spinning for cash.

jen at spriteskeeper asked us to spin some tips for saving the economy ...
(or something like that.)

well ...

maybe it was just to explain a little something that we are doing to save ourselves money in the midst of all of the economic turmoil present in our society today.

(don't worry ... i'm not gonna get all political on ya.)

realization ... apparently i suck at saving money.
because i couldn't think of a damn thing that y'all probably aren't already doing.

except.

cloth diapers.

cloth diapers have changed so incredibly from the plain old white piece of material you folded and pinned and stuck inside of a plastic underwear with tight elastic around the tum and legs.

i LOVE my cloth diapers. really. i LOVE cloth diapering. (sometimes i don't love having to do laundry, but still). you just don't realize the satisfaction that you gain from having your child in them. they are pretty ... or handsome (if need be). cora refers to hers as the "pi-ty di-pers" (pretty diapers ... for those of you not well versed in toddler-speak). they are so much softer and (really truly) less stinky. no joke.

i had no idea that much of the smell emenating from a stinky baby rested primarily in the diaper itself ... and less upon what has been placed in the diaper. interesting, no? my daycare provider noted that the first week ... saying ... we really didn't realize that she had a **ahem** p00py dipe ...
(god, i swore i would never talk about shit on this blog ... oops. i also probably shouldn't have said god first, huh? i am so screwed in the ever after department.)

figures ... calculations ... math ...
(have i ever mentioned that i suck at math?)

but for you ... i'll give it a go.
let's just look at her diapering between the ages of 1 and 2, shall we? (the cost savings from newborn to age one is even more ... )

we purchased 15 diapers in the large size from chunkymonkey.com (love her ... check her out).

15 x $17 = $255.00

let's say we go through an average of 7 diapers per day.

(we continue to use disposables at night ... and occasionally during the day ... if mama forgot to throw them in the dryer or something. oops.)

disposables are $40 for a pack of 140 (at costco).

so, in all honesty ... a pack of disposables lasts us ... 10 weeks ...

so, we buy ... let's say 5 boxes of disposables over the course of a year.

grand total spent so far is: (cost of cloth plus cost of disposables over the year) ...
$455

if we were to use strictly disposables at an average of 8 diapers per day ...
we would need a new box of disposables every 2 weeks (approximately - the math is kinda overwhelming my brain at this point ... deal.)
our cost per year would be $1040.

so we are saving about ... $585 per year.

and we saved considerably more during the first year ... when you go through ... oh ... 15 diapers per day!

and the thing is ... those diapers ... when we are done ... are able to go through another kiddo! so the savings adds up even more ...

here is a direct quote from the chunkymonkey website ...
Why should you use cloth diapers?
Save Money - $1000 or more in the 2-3 years your child is in diapers
Help the Environment - keep about 1 ton of diaper waste out of the landfill each year!
They are easy to use - they go on just like disposables
They are easy to clean - an extra soak and rinse cycle is all you need to launder them
You will never run out of diapers again!
They look adorable on your baby!
Americans throw away 49 million diapers every day!
They can take up to 500 years to decompose.
THE COST FACTOR FOR CHOOSING CLOTH DIAPERS:
A very basic cloth diapering system will cost approx. $448 – 48 prefold diapers & 12 diaper covers. The cost of laundering your diapers is minimal – about 3 additional loads per week. If you use disposables the following is an average of how much it will cost. The figures are based on 7 diaper changes per day at approx. $.40 per diaper.
A 6 week old will have an average 6000 diaper changes ($2400- more from birth obviously!)
A 6 month old will have an average 5000 more diaper changes ($2000)
A 12 month old will have an average 3800 more diaper changes ($1520)
An 18 month old will have an average 2500 more diaper changes($1000)
A 24 month old will still have about 1200 more diaper changes ($480)
The environmental impact of using cloth diapers is vast. You will keep approximately 1 ton of waste out of the landfill every year per child

did you see that? the environmental impact is what gets me more than anything. scary huh?

so, yeah. it's not for everyone. i completely understand that. but for us ... it's what works. and in all honesty ... it's the least i can do.