At .10 per disposable diaper, surely disposable are more affordable than cloth, right? As the owner of a busy cloth diapering store, Granola Babies, I often get questions whether cloth diapers really are more affordable than disposable diapers. For example, recently I heard, “I’m getting my disposables diapers at a great sale, so it’s actually cheaper than cloth diapers.”
“Really? Let’s do the math.”
At .10 cents a disposable diaper, plus .13 cents per wipe and assuming if you’re like most parents, you need at least 2-4 wipes for a diaper change. And you’re changing a diaper about 8 times a day (most pediatricians recommend changing your baby every 2-3 hours). You’re looking at roughly $40 a month for disposable diapers and wipes – really affordable disposable diapers and wipes that are at least non-scented (since we’re comparing with cloth diapers). That means that in that first year alone, you’ll spend about $480 total for disposable diapers (again very affordable disposable diapers – any other more “natural” disposable diaper will be a lot more).
Now, let’s do the math for cloth diapers and since we’re comparing simple, super affordable disposable diapers, we should also compare simple, super affordable cloth diapers – prefolds and covers. You’d need 24 prefolds + 6 covers + 24 cloth wipes. The total cost is $152 total – from newborn through potty training.
Super cheap disposable diapers at $480 for the first year (doesn’t even include the second year or third year) vs. $152 for cloth diapers. Cloth diapers wins! Even with the most affordable disposable diapers, cloth diapers still wins when it comes to affordability.
There are so many other factors that make cloth diapering even more affordable. And our spreadsheet with a detailed cost analysis between generic disposable diapers and more luxurious cloth diapers also shows the savings when using cloth diapers.
For every budget there’s a cloth diapering system. Most parents are actually not buying the .10 cents disposable diapers (which as we shown are still more expensive than cloth diapers). They are buying the more expensive disposable diapers and spending a good $40 a box each time and some parents are spending this on a weekly basis. The costs of using disposable diapers on a child from birth through potty training are easily $2,000 - $3,000. Whereas the costs of cloth diapering even at the most basic cloth diapering system is about $150 from birth through potty training. And should a parent use a more elaborate cloth diaper, it’s still around $600 (for all-in-one cloth diapers) vs. $2,000. Again, this doesn’t factor in other savings with cloth diapers, such as using cloth wipes.
Choosing cloth diapers is greater than disposable in so many levels. Price is only one of these. But, less rashes, no chemicals, no toxins, safer and better for our environment (that’s a price we’re all paying into every single day because of disposable diapers…and another blog post all together), more enjoyable, softer on baby (would your baby prefer softness over paper on his bum?) , and the pride of knowing you’ve chosen a path that while saves your budget, also saves the greater good of everyone around you…including your baby.
Don’t be fooled by the lure of what seems cheaper than cloth diapers options. Do the math, or take our word, as we’ve done the math for parents many many times – cloth diapers are always more affordable than disposable diapers.
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