I was talking with my husband, Matt, this morning about how good we’ve been about saving money. It dawned on me that we were saving us a lot of heartache as well by starting out right with Georgie. We do three things that keep us from running out to the store daily/weekly/monthly that every parent with a small child can do. These ways of saving are also good on the environment as well!
Cloth Diapering
We decided long before we went to the delivery room that we were going to use cloth diapers with G. My friend Lindsay had started with her little one, Vada, and had a lot of good suggestions. Since then I’ve learned my own things about cloth diapering and my favorite brands.
At first glance, it might seem that cloth diapering is expensive and… it is. But in the long run it’s a LOT cheaper than disposable diapering. Do the math and you’ll see that “sposies” are the real expensive choice. One pocket cloth diaper is around $15-$18. You’ll need around 20 per child so you’re not running to the washing machine in hopes that you can wash and dry a load before she uses that last one in the drawer (and that is NOT possible). When Georgie was really little and the cloth ones didn’t fit her well, we bought sposies and they ran about $10 a pack (for brand name pampers). We bought those about twice a week. Going on that trend, it would cost us $1040 for one year of use. Our cloth diapers cost us $360 and they grow with our baby until she’s 35 pounds. That’s pretty amazing, hunh? We bought one cloth diaper from diapers.com every month (while I was pregnant) and we also registered for them on target.com. We didn’t have a complete set by the time we had her, but I was glad for that because I was able to buy another brand and I found I liked those even more!
We mostly use the Bum Genius 3.0. I prefer the 5 Fuzzi Bunz I purchased after G was born. They fit her better and are so much quicker going on. the Bum Gs are Velcro and the Fuzzis are snaps. When one is soiled, all we do is separate the shell from the liner and put them in the diaper pail (we use a trash can). There’s no need to rinse them or keep them wet or anything like that (like the old days). When washing, you wash them once on a cold cycle with 1/4 the recommended detergent, and then the same with a hot cycle with an extra rinse. Yes, I know that’s a lot of washing, but it’s always an extra small load so it’s a small amount of water being used. We love the choice we made to cloth diaper for oh so many reasons.
WASHABLE WIPES
Lindsay also clued me in to this awesome product called Baby Bits Wipes Solution. You just drop one all natural large bit in with 2 cups of water in a wipes warmer and it makes an all natural wipes solution. I made my own wipes from cotton flannel and I also received some not-so-pretty washrags as a shower gift so they were recruited to wipes duty as well. I just dip the cloth in the solution, clean Georgie up and then throw it in with the dirty diapers for a wash. It’s that simple and those Bits last a LONG time. I still haven’t had to buy any after 3 months and there’s over half a pack left. It’s amazingly economical and the bits smell lovely as well! They are great on diaper rash and you don’t have to decide whether you can get out to the store soon or use just one of your two packaged wipes left on that massive poopie diaper.
BREASTFEEDING
This is a “no duh”, but I just can’t believe how much money we’re saving by not using formula. It’s astounding how much that stuff costs and how quickly babies and eat through it. I’m happy to say that we haven’t even made a dent in the free formula given to us before the baby was here. If you’re on the fence about breastfeeding, let this one go in your plus category. If you ever need advice or someone to talk to about making the decision to breastfeed, by all means please leave me a comment and we’ll talk. It’s an amazing thing and so economical!
We’re not perfect. We do use disposable baby wipes when we go out. Matt bought an economy box with like 4 packs of wipes and we still have 3 left after 2 months, so using the homemade wipes is really handy. We do keep a pack of pampers on hand for emergencies. I had to use one yesterday because I forgot to bring the diapers up from the basement and her current diaper was already off. As for the breastfeeding, I had to use formula a bit in the beginning because I was having a massive gall bladder attack the first week Georgie was home, but since then she’s really had none of it which I’m totally proud to say.
***A big thanks to Lindsay S for helping me out in the beginning!
georgie gurl 