MCN are so expensive! How can they be cheaper?
Modern Cloth Nappies and diapers are a long term investment rather than short term, but you can still do cloth cheaply if you aren’t certain how you’ll go. A pack of cotton flats from a chain store costs around $28 for 8-12, so a couple of these plus some decent covers means you can do cloth for less than $100 total. This is not theoretical – I used flats only for about 7 months with my first daughter and they are still a major part of my stash. And they aren’t wasted if you upgrade to MCN, there are a lot of other uses for flats! So start with flats, then buy MCN slowly when you can afford them.
Prices of MCN vary a great deal, so I’ll use $30 as an average. I want to show that they are very economical even if you think they are a lot individually.
A basic stash is around 24 nappies. Again, you can have lots more, but 24 nappies will get you through. So
24 x $30 = $720
Add a bit extra for wipes, liners, snappis, covers, etc, and say $800.
Washing is actually extremely cheap. The Australian Taxation Office uses an allowance of 50c per load to allow for wear and tear on the machine, detergent, water, and electricity. If you have a water saving machine and use less detergent it can be much cheaper, down to 10c per load, but let’s see how expensive it can be. Most people wash every 2 or 3 days, so for one year you are looking at
$0.50 x 180 = $90
Yep, $90 to wash all those nappies for a whole year.
So for a child who is in MCN for 2 years, you are looking at
$800 + $90 + $90 = $980
That sounds like a lot, but look at the other side if you were using disposables. How many nappies will be used in 2 years? Using an average of 5 changes a day, that is
5 nappies x 2 years x 365 = 3650 nappies
$980 / 3650 nappies = ~27c per nappy.
Do your disposables cost 27c per nappy?
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Categories: General, Money
Costs of Modern Cloth Nappies/Diapers part II
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