set up costs!

I think a lot of people think of the start up costs of using cloth diapers, and that puts them off - because paying hundreds of dollars in one go, CAN be very off putting, especially if you don't have hundreds of dollars just floating around.  But I am here to tell you that you don't NEED to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars!  I personally think that prefolds & covers are the cheapest way to go, probably followed by OSFA (one size fits all) AIO's or pocket diapers....

So I have done some research online - using New Zealand websites, to get some cost comparisons for the price of diapers from birth to potty training...
*** please keep in mind these prices are for brand new nappies, from reputable stores - you CAN certainly pick up preloved diapers a lot cheaper (I may actually add an example to this post) 


Real Nappies have a 'birth to potty' pack which costs $600 and contains 6.5dozen prefolds, 23 wraps, 8 rolls of 100 liners, 2 bags of nappy sanitiser, 2 night time boosters, 1 pair of potty training pants and 1 wetbag

& when searching various websites I found Tweedle have 6 packs of small prefolds for $19.80, and 6 packs of regular prefolds for $21.60, and on YoYo Nappy I found a cover which has a OSFA option, for $25.00.  This little combnation would come to a total of $344.00 (2doz small prefolds, 1.5doz regular prefolds & 8 covers)

When it comes to OSFA pocket diapers, the cheapest I could find were from Cherub Tree, where you can get 20 OSFA pockets for $349.70... 20 is the minimum number of pockets I would be wanting & is what I started out with.

Sticking with Cherub Tree, I also found their AIO diapers for a bulk price of 447.70 for 20 diapers.  Again, 20 is the minimum amount of diapers I would want to have on hand

I know a lot of people will still be thinking that $344.00 is expensive, particularly at one time, so for an example of how cheap you can do things, here are some examples I found on TradeMe...

• 18 prefolds (regular size) - $40.00 buy now
• 18 prefolds (small size) - $40.00 buy now
• 8 prefolds (newborn size) - $20.00 buy now
• 8 Real Nappies wraps (newborn size) - $20.00 buy now
• 4 Real Nappies wraps (infant size) - $20.00 buy now
• 5 Bummis wraps (small/infant size) - $35.00 buy now

there are none on right now, but you can see from those prices that you could most likely find 6-8 medium wraps for $30.00-40.00, so you could almost say you could get a whole system on TradeMe for just over $200.00 (most people I've spoken to have said they've not had to go past a size medium for wraps)



So here are some of the 'cheaper' deals I came up with on my search - keeping in mind these are for TOTAL diaper packs, that will do from birth-3yo approx

• TradeMe prefolds & wraps, some used, some unused, some barely used - $200 approx
• Tweedle prefolds & YoYo Nappy covers - $344.00
• Cherub Tree OSFA pockets - $349.70
• Cherub Tree OSFA AIO's - $447.70
• Real Nappies 'birth to potty pack' - $600.00 (lots of extras)

What is important to remember is that you DON'T need to buy everything all at once...  There is no reason you can't buy items as you need them (unless of course you are getting a bulk deal), and remember to email the owner of the store to find out if they do lay-by (lay-away).  I was able to pay off my initial stash of OSFA pocket diapers, over the space of about 12 weeks, which made it VERY attainable!  Another way to develop a stash of diapers that won't cost the world, is to join an online cloth diapering forum, such as The Nappy Network (NZ) or Diaper Swappers & check out their 'FSOT' (for sale or trade) areas - I have purchased a lot of my diapers this way & definitely won't hesitate to do it again!

You can of course spend a lot of money building your stash if you wish - I'm a believer that when it comes to cloth diapers, you often do pay for quality - not that I'm saying the cheaper options I've mentioned above are bad quality - I have used all of those brands & have no complaints!  But if you did want to spend hundreds - urm, even getting toward the thousand (plus!) dollar mark it would be very easy... it all comes down to what you feel is acceptable to pay, because when you are done with the diapers there is a market for used diapers, so you could guarantee to make some of your money back!

If you ask me, trawling the internet for hours looking at diaper options & what prints etc you JUST HAVE TO HAVE, is a lot more exciting than walking into the supermarket & chucking a pack of 'sposies' in your trolley!

Why I love..... Bummis!

Super Brite

One of the first diaper brands I tried was Bummis... the first ever wraps that I bought were a blue, a green & pink Super Brite wrap, for use over prefolds.  The initial reason I bought them was purely because they looked cute - up until then I just had solid colour diapers, and so badly wanted to get a cute print... I came a cross the Bummis Super Brites on TradeMe & just couldn't resist purchasing them!  You wouldn't believe my excitement when they arrived - actually, those of you who cloth diaper would believe it, but anyone who doesn't - well, you'll be thinking "excited about a stupid diaper.. what the...?".

'Flower' SWW

'Bloom' SWW

After the first use of a 'SB' (Super Brite) I realised just how FUNCTIONALLY awesome the wrap was.  Unlike [most] other wraps I looked at, the SB's have leg gussets, which is a function I believe ALL wraps should have... they make sure that anything that accidentally escapes the prefold or fitted underneath, stays contained inside, but I've also found that for overnight use they cover a VERY bulky diaper easily....  Emersyn (as I have posted previously) is a very heavy wetter at night, and while the Bamboo has helped to improve the situation, I'm still finding that by the time she gets up in the morning she is wet, so have begun putting the SB cover over top... and even if the pocket diaper underneath is wet through, her pyjamas (and skin) are still nice and dry.  This is possibly why she has started sleeping a lot better over the last week - she's a little more comfortable. 

'Jungle' SWW

So I love Bummis [Super Brites] because of their leg gussets, but I also love the prints - particularly the Super Whisper Wrap (SWW) prints.  My first SWW prints I had were 'Jungle', 'Froggy Pond', 'Flower' & 'Celery Dot' - and more recently I have added 'Ladybug' & 'Bloom' prints to my collection.  Dotted around this blog post are pictures of the SB & SWW from the Bummis website - and are examples of the print-cuteness that I couldn't resist!  There are a few other new prints that I'd love to get, but have decided to wait until I have gotten over the novelty of having the new 'Bloom' & 'Ladybug' prints!

'Ladybug' SWW

The only downside for me, of the Bummis SWW is that they don't have leg gussets.  My perfect wrap would be a Bummis SWW with leg gussets..... the ideal combination of cute prints - but also the excellent function that is the leg gusset!  For the most part I have only used wraps over prefolds, but now I seem to be using wraps over fitted diapers more than the prefolds - and am still very impressed with how well they work.

My Clothaholic World

I never imagined that just over a year ago when I decided to exclusively cloth diaper my daughter Emersyn (who was still tucked safely inside at that stage), that it would turn into such an obsession for me - and yes, I think obsession is a fairly apt word to describe my love for cloth!  I started out with 20 OSFA pocket diapers, all the same brand - and thought that would be all I would need - or want.  However after spending some time on the cloth diapering board at JustMommies, it didn't take long for me to realise what was on offer out there in the world of cloth - OR that I wanted to try it alllllllll!

Emersyn arrived on June 16 2010 & I began cloth diapering her when she was 2 weeks & 3 days old (yes, very exact - I know!), her little but looked so big & bulky in her OSFA diapers, but at the same time they were too cute to NOT use.  For a couple of weeks I was more than happy with the OSFA diapers, but after a little searching on TradeMe one day, I realised that I too could have all the cute cloth the American ladies on my forum had - there was a mass of diapers for sale on TradeMe - some new, some used... considering money was tight, I decided to purchase a couple of preloved diapers, I don't remember right now what they were - but it was certainly the beginning of this clothaholism.

Fast forward 9 (beautiful!) months & my stash (that's a technical term in the cloth diapering world) is huge, and full of various brands of diapers, and various types of diapers.

Types? of diapers - I here you ask yourself.  Yes.  There isn't just one type of cloth diaper - they are split into 4 main categories

1. pockets
2. AIO's (all in ones) / AI2's (all in twos)
3. fitteds
4. prefolds

each of course having their own list of pros and cons, which I assure you I will go into in the not too distant future.  I can understand why cloth diapering can be overwhelming to those starting out - there is SO much out there that it can be hard to know where to start!  I personally started out as a huge fan of pockets (because they were all I had), I then bought some prefolds & covers - and fell in love with THOSE... a couple of months later I purchased my first fitteds, and again it was love at first sight/use.... Very recently I have started purchasing a few AIO's - and again....... LOVE.

If I had to sum it up, cloth diapering for me is LOVE... it's love for your little one, love for the environment & love for the adorable fluffiness that IS the modern cloth diaper ('MCD')....

My little clothbutt has just woken up, so I do need to sign off now to go and put another cute diaper on her little booty - but with that mention of 'clothbutt' - why not check out my 365 day photo challenge blog - CLOTH-BUTT CUTENESS 365 - with the focus being on - you guessed it, cloth diapers!  365 days in a row of cloth diaper photos to be precies!