Justin's Mom bought us 3 boxes of 156 count diapers and is shipping them to us now! Holy smokes! That is a ton of diapers. Plus last month Katie from Mack And Jack told me about this CRAZY sale Amazon was having and I got 204 diapers for $13. So it looks like we are set on the disposables. Fine by me. I did the math and since Inara is older, we use the Target brand diaper (super cheap/good), and it seems we don't change her as much as other people change their babies- we actually wouldn't be saving a HUGE amount of money. I figured we would spend about $400 dollars to diaper her until she is 2. Since she is likely to be a small baby, we can spend even less on diapers. So since we will soon have disposables coming out our ears the amount of money we would save goes down from about $300 to about $100. Plus since Justin and I will likely not have any more babies (unless we adopt some day- and who knows what age we will get), it doesn't seem worth the work to us. But for all of you out there who were/are wondering about Cloth Diapering (CD) I will post the info I found for you. And I will also answer my own questions I posted a few days ago...so warning the rest of this post is about CD and probably pretty long...all you experienced cloth diaperers feel free to correct any wrong info I post.
- There are 3 different different types of CD. Prefold, Pocket, All-in-one (AIO)
- Prefold- These are the cheapest way to CD, but also the most work to clean and apply. Green Mountain Diapers seems to be the most recommended site to purchase this type. They have pictures there too, so I'll let them do the work of explaining how to use this type. With this type of CD you must buy different size diapers as the baby gets older.
- I wasn't interested in this type at all. I have many different people that watch Inara during a week, and it is kind of a lot of work to ask others to do. Also they to not have the "One Size" (OS) diaper that I wanted/needed for Inara. The OS diaper does what is says...it is one size that fits all poundage.
- Econobum I only found 1 brand I was interested in because it was kind of a starter pack. $50 for 3 covers and 12 prefolds seemed VERY reasonable. Katie from Mack and Jack said the covers were pretty cheap, so I guess you get what you pay for. But cheap nonetheless to enough to at least try it out. This one the ONLY one I found for prefolds that was OS so that's why I was semi-interested.
- Pocket- These seem to be the middle of the road. More expensive than the prefold, but less than the AIO. Also easier to clean/use than the prefold, but more work than the AIO. Basically there is a "pocket" in the inside of the diaper for you to put the "inserts" in. With this kind you can buy the OS or individual size. I was only interested in the OS, so here is what I found about some of the brands I looked at (there are probably like 100 brands...no joke).
- Smartipants- Here you could spend about $200 and get 12 covers, 22 inserts and a free "wet bag" to put your soiled diapers in. For us this would last 2 days, so we would need to do laundry every 2 days. It seems most people say you need between 18-24 diapers for 2 days, but we use about 5/day so this would last us 2 days.
- Flip- Here you could spend about $110 and get 4 covers with 18 inserts. This was my favorite of the diapers and it seems a lot of people out there like these too. And I'll tell you why. With all other covers, you need to wash after each use, however with the flip that is not the case! You simply take out the insert and put in a new one. You can wipe down the covers in between laundry days. That is how it is advertised and that is the general consensus too. So for $110 dollars we could get diapers and only have to wash about every 3 days. So essentially more bang for your buck.
- AIO- These are the most expensive and the easiest. It is the CD that is most like disposables because there is no work, simply take off and put on a new one. But because of the ease, it is the most expensive
- BumGenius 4.0- This definitely seems to be the most popular brand for AIO. And one of the cheapest too. Here you get 1 AIO diaper for $18. The one down side to this type (AIO), is that most people said it has a very long dry time, since the absorbency is in the inside of the diaper. So for us we would have to spend $105 for 6 diapers, so that would mean laundry every day...boo!
- Other things to keep into consideration
- Laundry detergent- This site has all the commercial ones broken down for you so you can see if the detergent you already use is good for CD. But also here are some other types of detergent.
- Diaper Pail- You will need a can to put in your dirty diapers and a waterproof liner. Some people say they just get a small plastic can, and a waterproof bag at Dicks Sporting goods for under $10. I didn't check on that but here are some different types you can buy. The Cotton Babies website isn't the only place to find and buy stuff, but its the easiest to look around at. God here for diaper pail/wet bag stuff.
- Sales- I was told my multiple people that you should never pay for shipping or never pay full price for CD online because there are always sales. While I didn't see any sales, once again Katie from Mack and Jack, had some coupon codes for me. One code was for a free AIO diaper (pretty good code!), the other was for 15% off your order.
- Buying used- I know sounds gross huh? But it seems lots of people buy and sell used and it seems acceptable...who know :) You can go here to "swap" diapers. The site is not super newbie friendly and I couldn't find ANY used Flip diapers either. I also didn't look super hard.
- Childcare- Most people still use some disposables. It is really up to you. My BFF and Dad watch Inara when I work 2 days a week, my parents watch her when we go to Small Group, she is in the Nursery and my church, and I will be starting a Ladies Bible Study at church where childcare is provided there. Granted, its not 40 hrs a week in childcare, but can I really ask all those people to CD? Its up to you...and them.
- Night-time- I found a lot of people saying they haven't found a really awesome CD for the night time, so they still use disposables then.
"There's more! If you find the diapers we sell at a lower price, we'll match the lowest price. It's our way of rewarding you for being a good steward of your money!"
Sounds pretty good to me! Good luck with your choice!
Oh yeah here are my answers to my own questions:
1. What brand cloth diapers do you use, and why did you pick that brand?
Flip- cheapest and easiest
2. What were your start up costs and what did that give you?
$110- 4 covers with 18 inserts
3. How many diapers do you have?
See above
4. How often do you do laundry?
about ever 3 days
5. Has there been any costs in up keep?
Most people said no except detergent
6. Why do you cloth diaper?
I felt bad taking out diaper trash 3 days/week
7. What is your estimated savings by cloth diapering
$ 300
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