I'm lucky enough to live close to the Diaper Lab, and I'm doing their "experiment to own" program. I liked cloth diapers in theory but wasn't daring enough to just make the plunge and then end up saying "I hate this! I'm just goint to use disposables... and now I spent all this money on cloth diapers I won't use".
So far at least, I'm really liking it. There is something that just really appeals to my sensibilities to buy something, wash it, and re-use it vs buying something just to end up tossing it in the trash. I don't mind doing a little extra laundry - it's actually quite easy. Before having a baby I thought the idea of washing poopy diapers was gross, but I wash poopy things all the time now anyway. No big deal.
The Numbers - is it worth it?
My baby is about 4.5 months old right now. Most estimates go based on a baby being in diapers until 30 months. So that leaves us with 25 months to go in diapers (rounding down).Disposables: I'd estimate that we spend about 50 dollars a month in diapers on average. So 25 months = 1250 dollars in diapers.
Cloth: We're looking at start-up costs of around 450 dollars. Definitely there is a lot more up-front cost. But that will average out to a savings of 32 dollars a month vs. using disposables. Theoretically we shouldn't have to buy any more.
Even better, if we end up having another baby and can re-use these diapers that's a whole lot more savings. So I'd better take good care of these diapers!
I'm planning to get mostly pocket diapers - if you went with mostly prefolds and covers this would be a lot cheaper - but after all was said and done I really liked the Babykicks Basic Pocket Diaper a lot - so I decided to just go with that - but still got a few prefolds and covers so I wouldn't have to buy quite as many pockets. That way if I run out before getting a chance to do laundry I have some cheap backups!
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