As I’ve ventured into the world of cloth diapers, I’ve been surprised to discover they aren’t as affordable as I would have hoped. They definitely can be used cost-effectively, but only if you are really careful about where your money is going. Here are some costs to consider as you calculate your cloth diaper budget.
Set-Up Costs
These are potential costs that occur upfront before you start diapering your baby.
Regular Daytime Diapers: $200 - $625+
Nighttime Diapers: $66 - $129+
Newborn Diapers: $84 - $360
Doublers/Washable liners: $0 - $45+
Diaper Pail: $0 - $80 ($30 is average)
Diaper Pail Liners: $20
Cloth Wipes: $0 - $54 ($30 is average)
Cloth Wipes Containers: $0 - $35 ($15 is average)
Travel Wet Bags: $10 - $40
Diaper Sprayer: $0 - $70 ($30 is average)
Clothes Line + Pins: $0 - $10
Diaper Sprayer Shield: $0 - $25
Diaper Organization: $0 - $50
Product Testing to determine which brand to use: $0 - $200+ ($50 would be plenty)
TOTAL: $380 - $1743+
These numbers are just rough estimates of what you would spend on Amazon.com or KellysCloset.com for low-end versus high-end products. It is always possible to spend more on cloth diapers, and also quite possible to spend less- for example, if you buy second hand, shop sales, etc. You may also have some things (like wipes containers or a trash can to use as a diaper pail) around the house, and you may not need all of these products depending on the type of cloth diapering system you choose to use.
Newborn/Sized Diapers
It is rarely cost effective to use newborn-sized cloth diapers unless you plan to use them on multiple children. However, this is still a necessary cost as you will likely have to buy disposables until your baby fits one-sized diapers. If you plan to use a sized cloth diaper system, your diaper costs will definitely be on the higher end of the spectrum, but you probably wouldn't have a seperate newborn category.
Monthly Costs
These are costs that occur every month as long as you are using cloth diapers.
Laundry: $8 - $25+ a month.
Disposable Diapers: $0 - $10
Disposable Wipes: $0 - $20
Flushable Liners: $0 - $10
Cloth Wipes Solution: $0 - $5
TOTAL: $8 - $70
Laundry
Laundry is one of the most complex and potentially expensive aspects of cloth diapers. This website will help you figure out how much you are spending. Plan to use large loads of hot water. One tradeoff to consider is that the more diapers you have, the less often you will have to wash them.
Ongoing use of Disposables
Few Cloth Diaper cost calculations include disposable diapers. I have found that real life demands disposables from time to time. We aim for about 30 a month, which gives us just barely enough to leave disposables with babysitters and nursery workers and to use them when diaper rashes get really bad. That costs about $5 a month for us.
Cost Trade-Offs
If these numbers are scaring you away, take comfort- no one will need to buy ALL of these things. For many items on these lists, there are trade-offs between setup and monthly costs. If you line dry your diapers instead of machine drying them, you will need lots of clothes line and pins, but will save around $0.46 per load on laundry costs. If you buy a diaper sprayer to remove solid poo, you don’t need to use flushable liners. Cloth wipes increase your setup cost, but will save money every month on disposables. In all of these cases, one option (usually the more expensive one) is significantly more convenient.
Cheapest Route
Because of the cost trade-offs, it is NOT really possible to spend only $380 on setup costs and $8 a month on monthly costs. So how affordable can cloth diapers be?
Setup
Regular Daytime Diapers: $200
Nighttime Diapers: $66
Newborn Diapers: $100 for disposable diapers for 2 months
Doublers/Washable liners: $0 (use diapers that come with plenty of absorbency)
Diaper Pail: $0 - use a plastic trash can
Diaper Pail Liners: $20
Cloth Wipes: $15 for 30
Cloth Wipes Containers: $0 (use containers from disposable wipes)
Travel Wet Bags: $10
Diaper Sprayer: $30
Clothes Line + Pins: $10
Diaper Sprayer Shield: $0 (not a necessary product)
Diaper Organization: $0
Product Testing to determine which brand to use: $0
Total - $451
Monthly
Laundry: $8
Disposable Diapers: $0 (only works if your childcare workers are on board!)
Disposable Wipes: $0 (same as above)
Flushable Liners: $0 (use the diaper sprayer to remove solid poo)
Cloth Wipes Solution: $5
Total - $13
Cost Comparison to Disposables
My general estimate is that it costs about $50 a month to keep one child in disposable diapers. So this is the calculation I use to determine if my cloth diapering habits are cost-effective:
Cost of Disposables ($50) - Monthly cost of cloth X 30 Months = Max amount to spend on setup cost.
Most children potty train around the age of 2 1/2, which equals 30 months of use. So in order to break even with the cost of disposables, I figure I cannot spend more on setup cost than I save using cloth over the course of 30 months.
Example:
So lets say you spend $25 a month on cloth diaper monthly costs. Your calculation is:
50 - 25 = 25
25 X 30 = 750
So if you spend $750 on setup costs, you will spend pretty much the same amount on cloth diapering your baby as if you had used disposables. If you only spend $500 on setup costs, you will have $250 of savings at the end of 30 months. Of course, this isn't a lot of savings. But if you take my Cheapest Route example, you could save a grand total of $659 in 30 months.
Multiple Children
The greatest cost benefit of cloth diapering comes for families who plan to use them on multiple children. If you are able to recoup all of your setup costs with you first baby, every dollar you save on future children will be actual savings. Based on my calculations, you could save as much as $1,110 by cloth diapering your second child. You may have to replace some items as they wear out, but the savings will still be exciting.
Conclusion
I hope this post helps you to see how cloth diapers can easily become very expensive, but also how they can be used affordably. Of course, there are many reasons to use cloth other than saving money, but at least now you are empowered to make informed decisions! Happy shopping!
