My two sisters Melody and Gretchen, while not entirely crunchy (in fact Melody would call herself soggy), do sort of migrate towards crunchy things.
First know that the following diatribe is followed by me being converted in part, so my dear sisters, who I know are reading this, I beg of you to take no offense to what I am about to say.
They are frequent purchaser of work-at-home mom goods-- soaps, essential oils, tye dye, etc. Melody is all organic with her baby-- Evie eats kale and all sorts of other things that normal babies don't. (And with great fervor, might I add.)
They are both into attachment parenting-- baby wearing, co-sleeping, extended nursing, etc. They both make homemade laundry soap.
They also do other crunchy things that I won't mention here.
And they both cloth diaper, at least part time. (Or did cloth diaper when their kids were in diapers.) I took a vow early on in my parenting that I would never swish a poopy diaper in the toilet with my bare hands. I made fun of them to no end.
And then when we were together over the weekend, I did the math.
Holy smokes. I knew it was cheaper, but I didn't realize how much cheaper. In this day of increasing prices I have been looking for ways to cut "grocery" costs-- and folks, I think I found it.
Okay, let me start off this discussion by explaining that we pay about $85+ on diapers and pullups for the two boys. That's a lot of money each month.
What I am going to do cost me about $136 in start up costs, since I am using the gdiapers with cloth infant prefold inserts (and use the disposable FLUSAHABLE liners for when I am out in public, etc.) Both my boys wear the same size diaper and Nico only wears pullups at nighttime and nap, so I can use these on him too. I am purchasing the largest size since that is what they would wear and so I will not have to purchase any future sizes.
Here's how the cost breaks down:
2 starter packs of gdiapers (4 diaper covers, 8 snap in plastic liners, 20 disposable inserts, and 2 "swish sticks" yes, they are for what you think they are for.) ordered at diapers.com Cost: $53.98 includes free 2 day shipping.
One case (128) disposable g-diaper liners also from diapers.com. Cost: $52.00 -$10.00 coupon for first order= $42.00 + free 2 day shipping.
24 unbleached (seconds) cloth infant prefolds at http://www.little-lions.com/ plus one roll of 100 cloth diaper liners. These supposedly to lessen the need for swishing-- you just take the biodegradable liner out and flush it (hopefully with the poo.) Cost: $39.95 including shipping.
Grand Total: $135.93
So, now that I have made the investment, the only thing "consumable" in all of this is the flushable liners for the times I decide to use them.
Yes, I may have to "swish." But the way I figure the numbers, (including laundry soap) I should only spend MAYBE 1/4 of what I was spending each month-- probably less. (Yes, I will probably do about an extra 2-3 loads of laundry a week-- so there is a nominal extra cost for electricity and water--I don't think this should increase my costs too significantly.)
This is also something that I could bring with me to Haiti, should I be able to tolerate it. And would be a great savings each month. If I cannot tolerate it, my sister Melody offered to buy all the supplies from me.
So-- I guess I am all in.
Well, at least in two days I will be all in. I'll let you know how it goes.
Pray that swishing is not necessary too often.
8 comments:
Mwah ha ha ha ha!!!!
And so it begins!!!
Josiah's little bum thanks you. :)
I think that's awesome and have been trying to convince my husband. The money saving is my biggest reason for wanting to do it! I will have to show him this post!
Thanks for the info! I look forward to hearing how it's going!
More power to all of you.... I wish I could do it, but just can't bring myself to it yet....maybe when I move far far away and hate the local diapers? Or, then again, maybe not, since they practice a whole other type of diaperless training there.
I just found a major deal on diapers yesterday and stocked up and got what I needed for my boys for the next 4 months for just $48. So I'm still polluting the landfills....
i've heard good things about the gdiapers. you'll have to let me know how it goes. are you becoming a "cary mom", hahahaha. :)
I have been using the g-diapers since Amanda was small. I also use the prefolds in them and LOVE it!! I have been a little afraid to use them with Brie as her poops are still really runny and frequent. Welcome to g-diapers though they are awesome!!
you are gonna LOVE gdiapers!!! that's what we use with Aiden - and they are fabulous! i've gotten down how to prevent the liners from staining, too. let me know if you want to know what i do. you really don't have to wash the gdiaper pants too often b/c they don't get dirty once you have down how to put them on (they're a little different than sposies, but not too much).
if you want any good tips, there is a gdiaper yahoo group that sends out lots of great advice/suggestions. many gmums use cloth with the gdipes. i haven't tried that yet but prob will eventually. let me know how it goes for you. welcome to the world of gdiapers! ;)
Well, Melody already said what I was gonna, but...
(insert evil grin here)...We haf won you over to zee dark side....muahahahaha....!
I think you're making a very wise choice! We use cloth diapers but a different kind. Since our baby is not in the biggest size, we went for pocket diapers that adjust to fit different sized babies so we only had to buy one set of diapers for him to last until potty training. And we don't have to swish the diapers in the toilet. When he was eating just breast milk we didn't have to do anything and now we're wiping out the solids and soon I guess it'll be more solid and just dump out? I don't know yet... But man, the money saved is so worth it! Our favorite kind of pocket diapers are the haute pockets followed by bum genius. I think we are using a bit more water since I do a prewash and then a wash but that's still got to be less than it would cost to buy disposable diapers. Not to mention the cost on our environment.
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