I was cruising around Amazon this morning, when I came across (again) a couple of really cheap cloth diapers, and I thought I talk about cloth diapering on the cheap!

Cloth diapering doesn’t have to be expensive.  Once you get obsessed, like a lot of us, it can be VERY expensive, but if you’re doing this for money saving reasons, here are a few tips to get you started cloth diapering without a HUGE upfront cost.

Don’t feel like Amazon is the only place to buy cloth diapers!  Do your research for the cheapest prices around!  These below are just examples!

Where To Get The Money
Skip Starbucks or McDonalds lunch this week.  Twice.   OR put back $1.50 per day

That will save you about $11 toward your cloth diaper stash.  In one month, you’ll have $45ish.

What is already around the house?

If you take a look around the house, you’ll probably find some stuff that you can start out with!  These things make great starters for cloth diapering:

Diapers:

Old Tshirts
Hand Towels
Cotton Receiving Blankets

Covers:

Polyester Fleece Pants
Polyester Fleece Shorts (or cut off the pants if it’s too hot! they won’t ravel!)

Local Options

If you have the option of a local cloth diaper consignment store, you can find some really great deals on cloth diapers!  Many consignment stores sell used prefolds for as little as $1-$1.50 each, and you do not have to worry about shipping!  The money you would have allotted for shipping can go toward the purchase of more diapers, covers, or accessories!  Just keep tax in mind when you shop locally!

Try your local Goodwill or Thrift store for cotton receiving blankets!  These will double as flat fold diapers, and they are fantastic for cloth diapering!  Even those of us seasoned cloth diaper vets like to use receiving blankets!

Sewing you own Cloth Diapers:

If you sew, the most frugal way to cloth diaper is to sew your own.  If you don’t know where to start, there are many options out there with searches like “sew your own cloth diapers” and  “free cloth diaper patterns”.

Purchasing cloth diapers for a 20 pound baby:

Cloth Diapers

Start with Prefolds!  Sure, it doesn’t seem like the “FUN” thing to do, but if you’re looking to get out of disposable diapers, the first thing is to be able to afford to ditch this, and this is probably the fastest way to get more cloth diapers for your buck!  You DO NOT want to get prefolds that have polyfill in them (the middle feels squishy like a pad), as these do not absorb must.  You want to make sure you’re getting diaper service quality prefolds that are going to last a while!

 

OsoCozy Premium Prefolds at Amazon – $24 plus 8.03 shipping

Total – $32.08  (Compared to $32 without shipping of comparable brands elsewhere)

Cloth Diaper Covers

There are many options to find reasonable cloth diaper covers such as Sarah’s Stitches, but I ran across some really cheap ones on Amazon this morning, so we’ll start there.

Kushies Diaper Covers probably aren’t the best out there, but if you’re looking to just get started so that you can stop running to the store to grab disposable diapers every couple of days, this cover will work just fine.  This one actually ships free with an Amazon mom account, so make sure you have signed up! One to start out with is ok, if you have fleece pants or shorts laying around the house!

Kushies Taffeta Diaper Wrap – $7.49 free shipping

There are also cheaper, not so great options that will get you by til more money builds up to start buying more diapers!  Who knows, these might work for you!

Dappi Diaper Cover Medium – $4.98

OR.. you can always opt for the old school rubber pants!  While not the best idea, they’ll get you by!

Cloth Diaper Accessories

Accessories are not a necessity, however, if you’re going to use prefolds on a 20 pound baby, you may want to have something handy to keep them in place.  At 20 pounds, your baby wiggles around and it’s a good idea to have the prefolds fastened.

Regular safety pins aren’t the best for cloth diapers. You know, the silver or gold ones you use to lessen the cleavage you show off at church on Sundays?  They’re not really “safety”.  If you’re going to use pins, make sure you get the ones designed for wiggly babies wearing cloth diapers like these Cloth Diaper Pins Stainless Steel Traditional Safety Pin.  You can buy them on Amazon, but they are cheaper at your nearest Target or Babies r Us.

Snappis are a good little invention, however, they can get expensive but don’t be tempted to cheap out and get the ones that aren’t the Snappi brand.  Cheap covers will get you by, but knock off snappis will not!

I would settle for 1, unless you’re prone to misplacing things.

Snappi Cloth Diaper Fastener – $3.50 plus $1.98 shipping

Total – $5.48

Total Cost for 12 Cloth Diapers, Cover, and Accessory

12 Prefolds – $32.08
1 Cover – $7.49
1 Snappi – $5.48
Total –  $45.05

12 Prefolds – $32.08
2 Cheaper Covers –  $9.96
Total –  $42.04

Along with the items you have around your house already, this should get you started.  You will probably have to wash these diapers daily until you can add more to your stash or start being creative with what you have around the house!

Once you’ve started saving money from not having to make those weekly runs to the store (approximately $15 a week), you can start looking more in depth at places that have used cloth diapers for sale!

Be creative!  Have fun! Save money! Find the love for cloth diapers!