Cloth diapers vs. disposable

I hadn’t looked at figures like this since the 1970s when we were told diaper services were cheaper than home washed cloth diapers, but noticed it today in a story about a woman who got a $.25 minimum wage increase and now she could afford more disposable diapers for her grandchild.  I hope she doesn’t have any government benefits she’s counting on like Obamacare, because that pay increase could really mess her up in claw back or fines if she skip it.

My first reaction was she should buy cloth diapers, but then I looked it up.  It’s pretty much a wash (no pun)—the more children you have using that original investment, the lower the cost per diaper change, but that’s about it.  Also learned a bit reading the comments.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/cloth-diapering-a-real-world-analysis/

“If we assume 2240 diaper changes in Year 1, and lets assume that there will be fewer diaper changes in Year 2 (we’ll say on average 5 changes per day – 1825/year) then we would say that over the course of Year 1 and Year 2, there will be 4,065 diaper changes. That gives us a cost of$.28 per diaper change. . .

Total cost to use disposable diapers for 2 years – $1354.25
Assuming 4,065 diaper changes over the course of 2 years, that gives us a cost of $.33 per diaper change.”