To Cloth or Not To Cloth

Living in the DC Metro, on one salary, with a third baby coming is absolutely terrifying when we start thinking about finances.

A new baby means less money coming in each pay check (our kid's 529 college money gets taken out of Brett's pay check before we get it), more medical expenses, more mouths to feed, and more diapers to buy.

Thankfully, I have TONS of mom friends who have daughters and a LOT of generous hand me downs, so we didn't have to buy clothes. But the thought of $20 a week on formula, and $50 a month in diapers is enough to make me sick. So I am absolutely determined to breast feed and am seriously considering cloth diapers.

After TONS of research, polling all my friends, looking at all the brands and realizing that I was totally on board with making the change to cloth I took the last step before actually buying the diapers. Asking Brett.

Me - So, I have been crunching numbers and I really think that we should consider cloth diapers for Campbell.

Brett - No

Me - (stunned because Brett is usually very open minded - especially when saving money is in question) Um... can you at least look at my research? It will save us hundreds of dollars and thousands if we keep it up for our fourth child.

Brett - It is gross, and I just don't like the idea.

I will stop the conversation here because things got heated, but lets just say I got my point across. Once Brett thought about it a little while, and was willing to look at the research I had done he started to come around.

If you are someone thinking about cloth, here are the two sites we found most helpful:

Young House Love's Cloth Diaper Blog

I Love Cloth Diapers

After polling friends, internet ratings, and pricing we decided on bumGenius One-Size Cloth Diaper. Our second choice would have been FuzziBunz, but there was a SLIGHT price difference (on Amazon) and they had the extra step in washing of removing/putting the absorbent layer back into the diaper.

We also settled on using Imse Vimse Flushable Liners as a compromise to "showering" off the solid waste (this was a big factor in convincing Brett). Here is a video of how they work:



We figure we will need about 1 roll per month (200 liners come on a roll). They sell for $11.60 (on Amazon), which breaks down to about $0.06 per diaper change. Compared to Pampers Swaddlers disposable diapers which are about $0.23 per diaper change, and end up in a land fill.

Our initial investment will be:

16 - bumGenius One-Size Snap Cloth Diaper 4.0 - @ $17.95 each = $287.20
1 - Planet Wise Wet/Dry Diaper Bag - @ 23.95 (for dirty diapers)
1 - Imse Vimse Flushable Liner (2PK) 200 pieces/2 rolls - @ $11.60

Total - $322.75 - With the only reoccurring cost being the Imse Vimse Flushable Liners.

We haven't pulled the trigger and purchased these items yet, but it is looking like we will be soon. I will update the blog in a few months and let you know how things are going!

If it does work out I am going to try hard not to kick myself too much for not starting with Peter, or to think about how many dollars we have flushed down the diaper pail.