Monday, May 16, 2011

Go Green or Go Broke...

...this title is a little deceptive, as I'm not really a "green" person.  But before you judge me, do know that I make most of my own homeade cleaners & laundry soap, I use cloth napkins, and I never waste foods that can be labeled "dessert"...

I have two children in diapers. While we have tried EVERY brand under the sun…even the store brands, Pampers are the only ones that seem to work well on our kiddos (though we’ve been known to stick a Huggies or Luvs on them as well.) And, while we’re on the subject of brand loyalty, we’re also suckers for Huggies wipes.


If you’ve been around here long enough, you know that I have never paid full price for a package of disposable diapers & while pregnant with Jack, we stocked up using Amazon sales & Amazon gift cards earned through Swagbucks. Shortly before Jack was born, Amazon stopped putting out the wonderful 20% off coupons we had become accustomed to---and while their prices were still cheaper than Wal-Mart, the price of having two in diapers was going to weigh heavy on our bank account.

Knowing that we had a decent stockpile of disposables & wipes to last us a few months, we started seriously considering cloth diapers. We had wanted to start when Lucy was a baby, but had always gotten such great deals on disposables that the initial investment in cloth never made sense. With Pampers averaging .25 a piece, and considering we were changing 16 diapers a day on average, we were looking at spending $132 approximately per month to diaper our kids. Even with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save prices, we were looking at $85 a month….an amount we didn’t have (and still don’t) to spare each month.

We decided we needed to make the most of our current stockpile by stretching them out as much as possible, meaning adding cloth diapers to our life & using disposables only at night, naps, & church activities. We made the commitment together to “give it a shot” and hope for the best. We knew we’d have to get over the “gross” factor pretty quickly & my husband was TOTALLY on board with learning right alongside me!

So, we took the plunge, and a little over a month ago we received our first “fluff” mail…and we haven’t looked back! We have tried almost every kind of cloth diaper out there, including, pockets, all-in-ones (AIO), pre folds, flats, stay-dry inserts inside a cover & more! This past month has been a learning process…and we still have a lot to learn!

There’s the “why” we made the official switch…stay tuned for the “how” & “what” of how this is all working out, which diapers are our favorites, how much extra laundry there REALLY is & how I have grown to love cloth diapers & the subsequent clothesline that they now dry on.

1 comment:

  1. Rachel, Corrie F. sent me over to your blog... I've known Corrie since forever. :) Anyway, I just blogged about starting to cloth diaper and she suggested I come and read over here and ask questions. (Hope you don't mind.) Do you still like the BumGenius? And are you still using Rock 'N Green because I've heard mixed reviews. I'm wondering if you've tried Charlie's soap... since you've tried several brands.

    BTW, I love your commitment to green... I too never let foods classified as dessert go to waste.

    Blessings!

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