Adventures in Cloth Diapers

The reason:
The theory behind this experiment is that 1) I will save money - less disposables to buy and 2) it will result in a reduction of paper waste output. When I started to observe how much our family wastes in paper, I was amazed. We were using paper towels, disposable bathroom and kitchen cleaning wipes, paper towels for napkins, toilet paper, baby wipes, diapers, etc. Now some things I'm not going to touch - like toilet paper. That's just a must. But I figured I could do something about the other things. So we bought cloth napkins and I don't even buy paper towels anymore (bonus savings). I quit using the wipes and started buying cleaners and using washable rags (neglible savings as cleaner sometimes costs as much as wipes). I started making my own baby wipes (bonus savings), and now we are diving in to the world of cloth diapering. I decided to calculate how much I think I will save by doing cloth diapers and home made baby wipes and here is the result.
The calculations:
Disposable Diapers + Wipes = cost of $1,472
Cloth Diapers + Homemade Wipes = cost of $1,166
Total Estimated Savings = $306
The Assumptions:
I was a little bummed about how little I might save. Of course, these calculations are based on several assumptions - 1) that, had we continued using disposables, I would have bought 1 box of generic, bulk disposables every 3 weeks and one box of generic, bulk wipes every month at $30/box for diapers and $18/box for wipes for the next two years; 2) I would need approximately $326 for start up costs, plus additional purchases (e.g., Dunning outgrows current sizes, replacement diapers, etc.) for the cloth diapers (this includes $51 I have already spent, $30 I plan to spend in the immediate future, and a projected $245 for later costs mentioned above); 3) Assumes $120 over two years for home made baby wipes purchases (essential oils); 4) Assumes $240 increase ($10/month) in water bill over a span of two years; 5) Assumes $480 for two years of continued, but still reduced, purchase of disposables and baby wipes for things such as trips, night time diapers, and nice occasions where we can't be leaking or exploding any where; 6) that my child is potty trained by 2 1/2 years old.
The Bottom Line:
SOOOOoooo, if you followed all that, I am going to start keeping track on exactly how much I'm spending/saving, and try not to cut corners so as to sabotage my efforts and end up giving up on the whole thing and taking an overall loss. It will be a fun little project (yes, this is my idea of fun, blame it on my analytical background and hippie mother), and something that will make me feel like I am making more of an impact in making this world a better place. And that's what I want Dunning to learn and know is one thing that is important to his momma. I'll keep you all updated on how it all goes!

Tuesday

So today is Tuesday and so far this week has been pretty good. Dunning is back to sleeping through the night until 4 a.m.-ish for a quick nursie. I discontinued making his rice cereal because the more research I did on it, I found out that you need to grind up the rice before you cook it and that requires a special type of attachment on a food processor, like a coffee grinder (or an actual coffee grinder). My normal food processor wasn't getting the job done - the raw rice would just spin around. And the cooked rice wouldn't puree completely and left little hard bits of rice and Dunning refused to swallow it. But he likes sweet potatoes. Yesterday, I found an inexpensive, brown, whole grain rice cereal from Earth's Best and he didn't like it at first. Then I combined the sweet potatoes in the cereal and warmed it up a bit and he went to town! Then he pooped all over me... hmmmm.
Today we are trying our first cloth diaper experience. I boought some pre-folds and diaper covers at Wal-Mart yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. I am also bidding on some Yucky Duck all-in-ones on Ebay. The pre-folds are the more traditional cloth diaper and pin set and the Yucky Ducks are like a disposable diaper, but made out of cloth, with snap or velcro closures. All you do is stick a liner in them, if you want, and go. Then you wash the entire thing. I hope I win them because the all-in-ones are more expensive and these are a good price. I'll keep you updated on how it goes!

Sweet Taters

My little tater tot


I've got two squash, three green beans, and eight yellow tomatoes that have been harvested from the garden!
Today we tried some sweet potatoes. He's going through this thing where he hates his high chair though. So the first few bites he did okay. Then he start this grunting, straining noise that gets louder and louder until you just have to take him out of the high chair so he'll stop! He's really bad teething today. I can see this little white bumps under his gums - although Mikel says he can't. :P