Thrifty & Nifty

About a week ago I ran out of diapers for Jeremiah. As I was contemplating buying and searching for good deals I was so sickened by a realization that I had. I spend way too much money on something that my baby poops on!!! In an effort to save money and make myself feel better, I searched for a good "not too expensive" cloth diaper. I read a lot of reviews and talked to a lot of moms and found that I could get the best deal for cloth diapers on Ebay. Initially, cloth diapers can appear to cost more money because a cloth diaper costs anywhere between 4$ - 20$ a piece and a disposable diaper are about 20 - 40 cents a piece. However, when I calculated all of my costs over a two year period (including water and electricity for cloth) I saw a clear winner. Cloth diapers (all expenses included) cost about 1/5th of the money spent on disposable diapers. I wish I would have switched to cloth diapers earlier!

Now, you do have decide whether the money is worth not having to deal with more hands-on "stinky diaper time" or if you feel like you can go a little more green and save yourself some green. I was definitely worried about dealing with the diapers but, I have found that it's much simpler than I anticipated. You just need to get a good system going that works for you. And...if you're dealing with poop anyway, what's one more step?

One downer about cloth diapers is they take up a lot more space. I couldn't put all the cloth diapers in my diaper bag without having to sacrifice something else I needed like: a change of clothes, wash cloths, medicine, water, snacks, my wallet, toys or baby blanket. When I searched online for diaper bags I was unsatisfied with either, the price or the size of the bag. I found a bag that I really liked, made by Petunia Pickle Bottom, and guess what the price tag revealed?!? A whopping $160! WHAT? So, I thought to myself..."Hey, self. You can make one of those!" And, that's exactly what I did!

I picked myself up some supplies from JoAnns for just over $15 and made myself a cute, spacious, multi-pocketed, multifunctional, custom "AriAnn" bag! Check it out.

I am proud of myself for being able to save some money by just putting forth a little effort.

You too, can save a lot of money by researching and thinking about ways/alternatives to things that you buy and use everyday. Give it a whirl! :)  I'm sure you'll come up with a lot of great ideas and probably much more quickly than I did.