How to Diaper on Less Than $500 Total

On Monday, I shared our plans for approaching diapering Minion. Today, I want to give you a budget breakdown for how much we plan to spend on diapering.
For starters, I got my needed quantities from this post about stocking up on diapers. It is the most thorough breakdown by size I have found so far.
My calculations below are based on just the cost of diapers. This does not include wipes, rash ointments, or any accessories associated with cloth/EC or laundering. After my budget breakdown, I'll include the estimated costs of these extras.
Below you will see a chart I created to list the estimated costs of exclusively using disposable diapers for 2 years (although the average potty training age in the US is closer to 3). My pricing is based on Pampers Swaddlers on Amazon, the cheapest Pampers available online on Babies "R" Us, and the actual cost of Pampers Baby Dry diapers when on sale at my CVS.

$1300 for diapering is pretty steep if you ask me. I can think of a lot of other places I would rather be spending that money then to literally throw it in the trash.
With our plan of combining cloth diapering, disposable, and EC, I was able to create the following estimates of what we will need...

• First 8 Weeks: Size 1 = 560 disposable diapers (based on exclusively using disposables)
• 8 Weeks to 4 Months: Size 2 = 168 disposable diapers (based on using 2/day when not at home)
• 5 Months to 12 Months: Size 3 = 560 disposable diapers (based on using 2/day when not at home)
• 12 Months to 18 Months: Size 4 = 378 disposable diapers (based on using 2/day when not at home)
• 18 - 24 AIO One Size Cloth Diapers

Since I am a moderately extreme couponer, I always walk into a store with a plan to not spend more than $.08/diaper. That means for our entire 18 month stash of disposable diapers, we will spend $133.28. Cloth diapers can fluctuate in price but I have created our stash wish list combining brands from various price points which works out to an average of $15/diaper. So a 24 diaper stash would run about $360. That works out to a grand total of $493.28! Whoop whoop! That's almost a 60% savings.

This sounds all fine and dandy... but is it actually possible?

Well so far I have been able to start snagging diapers for an average of $.06/diaper including sales tax. Plus we have had some wonderful friends give us some big boxes of diapers which brings our out-of-pocket average down to $.03/diaper. With having to buy the remainder of our stash at my regular goal, we will only spend another $78.80 on disposables.

As regards cloth, I got a great deal on some secondhand bumGenius diapers as well as a couple on sale on Amazon which worked out to an average of $9.28/diaper. To complete our stash with the diapers I have selected, it will be another $247.01. But I am going to be able to use my Amazon Mom registry completion discount of 15% and some generous shower gifts to buy those for $0 out-of-pocket.

So if everything goes as planned, we will get away with spending only $172.11 for our 18 months of diapering Minion!

But what about all the extra costs associated with cloth diapering and ECing, not to mention wipes?

Well here's a little breakdown:

• Cloth Wipes = Free (on-hand diy supplies) + $34.85 (for container and 18 months of wipes solution)
• Laundering = $34.02 (for 18 months of homemade cloth detergent) + $125 (for 18 months of Water & Electric - estimated with aid of this chart)
• Diaper Pail & Wet Bags = $43.94
• Diaper Sprayer = Free (Gifted but regularly $59.95)
• Potette Plus Potty = $10.22 (purchased on sale)
• Disposable Wipes = $200 (for 10,000 wipes based on using an average of 3 per disposable diaper change and after EC poops)

So without the disposable wipes because that quantity (and more!) would get used with exclusive disposable diapering, the "extras" of cloth diapering and ECing only adds another $248.03 to the cost of diapering. Which still keeps it far more economical than exclusively using disposables.

What tricks have you used to save money on diapering?