Disposable Diapers and their Cost

Have you ever calculated what is costs to use disposable diapers for your child? Well tonight I really started to think about how much it costs....especially since we are venturing into cloth diapering. For us venturing into cloth diapering has to happen moreso because DD3 had an allergic reaction to disposables and we had to make a move. DD3's bum was so red when using disposables whereas to now using some cloth diapers that we got until we can get more.

Please remember that my calculations are just that...calculations (estimating)

Diapers cost from $8.99 to $9.99 per pack depending on what brand you use, however they can be less if you go the cheaper version of disposables.

A regular pack of diapers has about 30 - 34 diapers depending on which ones you buy, again an estimate.

Here are my calculations and these are estimates and I am using the highest number of diapers per day to calculate and they do not include using coupons (since coupons can vary so much for diapers)

For a newborn up to about 12 months you are changing anywhere from 6-10 (more if breastfed) per day
(and although you may have more with breastfed, if you use formula, you will need to calculate those in)
For newborn to 12 months using 10 diapers a day (10 X 365 days) = 3650
3650 diapers / 30 amount in pack of diapers = 122 packs of diapers the first year when changing 10 times a day
If the pack of diapers cost $8.99 a pack - $8.99 x 122 = $1096.78 not including taxes
If the pack of diapers cost $9.99 a pack - $9.99 x 122 = $1218.78 not including taxes

12 months to 24 months could be anywhere from 5-9
For 12 months to 24 months using 9 diapers a day (9 X 365 days) = 3285
3285 diapers / 30 amount in pack of diapers = 110 packs of diapers when changing 9 times a day
If the pack of diapers cost $8.99 a pack - $8.99 x 110 = $988.90 not including taxes
If the pack of diapers cost $9.99 a pack - $9.99 x 110 = $1098.90 not including taxes

24 months to 36 months could be anywhere from 3-6 (this could include pull ups, but they are about the same price, however have less pull ups in the pack)
For 24 months to 36 months using 3 diapers a day (6 x 365 days) = 2190
2190 diapers / 30 amount in pack of diapers = 73 packs of diapers when changing 6 times a day
If the pack of diapers cost $8.99 a pack - $8.99 x 73 = $656.27 not including taxes
If the pack of diapers cost $9.99 a pack - $9.99 x 73 = $729.27 not including taxes

$8.99 / pack $9.99 / pack

Year 1 $1096.78 $1218.78

Year 2 $988.90 $1098.90

Year 3 $656.27 $729.27

Total $2741.95 $3046.95

So, disposables are rather expensive either way you look at it and again with these being estimates some could be higher per year to lower depending on the type of diapers you buy and your child of how many diapers you are changing.

After researching this, not only is moving to cloth diapers for my daughter better for her, but in the overall long run cloth diapers will be cheaper. The best part of them is that they are resellable when they are in great condition to recover much of your money or can be saved to used when you have another baby. And another wonderful quality about this, cloth diapers do not go in the landfill which can take about 500 years to decompose.