Cost of disposies vs cloth nappies?

[meggles]

i realize huge variation out there... but...

as someone who doesn't have children yet, and is deciding between cloth & disposables. can you help me fill in the figures? i've done the following calculation based on my initial research.

let's say 2 1/2 years of disposables-
£0.50/disposable.
First 6 months- average 10nappies/day
Last 18 months- average 4nappies/day
that's £1980

let's say 2 1/2 years of cloth- using all-in-ones-
Need 24 or so. £15/each. = £360
Bucket & assorted supplies= £50
Total £410

i'm not going to try & estimate cost of doing an extra load of laundry every other day.

We used cloth nappies for dd, but she's now five, so at least 2.5 years ago1 Calculated at the time that I'd saved AT LEAST £900, and probably more. My first set of Tots were new, as were a few Imse Wimse terry nappies, but after that I bought and sold second hand nappies with gay abandon. I must have made £500 on selling nappies, added on to the £900 saved....£1400-ish.

You don't need to use all the detergent that it says on the bottle/ packet (around 50% is about right), you shouldn't use fabric conditioner at all. We had a bin with a lid from B+Q, we dry-pailed, and added a few drops of lavender oil to the bin. Only tumbled dry in the winter, when I couldn't get the Tots to dry outside.

ooh, and the washable wipes are still going strong 5 years later!

My calcs were saved on a file on the pc and have been updated now DD is 17 months

Disposables 20p each
First 6-7 months 10 a day = £60 a month * 6 =£1800
Now on 6 a day = £36 a month * 10 months = £360

Total up to now - £2160

15 nappies - £5 each (mix of new and used) £75
4small wraps =£32
4 medium wraps =£32
4 large wraps =£32

liners £2 a month for flushable. = £34
£10 for fleece material for wipes and washable liners
Nappy bucket - £4
mesh bag - £5
tea tree oil - £2 (body shop!)
lavender oil - £4

Total up to now £230

Laundry is laundry, I don't count it as I add her nappies to not very dirty clothes and use a very small amount of powder.

I also had a nappy list going with the nappy lady where my family put money into my 'account' and I spent it on what I wanted, so I saved £100 on that.

HTH!

have only just started using cloth but i have bought -

3 waterproof wraps
1 fleece wrap
1 tots bots cotton
1 packet nappy nippas
i booster and 1 fleece liner to see what they were like

cost £45 - paid for by council voucher so £0 to me

2 2nd hand bamboozles £12.50
20ish shaped terries bought a loooong time ago off ebay to try on last baby £18? but used twice now (tho not for long last time as i didnt get on with them then for some reason)

old fleece blanket cut up for liners - would have gone in bin so £0

old towel for boosters, also heading for the bin £0

2nd hand bamboo nappy and strawberry wrap which i dont need but i want £7

nappy bucket - lidded box i already had which i will use for something else so im not counting it

tea tree oil - already had some but will buy from body shop next time - thanks for tip £2

so less than £50! including the stuff i dont need. minus resale value = nowhere near as much as most people for some reason. i had better buy some new shoes to make up for it

I have found the biggest savings are actually with using washable wipes. (I have indulged myself and bought some very nice nappies and wool wraps!)Disposable wipes cost a fortune. Washable are very cheap. They can be free as in cut up old towels or fleece material you might have. And disposable ones cost about 2 pence each and disposable users get through absolutely loads!

So if you go for cloth nappies ditch the disposable wipes and youll be quids in!

I think even buying some expensive nappies Ill be a couple of thousand pounds better off after two children than using disposables. And after using cloth nappies for a while, you just find disposables so disgusting - they stink of unpleasnat unnatural smells that stay on your hands.

So go for cloth!

we spent roughly i would say £200 on cloth nappies includes wrap and bucket and only use disposables when on hols. We are expecting no 2 shortly and my little girl is nearly 22 months and we are potty training and she is now in knickers all the time except for bed at night so we are only using one nappy at night and so wash these once a week. We can now also pass these nappies on to her brother when he arrives and not need to buy any more.

The other reasons we used cloth were far better for environment, no gels in cloth and all the other things that are in there and cost and potty train quicker and the potty training does seem to have happened early which i think the cloth nappies have helped with, also i think cloth nappies look really cute on babies.

I started out with a birth to potty pack of cotton bottoms bought second hand from Ebay (those were the days). The only nappies that had been opened were the newborn, so it was virtually a new pack.
The pack included, prefolds, wraps, nappy bucket, nappy soak/wash and lots of liners, so no extra spend there.
Cost £110 inc postage - £30 cashback from local council =£80
I made fleece liners from a metre of fleece which cost about £4
Since then I have bought and sold heaps of second hand nappies. I'm not even going to try to calculate where that leaves me.

I would like to add that if you add together 6 months and 18 months you get 2 years, not 2.5 years.
I think you must have meant to write first six months then last 24 months if you are assuming that the average baby potty trains at 2.5.

I second the savings on wipes and stuff. I cut up a couple of old towels and used them as wipes, so no cost there. Just washed them with the nappies.
If you use reusable nappies, I think you tend to get into a reusable 'mind set' where you look for other ways to save money, and reduce landfill. I used to put any nappies changed whilst out into a waterproof bag, which I would wash with the nappies, so no additional costs for nappy sacks.
We used ecoballs, because our little boy developed a reaction to soap powder in his nappies, again this saved cash and allowed us to cut down on the length of wash cycle.
I think the lakeland wash ball I used was about £7.99 and was supposed to do 100 washes. Sorry, I know you weren't going to factor in laundry, but it is a consideration.

I use both cloth and disposables.

Don't count on birth to potty nappies fitting until potty training. My son grew out of those at 18 months.

I never paid any more than 10p per disposable nappy until DS was in size 6.

Just another couple of points to consider.

Looking at the OP, my main point would be that you'll need to upgrade the cloth nappies to various different sizes during those 2 1/2 years presumably. Unless you use terries, but the quality seems so poor these days that I had to give them up when DS was 8 or 9 months.

one overwhelming point has to be if it is allright for you use cloth and think of the planet

~upgrade the cloth nappies to various different sizes~

Not if you use 'one size' nappies. The Bum Genuis One Size Pocket nappies, we bought fitted our newborn DD and I also tried them on my friends 2 year old and they fitted her, over her clothes !!! So these truely are one size. At £15 each (or you can get a set cheaper) they will last though to potty training.

Though I should add that DD could take off her nappies by 5 months (at night, she is in trainer pantsduring the day) due to the velcro side tabs.

If I was going to buy nappies again, I would buy wonderoos or some other one size pocket nappy with snap side fasteners.

BumGenius didn't fit my DS when I tried one when he was 2. And I must say he isn't huge.

~BumGenius didn't fit my DS when I tried one when he was 2. And I must say he isn't huge.~

Were these the One Sized nappies or the sized nappies...they do both.

Hi Horsemadgal [waves]
I personally prefer sized nappies over birth to potty, but this needn't be a more expensive option. There is a good second hand market for cloth nappies and generally it is easy to sell on size one nappies using a buy and sell forum like the nappy lady.
Typically, you need fewer size two or large nappies than size ones. The proceeds of twenty four size one nappies could make quite a large contribution to the money needed to buy around 16 - 18 of the next size.

BabiesEverywhere, yes it was the one size. Just annoying that birth to potty nappies never are.

Maisiemog, hi, how are you? Totally agree with you there. And yes, just as well second hand cloth sells so well or I'd be bankrupt by now!! It's size 3 and XL's we are using and it's so sad that you don't get many 'nice' ones.

~Just annoying that birth to potty nappies never are.~

I agree that must be annoying. We are lucky that our 10 month old DD is EC'ed and hence in Trainer pants now and they are super cheap £3.50 a pair but if we were still using the Bumgenius nappies full time and she grew out of them I would not be impressed.

For my 2p worth, as always!

Cost - I agree with FlameDelacour that real nappies definitely work out cheaper no matter how you look at it. WEN recon that with six changes per day at 16.9p per disposable nappy the average cost is £7.10 per week, and the overall cost of using disposables is £922.74 over 2.5 years. They also calculate that laundry costs (including washing machine depreciation, detergent and energy) costs £133 over 2.5 years. So £922.74 - £133 means cloth nappies would have to cost £789.74 to even begin to compare to the cost of disposables. And when you think of it that way, who spends over £700 on cloth nappies?? Even shaped and sized in all the sizes?

BTP - And while BTP may not always be BTP (they are for some people, my friend for one) they CAN save you money if they do the majority of your LO?s nappy-wearing life COMPARED TO buying all sized ones at each stage.

Convenience - changing wise, cloth is no more or less inconvenient than disposables. Washing, no more so than taking a bag of rubbish out. Drying, perhaps less inconvenient than having to go to the shops/order online more disposables. But using cloth is not an all-or-nothing situation. Use cloth when it suits, and disposables when you haven?t got laundry facilities on hand.

I must say, I still don?t know why people use disposables full time. There seems no reason why people can?t use cloth SOME of the time, after all even full-time working mums find time to wash their clothes! Like I said, my 2p worth!!

Oh, and the MEOS still fits my DS at 14 months (with heaps of growing room still) but the Bum Genuis OS doesn?t!

I've only ever used size 2 totbots and I think they will last the course.

CONVIENIENCE - I feel that having a bin full of stinky disposables within the house or taking the bin out everyday (Although in my new house they only collect the bins once per week)or doing the shopping for disposables would personally be more vexing than slamming a few cloths in the wash and then hanging them to dry.

I also use a wet bag to store nappies when out so don't have to use those nasty little bags either (more savings.

I have a dislike of the way disposables smell when wet or dirty, it really bothers me so never use them anymore.

Agree with SAHMof1 that it doesnt have to be all or nothing...i use cloth all the time at home and out locally but if on hol or away for day then i use disposables, plus DS nursery uses disposables and we are not charged for nappies so he is in them 3 days a week there. I know a few people who do a bit of pick and mix as it were.

I was also given the advice not to bother using the cloth ones for the first six weeks purely as you have enough to do then and could be setting yourself up to fail. Mind you i will use tem earlier with my next baby just cos im up and running now as it were.

This serves to give me an excellent comparison between the two and as time goes on just reinforces my belief that cloth are actually easier. Disposables always seem to leak poo more easily and they absolutely bloody stink once you are past the milk stage.

We have used the same cloth nappies for 3 children, mostly Motherease, I guess we spent maybe £300 altogether on nappies and wraps but we didn't particularly buy the cheapest and we had enough for 2 children in nappies at one point. I don't know what the washing costs are but we wash at 40 or 60 degrees twice a week, and don't tumble dry.

When I've tried to estimate what we've saved over the 7 nappy years but it has to be several thousand pounds.

but we certainly can't resell ours after they've been through 3 children, they work fine but look a bit shabby.

Motherease one size HAVE fitted all of mine from birth to potty training. And my children were fairly sturdy of thigh.

Corikey, I have done comparisons in the past and came up with:

Disps: £5/week. Over 2.5 yrs=£650. About 10-15p each, and you can get away with a lot less than 10/day for under 6 months.

Cloth: I added up all the bits, including washing costs, came up with about £350 for first child, costs going down for subsequent children.

Those prices are five years old, should be upgraded for inflation, but still I've never accepted that cloth saves that much more money.

I do use cloth, btw!