Diapers

Most babies wear diapers. However, there are many different types of diapers to choose from. Currently, we use cloth diapers at home and disposable diapers at daycare. I wasn’t sure if cloth diapers would make financial sense for just one baby but at the time we were planning on having 2-3 so I figured it would make sense in the long-term. Today, I decided I had enough data to estimate a break-even point for cloth diapers. Assuming our current variables remain comparable, we will break-even when Calvin reaches 16 months. Here are the caveats:

  • Because of daycare, about 1/2 of Calvin’s diapers are disposable and 1/2 are cloth. If we exclusively used cloth, we would have broken even at around 8 months.

  • I got a fairly expensive all-in-one cloth diaper that is suppose to fit up to 35 lb babies. If you stick to pre-folds and diaper covers, you can do this for much cheaper. However, I really love my diapers and wouldn’t trade them.

  • For our disposable diapers, we buy Costco brand which is good quality but a fairly inexpensive option. If Calvin wore disposable diapers exclusively, we would pay around $50/month for diapers which is on the low side of the typical range (I estimate that Calvin goes through slightly more than 50 diapers a week).

  • Obviously, cloth diapers are more labor intensive. However, it’s really not as bad as I thought it would be. The most time-consuming part is stuffing them but I usually do that while watching tv. Gives me an excuse to watch TV without feeling lazy :-)

Downs

  • N/A

Ups

  • My nausea is gone!

  • Once Calvin went down for his morning nap, I also took a nap. Normally, I would be doing “useful things” during this period but I thought I should take it easy to make sure I didn’t have a relapse.

  • I had a little bit of time to practice the piano today. This is good because I’m playing on the 20th and just now had time to pick out my music. Unfortunately, the days of cramming two days before church are over as I can no longer play after Calvin goes to bed.

    • Simplification

  • I went through one of our checking account folders and got rid of a lot of stuff.

Food Diary

  • Breakfast – Oatmeal with raisins and soymilk

  • Lunch – Holiday Bean Soup

  • Supper – Mizidra with naan (I discovered Vitamin Cottage has half decent naan in their frozen prepared dinners section)

  • After Dinner Treat – a small serving of chocolate peanut butter ice cream