A cost benefit analysis

As usual I am naking right now, so please forgive any typos. After Omi is done eating, I will have to do one of my least favorite household chores: washing the diapers.

Since Manda mentioned the other day that she isn't sure whether she will use cloth diapers or disposables (aka sposies) I thought I'd analyze whether or not it's worth it.

The average infant goes through 3000 diapers the first year. They use less diapers as they get older, but the diapers get more expensive, so we'll just use that figure for until they potty train.

Sposies:

The average child wearing disposables potty trains between age 2.5 and 3. They might not be fully potty trained until close to 3.5 at nighttime. But that's only one dipe a day. So we'll use 2.5
2.5 x 3000 is 7500. If you shop sales and are fairly cost conscious about buying cheap diapers, the cost for sposies is probably about $0.20 each. A total cost of about $1500. You might be able to get by cheaper, if you are especially good at shopping sales. Then again, if you aren't a sale shopper and just by name brand diapers at regular price, you could easily spend $2500.

Cloth:

The average child wearing cloth diapers potty trains between age 1.5 and 2 (pretty cool eh?). The further analysis is pretty hard to do because there are so many variations in types of cloth diapers. You probably would want to wash diapers every other day to every third day, so we'll say 3 times per week. (Okay so, you'd probably never want to wash diapers, but that's another matter). So you'd probably want to have about 3 dozen diapers or so.

Basic Cheap - Plastic Pants, Pins, and Simple Prefolds. You can by a dozen prefold, birdseye weave, dundee diapers (my favorite brand) for $10.00, similar diapers in other brands are about $12.00. Some brands sell these as burp cloths (what a hoot!). Diaper pins are usually about $1.00 for 4. I would think you'd want two packages of these. Then plastic pants usually run about $3.00 per pair. You probably would want 6 pairs or so of these in each of 4 sizes (S,M,L, XL), although you can probably skip M and just jump from S to L. So 4x3x6 = $72. The cost of a load of laundry can vary a great deal from about $.03 to $.10 depending on what detergent you use. So we'll use the more expensive number .10x52weeksx2years = $10.40 . You might want to add something to keep the diaper pails smelling fresh (e.g. detergent, baking soda etc.) and you might add something to the wash as a softener (vinegar or baking soda work well). So maybe add another $.05 per load so the cost would be $15.80. So the total then would be 12x3= 36 + 72 +16 (because I don't like adding in 15.80) =$124.

But if you want anything more than the basic (velcro wraps, wool covers (if you don't make your own from wool sweaters, snappis, fitted diapers, you could easily spend more than that). If you buy expensive diapers I could see someone even spending that $1500. But I would guess the average cloth diaper user spends close to $250. I personally prefer pins and plastic pants or wool sweater covers, but I spent a lot of money on other things before I reached that conclusion.

In some places there is a diaper service option where you pay someone and they pick up the diapers and wash them for you. I don't know what this costs, it isn't available here.

G-pants - Are velcro wraps that you can put liners in. They have washable cloth liners or flushable/biodegradable liners. If you use the flushable liners, you aren't really saving money (you might even be spending more depending on how many wraps you need). But you are saving the environment. With the cloth you would be saving both ways. Many day cares are even willing to use these with the flushable liners. Which if your child is in daycare at all they probably wouldn't except cloth.

I use cloth part time and sposies part time. I would like to use cloth full time. But the prospect of taking cloth diapers everywhere is somewhat intimidating to me.

So the only advantage of sposies is convenience. But that is a big advantage. However, I think if I wanted to use them full time that I would definitely go with the g pants. And if I were expecting my first, I would ask for them as baby shower gifts. You can also get cloth as baby shower gifts. I don't think we have bought a single cloth diaper. And we have probably been given close to a gross of them (many have been passed on to others).