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The Diaper Drama - The Costs
by
Heather L. Sanders
www.ohmystinkinheck.com
* Breakdown
of the following costs can be found at 'The
Bottom Dollar' *
Until I challenged myself to put the numbers
together, I was 'in the dark' about the amount of money our family's budget
'threw away' to diaper our first child in disposables. It is an undeniable
FACT that disposable diapers (and commercial baby wipes) are one of the highest and
perpetual expenses hidden away in the monthly expenditures of families
with diaper-age children.
Something to Consider
When arriving at your own figure
for the cost of disposables, remember that your baby will spend around
22,000 hours in diapers (based on Newborn to 30 Months usage). This
will call for about 6500 to 7000 diapers!
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I figured what we would spend on disposable
diapers (my totals here are based on year 2000 costs -the year of
my 2nd daughters' birth) to help estimate whether or not it was an advantage
economically to 'go' with cloth diapers. I usually purchased the
store brand for the price difference, but would buy Huggies® or Pampers®
if I had a coupon that 'matched' it to my store brand cost. My totals
showed an average expenditure of $81.73/month (including wipes). OUCH!!!
Assessing the costs of different diapering
systems and the costs to Wash-n-Care for
them, I estimated an average savings of $44 to $54 per month! FOLKS,
THAT IS AN AVERAGE SAVINGS OF $1320 to $1620 IN ONLY A 30 MONTH PERIOD!
For our two girls this savings has QUANTITATIVE VALUE when it's considered
that those savings could MAX OUT their Education IRA contributions for
nearly 2 years! Whew! Puts the 'inconvenience' of washing into perspective!
From a different angle (and KNOW THIS, it took
several 'angles' to convince my husband to switch to cloth), we would recoup
our family's initial costs, depending on the diapering system chosen, in
anywhere from 2 to 6 months! HELLO . . . did you catch that?!
That was an enormous 'wake-up' call! After a maximum of 6 months,
we would essentially be cloth diapering with the minimal costs of
Wash-n-Care.
To an extent, these are costs already figured into our budget and would
represent little difference (see 'The
Bottom Dollar'). As an added bonus ~ it was considered an 'investment'
for subsequent children born into our family. Without this 'investment'
we would, once again, THROW AWAY another $2300 to disposable diapers for
the next child.
It was crystal clear that the COST COMPARISONS
of cloth-v-disposable diapers truly was a NON-ISSUE.
CLOTH WON - HANDS DOWN!
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ARE WE BEING PROGRAMMED?
"Disposable diaper manufacturers,
just like formula companies, give away their products to hospitals to gain
new customers . . . [it is estimated] that 75% of the hospitals in the
country use disposable diapers."
Source: The Diaper Debate:
Ten Years Later by Jane McConnell . |
© 2002, Heather L Sanders. May not be reprinted without permission.
About the Author:
I am truly blessed to be married to an endearing husband (who is an incredible daddy) to be a SAHM to 2 vibrant and energetic gals, one precious little man and to do something I LOVE! My website was built out of my pure addiction to cloth diapering, natural parenting, writing and a desire to turn my full-time job as a SAHM to a WAHM! The Diaper Drama was my true, personal journey from disposables to cloth and has my heart woven all through it.
Heather L. Sanders
ohmystinkinheck.
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