Fugal Mama Tips: Cloth Diapering

Having children can be expensive, or you can choose more frugal options. I wanted to do a series of posts, demonstrating a few ways we have found to save money, while raising our two kiddos. The first, and possibly biggest money saver has been cloth diapering.

Most estimates put the cost of using disposable diapers from birth to potty training at around $2900 per child (I'm sure this number could be A LOT lower depending on the brand of diaper used) I estimate our costs for cloth diapering to be around $1000, for TWO children. Saving us approximately $4800!

 To break that down, $300 for the actual diapers (that includes around 36 diapers and extra absorbent liners for overnight) $600 for laundering the diapers (assuming each child is in diapers for 3 years) and another $100 for a wet bag (to contain the diapers while out of the house) a diaper pail, and cloth wipes. We do buy disposable diapers occasionally for use on longer periods of time away from home, or if I just plain old forgot to wash the diapers before we ran out! We also used disposable wipes for a long time, only recently really switching to cloth.

The diapers we use are around $6.00 a diaper. I like Kawaii, Comfy Rumps, and Alva. All of these more affordable brands have stood the test of time, and could easily be used to diaper more than one child. This is where you can either save money, or actually spend substantially more than disposables if you choose a more expensive brand of diapers. Some popular brands are around $20-$25 per diaper. I do have a couple of these, and they really don't preform any better than a much cheaper option.

Comfy Rumps

Kawaii

Boosters/inserts/liners are essential for overnight cloth diapering. I prefer hemp, it is very trim and ultra absorbent. We like AMP Hemp Boosters. We use 2 at night, as both of our kiddos sleep for 12 hours.

We use a plain old white waste bin, with a locking top, for storing the dirty diapers.

Our wipes are homemade. I cut an old receiving blankets into squares, and sewed the edges to prevent fraying. These were basically free. I just place them in an empty wipes container, with a little water.

Lastly, our wet bag, is by Bummis. We use a small one for traveling away from home.

As for washing the diapers? It's simple, every 3 days, i run them through a cold rinse, then a hot/warm cycle with soap (not all laundry soaps are created equal, for a list of cloth friendly laundry soaps check this out) I personally use Sunlight powder, and have had no build up or smell issues.. Diapers need lots of water to get clean, so the load size should be set on Max. 

Any tips or questions about cloth diapering? Let me know!