This week is the last of my Having a Baby series. I hope it’s given you some good ideas. This week I’m tackling diapers.
Diapers are a huge expense. If you are planning on multiple kids, obviously the best money saving route is to cloth diaper. You can save thousands of dollars using cloth. You save the environment. And the covers have gotten so cute over the years! But since I know the thought of cloth diapering grosses some of you out, I’ll highlight saving on disposable.
Coupon, Coupon, Coupon
You can find diaper coupons in the Sunday paper. On week’s where there are diaper coupons you may want to get multiple copies of the paper. You don’t necessarily have to pay for them. I got my oil changed the other Sunday at Jiffy Lube and they had two newspapers and said I was welcome to take the coupons. You can find papers in coffee shops, barber shops, etc. If you aren’t running an errand where there might be an extra paper, you can always buy multiple copies using your ECBs or RRs. You can buy coupons from eBay and coupon clipping services. If you are going to do this, don’t forget to factor the price of your coupon into the price of your diapers to make sure you are still getting a good deal.
You can also load coupons onto your club card. The P&G eSaver often has coupons for Pampers on their site. The good thing about loading coupons is you can stack them with other coupons to score an even better deal. Finally, sign up for free samples. With the diaper samples come coupons. Many times these are high dollar coupons. It might not seem like the greatest deal to get a single diaper in the mail but what if that single diaper came with a $2 off coupon?
Name Brand vs. Generic
I know many people are diaper snobs and prefer only one brand. There is nothing wrong with that. What works for you, works for you. But for those who aren’t brand loyal be sure you check cost per diaper. Difference brands have different amounts in the package. Be sure you divide the number of diapers by the total price to get cost per diaper. This will help you determine whether the jumbo pack is a better deal than a regular pack. Or that the store brand really is cheaper than the name brand with a coupon. Remember to always check because it will likely be different. Prices change, packages change and often different stores receive different packaging.
Stockpile
You may not have space to stockpile regular grocery items. There are also many people out there who don’t stockpile for other reasons. Whatever your circumstance, I highly recommend stockpiling diapers. Whenever you find a rock bottom steal on diapers, buy as many packages as your coupon stash and your budget will allow. You may have to get creative storing them but saving over the long term would be a pretty good incentive. Plus, you can start stockpiling before the baby comes.
Use Your ECBs and RRs
There are many times when moneymakers are possible at CVS or Walgreens. You can use that overage and put it toward diapers. While the diapers may be more expensive than those at a discount store, grocery store or big box store, your out of pocket expense will end up being lower when you use your rewards and coupons.
No Time?
If you are just too busy or too tired to coupon and make it work, discount stores like Sams and Costco often have the best prices on diapers. They come in bulk packs that can cut down on the number of trips your have to make. Also, check out Dollar Tree and other dollar stores. When companies change packaging those stores get the old packages and sell them at deep discounts.
Do you have any diaper savings tips?
Shellie loves to share her frugal finds to help you get more with less. A spender at heart, she balances her frugal lifestyle with the occassional splurge.
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No, except that the Sam’s Club brand (Member Mark) diapers really are good diapers. Not as soft-feeling as Pampers but definitely better than Luvs. Costco diapers seem exactly like Huggies to me.
I agree with Lindsey — the Sam’s Club diapers are really good. I liked HEB ones too… but not sure if they changed them. Wal-Mart’s white cloud are awful.
I have been able to get better deals on Huggies than anything else. Mainly because if you sign up with them they will send you some pretty awesome coupons in the mail — a month or so ago, I got a mailer with 2 $3/1 coupons! Combine that with a Kroger sale, Kroger special with extra $3 off, and Shortcuts.com coupon and it made for a smokin’ deal. I have a ton in the girls’ closet.
If you wait and are patient and then stockpile, you can usually get huggies and pampers cheaper than the store brands.
With cloth you have to factor in the extra detergent and water costs since you have to wash the diapers twice. It still comes out better in the end, but something to consider. I’d LOVE to use cloth, but it doesn’t work for our family for a number of reasons.
Thanks for mentioning cloth diapers. The really are the best way to save money on diapers. I have spent about $500 diapering three children–that is a huge savings over the $2500-$3500 that typical families spend on disposables for one child!
I’m curious…do you think that more parents don’t use cloth because they are “grossed out”, or is it because the cloth diapering products available at discount stores like Wal Mart and Target are so terrible? You’d have a hard time getting me to use cloth diapers if those were the only products available. I think, if more people realized that there are high quality, easy to use, modern cloth diapers available, and had someone who could teach them how to use them, it would be much easier for parents to make the switch.
I’m currently doing a study on the kinds of diapers that parents use and why. I would love to include your and your readers opinions in my study. You can participate by taking my diaper survey:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cjVCME83a3hKZ1Vzb0t0VENSQVRjLUE6MA..
I definitely have extra baby (diapers, wipes) supplies in my food storage in the event of an emergency. I’m a newly converted couponer and love the thought of saving while stockpiling for the future. I’ll definitely have to go back and check out part 1 and 2 of this series. Might not be a bad idea to link back to it, this will help increase follow through in your site.
Even though my kids are older now I still give this advice. clip all the UPC codes from diapers and labels from babyfood jars. I kept them in their own individual envelopes. Time to time the babyfood companies have specials to send in labels for free jar coupons. I once got 56 jars of beechnut babyfood for FREE! and tons of free clothes from Huggies just for taking the few minutes to remove labels and cut out codes. These offers are usually on the cereal boxes for the food and/or coupon flyers that come with your newspapers.
I’ve been comparing prices and Target seems to have the best prices on the big packages of baby wipes. I never thought to do a price per wipe or price per diaper comparison. Here’s some info–Huggies at Costco are 19 cents per diaper for a size 3. Huggies wipes are 2.4 cents each. If you divide your cost (after coupons) by the number of diapers or wipes you can get a sense if your price at the store, with coupons is cheaper than at Costco (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t).Before I figured this out I was spending 30 cents per diaper at Babies R Us! I hear great things about the Kirkland Brand of diapers, but they are actually more expensive than the Huggies. My friend and I think they are made by Pampers!
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