Cloth Diapering Update
It's been nearly 6 weeks since we talked about cloth diapering. We thought we'd give you a little update on how we are tracking.
Baby NtJS is growing like a weed and has this adorable layer of baby fat.... everywhere. Anyways, with her rapid growth, she has already been in the Medium size for 45 days and is taking a hard look at the Large ones. The big news from the Small to Medium changeover, is that the Small diapers and covers sold so well that we nearly broke even! With a net cost of $2.20, we effectively diapered the baby for 5.5 cents per day for 40 days.
So far, the grand totals look like this:
Baby NtJS is growing like a weed and has this adorable layer of baby fat.... everywhere. Anyways, with her rapid growth, she has already been in the Medium size for 45 days and is taking a hard look at the Large ones. The big news from the Small to Medium changeover, is that the Small diapers and covers sold so well that we nearly broke even! With a net cost of $2.20, we effectively diapered the baby for 5.5 cents per day for 40 days.
So far, the grand totals look like this:
- 133 days in cloth diapers, at a total cost of $205 or $1.55 per day (cost of disposables estimated at $4.19 per day)
- Total savings for cloth over disposables is $351
- Estimated disposable diapers NOT added to the landfill is 1512 - they add up fast!
6 comments:
I think it's fabulous that you are tracking this. Too many people believe that it's worth it to use cloth. I'm glad to see some proof that it does.
My children now 10 and 13 were in cloth diapers, we used a service nearby our house. It cost about $35 a month, bags, a receptacle included and free delivery! In 1995 and 1998 . We felt it was better for the kids, mind you no diaper rash ever occurred, also no land fill waste.
You guys are so good at this. I wish I have the courage, time, and discipline to deal with cloth diapers.
Also, do you factor in the laundry costs?
Thanks, Pinyo! For the record, it's not nearly as difficult as people think. I was certainly skeptical, but have been quite surprised.
As for the laundry costs, we have not run the numbers on it, but others have. If I remember right, they came up with ~5-10 cents per load. We're using high efficiency appliances and we get our water from a well. So we found those costs to be negligible. I think that there was a comment that showed those costs on the original cloth diapering post.
When our son was in diapers, my wife did some research into the benefits of cloth over disposable. We try to do the right thing for the environment. She found that the water use was so high for cloth diapers that bio-degradable disposables were actually better in our area of the country. (We are in a state-wide drought right now. Many water providers are moving toward mandatory water rationing this summer.)
Thats happening a lot in the southern states, droughts and water rationing that is. You may want to consider looking into rainwater collection/harvesting. We've shown how to do if for use in the garden, but there are others filtering it and using it for their main water supply.
At least you tried.
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