Cloth Diaper Q & A Week 2- The Cost of Cloth Diapering and Do they Really Save Money?

It's week two of the cloth diaper Q & A and now that you know the different types of cloth diapers you have to choose from, you may be wondering what the price range is for each of these diapers. You may also be wondering, with the start up costs of cloth diapers, if and when they will save you money. Well I'm here to answer all of that for you this week! 

Diaper Price Ranges

Prefolds/Flats- I've found that prefolds run about $1.99 each and up. So for a dozen plain indian cotton prefolds, it would be roughly $25. Snappi's run at about $3.95, and covers to go over the prefolds run about $9 and up, depending on what kind of cover and what brand you purchase. 

Fitted Diapers- Fitteds have a wide price range of about $12 all the way up to the $30 range depending on brand, how they were made, and the materials they were made with. You will also need to purchase a cover for fitted diapers. 

Pocket Diapers- Pockets also have a wide price range. They go from about $7 all the way up to around $20.

All-In-Ones- These diapers run from about $15 to about $26. Even though the price is a little higher in some cases you won't need to purchase anything else with the diaper because it's all one piece and doesn't require anything extra. 

All-In-Twos- All-in-Twos range in price depending on the covers and inserts you want. Covers such as the Flip cover, or the Best Bottoms covers price at about $16.95. Then the inserts that lay inside the covers price from about $3 to around $8. You can purchase packages with both the covers and inserts for around $32 and up. 

When Will I Start Saving Money?

So these start up costs may seem a tad bit high at first glance. I mean you can buy a pack of disposable diapers for $20, why would you want to spend $20 on just one diaper? But see, by re-using the cloth diapers, you are saving money by not having to buy disposables. After a few weeks or months you will break even from your purchase of cloth diapers  and after that you will start to save money! 

There's this really nifty Cloth Diaper Savings Calculator on DiaperPin.com and it will show you exactly how much money you will save using cloth! You just plug in the cost of the diapers you want to use, and the cost of the disposables you usually use and it will tell you exactly what you will save and when! 

For example, if you were to purchase two dozen prefolds, 2 covers, and a snappi if would cost you around $89.75 total.Say you used Huggies size 2 diapers at $19.77 for 76 diapers. If you changed your baby around 10 times a day you would break even in a month and a half, you'd save $337 in 6 months and over $1100 in a year and a half! 

Say you wanted to use all pockets. I calculated the cost of 10 BumGenius 4.0s and 12 Kawaii One-Size pockets. It would cost you about $298. You would break even at around 4 months, save $128 in six months, and $982 in a year and a half! 

Go try it yourself to see exactly how much money you would save using cloth diapers!

A Helpful Tip!

The start up costs of using cloth still making you cringe? It did the same to me. But I have a helpful tip! Buy what you can when you can! You don't have to buy a full stash right off the bat! I didn't! I purchased a few diapers here and there when we had the extra money. After a month or so I had enough to use all cloth for a full day, then it was a day and a half, and then I was able to go every other day before needing to wash! Even if your not using cloth full time, you are still using less disposables but using some cloth, which is still saving you money! You won't have to buy disposables near as often if you are using cloth even part of the time! By just buying a couple diapers at a time you will still be working towards saving money and doing something great for your baby! 

I found my price ranges using www.abbyslane.com and www.diaperjunction.com. All pricing is approximate.