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How I’m Getting Free Diapers for the First 3 Months

  February 17

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free diapersI’m planning on spending $0 on diapers for my twins during their first three months of life.

No, I haven’t gone crazy despite the rumors you may have heard. 😉

I’m just doing some smart shopping, and although I will have to make an upfront investment, I plan on getting it all back.

So, I won’t get free diapers immediately, but once I work my magic, the total cost should be $0 at the end.

Let me explain:

The hubs and I have decided to use cloth diapers for the twins for a variety of reasons.

Reason #1 first and foremost is that twins are outrageously expensive.

I’m not sure if any of you have experience with twins, but in addition to the double cribs and double clothes, I have double doctors. Every 2-3 weeks, I go see an additional high risk physician who does a really detailed ultrasound. It’s kind of like the anatomy scan most people get at 20 weeks to check everything, except the high risk doctor does an anatomy scan every single time I see him.

Without insurance, each one of these high risk ultrasounds would have run us $1,400.00, but it’s about $300 after insurance. Still, we will probably have about 8 of them before it’s all said and done, so you can imagine the math is not pretty (although we’re very, very grateful for the exceptional care and attention the twins have been given.)

So, because of all of those high costs, I’ve had to find other ways to pay for the twins’ gear once they get here, and one of the ways I’ve decided to do that is with cloth diapering.

Not too many of my real life friends use cloth diapers, but lots of moms in the online world do. Although it’s not for everyone, I think it will work great for us.

The Numbers

Cloth diapers for newborns run about $13 each. This is the size you use when they are first born until they are about 3 months old. Given that twins tend to be smaller than singletons, it’s possible they will be able to wear them even longer.

I’ve scoured the Internet and received a few as gifts and have built up a stash of 30 newborn diapers or 15 for each kiddo.

Because I received 5 of them as a baby shower gift and purchased the other 25 gently used myself, I only paid $7.33 per diaper. Right now, on eBay, sets of these diapers are going for $8/diaper gently used.

So, if you haven’t guessed already, I plan on using them and then selling them right back online for a total cost of $0. Hubs is even challenging me to try to make a profit.

Now, it might seem bizarre to buy gently used diapers or even kind of gross to some of you, and that’s cool. To each their own, right?

However, I promise I wouldn’t put anything questionable on my kiddos, and I was really pleasantly surprised when I received the gently used diapers that I bought off of eBay in the mail. They looked brand new. There were no stains, no tears, and no marks of any kind. These people could have put the packaging back on and called them new, and I would have had no clue. I made sure to buy them from people who quit cloth diapering after just a few weeks and who guaranteed there were no stains, just so I wouldn’t have to mess with all that.

I’m just going to prep them and wash them, and the twins’ bums won’t know any differently.

Again, it’s not for everyone, but the truth is, you can’t sell back disposable diapers when you use them. That would be pretty nasty. But, you can definitely sell back gently used cloth diapers online like the adorable ones I got in the picture above.

I will keep y’all updated on how it all goes, but I’m pretty excited about the financial savings so far. You know I’ll keep it real and tell you if it was all worth it in the end.

Have any of you ever considered using cloth diapers? Did anyone else score free diapers for their kiddos?

41 responses to “How I’m Getting Free Diapers for the First 3 Months

  1. I got most of my stash as hand me downs from a friend who cloth diapered and was done having kiddos. I was so grateful to them because I knew how expensive it can be to start cloth diapering. The rest I got as shower gifts or bought with gift cards.

  2. We didn’t use cloth diapers, but that’s only because I was able to take advantage of some huge diaper deals back in 2009. There was one deal at Walgreens where I got paid $4 for every 4 packages of diapers I bought. Between that and some Huggies deals I was able to stockpile diapers to last us 2 years. I had to buy diapers for about 6 months total before my son was potty trained. Those diaper deals don’t seem to exist anymore. ;( We’ve talked about it and if we were to even have another (no plans!) I would definitely like to cloth diaper. You got a good deal and the cloth diapers really do hold their value for resale!

    1. That’s so cool. I’ve read some amazing blog posts about moms using coupons to buy their diapers just like you did. That’s another great way to do it!

  3. We use cloth diapers with our son, and have friends that use them. In fact, one friend started her own at-home business (called The Frugal Fanny) selling cloth diapers and related products just to make it even cheaper. She’s even started a co-op for ordering them pretty much at-cost. If you’d like me to connect you to her business or co-op on Facebook, let me know. It’s helped us to save even more money!

  4. I’m not sure how I feel about cloth diapers. The idea of them seem kind of gross but then I hear from some of our friends who have babies that they are awesome. I guess if they save you money and they’re safe for the twins, why not?

    1. Yeah it’s totally not for everyone. I think when it’s time, just go and check them out and ask some friends about it, and if it seems like it might work for you then give it a shot. 🙂

  5. I don’t think it’s gross at all. They’re washed, after all. And plenty of kids clothes get equally gross stuff on them, are washed and used again.

    Then again, my mom used my old diapers as cleaning cloths for years. The last ones gave out when I was in my mid-20s. So if any of the diapers tear and can’t be resold, I’d recommend using them that way.

  6. Mum used cloth on me because I had insanely sensitive skin. I’m guessing odds are I might have the same issue with my own one day…

    I wonder how much disposables have improved on that front since. I think gently used is A-OK (i mean, I had a lightly used bed for years). I’m more freaked out by the idea of actually having to change diapers rather than the specifics about the diapers themselves.

    1. Ha yes I know. We got a diaper sprayer as a baby shower gift. It’s supposed to take some of the more unpleasant parts of cloth diapering and make it not so bad.

  7. My sister used cloth with her newborn for about 4 weeks before giving up. Luckily, she was able to sell them. There’s a big market for cloth diapers these days!

  8. I’ve had friends do the exact same thing so good on ya! we used disposable but didn’t buy any for the first year since we had a diaper party and got enough diapers to last just shy of a year!

  9. I’ve heard that parents who plan to cloth diaper still use disposables for the first few weeks. Is that because they don’t want to buy the newborn size as well as the next size up?

    Cloth diapering seems like the way to go to me, for more than just cost reasons. But buying used and reselling is also a great advantage to cloth!

  10. Cloth diapering wasn’t as popular when I had my kiddos (just 5 years ago!) but it’s really taken off. After actually witnessing what came out of my children, I’m not sure how long I would have been able to handle it!

    The only knowledge I have about them is you need to be careful about the types of detergents you use on them…some cause the material to become less absorbent. Same goes for fabric softener! I’ve read that several times so you may to research it if you have not already!

  11. We bought cloth diapers for our son, but then my cousin scored some sick deal from the show “The Talk” for like $500 in a babies r us gift card. She gave it to us and we bought diapers. Since our son is in daycare, we don’t pay for many diapers. While we still have the cloth, we do enjoy the ease of disposables. We thought about trying them out, but others things got in the way.

  12. Wow, I am REALLY impressed! I was too “scared” of cloth diapers to try them, but I can’t wait to hear how they go. Diapers are crazy expensive especially at the rate of that newborns go through them. Plus we always seemed to have “leftovers” in the previous sizes that my son wore.

  13. We used cloth diapers for our little guy and I really loved putting cloth next to his bottom even more than I liked the money-saving and environmentally friendly aspect of it. I saved them all and I’ll use them with our next kid.

  14. My friends who used cloth diapers didn’t use them for the first little bit,… mostly because of the frequency of diaper changes (bank on 10x a day per baby!). They also used disposables when they were going on roadtrips etc and didn’t have a place to put the dirty cloth diaper.

    That being said, have you looked into the companies that will give you free stuff for multiples? My cousin had twins nearly two years ago, and Pampers and Huggies, as well as a few of the formula companies (for supplementing BF) gave her a bunch of stuff. This is in Canada, but might be something to look into? I know it’s not cloth, but it might help cut some of the costs.

  15. Diapers, especially for twins, are totally expensive! Glad you’re going the cloth diaper route. I would have considered it more if we had our own washer and dryer.

    I didn’t spend money on diapers for my twins the first month or two because 1) people thankfully gave us diapers as gifts, and 2) so did the hospital! Pampers is big on promoting their product so we got a ton of diapers from them.

  16. I like the idea of cloth diapers, but we had to have a sitter starting a 6 weeks, so it would not have worked out. You are so lucky you get to be there when they are little, although I hope someone can give you a break so you can have some adult conversation once in a while!

  17. I don’t think it’s gross at all- I mean, it’s not like they won’t be covered in poop in a matter of hours (or minutes) anyways, right? And kids are such a big expense it makes sense to cut costs where you can. Plus, cloth diapers are totally eco friendly, so it’s a win-win.

  18. I like that you are using cloth diapers. They are so much more environmentally friendly. Plus, you are right, they are a lot cheaper. They are also much better for your baby’s skin. After all, disposables have to be sprayed or treated with chemicals.

  19. We did cloth diapers for the first year with our most recent daughter (now 2 & 1/2), and they saved a ton of cash. The “grossness” factor is seriously overstated, and I could tell that they were better for her skin.

    That said, once she got a bit bigger. .Things got a bit messier.. And we ended up supplementing with Pampers late at night and when we were on the go.

  20. We used cloth diapers for all 3 kids and they really held up well with constant use. The waterproof diaper covers were the only things I had to replace since they wore out more quickly with the washes. Rice paper liners were quite helpful and could be washed and recycled if they weren’t soiled. The diapers are now 13 years old and still getting regular use as our dish drying cloths.

  21. We’re using disposables, since they don’t cost us that much (compared to the time I save by not having to clean/care for the cloth ones – time spent working and earning money :)) and I really try to make it all easier for me. My daughter is not using as many as we would have thought, so it’s not such a steep cost after all. Compared to the price I had to pay for the birth and the cost to have her stem cells stored, the diapers cost is really too small to worry about 😀

  22. I have heard that you have to pre-wash them 10,000 times to get their absorbency up, so I wish you luck!
    I have heard of a few people having success with using them for more than one kid and selling them on, you can do it!

  23. I spent about $250 on used diapers (only one person gave us a diaper as a gift), but because our daughter goes to daycare we still spend about $30/month on diapers and wipes. But, that $250 saves us about $15/month plus in the first 6 weeks we did not pay for diapers at all. Our daughter is 19 months and we hope to potty train soon, but we have at least paid off the used diapers and every time we use them, we save .20 vs the disposables. That adds up!

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