I totally forgot to talk finances when discussing our decision to cloth diaper. Its cheaper. I haven't done the math but its pretty obvious that as long as you don't get carried away buying lots of cute diapers, you will come out ahead in the money department. (Plenty of people have done the math like The Simple Dollar.)
For us, it was more than just the diapers versus water and detergent. We actually just canceled our trash service. We had already gotten our trash down to 2 bags per week due to increased recycling. Now that we are only throwing away 1 or 2 diapers a day compared to 6 or 7, our trash is way down. Since the dump is at the same place as the recycling center, we figured we could take one or two bags a week and not pay the trash people $4 a week to haul away 1-2 bags of trash. Maybe this is just in my head but I find I'm using less wipes since less mess seems to be on her booty and more on the diaper. But I could just be imagining things.
9 comments:
Less wipes until the solid stuff comes!! :) That's actually our worst problem now...but still a good alternative to having a bunch of stinky diapers in our trash cans which are in the house. Anyway - we can't flush the wipes, so the stinky wipes go in the trash and smell up the bathroom! Oh well. Like I said, beats the alternative!
Hey Kelley, I think some cloth diaperers actually use cloth wipes as well to cut down even more on the waste. You could buy a pack of cheap washcloths and toss them in the wash along with the diapers. I don't have kids so I've never tried it myself, but I've heard it works for others :)
I don't think I've left a comment on your blog before. How random is it that my 1st comment is about cloth diapers? :)
so is the financial stuff the main reason this is working for you, or are there other things you're liking about it as well?
you have me intrigued.
(and I hate to admit that.)
but you're not one of those cloth diaper nazis (seems like many of the moms I know who cloth diaper are on a mission to convert everyone else too), which makes me look more favorably on the idea. (my mom did it too, but old-school style.)
I think I would get carried away and buy tons of cute diapers though. :)
Kelley...
I use cloth wipes. I bought them off of cottonbabies.com, they were something like 5 bucks for 25 wipes.
Anyway, I make my own wipe solution too... I put one drop each of tea tree oil, chammomile oil and lavender oil into 1 c distilled water. I put it in a spray bottle (99c @ target) and just spray it on the wipe and clean off E that way. Then I just throw the wipes in my can with his diapers and wash every 5 days or so. Not sure if you've investigated proraps but they are much cheaper and just as good. You could buy 2 times the diapers for what you pay for bumgenius and they aren't as bulky.
ps. I got the wipe solution online... it's supposed to be really good and it lasts a long time. You could also alternatively put all your cloth wipes in a wipe warmer and double the solution and pour it in your wipe warmer.
Ironically, I was walking through my house this morning thinking, "I wonder how long till I try cloth wipes." And now that I have someone who does it and the recipe, I think I'm going to have to.
Megan- very random comment from you. Took me a second to make sure I was thinking of the right Megan when I read it.
I think finances might have been a hook for me but we haven't even really felt the financial impact yet-its just been 3 weeks. It just fits with us. I've been becoming more conscious of the trash that I throw out and are trying to replace disposable things with non-disposables in other areas so it just fits that we'd use cloth. Plus they are so soft I think they would feel nice to sit on all day long.
Kim- I did look at prorap but I wanted to try a one size diaper and see if that worked. Even though they are more expensive up front, it seemed like it would be less expensive to only buy one size than some in every size. Plus I wanted colors so that with girls I can use them as diapers/ bloomers. I love that! I only saw Prorap in white- do they come in other colors? Do you use the AIOs?
I'd say less wipes too :) You can buy the cloth wipes - we haven't done that yet...
BUT for us, but when we first started using cloth diapers, we were using about 8 disposables a day... and in South Asia, a week paid for one Bum Genius!!!
Did you see that BumGenius has new colors!!!!!!!!????
check out Cottonbabies!
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