Cloth Diapers

One of the main things that I do in my household to save money is by making and using cloth diapers. I cut out a pattern and then sew basically a cover together that I insert a regular cloth diaper into. They are fairly simple to make and do not take much time and they have been very helpful in times that we are tight on money. 

One of the most common complaints of people on cloth diapers is that you do extra laundry. Well, my husband has two pairs of work pants-that I keep having to re-stitch up because he does not know how not to get his pants caught on something at work and rip them-and so I have to do laundry at least every other day to keep up on his laundry. So, all I do is add the small diapers in and it really does not add to my total laundry load. I still do as many loads of laundry as we always have.

Another common complaint that I have heard is that it is gross and messy. Look, the pee diapers are easy, take off the diaper, take out the insert and toss them into the washing machine. Yes, when the child has a bowel movement there is a little more work into IF you do not want to just throw it into the machine with the rest of your clothes. What I do is hold the clean end of the diaper cover after I have already put the insert into the washing machine-the insert really hardly every gets any poo on it as they get a few months of age-and dip in the toilet several times and most of it comes off into the toilet and I flush it away without ever getting my hands dirty. Now I like to be sure that I will not have any stains, so I go a step further and finish rinsing off any residue in the sink and then toss it into the washer. Easy as that.

I do still use disposables at night, my daughter sleeps longer and better and I do not have to worry about waking up to a really wet diaper. We buy a small pack of Parent's Choice diapers (which is almost twenty dollars) and that can last us the entire month because of the cloth diapers which do not have any extra charge after I bought the material. Basically, I probably saw my break even point a few months ago. Plus, I used coupons on the material to make the diapers (Joan's is a great store for that).

I really do enjoy using cloth diapers, not only do they save me a bunch of money every week, but I also feel better because disposable diapers never completely break down in the dump. So it is even better for the environment. We also do a few other things around the house to save money from the "extra laundry usage" that everyone thinks exist but does not for us. We conserve our flushes and only flush about every four uses. Of course, if it is number two then a flush is required. We also put a capped plastic soda bottle filled with water into the tank. This makes it fill up much quicker and thus less water is used. I also plan to start making our own laundry detergent-I actually learned the recipe from a fellow student in speech class in college-so that I can save even more and avoid any harsh chemicals.

Please comment if you know of any other ways to save money and I hope to one day be set up to where I could sell diapers that I make for the people who would not have the time and/or skills to make them. They would be very affordable because I want you to save like I do. Thank you for your time and keep checking back for more money saving tips!