Back when I was entirely pregnant, I posted a plea asking for advice on disposable diapers vs. cloth… and we got tons of responses… THANK YOU! Since we have an old-school non-high-efficiency washer/dryer, we knew if we decided to go with cloth diapers, it wouldn’t be to save money. Our main dilemma was disposal of disposable diapers, seeing as we burn all our garbage… and poo don’t burn. We tried.
Since the girls were itty bitty for a couple months, we had no choice but to use disposables for a time. And during that time, we discovered Amazon Mom. Which allows us to order our disposable diapers online and have them conveniently delivered to our door (which rocks since we live in the country) with free shipping… and the best part? When you subscribe to Amazon Mom, you get 35% off… making our diapers approximately .09 cents per diaper. We get a box of 300 count for only $28. You just can’t beat that.
After doing lots of research on cloth diapers, I found that on average they cost about $17 each, and BabyCenter recommends having around 30 cloth diapers for twins… that’s over $500. Such an investment! I even scoured craigslist and garage sales for used cloth diapers, and they were always either in bad condition or they we asking close to full price.
SO… we go through 1 box (300 ct) of diapers each month (at the moment), costing us $28 per month. Convenience aside, it would take almost 18 months for cloth diapers to pay themselves off, and that doesn’t even include the extra cost of water and energy used to wash/dry them!
As for disposal, we keep a big ol’ garbage can in our garage (with a lid), and when it get’s full… my little bro and his wife live close by, and they’re fortunate enough to own a dumpster! We just haul our diapers to their house every so often when our can gets full, and we take turns paying for the dumpster to be emptied (about twice a year). Not bad eh? (thanks Tim & Carrie!)
I say all this NOT to put down cloth diapering. I know there are definitely pros and cons to both options, and I do appreciate the green-ness of cloth, and the benefits of no chemicals, etc. Plus they’re so darn cute, right? But financially, disposable is by far the best option for us!
Please don’t comment negatively on our decision! We acknowledge and appreciate the fact that what works for one parent may not work for another parent, and we respect each others’ decisions. We just wanted to share our money-saving finds with our fellow disposable diapering readers!
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Totally understand, but being as we live in a 3rd floor condo, and husband isn’t the fondest of taking out trash, and we only have one little one at the moment, (who I’m home with), we cloth diaper, and love it. We have a friend who is struggling though it, its not for everyone, you just have to make work, what works for you.
Blasphemy!! lol. No – I wanted to cloth diaper SO bad, but our little one will be with a sitter at about 3 months, and finding a sitter who would deal with that isn’t something we wanted to bother with (we’re already having a hard enough time finding a sitter who will take an infant part-time). Plus we ended up getting a ton of disposable diapers for free because we won a contest, and we also have a crappy (but serviceable) old washer and dryer set. Glad to see someone else “admit it” 🙂
check out sunbabydiapers.com. the diapers sell for $5 a piece and they are adorable!
I was on board with Amazon Mom from the beginning too, but they’ve changed their discount to only being 20% now when you do the subscribe and save option, 15%, if you don’t. This isn’t such a huge savings now. I checked out diapers.com and when I signed up last month, they were running a $10 off first case of diapers, plus they do $5 off every case after that, so I got a good deal on Pampers swaddlers for my baby, versus amazon. I did get a better deal on pull ups for my toddler on amazon though, but you might check them out. Otherwise I find good deals using coupons and CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. You can get some awesome deals on diapers and I never would have imagined that before I started couponing 2 years ago.
I went the with colth diapers as I am a stay at home mom. My only problem is I have to many things on my plate to always take the time to get to the diapers 🙁 I however have ten brand new cloth diapers with liners that I want to sell. I never used them. I bought 30 of them. They are really cute!! purple, pink and yellow hello kitty ones 🙂 If you would be interested I would let them go for $10.oo each. I am just trying to recoup some of my money. I would be glad to sell them to you and take pictures. These have snaps on them and fit up to thirty pounds. classyfarm@netins.net
Love this post! I’m so tired of seeing cloth diapering moms shoving all this “BUT YOU’RE SAVING MONEY” crap down everyone’s throats. Not everyone saves money with it! I use Lullabies from Aldi’s, $5.50 a bag and we go through a bag a week, so it ends up at $25 even for diapers and wipes each month (for one). So crazy that you are at $28 with twins! We can’t use Luvs though, they leak SO bad for us. Glad they work for you though! 🙂
I used Luvs before we switched to cloth and they worked wonderfully!! We do use cloth now, but it is hard!! And I just have one baby. So I totally understand you doing disposables for your girls. I would do the same thing!!
We’re using Luvs… and I know that some people have problems with their babes being sensitive or getting diaper rashes frequently with Luvs, but we haven’t had any problems yet!
Are you using the G-Diaper? If so, how do you find their disposables?
its amazing how sensitive/defensive women can be about the diapers they use!! i’m a cloth user but i’m glad you found the diapering system that works best for your family. way to go! 🙂 when can we start potty training??? 🙂
Wow. Never in a million years would I have put that much effort into researching diapers. Good on ya!:) Glad you found something that works for you..where would we be without the internet?!;)
I totally agree. I tried cloth but in the end used disposables. I love them and they are cheaper! We use Seventh Generation disposables if you are worried about chemicals!! Love Amazon Mom!
That is great. If you don’t mind me asking what brand are you using?
I started getting diapers with Amazon Mom last winter, sometimes there are coupons in magazines for an extra percentage off. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any for a while. Donna
I am pregnant and I am thrilled to hear about this amazon mom!!! Thanks for the BIG TIP!
We came to the same conclusion and I use Amazon Mom, too. You just can’t beat that price!!