This week marks one year for me of cloth diapering. So I thought I'd take a look back and reflect on this past year of diapering for me. Oh the joys of being a mom!
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| Elissa in her pretty BumGenius 4.0 |
MaryBeth talked about clothing diapering
here, in the fall, and what her families reasons were for choosing to go this route. But I have never shared my story of cloth diapering, and why I chose to do it.
A year ago, Elissa was almost 3 months old and Cameron was turning 2. I knew at some point in the next year, he would probably start potty training, but really had not clue as to when that would start. My husband was also, in between jobs, and I was pinching every penny and becoming quite the coupon queen. I looked at every corner of our budget and did what I could to cut things out and save. But that diapering budget was staring me in the face. Let me break it down for you here, it always makes me feel so good to see how much I'm keeping in my pocket every month. I was spending an average of $9, every week, for diapers for each child...that's $18 a week....that's $72 a month!!!!! And then I realized I was going through an entire box of wipes as well in about a months time. And that's the king size box from Sam's club. So tack on another $10 every month, and you can round my diaper budget to a whopping $80 every single month! I thought that was ridiculous. You can do a lot with $80. Then I remembered my friend who cloth diapered.
Now, when I first heard my friend was cloth diapering, I laughed. I thought she was crazy. Then I saw her cloth diapers. And realized they don't look anything like they did when I was a kid. They were actually really cute! But I still thought she was nuts and that it was probably really gross!
But the thought of saving $80, caused me to start doing a little research into cloth diapering. I read a few blogs, watched a few YouTube videos on how people changed cloth diapers, washed them, etc. And the more I looked into it the more excited I got about it.
Now I had two kids to cloth diaper and I knew I couldn't afford a full supply of the "cadillac" of diapers up front.
So I order a few of the BumGenius 3.0's for convenience 'on the go' or at church.
Then I ordered the Flip System for Elissa to use as her main diaper. Which are still fun, colorful and easy to use. But much cheaper! My husband actually preferred to use the Flips over the BumGenius.
For Cameron, since I knew he wouldn't be diapering too much longer, I went with the cheapest route, their Econobums. This 1 box was less than $50, and had enough diapers and covers to last me 2 full days for Cameron, before I had to do laundry! That's amazing! You can cloth your kid for life, for what it would cost you to buy disposables for an entire month!
After a week or so to get in the routine, I found how easy it really is to cloth diaper. I really feared in the beginning, that it would be such a hassle. But honestly, it's easier than washing baby bottles.
During the summer, Cameron began the potty training adventure, so Elissa has quite a stocked supply of cloth diapers now. I've collected a few more Bum Genius 3.0's and some of the newer 4.0's. So I use mostly the BumGenius with Elissa on a daily basis. They are sooo easy to use, even a dad can do it. I use the Econobums for just overnight now on both kids. They are super absorbent.
I'm thankful I made the switch to cloth. It has saved my family a lot of money (making it easier for me to be a Stay at Home Mom), they are cute, they are friendly to the earth God has given us, and it's healthier for my children (no chemicals). So Happy 1 Year of savings in my pocket to me!!!
Does anyone else cloth diaper? Have you ever considered cloth diapering? What brand/type of cloth diaper do you use?
