Cloth Diapering = Less Money

I'm a mom-to-be carrying a baby boy at 22 weeks now, 18 weeks left!  Nearly two years ago my niece was born, and my sister-in-law had decided to cloth diaper.  At first I thought it was a little crazy, but then I saw the diapers and calculated the cost difference, among other things, and I was also convinced I would cloth diaper my babies. As I mentioned, there are plenty of good reasons to cloth diaper, but I'm going to focus on the cost efficiency this time.  Here are five unconventional reasons to cloth diaper and here are six more conventional reasons to cloth diaper.  Some of these reasons I will also cover later.

According to the Real Diaper Association, one child will cost about $1,600 to diaper for the first two years of life.  

Unfortunately, a diaper service for the same amount of time won't be much cheaper, maybe $100-$300 cheaper over the two years.

However, a basic set of cloth diapers (not including laundering necessities and other cloth diapering needs, like wet bags) costs as low as $300.  People sell their used cloth diapers on ebay, too!  Using the Cloth Diaper Calculator on Kelly Wels's website, I figured the cost of my cloth diapers, laundering them, and purchasing the wet bags and such would come out to roughly the same amount as using disposables would for the FIRST YEAR.  After the first year of my child's life though, we'll be saving a considerable amount of money--about $500-$700 per year, per child! Isn't that amazing?!  If I have two children who wear cloth diapers for four total years, I will save $1,500-$2,100!!  If you spend less on your cloth diapering stuff, then you'll save MORE!

If you want to know more about cloth diapering, check out these sites:

• Real Diaper Association
• The Cloth Diaper Whisperer Blog or their shop, Kelly's Closet 
• All About Cloth Diapers 
• The Diaper Jungle
• Kelly Wels

Questions?  Comments?  Thoughts?  Leave a comment or send me an email!