Economics of Treehugging

I love Fuzzi Bunz! For those who haven't heard of these little miracles, they are "cloth" diapers consisting of a water-proof outer shell, a fleece liner, and a cotton-pad insert. They have two snaps per side, making them as simple to use as disposables with velcro and allowing control of how tight the gathering is in their thighs. The fleece does an amazing job of wicking away moisture (as the hikers and backpackers out there can certainly attest!), and it is amazingly gentle on Emjay's skin. The cotton pads themeslves are amazingly soft, even though they never come into direct contact with her skin. They're simple to clean, easy to use, environmentally friendly (especially since Fuego and I use a front-loading, low impact washer and envronmentally friendly laundry soap), and Emjay loves them!

So... now the economics:

To outfit Emjay with enough Fuzzi Bunz in the correct sizes to keep her out of disposables up to 35 lbs (roughly around age 3+), it will be an overall investment of about $720.

Doing a little math... she goes through about eight diapers per day, so it would only take her about a week to ten days to go through a $20 package of diapers. Thus in one year if she made it ten days on a single package of diapers (which is unrealistic since they diminish in number per package for the same price as she increases in size), we would have to buy 36.5 packages to make it through a single year, costing $730 (or $10 more than the 3+ years worth of Fuzzi Bunz). Plus the fact that when Emjay came to us she had diaper rash from her disposables and hasn't had it since with her Fuzzi Bunz!

Now the best part: We know friends who have used the same three sets of Fuzzi Bunz (S, M, L) on three consecutive children without having to replace ANY. So for a year's cost of disposables, the investment in Fuzzi Bunz has the demonstrable potential save us about $720 per year for the next eight years worth of kids (beyond three, we'll have to see how many kids can use the same set before they wear out... we do want to adopt about five!).

It's good to be a tree-hugger =o)