diaper updates and count downs

With tad less than 3 weeks to my "due date" (which I'm working hard to think of a "due month" so that when baby is late, I'm not too disappointed), I need to get a move on with diapers. As a reminder, we are tightwads first and thus have become slight environmentalists, but primarily on accident. You might say that Hubby is 90% tightwad, with only 10% green in him; I, on the other hand, am closer to 70% tightwad and 30% greenie.

Anyhoo, back to the update. Hubby's cousin graciously send along a large bag of cloth diapers and the in-laws drove them from way north to way south. These diapers have made the trek. There is a mixture of sizes, brands and styles, which will give us a chance to figure out what we like. There are liners abundant and a significant stack of pre-folds.

From this stash, I've got 8 pocket diapers (for these, you put in an insert for absorption) that snap down to a small size (hopefully small enough). Plus the one my friend, Liz, made me for the shower last weekend (in the collage, top row, 2nd from the left)... so 9 total that are adjustable. And all with no-cost, so far!

Monday, Liz and another friend, Angel, will be coming over for a sewing bee. This, I'm very excited about. It is combining several "fun" elements, such as a small group of good friends, good conversation, at least one baby (and perhaps a 3 year old?), and a productive project.  I decided to go ahead and cut out a few diaper pieces, so I got material over this last week.  From the width of the fabric (both the fleece and PUL), I can out three diapers, which means I can get about 6 to 8 diapers from a yard with extra fabric. The fabric is the big cost, so estimated cost so far.... 28 (4 yards, 7 diapers from each yard) diapers at $1.42 plus notions per each diaper.... $40 not including notions (elastic, velcro and buttons).  

These diapers are all adjustable, so they should fit baby for quite awhile, assuming he doesn't get too big too fast.  Compare that to what I read this morning... from allaboutclothdiapers.com...

For the sake of these calculations we are going to use the prices on Diapers.com for Huggies Snug and Dry Diapers. It is recommended that a disposable diaper be changed every 2 hours. Let’s assume that at 4 months your baby would graduate to size 3 diapers.

• Newborn-4 months (size 1/2) = 1440 diapers x 0.18 = $259.20

• 4 months-20 months (size 3) =  5760 diapers x 0.24 = $1382.40

• 20 months- 24 months (size 4) = 960 diapers (every 4 hours) x 0.27 = $25.92

That comes to a total of $1408.32 for the first two years of your baby’s life.

I figure we aren't doing too bad yet, and I've got  a package of 12 flats that were a gift and 2 more showers coming up! I'm so excited about all this. Now, I just need to figure out the cost of a load of laundry....