Two babies, two good decisions, around $4000 saved
Thursday, April 22, 2010 My babies are growing up. Both of them are out of diapers during the day and both of them are pretty much done with nursing (Emma still comfort nurses a bit in bed). This is a time of mixed emotions. Happy to be done with some of the baby stuff (good riddance diapers!), but also longing to snuggle with a newborn again. As I look back on the decisions we made about how to parent, I'm mostly happy. Two of the easiest decisions we made, in particular, have also turned out to be two of the best.
Cloth diapering = Savings of around $1600
I broke out my spreadsheet and figure that we saved around $1600 by using cloth diapers for both of our kids (Want a quick way to figure out how much you saved by cloth diapering? Use this calculator). This is based on our particular use of cloth diapers, which included:
- Using Kushies all-in-one diapers in the newborn and then the toddler size (I had bought them all before I discovered all of the other amazing cloth diaper options...there are many!). We used them with Julian until he grew out of them (at around 21 months) and with Emma until she was toilet trained (at 3 years minus a few days).
- Using cloth diapers at home, but disposables when we went out or went on vacation. Both of our kids were at home until they were 3 years old though, so we weren't diapering for day care.
- Using both the washer and dryer in the winter and using the washer and hanging the diapers to dry in the summer.
- Buying biodegradable liners to use in the cloth diapers after the kids started eating solid foods to make disposal of poop a bit less messy.
I know that a lot of people are more hard core about cloth diapering than we are, opting to never use disposables, to forgo the liners, or even to practice elimination communication. However, for us, this was a solution that allowed us to cloth diaper without feeling like it was a burden (or a mess) to do so.
Beyond the financial savings, there are many other reasons we chose to use cloth diapers. We did it for the environment (fewer diapers going to the landfill, less energy expended in manufacturing and shipping diapers) and we did it for their skin (no nasty chemicals and more breathable material means less diaper rash).
Breastfeeding = Savings of around $2400
The second great decision that we made was to breastfeed. I was pretty adamant that my kids would be breastfed and went through an awful lot to get the initially resistant Julian to nurse successfully. On the breastfeeding front, my spreadsheet tells me that we probably saved around $2400 (Want a quick way to figure out how much you saved breastfeeding? Use this calculator). This is based on our particular approach to breastfeeding (and its associated costs/savings), as well as the cost of the type of formula I would have bought if I'd had to formula feed them (store brand organic):
- Both babies were exclusively breastfed (although Julian had a very small amount of formula supplementation as an infant).
- Both of them had breastmilk as the majority of their food intake for the first year of their life and as a significant part of their diet for the second year of their lives.
- Julian nursed until he was 2.5 years old and Emma is just winding up now at 3 years old.
- I bought a few breast pumps (Avent Isis, Medela Pump in Style Advanced, Medela Harmony - although I would try others if I was starting over again today), which I used to pump exclusively for Julian for the first few months of his life (until he was able to latch on) and to pump at work for Julian (from 3 months to 12 months of age) and for Emma (from 6 months to 18 months of age).
- I saw a lactation consultant with Julian, which was paid for by Canadian medicare, and went to a weekly free lactation consultant drop-in with Emma to weigh her (although I didn't need the advice of the lactation consultant with her, but was glad that the service existed and happy to see other moms getting support).
Again, beyond the cost savings, there are other reasons that I breastfed. I did it for their health and my health, carefully considering the health benefits of breastfeeding as well as the many cost savings to our health care system. I did it for the bonding, the closeness, the convenience, and the ease with which it put them to sleep. I also did it for the environment, considering the effects of the production and shipping of infant formula on the environment. Breastfeeding wasn't easy for me, but it was an obvious choice, one that was worth all of the work and the struggle, and one that I'm very thankful I had the support and physical ability to make work despite all of our troubles.
Big Payoff
These two good decisions, to cloth diaper and to breastfeed, I figure directly saved us a lot of money (around $4000) and may have saved us much more money that is not as easily counted (fewer days off work to go to the doctor, less money spent on diaper rash cream). But it also had other important benefits to our health and our environment - important enough benefits that I probably would have done them anyway, even if they had cost me $4000 instead of saving me $4000.
These two decisions for me, about what goes into my babies and how to deal with what comes out of them, despite being very different were both important decisions for our wallets, our health and our environment.
What are some of the parenting decisions you've made that had a big payoff (financial or otherwise)?
Reader Comments (31)
Love this! Between cloth diapering our daughter (we use a hybrid for daycare), breastfeeding, and eschewing jarred or prepared baby foods, my husband has tossed aside his preconceived notion that babies are expensive and is ready to have another.
Cosleeping and babywearing are the big sort of life-changing parenting decisions I made. Because I work out of the home, cosleeping has allowed me to still have many, many hours of closeness with my daughter that I wouldn't trade for anything. And babywearing has allowed me to take her everywhere.
Definitely the breastfeeding one for us! We also didn't find out the sex of our first born (a boy) and had many gender neutral clothes for sizes 0-6 months. Even though we did find out the sex of our second baby (girl) we saved money because she wore the same clothes as her brother. We had others give us girly gifts, but I actually preferred the memories as I put on the same clothes on her as I put on her brother. I have lots of cute pictures too, aside from saving money.
In addition to cloth diapering and breastfeeding, we also homebirth and EC. Homebirth is far more sustainable than the overmedicalized and expensive hospital system (I'm in the US). Even though we paid more than $3K out of pocket, I feel better knowing my money went to helping a local midwife rather than an insurance giant.
Elimination Communication has greatly reduced our need for diapers, even the cloth we use, and there is little water and energy used in its practice. And hopefully as a result my son will be fully potty trained sooner, ending our need for diapers entirely.
I love this! We are planning on cloth diapering and breastfeeding our little guy who is to make his arrival in approx. 3 weeks. We have been met with resistance from family members who think we are not being realistic, or too "crunchy granola" with our cloth diapering wishes. Working as a nanny I have cloth diapered infants & toddlers before and have not found it to be a bother as some may believe. As a mom-to-be in my 20's I have had several friends decide not to breastfeed or state that it was too hard to accomplish. I know that with patience, determination and seeking out support bf is possible for the majority of people. I am looking forward to cloth diapering and breastfeeding my little man!
Here's to another great post as we celebrate Earth day :)
Excellent post! Thanks for calculating the costs - I'm v happy that we cloth diapered at home/mostly disposables outside, and breastfed for a nice long time so the heavy piggy bank is icing on the cake.
We coslept so saved on buying a crib, bedding etc. Financially it was good, and mentally is was great (much less sleep-deprived!) - the additional benefits were boundless. My son was ill almost immediately after birth. Without cosleeping/attachment parenting and thus being with him 24/7 I would have missed a lot of his episodes and would thus have delayed medical interventions. Although harrowing at the time, all the constant observation from 24/7 closeness paid off - he's a strong, healthy, opinionated, feisty, humourous, sensitive, artistic, normal-but-gifted-in-my-eyes little Wee Guy! As it says in the credit card ads, priceless!
I think bedsharing has saved us a lot of money. No cradle or crib. No matching sheet and blanket sets. And since we don't have a "nursery" for our daughter, we didn't need to buy paint or matching furniture or other decorations (lamps, pictures, etc). It also allowed us to stay in our studio apartment for two extra years, saving us around $200/month, or $5000 (she'll be 25 months when we move out).
We ...hmm...I breast feed all 4 of our daughters - the hardest one to do it properly was the last - believe it or not. The lacation nurses were nice - but everything I did they told me i was doing it completely wrong - they had me tied in knots over what and how to breastfeed her. And don't mention the co-sleeping thing - they flipped out on me for that. Yes you have to be careful - but boy it sure makes life easier. Our third daughter is a tactile learner and literally from the first hours she need to touch to go to sleep, stay alseep and comfort herself. Even the hospital nurses gave up wrapping her up the first night to stop the screaming and said put her in bed with you - she slept 4 hrs straight after that!
I did the cloth diapers for the first one and then felt it was too much work for the others. But if you can do it, it is great.
If you are having trouble breast feeding - keeping trying - get a specialist in to help and do it the way that makes sense to you and the baby - it is worth it for so many reasons
Oh wow!!! Why have I never thought about this!!! I am going to have to figure out the savings of cloth diapering and exclusively nursing our little crew!!! I think we may be sitting on a virtual gold mine!!!
Breastfeeding and cloth diapering, both. Also, second-hand shopping. It's cheaper, greener, and kids don't care. Plus, so many kids' clothes go totally unworn, they grow so fast. You're basically getting the same stuff you would if you bought new a lot of the time.
Yes! There is so much money that can be saved by just using cloth diapers and breastfeeding. Being on the (very) poor side, the thought of tossing money out the window on formula or disposables drives me nuts.
great post for earth day! i don't think people often think about how much money they would save by both cloth diapering and breastfeeding (and how much better it is for the earth).
Breastfeeding, without a doubt, for all the reasons you cite. Also, I would say an emphasis on time / creative play over gadgets and toys - don't get me wrong, my kids have a *truckload* of toys, but mostly given by others and we kind of de-emphasise it. We've decided only to have one (fairly aged) TV, for example, and a DVD player and stereo for music. That's all - no game boxes, no multiple TVs etc. We do have two computers, but one of them is my work machine, provided by work, and not used for private purposes. Sharing our devices is good for us and saves us money both directly and indirectly (less exposure to the juggernaut of advertising creating new faux "needs" etc).
Awesome post...and on top of all the cashola you save, AND the health benefits for babies - there are benefits to moms too! Moms who BF have less breast & ovarian cancer, and more & more evidence coming out is showing there are major cardiac health benefits to mom too! Love it!!!
Hmm... breastfeeding, yep. Bought 2 pumps when my daughter was little, and a few bottles. None for our new little guy. Cloth diapering - we started CDing at 11 months with our daughter, so needed to buy newborn diapers for our son - got those and the size smalls second hand. Our daycare provider is happy to use cloth, bless her. At home we also use cloth wipes, and once I've used up the stash of Huggies wipes I bought "just in case" about 18 months ago, I'll be using cloth wipes when out too.
We also went the "gender neutral" route when buying infant clothes for our daughter so our son is wearing those clothes now (good thing he looks good in purple...), and we shop consignment quite a bit.
My daughter went straight to finger foods by her choice, so not only did we avoid the cost of commercial baby foods, but saved time too on making purees.
And in a quest to say something unique - I buy her really good quality shoes, as they last much longer so in the long run, I pay less!
We bought absolutely all of our baby gear 2nd hand, from the crib to the toys, books, and boppy. There is so much stuff for sale out there that there's no reason to buy new.
We completely cloth nappied and breastfed, both ours day toilet trained themselves well before two. One thing I've noticed is that cloth mummas are generally not stressed about night training - my little one can be dry for weeks or wet maybe once a week, but we haven't bothered with night toileting. Mainly because she's such an appalling sleeper we're not going to add anything else to the mix. But it is so simple to put a cloth nappy on her at night, doesn't matter if it is dry in the morning it can be added to the wash. I can see there would be a lot more pressure if we were still buying nappies.
We've done pretty much everything for the girls second hand. They do have new clothes but also lots of hand me downs, and they have some new toys but not excessive. A couple of years ago we got a kid's bike and tricycle secondhand, the big girl has just moved up to the bike and the little one has inherited the trike. They've just got their first new furniture - a queensize bed they share.
With our 13 month old:
-breastfeeding for sure. He's never had any milk but mine (well, tastes of cow milk now) and no nipple in his mouth other than a human one. That eliminates a whole bunch of purchases.
-EC with cloth diapers for backup. When we started EC at 2 months (sort of by accident) I immediately went from washing diapers every other day to every 4 days. We switched to underwear full time at about 11 months; he tells me now consistently when he needs the potty.
-thrift stores, hand-me-downs, yard sales, borrowing. We have bought very, very few new things. One set of grandparents bought the car seat, the other the high chair. We asked for and received a Moby Wrap and cloth diapers for baby shower gifts. Other than that we were given or bought used nearly everything else.
-homebirth with a midwife. We paid under $3000 for all our birth costs. I don't know what a hospital would be but I suspect it's a lot more.
This is awesome!! Love that diaper calculator. :) I wish I had actually saved the money though. What I mean is I wish I had taken it and saved it and put it somewhere. I guess I still could as my youngest is still in diapers and my middle daughter is still in diapers overnight. But I barely feel able to meet ends meet at the moment let alone pretending to spend more. But still that would be a very smart idea. :)
Totally agree with you on this! Homebirth and EC have been two of the best parenting decisions we made. We also breastfeed, co-sleep and babywear, thereby eliminating having to buy all that baby "stuff". Natural parenting really is worth it in so many ways!! :)
Staying at home with baby (this is something we saved and planned specifically for);
- save on childcare and healthcare costs.
- allow us to run only one car, we'd need two if I had to run bub to childcare and then me to work
- gives me more time to save money in other ways; shopping around, cooking meals for bub and us etc
- not to mention all the other non-monetary benefits to baby and mum!
Choosing local and connecting with your community;
- we chose to live in a little flat 10 minutes walk from town rather than a big house 30 minutes drive from town. Less space, but more community resources nearby.
- we also chose to live near family whilst we had a young family. The support from my mum and sister has been invaluable to me, far beyond any monetary savings (but I gotta say, doting Aunties make the BEST free babysitters!)
- I take advantage of all our free/low-cost local baby-orientated activities; storytime at our local library, playgroup at our local community centre etc. I save money (and the environment) by being able to walk to them and by choosing these activities over others. I don't see the point of private music lessons across the other side of town when there is a perfectly good sing-a-long happening just up the road at the library!
- by getting out and engaging with other mums, keeping up with the noticeboards at the local community centre and such, baby and I always have a range of wonderful activities on the go.
Connect with other mums;
My local mum's group is a wonderful source of support for me and provides bub with lots of playmates. One of the monetary advantages of being in a group of mum's with babies of similar age is that you can lend each other occasional use items such as a travel cot. You can also save each other from wasting money by sharing opinions of products or services or lending an item to try out before you decide to buy your own. Now that our bubs are no longer newborns and we have built up a strong friendship among ourselves we are now talking about saving money by swapping baby-sitting favours and some mums are even talking about swapping whole days so they can go back to work part time without the cost of childcare. I met the wonderful ladies in my group via a community event (our state government runs 6 week Parents Group for new parents, hosted by a paediatric nurse - we just keep meeting after the group officially ended) but just getting out and doing things is a great way to meet other mums.
Buying second hand;
- it is cheaper
- everything is used so briefly by babies that it is possible to buy things in as-new condition
- good for the planet
- good for baby! New items off-gass for a while, not such a problem with older, second-hand items.
This has been a great exercise to make me think about all this - thanks for the inspiring post!
I probably didn't save that much money by cloth diapering or ec'ing because I had invested in so many of the pricier cloth diapers before I even knew about ec'ing... but I always figured that I would use them for a 2nd baby and/or sell them back, pass them on. But the calculator actually shows that we would have broken even after just over 1 year. That means since these diapers were passed on to baby #2 and she was ec'ed and done with diapers at age 2, the savings are even greater.
We do buy a lot 2nd hand and limit the new things and I have been given lots of used clothes and I pass a lot of stuff on (including much of my cloth and ec stuff). We passed on our never much used crib to 2 other families (one borrowed for a short time), passed on the expensive stroller we never used after we moved, let 1 friend borrow our cosleeper, 2 families borrowed our infant car seat before it expired) etc.
It is sad how much 'gear' is emphasized as part of the American baby expeirence.
I remember wading through message boards of what we needed. People would list their ABSOLUTE essentials (crib, stroller, boppy) and another list was started that listed the things that were useless (crib, stroller, etc.). Cribs were always on both lists. I was starting to get the idea of cosleeping and other natural parenting concepts but I still couldn't imagine NOT having a crib.
I also couldn't imagine buying a 2nd hand crib because of safety issues, and I got the cosleeper because I wanted to feel comfortable cosleeping. Now I can't beleive I went through all that stuff. Ah well, we just never know.
[...] simply because of these two mom-friends’ generosity, it would probably rival or surpass the amount of money I saved by breastfeeding instead of using formula. And that’s not even looking at the carbon footprint to manufacture all those clothes I [...]
Hoorays. ;D
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[...] you save money using cloth diapers? Annie at Phd in Parenting estimates that she saved $4000 by cloth diapering and breastfeeding her two children. I know we certainly saved money by cloth diapering – by the time Claire came around it was [...]
Well, I have to say that I breastfed and it cost me more than formula-feeding between supplements, LCs fees & travel, lactation aids, prescriptions, trips, pumps, convenience food to feed the other children...but I obviously did not do it for the cost savings ;).
A lot of mine have already been mentioned, co-sleeping, shopping second-hand, cloth diapering, breastfeeding, etc. One thing that we did that no one else mentions is 'village living'! When my oldest was young, I ALWAYS had several roommates to share costs with, we continued this practice until my youngest was born, and even now share our flat in the duplex with my mother, and the other half of the duplex is inhabited by my in-laws.
With roommates there's the obvious benefits of sharing the cost of utilities and groceries, splitting the housework between more hands, usually having a free babysitter around for things like a late night grocery store run, or a movie. We also were able to rent large (5 bedroom) flats in houses with yards for the kids to play in, rather than an apartment building. One of our roommates was a very nervous non-custodial parent, so was able to have his son start spending weekends knowing that the house was babyproofed, that his housemates were accustomed to life with a small child around, and that he had a more experienced parent on hand to help with any snags he ran into at 2am. My oldest child learned many of the things that 'siblings' tend to teach when he was still an only child- sharing, taking turns with the tv, respecting other's personal space and belongings, and now (at 16) has a widespread and varied support network of former roommates that have moved all over the country (some of whom still have him visit for a week in the summers).
Having roommates meant that when I was hit with a crippling bout of ppd after the birth of my second son, I was rarely left alone and always had caring support on hand to make sure that I was getting the food and the rest that I needed. I never felt trapped in the house with my baby, or isolated because I was able to socialize with my roommates (and not have to worry about the house being a mess, or whether or not I made it out of my pjs that day). When I was suffering from HG, I had roommates on hand to heat me up soup, play with the toddler, or feed the oldest some cereal and make sure he brushed his teeth before school- minimizing the impact my illness had on my children. They were there to listen to my husband while he worked through his own issues about the dangerous pregnancy, parenting, marriage and money. They were able to "grab milk on the way home" or do a load of laundry while they were at the laundromat themselves. Most evenings were spent hanging out with friends and folding clothes together while we watched television or cooking meals to pack into lunches to bring to work.
My children have been (and continue to be) exposed to a wide variety of foods, family traditions, cleaning styles, religions, and family cultures in a loving, hands on and inclusive way. My husband and I were able to get through some very challenging times literally surrounded by friends. My former roommates were able to get a taste of what parenting and family life were really like, or were exposed to parenting ideas they never would have considered- AP, cloth diapers, exclusive breastfeeding, co-sleeping, delayed solids, babywearing; many of them have since said that they didn't think they wanted kids until they LIVED WITH kids, and are now parents themselves.
We have access to my mother's car (we could NEVER afford a vehicle on our own), my father-in-law was finally convinced to stop driving (after continuing for five years past when he was safely able to do so) because we are willing and available to help them run errands that would be difficult on foot or by public transit. I have a readily available network of loving on-call babysitters within my house, which allows me to pursue my career as a doula.
My oldest child is 16, and with the exception of daycare costs while I was in school and/or working, I have NEVER had to pay a stranger (or anyone really) to babysit my child so I could 'have a date night' or any other reason.
Thanks for this article. I am going back and forth on the cloth diapering issue. DH is not interested, but I see the benefits. Your suggestion about the biodegradable liners may be the thing that gets DH on board!
I love that you say you'd do those things over again even if they cost you $4000 instead of made you that much :) I think another of these big decisions that are great at saving us money over time is using natural family planning. Traditional (conventional?) BC methods made me sick, gain excessive weight& were very costly.
[...] that is done? The cost of formula feeding is significant. In terms of the price of formula alone, I saved around $2400 by breastfeeding both of my children. Beyond the cost of formula, a significant study last year found that the United States incurs $13 [...]
[...] you have friends who are planning to have babies, you can tell them how much money they can save by cloth diapering. You can also pass along your cloth diapers to them when you are finished with them, thereby making [...]