Diapers

When Aurelia was in my belly, I seriously considered cloth-diapering. It is natural and great for the environment and apparently makes it easier to potty train because kids feel more wet in them then disposables. It was also supposedly cheaper in the long run. Not knowing whether she would be in daycare (and how they would handle cloth diapers) was a concern that eventually led us to just use the disposables-- as well as the idea of all that poo lying around the house!!

I regret the decision a little; apparently handling the poo gets easier with time and there are so many cool contraptions (a diaper sprayer that attaches to your toilet, for example) that make the process less narsty. As a new couponer, it would have been nice for me to never have to buy diapers, ever ever again... those suckers are expensive!!

That being said, I would like to inform you all that my kids will be diapered for four months each before I need to buy a new package. If Aurelia wasn't asleep in her room now, I would take a photo of the mass stockpile I have of Huggies.

A friend of mine cloth-diapers, and she was telling me how wonderful it is to never need to buy diapers, after that initial investment of course. The inserts, covers, inventions and dread of extra laundry and poo-cleanup would run me about $450. A package of diapers, not on sale, costs about $9.99 for 36 (there are fewer diapers as the sizes get bigger, but the rate of use is also fewer... I am using current trends for this paradigm). This adds up to about 0.28 per diaper. At a rate of use of 6 diapers per day, this would cost me $1.68 a day to use disposables. If I was to spend the $450 on a cloth-diapering system, it would take 268 days to pay for itself. If I had already been doing this, it would almost be paid for. However, since I have been couponing, I spend no more than 0.15 per diaper (and, when I'm really lucky, only 0.07 per; thank you, Walgreens!!). At this rate (0.90 per day), it would take the cloth diapers 500 days or almost a year and a half to pay for itself. I hope to be starting on potty training by 2 years.

This factoid helped to stave of the guilt of the cost of convenience, but I am sorry for the environment. To counter it, I recycle everything that even looks remotely recyclable and I am considered donating compost to a community garden that feeds the poor. We only have two bags of trash for pickup ever week, but always a full recycle bin.

Don't judge me for using disposable diapers!!