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.