Cheap Cloth Diapering
Less disposable income means less income for…
…DISPOSABLES. With the recent influx of very fancy WAHM-made custom boutique cloth diapers hitting online cloth diaper stores, and advertising in organic or natural parenting magazines, it is easy to lose the perspective that cloth diapering can ease a stretched budget.
Many parents tell us the reason they choose to cloth diaper has less to do with a heightened eco-consciousness, but rather, tough economic times. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, middle-income families will spend more than $200,000 to feed, house, and school a child born in 2007 until their 18th birthday. Given these statistics, it is understandable why parents are looking for ways to cut child-rearing costs without shortchanging their kids.
Simple, Economic Chinese Prefolds
As with any other kind of purchase, parents can select the newest rage, fabrics, and trends, or opt for higher quality, but perhaps slightly less ‘fashionable’ Chinese Prefold Diapers and simple diaper covers. Eight years ago, when I began cloth diapering, we were a single-income family; my initial cloth diaper budget was less than $80.00, so I purchased two dozen Chinese Prefolds, a few Dritz diaper pins, and a half-dozen Bummis Whisper Pants. Later on, as the budget allowed, I purchased Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers for night-time cloth diapering.
In time I opened an online cloth diaper store and was able to try several different styles, but when my children moved out of diapers the part of our diaper stash ‘worn’ from repeated use were my simple, economical Chinese Prefolds.
Simple Cloth Diapers for a Stretched Budget
Chinese Prefolds are an economical boost in any diapering budget and a cost-effective way to ease into cloth diapering. Two dozen Regular 6-ply Chinese Prefolds now cost just under $60.00. To purchase a half-dozen cloth diaper covers in rotation can cost anywhere from $33.00 to just over $100.00; this makes for a total cloth diapering expense of $93.00 to $160.00, depending on cloth diaper cover choices.
The Regular Chinese Prefolds are my favorite size; whenever my babies outgrew them I tri-folded them and stuffed them into the stride of a cloth diaper wrap or into the pocket of a Fuzzi Bunz. A very economical cloth diaper choice, my babies’ prefolds moved through three different stages: first, folded down as a cloth diaper for a smaller baby; next, wrapped around a growing, medium-sized baby; and finally, as mentioned above, tri-folded into a wrap or stuffed into a pocket diaper.
When I added up the cost of disposable diapers, I could have quickly exceeded my diaper budget, with nothing to show for it in the end. Yet, with my initial cloth diaper purchase behind me I could toss in a few fancy diaper covers here and there without exploding my diaper budget; they were fun, colorful, and made for interesting discussions with perfect strangers when we were out and about running errands. Still, for the most part, I viewed cloth diapers and diaper covers as underwear, so prints were not as important to me as function.
As a single-income family, we had less ‘disposable’ income - certainly less income to simply throw-away on single-use items like disposables. Chinese Prefold Diapers and diaper covers were, and are still, a cost-effective, high-quality way to ease the budget while keeping baby dry and comfortable.
Discussion
6 comments for “Less disposable income means less income for…”
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I’m so glad to see that cloth diapers are being used once again. My kids are 27 & 29 so there were only a few disposables available when they were babes and most parent’s were still using cloth. Our choices were mainly washing our own diapers or using a diaper service. I agree that the Chinese prefolds are great and, believe it or not, I still have a few that I use for dusting and cleaning! They just never wear out!
I also use Chinese prefolds. i am on baby #3 and she is the 1st of my CD experiences! I WISH someone told me about cloth when my others were in diapers! It has saved us SO much money! We are a 1 income family and cannot afford to toss money in the trash! I have spent around 80$ for Diapers and covers. I use 2 Imse covers and 2 wool in rotaion. I have not even opened or prepped the next size for my baby yet and she is 9 months old. i doubt i will have to buy more before she is potty trained! People argue that laundry cost make up the difference, but i don’t see it! YAY for Cloth!
I’m getting ready for baby #3 and am excited about testing out cloth diapers. I have been hearing great things about them so I will be able to see for myself soon. I love this blog site. It is a wealth of information. Thank you so much!
I’m with the writer. I’ve wanted to CD my kids since high school (10+ years or so ago), have been salivating over bumgenius diapers for the last 5 years but when push came to shove in these very hard economic times I simply went with pro rap covers and prefolds for my currently 8 month old boy. I can’t imagine the financial agony I could have put myself through these past months if I had been purchasing disposables. Bonuses: no diaper rash and my husband tries to get in a plug to other new parents how great CDing is…he’s a champ!
Someone told me that prefolds move around a lot on an active baby and thus leak a lot. Is this true? Can you tell me how to avoid this? Maybe someone really wise in the ways of diapering could email me? Thanks so much!
We use prefolds about half the time on my VERY active 9 month old. We use a Snappi and wrap style cover. We have never had a prefold move too much. She is a WILD child and is always climbing, crawling,cruising, bouncing, rolling or dancing - we love prefolds!