Comments on: The True Cost of Cloth Diapers and How Much You’ll Save

By: Maureen Armendariz

Maureen Armendariz — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 15:13:19 +0000

Your cloth estimates are really high! I bought 48 prefolds in 2 sizes for $48 by shopping “seconds” sales. Prefolds are super easy to wash and very absorbent. You can double them when needed, eliminating the need for “doublers” or inserts. Then I made wool covers and bought some PUL covers on sale. All this cost a little over $100. You can buy extras, but you don’t NEED them. Wet bags? Try a plastic grocery bag or another plastic bag already destined for the landfill. Wipes can be made for free from old t-shirts. Cloth diaper safe detergents are sort of a myth. You can use Tide or the off-brand at Walmart. Check out Fluff Love University for tips on laundering. My personal estimates for how I use disposables and cloth make for about $1800 per child for disposables, including wipes, or under $200 per child for cloth. My husband has tracked it, and our utility and water bills do not go up during months when we use cloth. It is only 1 extra load of laundry every 3 days for us.

By: Abigail Moore

Abigail Moore — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 22:42:01 +0000

These are very high estimates. If you do covers and inserts (not pockets), and not buy 42 (that seems excessive) you could easily do this for $100 plus laundry. I just helped my friend by basically everything she needs for about $100, birth to potty training minus replacements. She has currently has about 20 inserts and 13 covers (that can be used for more than 1 change before washing).

When I diapered, I spent about $500 on my whole stash only because I had no one to explain to me what I really did or did not need. I know I could have done it all less than $200.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Thu, 03 May 2018 13:44:54 +0000

With couponing it cost me a little over $200 to use disposables through to potty training. If someone really wants to save money on diapering they should join a couponing group on Facebook. I was thinking about switching once my stockpile runs out for my youngest but seeing the cost has changed my mind.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 00:31:54 +0000

This was a very helpful article for me. I rent and my building charges $3.50 per wash (dryer is another $3.50) so it looks like it will actually be more cost-effective to buy disposable diapers. This probably isn’t the desired effect of the post, and if I had a washer I would totally do this, but I’m starting to learn having a baby while renting is going to require a lot of compromises. It’s just really too bad it comes at such a high environmental cost.