Nonfiction: Cloth Diapering

I never thought I would even be one to consider cloth diapering. I don't know why exactly; I just thought disposables would be fine for me. I never thought about how much fun I might have with cloth diapers. Fun, you ask? It's true! I do not have a huge stash of cloth diapers, but I enjoy perusing the choices, picking out cute ones, and even finding some deals. Here's a little bit about our cloth diapering journey so far...

When my daughter was about 8 months old, a friend mentioned she was going to cloth diaper her new baby. I listened to what she had to say, but didn't think it was for me. Within a few days of this conversation, Baby Cheapskate held Cloth Diaper Week, full of posts telling everything you'd ever want to know about cloth diapers. I was hooked. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of diapers - prefolds, pockets, all-in-ones - it was amazing! And they were so cute...Even the care of cloth diapers didn't seem so daunting after this week of posts. Before the end of the week, I had ordered my first cloth diapers from Diapers.com - a 5-pack of Kushies All-In-Ones (These are available a little cheaper at Wal-Mart, but I used a $10 off coupon at Diapers.com).

We don't cloth diaper full-time. We use them primarily during the day and figure it cuts our use of disposable diapers by about 1/2. I have a hodge podge of diapers and I really like all of them pretty well. We have 9 all-in-ones, 4 pockets, 2 unbleached Indian prefolds, 1 cover and a few Gerber prefolds we use to line and stuff some of the diapers.

As far as costs go, here is our cost breakdown:

• $50.00 for 5 Kushies All-In-Ones and a roll of flushable liners


• $41.00 for 3 Blue Penguin All-In-Ones


• $4.00 for a Bumkins wet bag


• $22.00 for a Swaddlebees pocket diaper and a Blueberry All-In-One purchased from the Swaddlebees outlet store


• $12.00 for a bumGenius! 2.0 Pocket diaper (These are discontinued.)


• $11.50 for a Haute Pocket diaper


• $9.95 for a Mommy's Touch pocket diaper


• $15.00 for a Leslie's Boutique wet bag


• $12.00 for a Swaddlebees ABC cover and a small wet bag, also purchased from their outlet store

Our total costs over the last 6 months are at about $177.45. I try to keep disposable diaper costs pretty low and use a $0.15 per diaper cost as my goal. Based on this, it will take us about 10 months (we have about 4 months to go) of cloth diaper use to break even on this endeavor. There is also the ability to use these cloth diapers for future children.

I know we have an assortment of brands and kinds of diapers, but I think we like our all-in-ones the best. Kushies don't always get the best reviews, but they are our favorites.

For us, it isn't completely about cost, either. We like that we are putting fewer disposable diapers into the trash and exposing our daughter to less chemicals. Plus, cloth diapers really are cute.

For more information about cloth diapering, try these great resources:

Diaper Pin

Diaper Swappers

Baby Cheapskate: Cloth Diaper Resources

I'd love to hear about your experiences with cloth diapers. Do you have any favorite brands? Why do you choose to cloth diaper?

For more frugal tips and stories, check out Biblical Womanhood's Frugal Friday!

For other articles about all things domestic, check out I am Blissfully Domestic - Week 13!