In this post, I would like to give you some tips on saving even more money with cloth diapering.
It's quite clear that using cloth saves you a great deal of money, compared to disposables. Your one-time cost when going cloth is about 600 euro. Taken on account that children take longer to potty train when they're on disposables, you're looking at 2,5 to three years of disposables which comes down to 1400 euro.
Those 600 euro for the cloth diapers last until your child is fully potty trained and might even serve for a second or even a third child (hey, I even reused my old diapers from the eighties as burp cloths, talking about getting a lot of mileage out of them). Sure, they can wear, but they can often be repaired too.
TIP 1
When your velcro is worn out, simply take it off and replace it. You can even choose to replace velcro with snaps, and you don't need to be a professional tailor to do so.
TIP 2
Cut up some cotton or sponge towel to use instead of baby wipes. I have a little plant spritzer with water I use to wet the squares and that's all you need. If you have a tap near your changing space, you can opt for using a washcloth too.
TIP 3
Fabric liners are another easy thing to make. Cut them out of fleece, sponge towel or thick ribbed cotton jersey. Be creative, you can even reuse worn T-shirts if you layer them. You can either make square pads or more ergonomic ones. And again, for this job, you don't need a lot of experience sewing.
TIP 4
Paper liners can be washed too. I always wash mine if she has only peed on them. They even was two or three times.
TIP 5
When you are making your initial buy, shop around. Google it, nose through webshops, ask your friends. You might find some sales, you might get some handy-downs. Sometimes small mommy-run businesses make good quality diapers for less than the bigger brands. Plus most of the time these are customizable, so all the more fun. Trial packs can also be a good idea. Often they are cheaper and it's a great way to test out a few brand before sticking with one.
TIP 6
Don't buy everything at once. If money is short, this is a good way to split the cost. Your child only needs size S the first 5 to 7 months, you can postpone buying size L until later. This will also give you the time to find out if you are happy with the brand you own.
TIP 7
AIO's (all in one) are a great way to avoid having to result to disposables when you're out and about and might save you some $$.
TIP 8
Buy enough diapers. Now this might seem counter intuitive, but the bigger your stash the less frequently you have to wash, the less they will wear and the less work you have.
TIP 9
Let them run around bare bottom every once in a while. It's not such a big deal to clean a pee or a poop off the ground (if your flours aren't carpeted, of course). They also learn a little about themselves this way, and in the end, that's some less diapers to wash and iron.
TIP 10
Use soap nuts or a bio wash ball. I haven't tried the bio wash ball myself, but I've heard some great things about them. I can however vouch for the wash nuts. We've been using them for over two years now and our clothes are still squeaky clean. It costs about 14 to 17 euro for one kilo and we only use two bags a year (and I assure you, tropical climate dirties up your laundry like nothing else, and add to that a hubby squeezing himself into narrow oily and dirty shafts half the time for a living and who spends the other half of his time climbing dirt piles...). It also spares you the fabric softener; we only use white vinegar and the odd drop of essential oil.
Laura Schuerwegen is a stay at home expatriate mother who lives in Côte d'Ivoire. She studied Communication Sciences at the VUB (Brussels). Her daily writings about cloth diapering, attachment parenting and unschooling can be found at http://mamapoekie.blogspot.com.
She also has a fanpage on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Authentic-Parenting/463381595229.
