Financial benefits of cloth - myth??

[Purplebird]

Hi All :wave: ,

DH and i decided to go full time cloth mainly for environmental reasons - in this throw away society of ours I couldn't bear the thought of adding even more rubbish, especially sposies which maytake 500 years to degrade! However, I also convinced DH to let us make the initial outlay for cloth as it would save us dollars in the long term (as we plan to have another bub). Financial savings are often touted as one of the benefits of cloth. Weeeeellllll, I must say I'm not convinced about the financial benefits!!! I know this is partly because I'm now obsessed by cloth and can't stop buying them, lol, but I also think that to buy enough to go full time, including night, is really expensive. You don't get that many nappies that fit from newborn to toddler, night nappies are exxie too. If it costs about 30-40 cents for a sposie then most MCNs need to last 100 ++ washes to even equal that.

Now I'm not complaining, lol, I lurve my MCNs and would never go back, I'm just curious to know what others think. Do MCNs really, really wash and wear for years? Do they only pay for themselves if you have more than one baby? Is it only economical if you stick to, say, fitteds with wool soakers? Just for fun...thoughts please..:)

[Tam-I-Am]

Hmmmm, well lets see.

When Claire was in sposies, we were buying Huggies, and going through a box every approximately 14 day. A box of huggies costs $42 ATM, full price, and I suppose I would be buying them on special for about $32 every 4th box or so. So if we average that out, its an AVERAGE of $39.50 per box. Going on until she's 3 (she's nearly 2 1/2 and no signs of TT yet, so I'd say she'll be late doing so at about 3), that would be $3081.

Versus my Greenkids stash. Each Greenkids costs $23 for the shell and $11 for the insert. I have 26 of them - so $34 x 26 = $884. Plus, say, $50 for microfleece for liners over the years. We've just spend $70 on some raw silk liners, and a new wetbag - in addition to the $30 odd I spent on my first wetbag. I also have 48 terry towel squares that I'll be using on my next bub for the first couple of weeks, and will probably outlay on some eenies snibs at $12 a piece - so say 10 of them, $120, plus the 4 packets of terry squares at $20 a piece = $80 - $200 for the newborn nappies....

So all up that's $1234 for a fulltime cloth nappy stash with all the accessories. Oh, sorry, forgot cloth wipes - I think I spent about $30 for 30 wipes - so $1264.

And that will see me through Claire and AT LEAST 1 more child - up to the age of 3 again....

Cloth - $1264 versus Sposies - $3081 for 1 child or $6162 for 2. Yep, I'd say that's a pretty massive savings :)

[QTB]

i know what you mean OP... im addicted to buying them too... but i still think we are saving heappppps


Brayden was in sposies for the first 18months... then cloth... i only buy OSFM for brayden cos hes not gonna be in cloth too long ...so that i can use them on this bub too... but iv brought a few newborn nappys too :D

but i think in total, with buying/selling etc it still works out wayyyyyyy cheaper than sposies!

[Purplebird]

Cloth - $1264 versus Sposies - $3081 for 1 child or $6162 for 2. Yep, I'd say that's a pretty massive savings :)

Yes, point taken :laughing: :o Hooray! I can and will buy even more now...oh, and there's always the resale dollars you can get back. I do think you need to factor in the wash costs though - not that these would make a huge difference to that saving :D

[Tam-I-Am]

Oh, yeah, washing costs. Okay, its an extra full load for us per week, which, with washing powder would cost, what $2 for water, electricity and washing powder?

$2 x 52 = $104 x 3 years = $312

Add that to the above.
:p

[stellarella]

The financial savings are HUGE (if your hobby isnt collecting MCNs :o )...

I probably haven't saved as much as I could have however Oscar doesn't wear clothes....he just wears nappies/woollies and shirts and also I enjoy cloth nappies so I'm happy to spenda bit more on something that is nice rather than throw away plastic/paper sposies.

The $$$ are not the reason I use MCNs but if $$$ were an issue I could save bucketloads.

[Shanaynay]

Yep, don't forget that they are so damn funky that in summer, don't even bother buying pants, just team a MCN with a funky tee :D

[Purplebird]

Yep, don't forget that they are so damn funky that in summer, don't even bother buying pants, just team a MCN with a funky tee :D

Another excellent point - or have one poking out under a nice summer dress :D Clothing and nappies - 2 for the price of 1!

[OJandMe]

With 3 in full time cloth....


and I only buy OSFA/M...


I've saved heaps! The complete outlay cost for me was equivalent to 6 months of the boys in sposies... going through one box of Snugglers a week at $32 a box.

So far I've bought one pack of homebrand sposies for Gabby... to use in hospital when he was born... $20. and that's all I'll have to spend on him in nappy costs (bar diarrhea outbreaks.,... not using MCN's for that!!). from birth to toddler. :thumbsup:

[Snugglepot]

yep, with two in cloth I break even within 5 months, that is compared to 40c per nappy sposies and allowing some special nappies and some small ones for the bub too. It saves so much money! If you used huggies it would take about 4 months to cover the cost of one in cloth. Do the sums, it is so cheap in the long run. Although outlaying all that dosh (for us it was 1k for two in cloth seems heaps, but addup 8 sposies a day at 0.30c!!)

[HoopDeeDoo]

I can tell you it is much much cheaper, especially with 2 in nappies, and also because I've made most of my nappies myself :smiliedance: :smiliedance:

[veve]

dont know if anyone else has mentioned this .. but with sposies .. people tend to buy those nappy sacks too (so more money ) or that stoopid tommy tippee thing .. that is about $100- $200 (imagine all the MCN you could buy with that!!!! :laughing:)

I am about to have child no 2 (well .. I'm half way) - and I will definitely be buying a few new MCN .. but only because I got rid of a few that I didn't like when JAck was little . . (and .. cause they are so damn cute :D) ...

xx
Jen

[Susan Mac]

before MCN we were doing terry flats at home, disposables going out and overnight. What I have bought so far will take 8-9 months to break even, but I should be able to use them on the next baby.
I've discovered now however that I can make them myself for under half the price, so I'm making the rest from now on.

I think we have cut 3-4 loads of washing a week since switching to MCNs. :)

[greenie]

I do think you need to be careful about gettign carried away buying different nappies if you really want to see the full financial benefits of MCNs.

I have been gritting my teeth and restraining myself for the sake of my budget, because I know deep down I don't really NEED any more nappies!!

I have a stash of 20 totsbots bamboozles that have been through 20 months of constant use on my ds, and I'm completely confident they'll keep going for no. 2 (due in Feb). I have bought a few OSFA fitteds to give me some washing leeway for when I have 2 los using them at once, but really, I don't need to buy much else.

Soo, they really will have saved us loads of money by the time we're through with them!!

[kymmy]

I know using cloth has saved us from wasting money on sposies. But saying that we spend the money on other groceries instead ie. luxuries like yummy organic chocolate! I can justify that now.
I did go crazy buying cloth nappies but I know I can swap them and sell them and so it is worth it. I will still save. I can make my own knitted covers so I save there too. If I was thinking more economical I would have saved a lot. :o

[kymmy]

Oh and I have cut down my washing because with three kids its amazing how it can pile up. Washing cloth is nothing compared to the other washing I do. Its only about a tenth of our washing.

[Gabrielle]

i would like to go to clothe nappies and i would love to sew them, i just have have no idea how to go about it. would love a pattern or should i buy a couple and copie them not sure how to go about it:o .

plezse help

[Bek]

there are free patterns available on the internet - have a look on ozclothnappies.org (http://www.ozclothnappies.org) in the links section here (http://www.ozclothnappies.org/links.html#sewing)

[neostudded]

Dont forget everything is just going to continue to rise in price due to global warming.