$800 to diaper two children
My youngest recently turned one. It’s amazing how much changes in just a year. When my first child turned one, I sat down and calculated some fun numbers–all the hours of sleep I’d lost in the past year, how many ounces of mommy’s milk he’d probably drank, how many diaper changes he’d been through. And while I didn’t do that the second time around, I did pause to reflect on cloth diapering. We have all the cloth diapers my second child will ever need and since we think we are finished having children, I can run some final cloth diaper numbers (these are the kinds of things I think about when washing or folding diapers–reminds me of some of the reasons why I bother).
We spent an estimated $700 on my first son’s cloth diapers. We were able to reuse all of those with my second child after having a friend repair a few of them. The cost of repairs was offset by money made selling diapers that my second child had outgrown. We spent an additional $100 trying some new diapers with child #2 for a grand total of $800–to cloth diaper two children. Now we have spent a little more buying wipes or disposables for vacations, but this is well under the estimated $1600 per child! Not bad at all!
Filed under: Random on November 15th, 2008
It is great to see the numbers Sophia! Did you include the costs of laundry (extra energy, water, detergent, wear and tear on your equipment) in your tabulation? It could also be interesting to compare the extra amount of time spent doing laundry, above and beyond what time you would spend on disposables. Time is money!
I am sure it will increase the costs if it is not already included in your numbers, but I bet it is still less money than the $1600 it costs to diaper most children. And though I have not seen anything definitive, my gut tells me disposables (solid waste in landfills, embodied energy to mass produce the diapers) are harder on the environment than cloth (water waste that is treated) so this is not only a lower cost to you, but a lower cost to the environment. And from what you have told me, your children react better to cloth than plastic, so less toxins in your daily life is a huge plus.
No, I did not include the costs of laundry. I did write an article one year ago about cloth diapers where I said that washing diapers twice a week used no more water than a child would use to flush a toilet (if they were potty trained). Here it is: http://healthtakenseriously.com/2007/11/23/5440-and-counting/
In our old house, the cost of water was included in our HOA fee so we personally spent no more on water to wash diapers. We line dried the diapers most of the time so I doubt we spent much on energy to wash the diapers. We use 1 oz of detergent per load (our 32 oz bottle of detergent costs $10, so at an estimated 30 cents per load, washing our diapers twice a week cost us an additional $31/year). Obviously there are additional costs for water/energy that are hard for me to calculate, but I think that these are fairly minor (like the detergent is).
May I also point out that there are additional costs to disposable diapers that rarely get added into the calculations either–the gas and wear and tear on your car from extra trips to the grocery store when you run out of diapers, tax on the diapers, etc.
On a side not, just this past week, a relative of mine decided to switch to cloth after using disposables for over 2 years! She has a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old in diapers and she said she was sick of spending $100 (at Costco) each month buying disposables and overnight diapers for her two kids.