[Phascogale]

Hell yes. Total cost was about $100 as I bought a dozen flanelette flats and two dozen terry towelling flats. I also bought a few packets of plastic pants once she grew out of snibs (1 x packet). Then there were a couple of snappi's and as part of that was the $20 I spent on pretty flanelette material, elastic and toweling stuff to make my own MCN's (maybe 10 of them) and cloth wipes.

The nappies were all line dried. Outside when it was warm, inside in winter and because there wasn't any bulk they dried quickly. The sun bleached them. And the reality was that it didn't take too much extra time to do a load of nappies in the machine, hang them out and fold them. I never used the drier and I lived in Melbourne so it's not like it was warm all the time.

I did it initially because of the cost. We couldn't afford disposables at one stage. And once I realised that it was easy to use cloth and the cost savings, I kept going.

There was also the time when my daughter was reacting to the chemicals in the nappies and also there was a time where they all cut into her where the nappy closers were (didn't matter if I used a bigger nappy or had it less tight, it was just design) so cloth was the compromise.

[noi'mnot]

Absolutely!!! I bought on sale, not the super expensive brands, but ones that reviewed well. They are still excellent, though I should probably replace the elastic before the next one comes along.

We have a super water efficient washer, don't have a dryer. We manage well in Melbourne.

[katbalou]

I KNOW that cloth nappies saved me money! For DS1 I exclusively used terry flats (at night as well) - I was poor as a churchmouse, and I think I got a pack of 24 for about $52. Plus plastic pants to go over. Contrary to things I've read on EB, he never had a problem with nappy rash.

With DS2, I started out with the same terry flats, but got a lot slacker and started using disposables for night and going out in the car, and for when I couldn't be bothered basically.

With DS3, I started using disposables initially but because we didn't have a garbage service (rural area), they were mounting up and we had to take them to dump - it was gross. That's when I bought my stash of MCN's which I LOVED. I got 14 of them at about $20 each, so outlay of about $280. MCN's much easier to deal with because unlike terry flats, you don't soak them - just pop them in the nappy bucket. I used to hate wringing out the terry flats before putting them in the machine.

I think the only reason you would NOT get your money's worth out of cloth is 1) if you overcapitaise on them in the first place e.g. buy too many, or 2) you buy them, and then you still use disposables too often because you get lazy.

[Swarley]

I used them full time, It didn't save me money, it put up my water consumption so much that my landlord started charging me for water. $10 a week is a little more than the difference I saved.

How bizarre. How often were you washing?

[Buggylicious]

3-4 loads a week. I believe thats our full water consumption, she just wasn't charging me at all until it suddenly went up and she decided I should start paying for all our water because we weren't being conservative in our usage anymore. I guess it would have added 150-200lt of water to my weekly consumption, just enough to tip my landlords generosity.

[mumof2babies]

absolutely! i would have spent approx $1,000 on all my cloth nappies - i have a dozen BBHs (not all purchased at the same time), 4 -5 dozen flats, heaps of BBH covers, and nappies here and there that i've trialled. I have 4 children in cloth for about 2 yrs each (i toilet train early). The savings are significant, though that is not the main reason i do cloth. i do it because i believe its better for bubs.

[ambwrose]

Yes, it did.
I used canningvale flats, I really prfer flats to MCNs, and had about 3 or 4 MCN's. I rarely bought diposables and used the MCN with boosters over night. Canning vale nappies are about $40/50 a doz and I liked to have 3 doz. when I had 2 in nappies I had 5 doz. So I spent maybe $150 per child on nappies, I used nappy liners which I washed if they'd only peed the nappy. they cost about $5/box and I bought a box a month for 2 yrs. I used fluffies when they were little I think that cost about $20/ child and then graduated to pilchers which was probably another $20/ child. So for each child I probably spent $250 on supplies and the cost of detergent and nappy san.

Margaret