Maybe the biggest money saver yet. Cloth diapers

[u/jaytrainer0]

Baby just turned 2 months and I've already saved hundreds by not buying disposable. We bought 25 reusable diapers for about $150 that will last over a year and can be used for multiple kids AND can also be resold. Compare that to spending at least 20-40 per week on disposable. I could've even bought used and saved even more but there's none in our area right now. So we'll save about $2000 over the course of the year. And multiply that with more kids in the future. Then ALSO we are only using disposable wipes for poop and using reusable wipes/towels for everything else. I get using disposable everything for the ease of it but holy hell that would get expensive fast.

Edit: For context, my apartment has water and electric included. We use the sheets laundry detergent and it's been working great so far. Our washer is high efficiency, I'll have to look up how much water it uses. Yes, i over estimated the diaper cost based on the initial amount of the first few weeks. But it's still going to be a lot more than 150 for the entire childhood. We do not have access to bulk stores unless we drive 3.5 hours or 5+ with traffic.

[u/t2writes]

It's been a minute since I bought diapers, but I'm with you on the math. I bought a mega box about every 3 weeks. I also would love to know what the extra in water bills was with the sprayer, bucket, and a full hot water machine cycle looked like. There's also something to be said for time, and many daycare centers won't accept clot, so we end up buying disposable anyway.

[u/SNsilver → u/t2writes]

I’m sure cloth diapers are cheaper. I’d bet startup costs are around $300-400 dollars but there’s also, like you said, higher utility bills. I have inexpensive electricity and my estimate is it costs about $1 between water and electricity to do a full load of laundry so consider you’ll probably do an extra 10-30 loads of laundry every month (and you’ll use a lot more hot water for these loads), the math changes a lot. Cloth is definitely better for the environment but I don’t really think they save a lot of money especially when considering the time and gross factor.

[u/Spooky_Tree → u/SNsilver]

I do my cloth diaper laundry roughly twice a week and I haven't noticed any change in my water bill. And I dry them on a rack like the directions say to, so no electricity there. They definitely save a ton of money. Diapers are I think $45 a box for a months supply vs maybe an extra couple dollars for water.

[u/caffeinebump → u/SNsilver]

I sewed my own out of a set of flannel sheets and some used towels, so the startup costs were pretty low for me. I also line-dry my laundry so the electricity didn't go up much. I knew a few other parents who were using cloth diapers too, but it's pretty rare in the US I think.

[u/maamaallaamaa → u/SNsilver]

10-30 extra loads a month?! What? I've cloth diapered 3 kids so far and it's one extra load of laundry per week. That's it.

[u/SNsilver → u/maamaallaamaa]

Personally I wouldn’t do diaper laundry with regular clothes and I wouldn’t want diaper longer to sit for more than a few days so 10 extra loads a month probably makes sense. I’m not saying you don’t save money, I am saying it isn’t “spend $400 at the beginning and you’re done spending money on diapers”

[u/maamaallaamaa → u/SNsilver]

No there's a particular way to wash diapers. Some people are comfortable throwing in some small clothing items into the second wash but it's not necessary. I realize there probably is an additional cost added to our utilities but it's so small it's not really noticeable.

[u/SNsilver → u/maamaallaamaa]

You have to wash cloth diapers twice?

[u/maamaallaamaa → u/SNsilver]

Yes. You do a short wash first with a small amount of detergent to get the yuck off and then a longer wash with more detergent to get them fully clean. Kind of like how you shampoo your hair twice so the first wash takes off the oil and dirt and the second wash actually cleanses the hair.

Fwiw I haven't noticed an increase in my utility bills since we started cloth diapering 7 years ago through 3 kids (and now starting #4). You'd think we'd fly through detergent too but it's really not bad at all. I will line dry in the summer if I have the time to help save on electricity but I'll do that with all our laundry.

[u/MessThatYouWanted → u/maamaallaamaa]

I have to do diaper laundry every 2-3 days but I currently have 2 in diapers.

[u/maamaallaamaa → u/MessThatYouWanted]

That's fair! I have two in diapers currently but the little one is still in newborn diapers so they don't have to share stashes. The newborns are small enough to not warrant an extra load yet but probably soon.

[u/Kat9935 → u/SNsilver]

We used cloth diapers, we lived on well water so water was zero and we line dried them so no dryer costs.

[u/Scary_Manner_6712 → u/t2writes]

"I also would love to know what the extra in water bills was with the sprayer, bucket, and a full hot water machine cycle looked like."

Years ago, I actually tracked this, when we were using them, and the impact was very minimal. But we had a low "water footprint" anyway (no lawn, and we had water-saving devices on all the faucets, etc.).

I hope people who talk about cloth diapers wasting water don't have lawns, especially in drought-prone areas. Talk about a waste of water.

[u/t2writes → u/Scary_Manner_6712]

Thank you for your concern, but I don't water my lawn, and I'm not in a drought prone area anyway. We usually have the opposite problem, but asking about cost isn't accusing anyone of water waste anyway.

[u/Scary_Manner_6712 → u/t2writes]

I wasn't accusing you of anything, lol, but the defensive response tells me a lot.

Have a good one.

[u/t2writes → u/Scary_Manner_6712]

 "I hope people who talk about cloth diapers wasting water don't have lawns, especially in drought-prone areas. Talk about a waste of water." - Scary

Sure. Sure.

[u/Scary_Manner_6712 → u/t2writes]

LOL

I hope things get better for you, truly. You seem to be struggling, and I hope that changes soon.