Diapering Twins on the Cheap

The doctor tells you those two little kidney beans on the screen are twins. Whoa! How exciting! Two babies to love, to snuggle, and kiss, and feed… and clothe……and…oh God…diaper. Two babies to diaper at the same time. “Doctor, are you sure?”

I think one of the scariest thoughts about having twins is the amount of diapers you will need. As you peruse the diaper aisles and read your baby books, you slowly come to the realization that you will be spending THOUSANDS of dollars on diapers alone. Yes, thousands and thousands.

What I haven’t yet told you is that not only am I a stay at home mother, but I am married to a math teacher. Yes, that’s right. Math teacher = underpaid, hardworking, wonderful man. Oh, where was I… Right. Thousands of dollars.

My boys are now 11 months old and I have spent maybe 300 dollars total on disposable diapers. Huh? Now here’s the crazy part. If my youngest twin didn’t have such sensitive skin – that figure could be less than $100.

The answer is cloth diapering. The secret to cheap diapering is to buy used cloth diapers on Craigslist, and then reselling them when you are done. I have to admit that cloth diapering is not for everyone. If you are freaked out by poop, then you have no hope. Me, I sing songs about poop all the time, so it is no big deal. (Bumgenius makes a fabulous hose that attaches to your toilet to blast all that poo right down the drain.)

Here is a breakdown of how I did it. Feel free to comment if you need more details.

0-4 months
I bought 40 Kissaluvs contours and 6 x-small Thirsties covers from a fellow twin mother for $200. I resold them as two sets for $100 each.
4-11 months
I bought 40 Crickett’s newborn sized diapers and 6 small Thirsties off Craigslist for $300. (I am currently washing them to resell for the same price).
11 months +
I just bought (gulp) $600 worth of Bumgenius diapers (60 diapers) from two ladies on Craigslist. I think I bought too many, but I plan to sell all the pink ones I got right away. The rest I will sell when I am done.

Ta da! In the end I will have paid NOTHING (or close to it). The reason I have spent $300 in disposables is because I use them at night. Otherwise my little man gets a rash. Oh, and he requires expensive, hypoallergenic, disposable diapers. He would make it cost me something!