Budget Leak

One of the best things I ever did for our budget was making the switch to cloth diapers when our daughter was around 6 months.  I had looked into cloth diapering before she was born and was intrigued but Hubs wasn’t completely convinced. Once she was here and we were going through $50-70 per month just for diapers (not to mention diaper genie refills, wipes, rash creams..), the switch to something more economical just made sense. 

Lately though, our budget has taken a hit again as I “fell off the wagon” with my cloth.  Travel, the holidays, sickness… I haven’t used them much since November started and it’s cost us around $215!!! WHAT?!? Our Gazelle budget can’t handle that and I’m getting back on the wagon. Immediately. 

If you haven’t ever considered cloth diapers but need to trim your budget, I highly suggest you look into them!  When I started my research it was about how to use, the different kinds/different brands, how to wash… but I hadn’t truly looked into the cost savings until right before I made the switch.  This post by I Heart Budgets was my favorite cost comparison by far.  It was a simple breakdown but made so much sense.  We took the plunge.  And even though our daughter is still in disposables at night and at the grandparents on days I work, our cloth has (and will) save us so much!  Here is a look at our numbers (if we had started from birth and I hadn’t fallen off the wagon):

First Baby	Disposables	Our Cloth Experience
upfront costs	Diaper Genie – $30	Around 60 Diapers with approximately 120 inserts @ ~$10 each (various brands/styles) Wet Bags/Pail Liners – $30
Monthly Costs	Diapers – $70/month average Wipes - $10 DG Refills – $6 Rash Cream – $4	Disposables – $20/month average Wipes – $10 Rash Cream – $2 Diaper Liners – $2 Water (well) – $0 Electric – $5
Cost for 2.5 Years	~ $3,240	~$1800

Ok, so I went a biiiiit overboard when purchasing my diapers and have way too many currently!  And since we still use disposables half the time, our savings is a mere $1440 over the average span of diapering.  BUT… I can sell back my cloth diapers when I’m done (rough estimate of resale value $450)  which brings the savings to around $1890.  If we have a second child, I can use the same cloth diapers and diapering a 2nd child would only cost us approximately $1,170 if we continue with disposables part time.  Taking into account a 2nd child, we would save over $3,500 just on diapers!

Just look at all that cuteness! What’s not to love?  Oh ok, yes I realize there is the added laundry.  But really its an extra 2-3 loads a week for us. And it’s really not such a bad thing when you have such a cute little helper!  This mama is back on the wagon starting today!

Where Do We Start?

My baby girl is one. O-N-E!?  How did that happen?  Where did that first year go? How much of her first year did I miss?  Why are we no closer to me staying at home?

I met my wonderful husband at the young age of 32… quick 3 years ago.  At that point in my life, I had almost given up hope on my dream of having a family.  I knew in my heart that if I was ever blessed with a husband and then baby, that I wanted to be the one who was there to raise him/her.  I didn’t want to miss any precious moments and, honestly, work/career just wasn’t that important to me.  Fast forward three years and we are happily married for almost 2 years and have a 1year old baby girl!  God is so good!

Since it took me longer than some to get here, I spent my pre married years getting my college degree, starting my career, battling thyroid cancer and collecting debts along the way.  Credit cards, student loans, medical bills… they started building while I lived in the now without a thought for the future.  I had debts, but I had a job to support them so it was ok. Right? Wrong.

When we were blessed with the news of our baby girl, we could hardly contain our excitement! We both had hopes of me staying home to raise her but reality set in when we sat down to crunch numbers. Because of past bad/hasty decisions on both our parts and our current debt load, I needed to work.  At the end of my maternity leave, I went back to work part time (30 hours/week) and have spent every spare minute dreaming of ways to make staying home with our daughter work for our family.

We created a budget and a snowball plan to tackle our debts but it seemed that our goals kept getting pushed back.  To be completely honest, we had a budget but it was only on paper. We didn't live it.  We didn't change our spending habits.  We didn't change so our situation didn't change.

This is the start of our journey to make those changes and to make our dream of me being a stay at home mommy a reality.