I’m hardly on old hand at this parenting business, but I think I’ve realised the financial benefit of making sensible decisions about convenience versus cost.
The main thing, and the philosophy of Frugal Me, is to think through what you’re doing and spending.
So here’s the thing. I just bought infant disposable nappies on special from New World and they were $10 for 30. Not bad, right? $0.34 per change. But with a minimum of 8 changes a day that adds up pretty quickly.
That pack of disposals might last for three days if we were using it exclusively.
But what we have been using is these Real Nappies. They have a reusable padding that’s extremely good at catching all the liquids, and these liners that catch any solids. You chuck the liners down the toilet (they’re paper so break down quickly), and wash the padding.
In total, we were given a Top-Up Pack, and bought an Essentials Pack. In total this costs, $118, and should last until the wee tacker is around 9kg, which is a fair old way off (hopefully). Once he gets that big we’ll just replace the outer pocket, and keep using the old padding.
So how much do we expect to save? Current estimates are around $2000. The boy is only 6 days old, and that would have cost us ~$16 in disposal nappies. If he keeps using nappies at the same rate we should have paid off the investment in around 20 days. Considering that he’s going to be in nappies for at very very least a year, we’ll be saving money (even considering washing the nappies – hot water and detergent), we’re still up.
Che Tibby
Stephen J
