Anyone here uses a washboard????

You could, but you'd have to be really careful that you used really hot water and not too much soap and really rinsed them well to avoid buildup.

Babyworks has a great piece in their catalog about the cost of washing. You can download the catalog here and read it: www.babyworks.com. The cost of washing is negligable compared to disposables.

I used my dh's grandmothers when we went camping (I used cloth), and I found it quit effective (all with cold water). I made sure the diapers went right into a wet pail (well, I had a small tub) as soon as I took it off the baby, for them to soak. Then I washed the diapers every evening after dinner (I dumped the dirty water out and put in fresh) with the washboard and a small amount of dish detergent. Then I dumped that water out and let them soak in clean water (after another good scrub-no soap this time) until bedtime. Then I dumped that water out and let them soak over night in more clean water with vinegar. In the morning, I rung them out and line dried them. It was kind of fun doing it for only a week- but my hands weren't used to the manual labor and were red and dry. If you have flats, this would be the best option. I was working with prefolds and quick-dry AIOs.

I think you'd be hard pressed to spend as much on a load of washing as a pack of sposies.

A service costs just as much as sposies. drying in a dryer is also quite expensive, but the actual washing is a negligible cost.

I'd be more concerned over the cost in time of washing them all by hand all the time.

Using the washing machine to wash them and line drying them (even if you have to do it inside) is very cheap compared to disposable diapers. Flats would be a great option for quick drying on the line or in the dryer and they are easy to get clean.