Diapers and all the changing supplies can be a big expense. I’ve read that a baby can go through about 7,020 diapers over the first 2.5 years. After hearing this, we realized that we could save a lot of money by going with cloth diapers instead of disposable.
The cloth diapers you can get now are not the old bulky diapers with safety pins and rubber pants that your parents warned you about. The new all-in-ones are one piece, have a waterproof outer shell, with snaps or velcro to get them on and off easily.
Cloth diapers are also better for our baby’s skin. Since they don’t have the crystals that are in disposables, he rarely gets a diaper rash, and if he does, it only lasts for about a day. It’s good for the environment, too. Since you won’t be contributing those 7,000+ diapers to your local landfill, it’s a great way to go green and save money.
Those 7,020 diapers, among all the different sizes and quantities, can cost you $2,294. Meanwhile, we bought a supply of 36 diapers (two sizes), which will fit our boy until he’s potty trained. At $22 per diaper, our total cost was $924, a savings of $1,370! But since our diapers are reusable and already paid for, the real savings can come with future children. If we have a second child, we will have saved $3,664. Three kids and we’re looking at $5,958 we’ll keep in our pockets!
The disposable versus cloth debate doesn’t just apply to diapers, you can also save money when it comes to what you use to wipe that baby bum. Instead of buying buckets of disposable baby wipes, we went to the dollar store and picked up some baby washcloths. We then just soak them in a small container of warm water with a few drops of baby’s bath cleanser.
So if you have a baby on the way, consider going with cloth diapers and reduce one of the largest costs of raising a child!
Tom Drake is the owner and head writer behind Canadian Finance Blog and also works as a financial analyst for a major retailer. Tom and his wife Amanda welcomed their beautiful baby boy Christian in October of 2009. To read more of Tom’s posts, subscribe to Canadian Finance Blog’s RSS feed and follow @CanadianFinance on Twitter.
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