I agree, don't buy off ebay unless they are a brand.
Keep an eye out on the used nappy sites. I am due with bub in January, I have been keeping an eye out online and have purchased all up 15 nappies and 6 covers (OSFM, mixture of quality brands) and I have paid no more than $200. They are used but in excellent condition, and if i purchased new (I would if we could afford it) it would have cost over $500 so far. Most of them also came with extra inserts, I even bought nappies that were not used, only washed in preparation and were about a quarter of the new price. I will at times use disposables for a break, but I can not justify paying $35 for a box of nappies, plus we can't afford it!!!
I know it seems daunting when you are looking at $25 + per nappy and it seems like an excessive amount to spend on a nappy but in all honesty it save HEAPS. if you check out the Austrsalian Nappy Network website they have some cost charts there to look at but the basic saving we worked out using huggies was approx $3000 per child saving after speading about $800-$1000 on nappies. Clearly you don't have to spend that much but this was just our calculations
If you use the one size fits all you will probably get 1-2 yrs worth of wear out of each nappy and you can use them on more then one bub at a time so you can grab it and adjust depending on who needs a nappy change. By using sized nappies you will generally get more wear out of them (in that they last longer before they start to loose elastic etc - simply because babies outgrow them you put them away until the next one and use them again rather than continuous wear of the OSFA)
Basically if you look at your childs clothing, you pay what about $30 for a full outfit which will last maybe 3-6 mths before they outgrow it. Your nappies will cost about the same, can double as pants in the summer time, will either grow with bub to toilet training - or if you use sized can be put away for next bub and they actually serve a purpose and save you from having to fork out more money each day on disposables.
As for which brands are best. Wow there are so many available these days! majority of them are all fantastic quality, good workmanship and great customer service from where you get them from. Probably more important then brand is style. Do you want fitteds (cheeper but need a cover over them - essentially a 2 step system) pockets (more expensive generally than fitteds but a one step system, need to be stuffed with insert but most people find this only takes a couple of minutes when folding or putting on) or AIO/Ai2 (generally more expensive than pockets and fitteds but need no extra putting together) You can also look at fabrics (natural vrs synthetic) if bub is having trouble with nappy rash it you might want to experiment with babmboo/hemp inners - bamboo has a natural antibacterial properties or it could be from wetness so try a microfleece inner - it works like a stay dry liner.
The other choice is fastening, side snaps, front snaps or velcro. All work for different people. Some people prefer wide crotch nappies, others narrow. This is the great thing about MCN - you can tailor them exactly to fit your bub!
Ones we have found that are relatively cost effective and long lasting absorbabcy:
Abbygro AIO (microsuede/microfleece inner, front snaps, OSFA), Bumgenius pockets (microsuede inner OSFA) and OSFA AIO (organic cotton inner) Haute pockets (OSFA, microfleece inner) Swaddlebees OSFA Pockets or sized AIO (cotton velour inner) Happy Heiny OSFA pockets (microfleece inner - cna stuff with either hemp or microfibre), Fuzzibunz OSFA (microfleece inner) there are so many I could go on and on but these were our staples. However I had a chubby thighed, fast weight gaining bub who suited mostly wide crotch nappies, snaps over velcro (she would undone velcro) and was a medium to light wetter.
Good luck, hope you find something that works just right for you!
I was very old fashioned with my first baby and only used terry and flannel flats. My mother made the terries and I bought 2 packets of flannel nappies... so had about 40 - 50 nappies in total. Mum also made me terry boosters and sent down washable nylon liners. A friend gave me her stash of Bigg Fluffies covers. I bought pins and Snibs. So I managed to "nappy" my first baby for over 6 months for under a $100. She was over 6 months before she wore a sposie... but even then she only wore them very rarely. She wore flats right to the end. When she was about 2yo she started to wear sposie pullups which were sooooo expensive. I used the same set of flats about 50% of the time with my 2nd child and about 30% with my 3rd child.... roughly speaking. It was mainly in winter when my 2nd and 3rd babies wore sposies because I also hardly ever used our tumble drier.
I feel confident that we have saved several thousand dollars by using flats. Not many people like them but they dry very fast and one size fits all babies from birth to 2yo. I believe it's worth the hassle but I was a SAHM all that time too. A working mum would struggle I think.
I used terry flats for about 16 months with DD so spent about $30 on flats, $10 on snappis and about $50 on PUL covers and that was it for that time. We are now on 'fancy' nappies MCNs which I love and will do new bub so I could say that I have spent way less than ever on cloth nappies and I think their value goes way beyond monetary value as well.
I worked out at once point that the cloth nappies would have paid for themselves after 7 months of using them most of the time. That's compared with buying disposables.
Since I wanted nappies that were easy to use, that I would keep on using, I have certainly not gone cheaply into it. I tried prefolds briefly, didn't like them at all (though my sister uses them and loves them).
The main part of my stash is 12 bumgenius pocket nappies, plus 4 baby beehinds bamboo fitted nappies. We also have a few fitted nappies, as I find that the baby beehinds minkee magic-alls work well for us (especially when DH or mum is changing the nappy), so we have 2 of those in the small size, 5 mediums and have recently bought 6 large sized ones that I have yet to use. (You can see that I'm liking them more and more.) I've come to realise that since we hope to have more than one child, it makes reasonable sense to buy sized nappies, as they will get used for all the kids, and they are a bit better at each size than a fitted nappy all folded down for a tiny baby, etc.
One thing I'd add is that by far the most cost-effective thing we've bought, is washable wipes. We have about 30 of these, some cotton and some bamboo. You wet one, use it to wipe the dirty baby bum, then toss it into the bucket with the nappies, to be washed. They are a hassle to hang out on the line (30 small pieces of cloth would drive anyone nuts - it certainly does me), but totally worth it because they paid for themselves in, get this: 2 months, and that's given that went and spent $75 on expensive organic cotton etc (pregnancy hormones got me - plain cotton squares cut out of a piece from Spotlight would have worked just as well). Disposable wipes cost a fortune compared with reusable ones, and think of the savings to the environment, as well as the fact that pain water is much better for your little one's bottom than the stuff they put on the disposable wipes...
I am travelling at the moment, with a rather pooey baby (started solids recently), and boy am I missing my washable nappies. We're spending a fortune on disposables, some of which only go on for about 15 minutes before she poos again... it's driving me nuts!
I used flats too when DD was newborn - cotton terries overnight, and flannel flats (cut & hemmed by me from Spotlight fabric, a few $ per metre!) during the day. They require a little more work with folding and fastening, but a little bit of practice and you will be able to do it in your sleep! They are by far the cheapest nappy, with covers being the most expensive bit, and you only need about 4 of those as most of the time the cover doesn't need a wash. You can also use the covers over fitted nappies if you want to get a few of them for easier changes/extra absorbency.
Flats were brilliant the first few months as she was born in a Melbourne winter, and we don't have a drier! They dry even faster than pocket inserts. Plus two layers of protection (nappy + cover) against newborn liquid poosplosions... and you can use them for wiping up milk spills if you've got a chucker like mine! Every baby needs a packet of cloth flats
I'm now building a stash of all-in-ones and pockets. I found a lot of the supposedly 'one size' adjustable nappies didn't fit her even at two months; she was still pretty small, but I was glad we had the flats to use until she grew that extra bit. I got most of mine at the baby expo in discount 'trial' packs, which has been great for finding out what fits her best. But you can certainly get them much cheaper 2nd hand online.
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