2K views 61 replies 46 participants last post by  new_mom_sd 
#1 ·
The figure of $2300 for birth-to-potty that I've seen quoted is based on buying brand-name diapers at store prices and changing as often as you should. Now, if you bought discount diapers in bulk and changed less often, how much would you actually spend?
: I feel sort of guilty using the money savings argument (even though you ARE saving money no matter what once you figure in reusing and reselling) when most people don't actually spend that much on disposables. Any ideas?
 
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#4 ·
I remember when we switched to cloth when dd was 16/17 months, I figured we had spent about $1000.00 on cloth - that was buying Pampers at Costco - so brand name, but cheaper than retail. Of course, she potty trained three months after the switch - so I didn't save a penny.

This time around I'll be cd'ing from birth - but have given up on the money saving argument thanks to this board and my inability to stop myself from hanging out on the TP

Jeanette
 
#5 ·
Well, w/ds#1, we spent about $1800 from birth to PT, this was buying in bulk, using coupons w/sales (so the cost would equal off brand cost) and includes wipes too. Towards the end, we started using off brands, since the coupons began running thin. Some were awful, some were great, and some were so-so. So, although I think the calculators are on the higher in sometimes, they are well within a realistic range imo.
 
#6 ·
When Nitara was at her worst and I had her in sposies for a month, I spent about $40. I didn't probably change as often as cloth but I didn't let them get all puffed out and full, either.
 
#7 ·
What are you asking again? Cloth *can* be cheaper, but it can easily go over. We estimated ds#1 from 3 wks to pl at 33 mos and w/creams and disp wipes, he was $3300. This was brand name, often NOT in bulk, and not on sale diapers (visualize many many middle of the night trips out just to buy one $13 bag of dipes that lasts ummm about half a week). We probably could have done better, but I wonder how much better. I've bought whatever I've wanted for 2 kids in cloth and still haven't quite hit $1000-that is for one from 5 mos thru pl (though he does still use night dipes and is 2 mos shy of 4 yrs old), and one in cloth from birth to present-now 13 mos old, and reselling along the way. You can literally do a stash from birth to pl for about $300 if you do all pf's, cheaper covers, used, recycled, 2nd's, handfull of splurge items, etc..

If you truly do not think cost is a factor, then go with the best option-ENVIRONMENTAL!!!!! It saves the earth, it ensures no funkies in the kids' crotch areas, it treads more gently on our home (planet earth), it follows the whole reduce/reuse/recycle ideology, it is just a good idea! How about cuteness? A cloth bum with phat detailing on the dipes and covers becomes fashion. How cool is that?! High fashion poo catchers!
Did I mention no weird chemicals?????? Bah. cloth will always be better to me, so maybe I'm not the mama to ask! Oh, and please tell anyone (from ME!!) that changing less often to save money is just plain gross, and I've got to think, unsanitary! They shouldn't do that to their kids (as per ME)!
 
#8 ·
We've just gone through this. In the last 2 months I have spent $120 on sposies. That's not changing at every pee, because that would mean 2 changes per hour. Not letting it get soaked either so about 2-3 hours. We have been going through a bulk pack plus a smaller pack to get us through till the end of the month. I am back in cloth part time and I'm only using pf's and airflows. Ds will most likely be in diapers until at least 2 1/2 because of his lack of bladder control, so we have 14 months at least. If I take the $120 I would spend on sposies over the next 2 months, I could get another dozen pf's plus half a dozen Sandy's for dh and 2 more covers. That would get us through the next 14 months, therefor I would be saving $720 if he potty learned at 2 1/2 yo. Even if you add in the washing and the little detergent needed. The pf's dry so fast that 1 cycle is usually enough.

I have learned (boy have I learned) that cd'ing is as expensive as you make it. If you HAVE to have the fancy diapers and covers, then you won't be saving much money over sposies. I have learned that ds does not need the fancy diapers and covers, and therefore it is cheaper to put him back in cloth. Pf's are just fine and the jelly roll is great. I'm pretty lucky in that ds is in regular pf's so they are very trim on him. He's just a tinkler though.
 
#9 ·
I actually kept track of the cost, in MS Money, for the first year of DS's life because I was curious about how much we'd spend.

He wore Pampers, but I was obsessive about coupons and sales. I'd have to dig out the Money archive from that year for the exact figure, but it was around $800. That includes dipes and wipes.
 
#10 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by phishmama
What are you asking again? Cloth *can* be cheaper, but it can easily go over. If you truly do not think cost is a factor, then go with the best option-ENVIRONMENTAL!!!!! It saves the earth, it ensures no funkies in the kids' crotch areas, it treads more gently on our home (planet earth), it follows the whole reduce/reuse/recycle ideology, it is just a good idea! Oh, and please tell anyone (from ME!!) that changing less often to save money is just plain gross, and I've got to think, unsanitary! They shouldn't do that to their kids (as per ME)!
Calm down, mama! You're preaching to the converted.
Of course, cost, environmental, sanitation, cuteness are ALL very valid and very good reasons to use cloth, and I am 100% convinced of all of them. I'm asking how much sposies would cost because I like to do cost comparisons and I want a fair, realistic reflection, not a high-end one. It sounds like $2300 may not be all that high end, though, from what some of you are saying.
 
#11 ·
I've caculated this idea so many times it makes my hair hurt to think about it, but you are saving $$, lots of it, no matter what kind of cheap-o disposable you use, if you only changed 5 times a day (yucko baby sitting in it's own waste!).

It's funny though, most people assume they only change baby 5 times a day, until they actually "count" and save the diapers in a special seperate trash bag for a full 24 hours.

Now can we count all the diapers that the tabs rip off of?

Can we count the ones that fell on the ground and got wet and are not useable?

What if baby has diarrhea(sp?)?

What about disposable wipes?

Do people even know how many wipes they go thru in a week, month or year?

What about the added increase on your trash bill? Many moms I've met have to add an additional trash can, or two more if they have twins!

What about diaper rash cream? I bought a total of ONE tube that I didn't even use all up in 2 1/2 yrs of diapering. Can other disposable users keep up with that??

Extra trips to the Doctor for really bad rashes cost money for co-pays, etc.

What about all those poopy blow outs????

Everyone wants to know if cloth diapers leak, but their are perfectly happy with the fact that disposables leak poop all over babies clothes all the time???

How many new outfits ruined due to stains from poopy disposable blow-outs do you count?

What about the washing of those poopy stains, detergent, stain remover???

Am I getting too in-depth?

Is this striking a chord with anyone?

These are real costs regardless of the fact that no one mentions them or adds them into the final cost of cloth versus disposie.

The final fact about disposies is that most children in disposies(your may be an exception) do NOT potty train at 2 years old, so those price estimates are bunk.

Many kids don't potty train until 3 1/2, 4 or even 5 years old is quite common. That just throws all of those estimates out the window. Adding another year or 3 to any of those estimates, and you're obviously winning. I havn't met any children in cloth who've not potty trained by 3 at the latest!

Plus those pull-ups and larger size diapers have less in ea package and are about .50 each.

If you use Tushies or any similar kind they are about .50 ea with a coupon or on sale.

What about the health costs to your child long term?

What about to the Environment?
 
#12 ·
Ds was in sposies until he was around 9 months old, and dd was in sposies for the first 6 weeks or so. I would be spending about $125 a month total on sposies and wipes for both of them. Over 3 years that would be $4500. I'm no where near that, and I'm not anywhere close to that in cloth. I'm probably only around $1500 total. I will need to buy mediums for Lauren when she gets bigger, since ds went right into larges at 9 months. Lauren will be able to wear his larges if she ever gets big enough before potty learning. I could spend $3000 more before breaking even with sposies, and that's not taking into consideration resale of the cloth.
 
#13 ·
I was going thru about 7-8 diapers a day in sposies. I bought name brand but *always* shopped sales and *always* used coupons. I was spending about $9-10 a week on diapers and about $5/month on wipes (again, on sale, didn't wipe with every pee and he only pooped once a day).

From birth to potty learning (assuming age 3), I would have spent about $1740 on dipes. I converted when ds was 9 months old so I'd spent about $450 on sposies at that point. Subtracting from my total, from conversion to potty learning would have *saved* about $1300 in sposie products. I've easily spent that on cloth.
:

HOWEVER, I still have them for child #2!! I've (mostly) curbed my buying addiction, and I'm already set on little sizes, so from now on, I'm diapering for free...even if I do decide to splurge once and a while, I'm still saving money.
 
#15 ·
If you're not an addict with CD (although it can be difficult), I think the best way to figure out IF you'll save money, and how much you CAN save, is to do your own budget. if you already know which cloth diapers you love/like, this is easier b/c at first you tend to buy stuff to figure out what you like, then later after you realize the system that works best for you, you could have saved money by buying more of them, instead of what you wasted on ones that now just sit in your drawer.

Anyway, my point is this: figure out which brand of disposables you would have bought. Count how many CDs you use in a day (subtract probably 2 b/c you just don't change disposables as often); then add up the costs. Just be sure to increase the cost/diaper as your DS/DD grows in the disposables. Most importantly, SET A BUDGET FOR DIAPERS. Don't let yourself overspend b/c that cover is SO cute, unless cost really isn't your only concern. Ask for dipes as gifts, learn to sew, or get patterns for friends/family members who sew.

In my experience, we didn't save anything the first year, will save b/t $300-$500 the second, and all that and more with #2. PLUS, once you know other CDing mamas, you can get hand-me-downs and share if your comfortable with that.

There's my two cents (saved by CDing, I might add)
 
#16 ·
I'm not advocating for sposies here, but I thought I'd address some of these, as DS was sposied for his entire diapering career, and DD has been cd'ed since birth. So obviously, I've switched to the cd bandwagon, so no need to convert me.


"Now can we count all the diapers that the tabs rip off of?"

This is true, and mighty annoying.

"Can we count the ones that fell on the ground and got wet and are not useable?"

Again, also true, and equally annoying. Also count among these the ones that got the sippy cup or whatnot spilled on them in the diaper bag.

"What about the added increase on your trash bill? Many moms I've met have to add an additional trash can, or two more if they have twins!"

We don't get charged directly for trash pickup, so ours didn't increase. But DH did get tired of bagging up the diaper trash and taking it out to the curb.

"What about diaper rash cream? I bought a total of ONE tube that I didn't even use all up in 2 1/2 yrs of diapering. Can other disposable users keep up with that??"

Yes. DS rarely if ever had rashes in his sposies, and no more so than DD in her cloth.

"Extra trips to the Doctor for really bad rashes cost money for co-pays, etc."

Never.

"What about all those poopy blow outs????"

This is true, and also mighty annoying. And it was a nice surprise to me when DD in her cloth never had a blowout. I thought it was a breastmilk poop thing, but it turns out it's a diaper thing. That's definitely been nice!

"How many new outfits ruined due to stains from poopy disposable blow-outs do you count?"

We had blowouts, but no outfits were "ruined". They just got put in the wash with everything else and came out clean.

"What about the washing of those poopy stains, detergent, stain remover???"

Never special-treated poop stains on clothes, so no increase there. And I had to put detergent in the washload anyway
so no increase there.

"These are real costs regardless of the fact that no one mentions them or adds them into the final cost of cloth versus disposie."

You bring up some good points. But along with hidden costs, what about:

- wear and tear on my washer and dryer
- increased detergent use to wash the dipes (plus any TTO or vinegar or baking soda or whatever you use)
- increased water usage
- increased energy for washer/dryer

Of course these costs are minimal, but so are many of the costs you bring up with sposies. My point is that there's hidden costs with everything. I didn't covert to cd for cost reasons (either obvious or hidden) but for environmental reasons, and I have no intention to switching back to sposies.
 
#17 ·
We used sposies on my son from birth to pl - a few months shy of three. At the beginning, I used expensive ones, with coupons, but then switched to using LUVs bought at Walmart. On average, I spent about $15 per week, let's say $60 per month. That averages out to about $2,000 plus extra for wipes.

We are planning on using cloth for this next one exclusively. I have a pretty good stash of 55 prefolds, 14 prowraps covers, 24 FBs with inserts, 6 snappis, 40+ cloth wipes, nice pail liners and totes, nice soap and oils for wipe solution, natural detergent, TTO, Lavender, etc. I did get some wipes and doublers and a few prefolds from a friend. Most of my friends who cloth think that what I have is WAY excessive and they laugh at me for it (they aren't on this board :LOL). My mother gave me a cash gift of $500 and I used that for the dipes and shopped the best price. I've probably spent another $100 of my own money in extras (i.e. California Baby Wash for the wipe solution, Bac-Out, containers for the changing table, etc.).

So, definately cheaper to cloth (especially because of Mom!). BUT, our water bill has gone up just getting the dipes ready to wear and I'll need to keep buying detergent but even with those things, it won't be $15 a week. And I know I'll be able to sell my FBs and re-coupe some of the money. Cloth is cheaper if you keep it that way.

And they are so much more fun to organize!
 
#18 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahbay
..
Many kids don't potty train until 3 1/2, 4 or even 5 years old is quite common. That just throws all of those estimates out the window. Adding another year or 3 to any of those estimates, and you're obviously winning. I havn't met any children in cloth who've not potty trained by 3 at the latest!..
My brothers were p/t very very late..one was not totally safe from wetting until 7 years old. and they were c/d.
They were a special case though - totally unaware of anything below the waist - could run around for hours with gigantic rocks in their shoes and not notice.
 
#19 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cedarmom
I was going thru about 7-8 diapers a day in sposies. I bought name brand but *always* shopped sales and *always* used coupons. From birth to potty learning (assuming age 3), I would have spent about $1740 on dipes.

Quote:
We used sposies on my son from birth to pl - a few months shy of three. At the beginning, I used expensive ones, with coupons, but then switched to using LUVs bought at Walmart. On average, I spent about $15 per week, let's say $60 per month. That averages out to about $2,000 plus extra for wipes.
Thank you, that's exactly the sort of figure I was looking for.

Quote:
if you already know which cloth diapers you love/like, this is easier b/c at first you tend to buy stuff to figure out what you like, then later after you realize the system that works best for you, you could have saved money by buying more of them, instead of what you wasted on ones that now just sit in your drawer.
You know, I think that's the single most difficult part of cloth diapering, money-wise. I'm frustrated that I'll be starting out with so much more diapering stuff than I need--I know there are worse problems, but I would so much rather be a minimalist and I'm actually looking forward to selling as much of it as I can get by with as soon as I figure out what I like and what I don't.
 
#21 ·
You have to add in disposable wipes, training pants after diapers, diaper rash cream, more trash bags. And if you have a lot of blowouts and leaks you are still washing just as much laundry as you would with cloth! Before we switched I was changing the bed sheets more than once a night and I was changing dd's diaper every 2 hours at night, didn't matter. They didn't fit her well and would leak when she lied down.

I've been able to keep my cloth cost wayyyyy under what I ever spent when we used sposies. I just stick with what I know and keep it small.
 
#22 ·
Well...I have 2 in diapers. Before our switch to cloth, we were spending $100/mth plus wipes. I still haven't switched to cloth wipes, but we are saving bunches.

My biggest thing is the convenience. We live over an hour from town....no more running out of diapers in the middle of the night!
 
#23 ·
I had figured awhile back that premium, no coupon diapers were 25 cents each and buying in bulk, with coupons was about 15 cents each...
So then I figured even with cheap disposables, I was spending at least $2 a day - with 30 days in the average month - $60 per month - 12 months in a year - a minimum of $720 on disposables. Now I had 2 in diapers up until February so I could double that and $1440 per year if I was diligent about getting things at the lowest cost - $2600 per year to diaper 2 buying premium... either case I have still saved money even with some hyena fluff. Of course it helps to have same sex siblings and start when they are both in mediums... plus I found a wonderful new hobby which IMO is priceless
 
#24 ·
I used Walmart brand
: and only changed 4 times a day unless she pooped
: . Anyway, we spent $50 Canadian/month on diapers ($40) and wipes ($10).

I switched my daughter at 13 mos to cd. My stash rocks and it cost about $500. I will either save it for my next babe or resell some of it.
 
#25 ·
I did costings when I was looking into whether it was (cost wise) worth getting AIOs for childcare when I went back to work (it did butI can;t remember the exact figures for that now).

Our current system of prefolds and riki wraps worked out at £200 and sposies for 2 years came out at £600 using store brand and bulk buying. That doesn't include wipes. Since we bought almost everything used I think we've spent about £60, DD is 11 months and shows no signs of growing out of anything any time soon.

In terms of hidden costs I end up doing two or three loads of nappies per week. Having used sposies for a weekend away a couple of weeks ago I went through three outfits in the first four changes due to leaks so I think I may still end up with as much washing with sposies
 
#26 ·
So I am ill and bored so I did a little pretend shopping at a online supermarket.

Store brand sposies, wipes and nappy bags for 2.5 years = £700 or $1237

Huggies brand sposies, wipes and nappy bags for 2.5 years = £900 or $1591

Nature babies eco sposies, wipes and bio nappy bags for 2.5 years = £1290 or $2284 (not the most eco sposies in the world but no gel etc)

Moltex Oko eco sposies, eco wipes and bio nappy bags for 2.5 years = £1920 or $3400

I think UK pricing for sposies isnt too different to the US/Canada and its for 6 changes per day. I did not include extra for broken tabs, diaper genies etc. Nor garbage collection. (as its included in your local tax here in the UK however much you pitch)

Cloth is much cheaper!

 
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