How to use strategies to save money when buying diapers

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By AlexsMom
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use strategies to save money when buying diapers

Strategies you can use when buying diapers. After all, diapers are expensive!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

baby
money

Step 1

Don't scrimp on diapers to "save" money. One thing I learned is it doesn't always benefit to choose the cheaper diapers, especially before a child is mostly on solids. A newborn's poop is runny and can easily leak out of a diaper. When I used a cheaper brand, the diaper would leak about 2 out 3 times. You have to think whether that's worth all the laundering and possibly ruined clothes. From my experience, Pampers diapers are the best. They receive the highest ratings on ConsumerReports.org for a reason. Sure, they'll still leak, but it's maybe once a day vs. several times a day (at least for the first 6 months).
Step 2

Buy in bulk. And you don't have to necessarily go to a place like Costco or Sam's Club to do this. The problem with those places (at least Costco since I don't go to Sam's Club) is they only have a limited selection of brands. For example, our local Costco only has Huggies and Kirkland Signature brand. I personally don't like either (I used Huggies when Alex was a newborn and his diapers leaked almost every time). But other stores such as Walmart and Target usually don't sell the bigger boxes (I've only seen up to about 100 diapers a box). So it might seem like if you want something besides Huggies or Kirkland Signature brand, you wouldn't be able to buy in bulk (such as 200 a box). Not so. I don't know if there are other stores, but I know Babies R Us sells the larger boxes and their prices of Pampers diapers compare to the prices at Costco for Huggies (At Costco: Huggies Size 3, 220 diapers, $40. At Babies R Us: Pampers Size 3, 240 diapers, $40, so Pampers is actually cheaper). But never buy a huge box of diapers if your child is about to grow out of that size!
Step 3

Always check price per diaper. This is the easiest way to know what's cheaper. I was told when I was pregnant to keep babies in the smallest size possible because smaller sizes were cheaper. Well, this may be true for the same size package, but what if the baby will grow out of, say, a size 2 diaper within 80 diapers, but you could buy a box of 200 size 3 diapers for less than a package of 80 size 2 diapers. Then it costs less per diaper to get the larger box, right? Also, you would think a size 2-3 diaper would cost less per diaper than a size 3 (since they are smaller, right?), but when I checked at the store, trying to decide between that or a size 3 diaper, the size 3 diapers were cheaper by like $.09 a diaper (I think because of the size of package). So always check this and make sure to get the diaper that cost the least and will still fit the child.
Step 4

Sign up for your choice of diaper's Web site. Many brands allow you to sign up for their site and will send you coupons for their diapers. For example, I got a coupon for $4 off a package of Pampers diapers. Sure I have to buy a pretty big box to use the coupon, but I'd be doing that anyway. I get coupons in the mail from them periodically, and they really come in handy.
Step 5

When a baby is on enough solids that his poop is pretty solid itself (instead of the runny poop of a newborn), feel free to try out the cheaper diapers. This tip comes from my sister who has gone through three babies so far and is on her fourth. There is less chance of leakage and so cheaper diapers can handle it. Possibly buy a smaller package to try them out till you're confident that they'll work, and then feel free to buy in bulk.