First off, here's our story.
We knew from the beginning since before we got pregnant that we were going to do things in a certain way in order to allow myself to be a stay-at-home mother. The opportunity for me to stay home with Ezykiel was and is extremely high on our priority list. Simply speaking I am able to stay home with my son because we cloth diaper, breast feed and don't have to pay for child care since I raise my own child. Here's a number crunch on cloth diapering and how much we save. I'll do a number crunch on breast feeding/formula next as well as a short crunch on child care cost.
*Disclaimer: These are averages that we used, we know that disposables come in different sizes and quantities. Also, these are Hawaii prices.
Disposables math:
A newborn goes through an average of 12 diapers a day and just for the sake of the math i'm going to crunch here, we're going to estimate high and assume that a baby goes through 12 diapers a day for the entire first year. (when you get closer to a year they really go through around 8 diapers)
12 diapers * 7 days = 84 diapers a week (*4 weeks a month) = 336 diapers a month (*12 months a year) = 4032 diapers a year
on average a box of diapers at walmart holds about 86 diapers a pack at $20.
4032 diapers a year / 86 diapers a pack = roughly 47 packs of diapers a year
47 packs of diapers * $20 a pack = $940 that you spend on disposables a year
the average child starts to learn how to potty train around two years of age so we can go ahead and double that number again to $1880 that you spend on disposables from birth till potty training.
Alright lets do the wipes while we're at it. An average costs of one container of wipes at walmart is $4. A friend of mine who uses disposable wipes says that on her one baby she goes through an average of one container a week.
52 weeks in a year * $4 = $208 spent on wipes a year
double that for a two year old child and we have $416 spent on wipes from birth till potty training.
all in all cost of disposable diapers and wipes from birth till potty training is $2296.
Cloth diapering math:
Cloth diapering is an investment that you make that pays its self off. In our household we use thirsties duo wrap covers with bummis organic cotton prefolds.
we have a rather large stockpile of cloth diapers, here is what we have and the break down.
thirsties duo wrap covers size one: 7 covers ($12.75/per cover) for a total cost here of roughly $90
newborn organic cotton prefolds: 6 packs ($10/1 pack) for a total cost here of $60
thirsties duo wrap covers size two: 7 covers ($12.75/per cover) for a total cost here of roughly $90
infant organic cotton prefolds: 6 packs ($28/1 pack) for a total cost here of $168
pail liners: 2 ($12/each) for a total here of $24
wet bags: 2 ($10/each) for a total here of $20
costs of our cloth diaper stash: $452 to diaper our child from birth till potty training.
now wipes, we use baby wash clothes as baby wipes and we make our own solution so heres the number crunch on that.
we have a total of 10 packs of baby wash cloths at approx $4 a piece for a total cost of $40 for baby wipes for my child from birth to potty training
cloth diapering solution we use:
water (free obviously)
vitamin e oil = we buy from longs, $20 for a six month supply. ($40 a year supply)
tea tree oil = we buy from wholefoods, $20 bucks for a year supply.
total cost of cloth diapering solution from birth till potty training is $60.
total cost of cloth diapers, solution and wipes from birth till potty training is $552.
*side note, in reality most of the baby wash clothes were actually gifted and we only really bought two packs out of pocket.
A great thing about this as well is that our cloth diapering stash will work perfectly fine for subsequent children. In reality we are saving a ton of money because we don't have to get diapers for our future kids either.
Last thing, obviously cloth needs to be washed in cloth diapering safe detergent so here is the cost of detergent crunch. (important note as well is that we have utilities included in the place we live)
I wash a load of diapers every other day, meaning I do go through a good amount of detergent. I make my own detergent that we use on ALL of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc.
Detergent recipe
3 boxes arm and hammer washing soda (76 oz)
2 boxes 20 mule team borax (76 oz)
1 large tub oxiclean free (96 oz)
Costs about $50 - $60 bucks and makes a ton, we store it in a five gallon container covered in a cool place.
this recipe is good for detergent in our house for approx two years. so right here costs of detergent for my entire family for two years is $60.
If we add the price of detergent at $60 to the cost of cloth diapering at $552 we are at $612 to cloth diaper from birth till potty training.
In review:
Total cost of disposables from birth till potty training: $1880
Total cost of cloth from birth till potty training: $612
Amount saved because of cloth diapering: $1268
Every post needs pictures. My cloth diapered babe
