When will we break even?

[Gabi]

We use cloth because a) it didn't occur to me to use anything else and b) it's cheaper. But I'm wondering, how much cheaper is it really? We have spent about $400 on nappies and I don't think we'll ever really need to buy more, we don't use the drier, and our water bill/energy bill hasn't really gone up at all since having Bub. When will we break even?

I think at the moment we have spent more on cloth than we would have on disposables. My son is 3 1/2 months old.

[Indadhanu]

I think I worked out to break even at about 3-4 months, I've spent about $250 so far. For you I'd probably say 6 months (unless you get addicted to cloth nappies hehehe!).

[Matryoshka]

I thought so too.... as i spent over $1000 on our stash. But we used it for 14 months before i decided to go back to disposables, and i ended up selling it second hand for $600. So if you work out the math that way... it definately saved money because it only cost me about $400 on nappies for 14 months, which is heaps cheaper than disposables. For us though, in the long run, we worked out that my time was worth more than having 2 children in cloth - the amount of washing and hanging time was just too much. So they are both in disposables now, and although it costs more and creates more rubbish, i have more time to spend with the kids and for myself.

I guess it depends what kinds of nappies you use, how long you plan to use them for, whether you would use them for 2 kids in the end and then how much return you'll get back when you sell them.

[~Raven~]

I reccon at about 12 months I broke even I had also bought a bit of fabric so I could make them myself and sold and bought some second hand so it's a bit hard to tell for sure. I have been making nappies for my unborn bub from the same fabric stash too.

The average is about $1000 per year on disposables, wipes, bags (if you use them) so you are on top only spending $400 so far and you think you won't need to buy anymore!
I've seen some people spend $200 in one hit stocking up on huggies at the supermarket and they won't have them to use on their next bub either, unlike your cloth ones

[Gabi]

Yeah, it'll definitely start paying itself off once we use them for more than one Bub.

Unless I get addicted! I have to say I hope I don't - but no signs of addiction just yet hehe.

[Arimeh]

I think I'll have to have at least one more child to break even.. pmsl!!!!!

But with two in disposables - I worked out the other night - I would be spending at least $20 a week for daytime nappies - and $80 every three months for night nappies for them.

So thats - quick calculation - $1280 for the year. I've spent probably double that on cloth - BUT - I'll use them all through DD's nappy life - so realistically I should break even by the time she turns two.. LOL

[mamabear]

It costs approximately $10,000 to use disposables on 3 kids...
Cloth can cost anywhere between $200 and (well the sky's the limit, but going conservative), $1000. Most cloth nappy retailers can set you up with a full-time nappy kit for well under $1000 and MOST of the nappies will last more than one child.

So say you have to buy $500 worth of more cloth nappies for each of your subsequent children, if you have 3 kids, that's only $2000.

Compared to $10,000 it's CHEAP.

But it's hard to justify it when you need to spend several hundred dollars at a time!

$30 a week on disposables seems much cheaper than a $300 cloth stash, but it's just not.

In the long run, cloth wins hands down.

And that's not even touching on the environmental impact of disposables.

Even if cloth were more expensive than disposables, I think we should be able to justify it based on the amount of landfill we'd prevent.

As far as breaking even goes, just work out what you've spent on your full time stash and divide that by $30. That's the number of weeks it'll take for you to have "paid off" your clothies against 'sposies.