It would seem a pretty straight forward question… so how much do nappies cost?
The short answer is 1A$ a day!
… and I have the figures to prove it. I have meticulously kept a record over the last few years of my baby girls nappy usage and have come up with the following summary.
My daughter has been in nappies for 3 years, 3 months, 22 days – or to be more precise, 1210 days! And a quick look through the family budget for that period shows an expenditure on nappies and wipes to be A$1233.23. Punch that into your little calculator [1233.23/1210] and you’ll get 1.02 or as near as dammit, A$1.
How does that compare to the other options out there?
When we began this odyssey some three and a half years ago, we touted the idea of cloth nappies (save the planet etc.) but it seemed that the starting price of A$40/nappy was a bit rich. We figured you’d need about 28 cloth nappies to see you through this period (forget the ‘one size fits all’ approach, as you’ll need to get bigger nappies as the child grows) and that all equated to A$1120 or 92c/day EXCLUDING the cost of detergent, electricity for the washing machine, nappy wipes AND more importantly – YOUR PRECIOUS TIME.
Whichever way I looked at it, cloth nappies was just never going to cut it – and here we are three and a bit years later and sure enough, disposables have come in cheaper – and a damn site easier.
…a dollar a day keeps the poo away!
Tags: nappies