Crunchy Cloth Diapers?

I am cheap.

There, I admitted it. Back when I was TTCing, I was so determined I would have a child, I researched diapers. My research had nothing to do with diaper rash, nothing to do with fit, nothing to do with what's best for baby.

Oh no. I do not pay retail. Ever. I am Queen of Clearance. And as queen, I realized cloth diapers are way cheaper than disposables.

I cloth.

Not only do I cloth, I do prefolds. Yep. While only 10% of parents do cloth, of those parents, only 10% of THEM do prefolds. And that means I am in the 1%.

Rare company.

Now let me tell you about cloth. First, an idiot could do cloth. (Good thing, huh?) You fold the prefold into thirds. You place it inside a diaper cover and put it on the kid, fastening the velcro. Done. Now comes the hard part. If all there is within the dirty diaper is urine, you put the diaper in the diaper pail. If you have excrement, you dunk the puppy in the toilet enough for the bulk of the feces to fall off, then stick it in the diaper pail.

In the above paragraph we are not talking a true puppy; instead, it is a metaphorical puppy. Slang. Got it?

Next, cloth can be very crunchy. You can get organic diapers, bamboo diapers. You can wash in Charlie's Soap. You can lanolin covers. You can get covers to match your child's outfit.

Me, I'm cheap. Yeah, I know, I said that already ... but I get the pure cotton bleached diapers (bleached because I like them white and not off-white making me think they aren't clean). My diapers come from China. (No telling if there is any lead in them.) I wash them in Tide. Granted, it is Tide Free and Clear because I have sensitive skin. I rinse in vinegar - fabric softener renders diapers unable to soak things up, so vinegar is an excellent water conditioner. And all my covers are bought on sale, used, or with discount codes.

So ... crunchy. Not intended for any other purpose than fiscal cheapness. The side benefits are great but I won't lie and say I did it for his well-being. Nope. If I can get his diapering done for less than $500 (and we're $100 shy of that right now with a potential upgrading needed in a year), then I think that's great.