Thursday, February 5, 2009

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.

14 comments:

Sprite's Keeper said...

I think the biggest problem we ran into when weighing the options was that most daycares in our area don't allow cloth diapers. I think they have gotten so cute and absolutely hate the waste, but hopefully Sprite will "get it" in the potty training department and we won't need to worry about it. Until next time.. Great Spin! You're linked!

jen said...

i'll email you this response too.
mine didn't either. initially.
then i convinced them to try it ... and tell me if it was any harder or worse for them. (i had back up findings that there was not any difference in terms of cleanliness).
they wholeheartedly have gone through with it ... once they tried it.
they just throw the diaper in the wet bag ... i take care of *everything* at home.

Casey said...

I've always wondered about cloth diapers but I'm too chicken to try it...

steenky bee said...

I feel like a jerk but I just couldn't do the cloth diapers because...well, I just couldn't. I know, I know, it's better for the environment, but I just keep picturing the poor, poor CEOs of Pampers not being able to take that third trip to Aruba if I quit on them now. Sorry.

HeatherPride said...

So I've had a debate about the cloth diapering thing. I know you save environmental impact as far as land waste goes, but what about the extra energy and chemicals it takes to clean them? That's a lot more laundry, more water, more detergent, and more energy used during the process. It seems like it takes environmental impact away on one side but adds to it on the other? I don't know....like I said, it's been my internal debate... But great for you for doing it! Your heart and dedication are totally in the right place! I guess I'll just keep arguing with myself!

jen said...

ooo ... i knew someone would bring that up!
3 extra loads of laundry per week. same old laundry detergent. in my book ... it's worth it to keep 3000-6000 diapers (that take potentially 500 years to decompose) out of the landfills.

Raising Z and Lil C said...

You really got me thinking!!! I hate all of the waste of diapers (and the cost!!!!) but the excess laundry really scares me :) (I am sooo lazy when it comes to laundry). When baby number 2 comes around though (no I am not pregnant yet)....it might be a better option! Thanks for getting me thinking about this now :)

CC said...

I super wish we had done cloth diapers. But because my kids came home at 6 and 7 months, when I did the calculations, it didn't seem to work out financially. Luckily, my daughter potty trained at 20 months, thus eliminating hundreds of diapers that we never needed to buy....

CC said...

Oh, wanted to add thanks for visiting me again. It was a great reminder that I needed to start following your great blog. And your header totally reminded me of this pic I took on Christmas Eve. ;)

Heather said...

16 years ago...when I tried cloth diapers...they really sucked!!! I'm glad that they are cute and easier to use!!!

Camille said...

I am not a mom, but I am SO hyped to use cloth diapers when I have kids. To me, there is no question it's a better choice. Thanks for the info!

Shangrila said...

We used cloth diapers on my oldest-I loved it, but could only do that by using a diaper service (I lived in an apartment at the time, and wasn't altogether comfortable washing diapers in community appliances.) At the time ,we used the last running diaper service in the Twin Cities. My daughter didn't have a single diaper rash until she was two and a half, and it was a yeast infection (TMI?) The service wasn't there with our second, my hubby nixed the idea with the third, but I totally applaud the good you're doing for your girls and the environment! *sigh* I really miss the really cute little diaper wraps...

P.S. Don't worry. God invented shit (and the platypus, proof that he has a sense of humor!) ;)

Keely said...

I tried...oh, how I tried. I even sewed my own when none of them would fit X well enough to, um, contain the explosion. But he would have NONE of it (he'd sit in his own poop for hours, but the minute he was wet he would SHRIEK. And of course babies don't pee very often AT ALL).

Maybe the next baby.

DeeMarie said...

Interesting. When I have kids, I will definitely consider...