Cloth Diapers: A Great Value!

I think most Growing Baby Shelton readers are aware of the HUGE savings that come with cloth diapering.  For those that aren't, let me fill you in!    

Zoolikins has an awesome breakdown of the cost to use disposables in their Cloth Diaper 101 (along with a hundred other reasons why cloth is far superior)!  Parents that use disposable diapers can expect to spend an average of $3000 to diaper their babe from birth to potty training.  OUTRAGEOUS!  And then, of course, multiply that by the number of children you hope to have.  So...our family for example, could expect to spend around $12,000. 

I'd rather buy a car with that money.  I'd rather spend that money on anything other than diapers.

Surprisingly, though, not everyone feels that way (obviously...since the majority of parents use disposables).  I think a lot of people assume cloth will be difficult or smelly or just plain weird.  I also think some people are unaware of the improvements that have been made to the cloth diaper.  Whenever I tell someone we cloth diaper, they immediately picture a prefold with a giant safety pin.  Lastly, I think some people (like me) might be turned off by the price per diaper - at first.  There are so many different systems, the cost per diaper ranges from $1.50-45.00, with the average pocket dipe falling somewhere in the middle of that.

Our stash has little variance. We're mostly a BumGenius family, with a few dozen prefolds thrown in for good measure.  We stocked up on the BumGenius 3.0 All In One diapers after they were discontinued in January, and I'm proud to say we've never spent more than $9.99 per diaper (the original price was $17.99).  But even that price sounds steep to someone that's not familiar with cloth diapering.

I think we've spent around $800 on our entire stash.  Job well done, if I do say so myself!  We'll never have to buy another diaper for the rest of our diaper changing days (though we probably will, because I am a bit of a fluff shopaholic).  AND we can reuse these very diapers on our future children; meaning we'll have spent $800 instead of $12,000.

Those savings are pretty awesome, but they could be better.  What if, instead of paying $9.99 a diaper, we only had to pay $5.00 a diaper?

A friend of mine (Hi Becky!) recently opened my eyes to a new brand of cloth diapers:  Sun Baby Diapers.  These are one size pocket diapers made by a WAHM (work at home mom) named Sun Pei in Shanghai, China.  They sell for $5.00 a diaper, and they're sold in sets of one or two dozen.  Its a phenomenal value.  I absolutely love these diapers.  And don't think for one second that you're sacrificing quality or cuteness when you buy these diapers.  There are SO many cute patterns to choose from, and they are the softest diapers I've ever felt - softer than our BumGenius AND Fuzzibunz diapers.  

Here's Goosey modeling a few of my favorite prints:

So if you're still weary about choosing cloth or converting to cloth, I'd love to persuade you.  If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line or comment here. 

Are you already a cloth diapering family?  Tell me why you love it!