This wonderful post was submitted by a “Raining Hot Writer” (read more about how you can write a frugal and helpful article and get paid for it here). Thanks, Colleen….I’ve always been “afraid” to use cloth diapers but seeing that picture of all those diapers…that’s pretty scary!
As a family, my husband and I save money with diapers.
There are many sites comparing the cost of disposable diapers to cloth, and a varying range in the cost difference. Being that I use cloth, I have no idea how much we would have spent on disposable diapers. From the cost comparison websites, they claimed disposables for the first year of your babies life you could spend approximately 1,000 all the way up to 2,500. Obviously that is a big gap, and that cost varies greatly on where you live, tax, the diapers you buy, and if you are using coupons and buying on sale.
With that being said. I have spent a little over 500 dollars purchasing all of the diapers I have, and that includes me having enough diapers to actively diaper 2 children, even though I only have one. Darn compulsive shopping and cute diapers! (Side note: Have you seen how cute new cloth diapers are?!) They have ones that go on just like a disposable, but with lots of colors, patterns, and velcro-type tabs. So easy and very frugal!
My top positives of cloth diapers:
2- It is good for the environment. I saw the picture above and thought, wow. That is a lot of diapers.
3- No trips to the store when you need diapers. Just some laundry!
4- No chemicals on your babies skin.
I own a lot of diapers, I have varying sizes, types, brands. I have never used a pin, it’s not needed. When people look at modern cloth diapers, they see the cost of 15 a diaper (there are more expensive, and less expensive) and think no way, I could buy a whole jumbo box for that. But eventually those diapers are gone. I have my diaper forever, well not forever but it can and will last through several children, and eventually it pays for itself. The second thing I hear all the time is dealing with the poop. Let’s face it, babies poop regardless, you still have to deal with the poop. And I have never had poop anywhere but in my son’s diaper. We don’t have extra garbage. I do need to buy detergent, I wash them every 2-3 days, use a bit extra water, electric for washing, but I hang them out to dry, so there is not a lot of extra that I noticed a difference.
Bottom line: I know it’s not for everyone, but if your looking to be frugal it is amazing for that. We even use homemade cloth wipes out of flannel. They are very soft and my husband and I both agree they work better. I suggest to you to take a look if your expecting, have children or want to in the future. There are amazing new products out there to make it affordable and easy. And a lot of the diaper stores do rewards programs, giving you points for every purchase; and not to mention the sales and online giveaways! I just ordered 90 dollars worth of products and didn’t have to pay for any of it!
This wonderful post was submitted by a “Raining Hot Writer” (read more about how you can write a frugal and helpful article and get paid for it 
1. Instead of giving them a general set allowance each week, create a set amount of money for each chore that they complete in the week. You decide what their minimum chores would be for the week and also what their minimum allowance would be as well. You also decide what their maximum chores would add up to as well. This teaches children the pride of earning their cash per chore rather than earning a set amount no matter how little or much they do in the week.
3. Instead of giving material gifts, how about the gift of a savings bond? Children may not appreciate this in their younger years, but when they are older, they will thank you ten-fold and teach them the valuable lesson of patience with watching money grow. You could even ask your children if they would like to buy a savings bond from the money they have in their savings account. The possibilities are endless.
Update – I’ve had a pretty good response to this and have received several great articles. It’s going to take me some time to go through them but please, please don’t think I am not going to post your article if I have not responded to you yet. I have them all in a special folder in my email, and will get back to you ASAP. When and if yours is posted, you will get payment as soon as I post it so please don’t worry about that.
I would love for you all to write up a post about whatever “Money Saving, Frugal” topic you’d like! This is the creative part…thinking about what you would like to tell others.
I’m going to pay you too! If you’re topic gets posted, you will get $5 cash via Paypal! Plus, there is NO LIMIT on how many times you can contribute….hey, I may even want to hire one of you to do this on a consistent basis for Raining Hot Coupons!
